Lots of unlikable people and not much rock and roll
Why would I want to read a biography of Jann Wenner? I like rock and roll, particularly the early years. Wenner was there in the heyday of rock in the ‘60s and ‘70s, documenting not only the music but the rock-and-roll lifestyle of youth culture for Rolling Stone. No doubt he has all sorts of great behind-the-scenes stories of his interactions and friendships with countless rock stars and counterculture figures. What’s surprising about Sticky Fingers is how little rock and roll actually figures in the book. Most of the people who appear in Wenner’s biography are not musicians but journalists, fashion designers, and executives who were big in the ‘70s and not so much anymore. Hunter S. Thompson is a major figure in this narrative who, in hindsight, seems quite childish. When rock stars do appear, you are likely to lose respect for them. John Lennon and Paul McCartney come out looking rather petty. Bruce Springsteen and Bono are portrayed as sycophants sucking up to Wenner to cement their place in rock and roll history. Paul Simon and Bob Dylan show up once in a while for a minor spat with Wenner. The one interesting thread in this book is Wenner’s relationship to Mick Jagger. The two use each other to make money, but Jagger always seems to get the upper hand over Wenner. Really though, rock and roll doesn’t really figure largely in this business biography replete with investment deals and corporate acquisitions. In fact, the book is rather anti-rock and roll, implying that not just Rolling Stone, but the music it stood for, was hogwash. Rock and roll is just another commodity, with Wenner its apex peddler.
In preparing this biography, Hagan interviewed many people, famous and not. He has certainly done his diligent research. I have no problem with his writing. This is really a well-crafted work of investigative journalism. It is just so depressing and unpleasant to read a book full of so many unlikable people. No one comes out of this story looking good. Wenner comes across as incredibly shallow, clueless, greedy, and vindictive. He shells out millions of dollars on personal luxuries while nickel-and-diming his staff and writers. Wenner and his friends do a lot of drugs and a lot of sleeping around, but it never seems fun and enjoyable, instead rather sad and mean. You want to root for Wenner as a successful gay businessman at a time when homosexuality was not accepted by the mainstream, but you can’t even do that because Hagan paints him as a predator and sexual harasser who goes after everyone Rolling Stone employed, male and female alike. You end up hating the guy early in the book, and it just keeps getting worse from there.
This reminds me of a book I once read about Saturday Night Live (Live from New York), which one would hope would be about how fun, challenging, and exciting it is to make that TV show. Instead, the book ended up being entirely about Lorne Michaels’s personality and ego. The effect is similar here. You want a book about rock and roll culture, or at least a lively inside look at the publishing industry. Instead, you get an extended psychoanalytic study about what a jerk Wenner is. Enjoy.
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