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Contributor Archives: Ben Fong-Torres
A Visit with a Mellow Lou Reed
Lou Reed in Wolfgang’s Vault? Certainly. NYC, Bottom Line, 1977, and it’s one of the most popular shows in the Concert Vault.
Lou Reed’s band, The Velvet Underground, as the basis for a new book? Sure: White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day, by Richie Unterberger.
Lou Reed in GQ magazine? Uh…yes.
Michael Jackson’s Last Dance
This, of course, is not it.
This Is It, the documentary of rehearsals for Michael Jackson’s never-to-be “This Is It” concerts in London, is accompanied by a single of that same name and a soundtrack CD. Sony, which paid $60M for the film, will no doubt rush out a deluxe DVD set, and there’ll be more [...]
Back to the Garden…in Golden Gate Park
I wasn’t at Woodstock in 1969, so I was looking forward to West Fest, an all-day celebration, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, of the 40th anniversary of that now-mythical music festival in upstate New York.
And, now, I can say I wasn’t at West Fest either. I’d been asked to say a few words on [...]
The British Roots of ‘Touch of Grey’
Well, just in time for all the most recent hoopla about the Grateful Dead – an upcoming exhibit at the N.Y. Historical Society; a tie-dyed light show on the Empire State Building to celebrate the event – I’ve got The Grateful Dead Scrapbook out.
It’s an exhibit on paper: GD memorabilia, artwork and other goodies that readers [...]
Another Grateful Dead Book? Why?
It’s not even that I’ve published another Grateful Dead book. While mine – The Grateful Dead Scrapbook – was being produced (in spring), I got an advance copy of Growing Up Dead: The Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead by Peter Conners.
That makes, oh, about 100 books out on the band. Which begs the question: [...]
The San Francisco Scene, in a Museum
At the opening of the exhibit, “Somethin’s Happening Here,” celebrating the San Francisco Bay Area’s music scene from 1963 to 1973 at the Museum of Performance & Design, one of the musicians of that era turned to me and said, “Did you think we’d ever live to see our stuff in a museum?”
The Night Carlos Told Bill Graham, ‘Yeah!’ ‘Yeah!’
I just finished an assignment for Classic Rock—basically a revisit to a horribly long and long-winded profile I did on Santana for Rolling Stone, back in 1972. One of my favorite bits in the story has to do with Carlos trying to get into the Fillmore without paying, and getting caught by Bill Graham. In 1966, Carlos was a dishwasher at a drive-in restaurant, gave most of his earnings to his parents, and just couldn’t afford a ticket. But he could play the guitar just like ringing a bell. One night in October, Carlos did pay his way in, to see a jam involving guitarists from the Butterfield Blues Band, the Dead and the Airplane. He told me the rest of the story...
The Night Janis Was Feeling Great
Janis and Big Brother have been playing in the Vault, so let me tell you about the time I got a call from her, one night in April of 1970. It was around midnight, and I was in a newspaper office, in a basement in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Perhaps I should explain.
Moving Things Around With Bob Dylan
I’d tracked Dylan and The Band from the start, and, in Toronto, I was getting nervous. His management people were fine with me traveling with the entourage and reporting on the first shows, but made no promises about securing an interview with Dylan. For that, I was on my own. Fortunately, I learned about a post-concert party at the Toronto hotel, and, thanks to Bill Graham, got an invitation.
Was Jimi the Best Guitarist Ever?