Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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 Reading some of the articles that were over 20 years old became somewhat boring and outdated.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.

A better title would be the Best of Ben Fong-Torres. This book is a collection of articles he wrote for "Rolling Stone". Some of the people written about in this book are Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, The Jackson 5, Janis Joplin, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, The Jefferson Airplane, The Rolling Stones, Santna, Ricky Nelson, and many others. What really makes the book worth reading is that he gives information on what he had to get the interview and what happened after. Sometimes, the behind the scenes information are as good as or even better than the article.

Fong-Torres is a talented writer, but readers who are interested in rock 'n' roll history may wish to skip this book's chapters on people like Diane Keaton, Neil Diamond, Annie Leibovitz, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy, and (!) Rodney Dangerfield. (Steve Martin's is worth reading, however.)

Not to worry, though, this volume does contain actual interviews and profiles with music industry folks like Ricky Nelson, Three Dog Night, and Dick Clark. You can probably see the problem with this book's title and cover image by now. And you might understand why I got excited when I came to the book's piece on Iggy Pop. Unfortunately, it was just a two-page description of an appearance Iggy did at a Tower Records.

Drat.

There is a small, small handful of rock n' roll journalist who can write about musician and Ben Fong-Torres is one of those writers. This book is a must read for those who were there during the 60's music scene. And if you were borned to late and wish you were there, you gotta read this book. It's a collection of selected interviews of great musicians and actors by Ben when he was writing for Rolling Stone from the 60's to 80's. He writes with insight and wit and draw out a great interview from musicians like Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Rick Nelson, Paul McCartney, just to name a few.

Only Nick Tousches' volume,collected writings does as much for thosze who want,but wont ger, BackSatge Passes...R&R,& Rythum & Blues Is here to stay...this is part,& maybe unequaled indepth look at many so to be ICONS.