Periodicals: Rolling Stone's Rock World

(2 of 2)

Energy Core. Stone was the first publication to probe the misuse of funds for the Monterey Pop Festival and to explore the obsessions of "the groupies," girls who chase rock performers into bed (TIME, Feb. 28). This month, the paper devoted 20 pages to an examination of the "American Revolution in 1969." A summary article by Ralph J. Gleason, 52, a veteran rock specialist and Stone's only elder contributor, accused many radicals of harboring "a death wish" and warned: "You better figure out how to make a revolution without killing people, or it won't work." He suggested poetry and music as recourses. "The Beatles aren't just more popular than Jesus, they are also more potent than the S.D.S."

The notion that life, and even work, can be fun, pervades Rolling Stone's airy offices. "We've reversed the priorities," says Wenner. "We have a good time first and a viable business second." Wenner was a student at Berkeley when the Free Speech Movement disrupted the campus, and he helped report it for NBC. He wrote a rock column for the campus Daily Californian, later for Ramparts, before starting Stone. While both he and his paper freely use four-letter words, and he wears his hair long and shaggy, he is not a stereotype rebel. "Rock and roll is now the energy core of change in American life," he argues. "But capitalism is what allows us the incredible indulgence of this music."