Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll [Paperback]

Ben Fong-Torres (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1999

From 1969 to 1981, Ben Fong-Torres was one of the first "star" writers on staff at Rolling Stone - the "scruffy rock journal" that metamorphosed into one of the most powerful voices of a generation. Now in this fascinating book, Fong-Torres revisits his most intriguing celebrity interviews and profiles, and - for the first time - tells the revealing stories behind the stories, the stars, his writing process, and life at Rolling Stone.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Where rock scribes are concerned, you've got provocateurs of the Lester Bangs school, academics of the Greil Marcus variety, and the nuts-and-bolts sorts who, while perhaps less colorful wordsmiths, excel at capturing their subjects by putting them at ease. Early Rolling Stone contributor/editor Ben Fong-Torres may be the best known and most durable member of that third school. Not Fade Away gathers 34 Fong-Torres profiles and interviews ranging from Woodstock-era pieces centering on Sly Stone and Janis Joplin to '80s articles on Eddie Murphy and Tom Hanks. Despite the occasional foray into film writing, Not Fade Away centers around rock & roll. Solid journalist that he is, Fong-Torres can stretch from James Brown to Neil Diamond, from Bob Dylan to Iggy Pop--all without straining. Vignettes update and add color to Fong-Torres's out-of-the-archives articles. --Steven Stolder

From Library Journal

Fong-Torres, who is best known as a writer and editor for Rolling Stone and whose most recent books include The Rice Room: Growing Up Chinese-AmericanAFrom Number Two Son to Rock 'n' Roll and The Hits Just Keep On Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio, is one of the few rock journalists whose work deserves to be anthologized. This book collects 34 of his higher-profile pieces, drawn mostly from work he did for Rolling Stone in the 1970sAincluding profiles of and interviews with Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Tom Hanks, and Rodney Dangerfield. He contextualizes the chronologically arranged stories with bits of information about his personal background, the growth of Rolling Stone, and pop culture. At times he picks on "unhip" easy targets like Three Dog Night and Dick Clark, but mostly his rapport with his subjects and eye for detail provide intimate and complex portraits. Recommended for most popular music collections.ALloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879305908
• ISBN-13: 978-0879305901
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Title Says It All, April 29, 2001

By 

Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll (Paperback)

If you weren't around in the 70s, or you want to "relive" this era, Ben Fong-Torres' book is a good place to start. It's a collection of many of his Rolling Stone feature articles, along with a brief update of the personalities involved. Having "come of age" in the 70s, it brought back memories of my own and it gave me insights into some of the most famous rock personalities of the 70s and early 1980s.

Fong-Torres has an excellent writing style and "captures" a little bit about what made a lot of these musicians "tick." His articles are enjoyable to read or re-read if you've seen them before. While part of the title (A BackStage Pass to 20 Years of Rock n Roll) may seem cliched, it fits here. Fong-Torres in his Rolling Stone articles managed to catch a glimpse of an era now long gone.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, August 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll (Paperback)

I thought this was a good, literate book. I only read the stuff I was interested in, but there was plenty of that (especially the George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger profiles). Frank Zappa once said that rock and roll journalism is "Writers who can't write, writing about musicians who can't play music, for readers who can't read." And he was/is correct for 99% of rock journalism. This book is the 1% of rock journalism for which that statement does not hold true. A solid book.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little disappointing but maybe it was my fault, October 18, 2000

By 

R. Spell "raspell" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll (Paperback)

I bought this book after seeing Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous". That was an exceptional movie and I thought I would relive the era through Ben fong-Torres, who was featured in the movie.

The book is really a reprint of many of his stories in Rolling Stone which the reviews probably stated and I didn't focus on. I would have preferred his story of being close to the Rock and Roll scene. Reading some of the articles that were over 20 years old became somewhat boring and outdated. I did learn quite a bit in some of the stories and Fong-Torres does provide some narrative on each story although it is limited. Overall though, I'd take a pass on this one and look for another if you are looking for a good book about rock in the 70's and 80's.