Broward Community College - Silver Sands Yearbook (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

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ng rock and rcll's curious oots rock journalism has to be most colorful. Very seldom essing an understanding of the IC dozens of magazines appear at newstands pretending to enlighten s to what the idols did last week showing what they will be doing price for these publications Ily range from 25 to 75 cents ndmg on the quality of its writers, amount of pictures and the format wed Most pass for newspapers to d magazine taxes, even though, use of their weekly deadlines, are more like a magazine in both s and format. Their writers usually fo very little yet the llcatlon s profits are not staggering to their restricted audience and conservative attitudes of most ibutors. Many a time whole ions have been burned by lbutors who objected to material any as 50000 copies of Rolling fa ed Two Virgins erspread were destroyed by the ed States government. The reason g John and Yoko Lennon ared naked front and back, in the ar it all the time. Rolling Stone etter than Rock which is better Fusion which is better than m which is better than Circus h is better than Zygote which is er that Traveling Circus, which is I very own first newspaper. In ality no argument stands very well -- close scruntiny, That all these zines appear semi-regularly to Z ten our lives is proof enough that e is a public for each and every . of them. ically speaking, a Rolling Stone er would be shocked reading 2: while a reader of Crawdaddy think that anyone who reads Rock be a moron. The vast difference udience is the one, single factor keeps these publicatioms afloat. f ing Stone is the best known. Jann ner, its editor, is a professional, a n good businessman, and a very I week. 6 r l . . I l l . . f . 9 lie. I government is another adversary. I I ' t e s bl s 3. f I o. l . l 5 A l l l I l l ROCK JOURNALISM A Survey of Current Trends by Ruben BBTBDCOUN nice young man. He is sincere in what he is doing and nowadays, his newspaper has a circulation that rivals that of Time. Charges of selling out and copping out are thrown at Wenner every week and l imagine he laughs his way to the bank after each charge. He has proven that to be a success all one needs is to follow one's own instincts and possess a clear conscience. His magazine-newspaper format, combining music reviews, articles, and current news concerning new culture came at a time when we sorely needed an organ of information. By changing it and expanding it, Jann has kept it fresh and alive. Without an exception, rock newspapers are left of center. With the exception of those dedicated to sexual matters, such as Organ, most rock newpapers print revolutionary articles and many have risked a lot for W -1 su-NN publishing documents they consider important. Organ is a weird magazine. Most of its articles have to do with different aspects of sexuality, the stranger the better and usually with a tie-in rock music. I remember the article about Ron Banks, who was interviewed by Howard Pearlstein about his sudden descision to become Angela Douglas. Apparently, Ron got fed up being a guy, shot up some hormores and surprise, Angela Douglas and a magazine Organ, spread. Organ's material is often sordid and more often than not, directed at weirdos not rockers, even though the magazine claims to be a rock publication. I wish l knew what happened to Zygote. My friend Michael worked for them and sent me some copies about a year ago. They were the only ones

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who published my stories without revision or change. They naturally paid poorly but it was worth it because Zygote was quite excellent. I wrote Michael but apparently they had moved and I have not seen the newspaper around again. Crawdaddy was the first rock culture newspaper, as their logo clearly states. What the logo fails to mention is that the Crawdaddy, now on the market, is hardly the original. Crawdaddy was the brainchild of a very talented genius obsessed with rock and roll music, specially Beach Boys, by the name of Paul Williams. Paul, whom I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of years ago, was an innovator. He was the first to establish a rock newspaper in 1966 and the first to review records as an inegral part of his publication. His version of Crawdaddy was the most esoteric, abstract and hardeto-understand magazine. lt died when Paul decided to retire to a commune to write a book of criticisms, Outlaw Blues, which did not fare well enough to give him the opportunity to write another one. So far, in my opinion, Crawdaddy was the best. After Crawdaddy's premature death and Rolling Stone's sudden acceptance, all magazines were copies of either, though none quite as good as the two originals. One concept which failed miserably was the expensive, well-made Helen Gurley Brown experimental magazine, Eye. For those of you who did not have a chance to see it, Eye was far out. The best photos, the best writers, the very best coverage of the Beatles while they were in New York for Apple and of the Stone's trials. From Frank Zappa to the Nlonkees, most of the people who were involved with rock from 1968 to 1969 were featured in Eye and they were better portrayed in Eye than almost anywhere else. The color was great, it was a monthly and it was a combination of the best of Life, the best of Rolling Stone and just the right pinch of Seventeen to appeal to the chicks, a group that has always been ignored by the male oriented rock press. Chicks or no chicks, Eye folded after some ten editions which l dearly treasure, specially the spread on Cream and the beautiful cover which featured Lennon, all dressed in white and full hopes for Apple, which also proved to be a failure, somewhat. Eye is a very fond memory. Three more newspapers round up the newspaper side of rock press. Changes, Rock the new Crawdaddy, and Fusion could, at times, pass for twin brothers. Lacking the writers Rolling Stone attracts, these smaller newspapers have to rely heavily on articles and random interviews such as the Zappa interview Changes printed last March, which was outstanding. Changes is also a good one for analysis-type articles such as the Dylan pieces published last April, which made Dylan a more believable human being in my eyes. Chang the way, started in 1969 witl fantastic four partner that clar and catalogued all of Dylan s unrel material. That series was excel accurate and written in the clea most intelligent way Rock has not featured long revi its short history. Instead, they managed to capture some of the writers in the business and have tu out such gems as the Oc interview with Ringo Starr. Don Spain by Michael Watts, the inte was later expanded and publish the November edition of Circus has also featured some copyright laws protecting written by Gale Gross and Art Se which was printed May 24, 197 Fusion on the other hand is a waste. Fusion is boring, the fo changes with every issue, the dra are always the same and the pi are usually old. Most of the mag is made up of record reviews and seem to have been written by p with absolutely no knowledge, or of the music. In short, by all m avoid Fusion lt is over- I under-staffed, repetitious and a d bore 9O'X1 of the time The new Crawdaddy is by far the of these. lts style, though hardly original Crawdaddy s style, is -I concise, and highly entertaining. F . lx I, I lin QI I :I ' ii investigation-type articles. One 0 I finest was a piece dealing . iq ,il ful Ii . flip . il I. -. . Lehi ff if F ' V t I