The Rolling Stones Discover America: Exclusive Inside Story of Their American Tour

by Michael Lydon Narrated by Michael Lydon

Overview

A founding editor of Rolling Stone and acclaimed journalist gives a backstage pass to the most important band in rock'n'roll history during the height of their fame.

In 1969 Michael Lydon, a founding editor of Rolling Stone and a leading member of rock writing's first generation, got a dream assignment: to cover the Rolling Stones' hopscotch tour across America that ended at Altamont. His long, intimate piece on the tour, The Rolling Stones Discover America, captures the highs and lows of the grueling tour and has become a classic of rock 'n' roll journalism -- one that the Maysles brothers studied to guide the editing of their film, Gimme Shelter.

Nobody used the term "embedded reporter" in those days, but that's how Lydon lived on the tour, staying in the Stones' HQ house above LA's Sunset Strip and in suites at New York's Plaza Hotel, flying in private jets to Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, gambling in Las Vegas, hanging out backstage at the LA Forum and Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, smoking pot with "The Boys" in late-night bull sessions, and night after night digging the overpowering, sensuous, and beautiful music. "This was the peak of my rock 'n' roll reporting career," Lydon has said. "I knew I was where every hippie in America wanted to be, and I jumped into the tour with my eyes and ears wide open, a big grin on my mug."

In The Rolling Stones Discover America, Lydon also describes his own nervousness living so close to stardom. "The Stones were good guys and hard-working musicians," he says, "but they were the sun kings of the tour universe. The rest of us were minor planets spinning about them in fixed and distant orbits. It's a miracle I managed to keep my feet on the ground, keep taking notes, and get the story down on paper -- but I'm glad I did."

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2014 - AudioFile

Originally published as a long, rambling piece in RAMPARTS magazine after ROLLING STONE—a magazine Lydon helped found—rejected it, this audiobook captures the traveling circus of the Stones’ 1969 tour. It sheds light on the unique personalities that made up the band when they were becoming the hardest-living, most uncompromising rock-and-roll band in the world. According to the author, “an infinity of variables” confronted the group as they came of age after a three-year layoff from touring, particularly when they reached California and discovered how much the audience had changed since their last visit to the States. As narrator, Lydon so owns the work that he’s almost brittle in his delivery—a common flaw in the ranks of authors acting as their own readers. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

MAY 2014 - AudioFile

Originally published as a long, rambling piece in RAMPARTS magazine after ROLLING STONE—a magazine Lydon helped found—rejected it, this audiobook captures the traveling circus of the Stones’ 1969 tour. It sheds light on the unique personalities that made up the band when they were becoming the hardest-living, most uncompromising rock-and-roll band in the world. According to the author, “an infinity of variables” confronted the group as they came of age after a three-year layoff from touring, particularly when they reached California and discovered how much the audience had changed since their last visit to the States. As narrator, Lydon so owns the work that he’s almost brittle in his delivery—a common flaw in the ranks of authors acting as their own readers. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173813275
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	12/03/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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