Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo's `Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay' Book Revisited: Part 2

In their 1977 book, Rock'N'Roll Is Here To Pay: The History and Politics of the Music, Steve Chapple & Reebee Garofalo characterized and recalled the pre-1977 history and politics of Rolling Stone magazine and the U.S. corporate rock music industry in the following way:

"Rolling Stone...plays down or ignores any political movements outside of the two party system or not backed by some sector of American business...The magazine could not be as large...as it is without the large volume of music industry advertising it carries...The record companies are linked in with big business in the United States. There are no indications from the parent firms, the separate power of the record divisions within the parent firms, or `youth' businesses like Rolling Stone that any of them will be responsible for, or support, fundamental political change in the United States...

"Big Mama Thornton recorded `Hound Dog' three years before Elvis Presley, and according to her the song sold over 2 million copies. But as to her royalties she says, `I got one check for $500 and I never seen another.' Presley also recorded `That's All Right,' written by Arthur `Big Boy' Crudup. Though the song was a big hit for Presley, Crudup was reputed to have received nothing more than an appreciative plaque from Presley and his manager.

"Another tactic used against black music was `cover versions' of black hits...The Beatles' version of `Twist and Shout' and `Roll Over Beethoven'...cam several years after the originals, but reproduce them note for note with identical vocal style and arrangement...In the 1950s covers were used by major companies to recover the inroads r&b made into the white audience of the time...

"Several dozen songs were...covered by the majors in the early years of rock'n'roll. RCA began by covering `Kokomo' by Gene and Eunice with a version by Perry Como. Columbia covered the same song with a version by Tony Bennett...Mercury's Crew Cuts...did a cover of the Chords' `Sh'Boom' (originally on Atlantic's Cat label) that became the fifth best-selling pop song of 1954. They pillaged the r&b list after `Sh' Boom; covering hits like Nappy Brown's `Don't Be Angry' (Savoy), the Charms' `Gum Drop (Deluxe), and the Penguins' `Earth Angel.' Mercury's Georgia Gibbs covered Etta James's `Wallflower' with a cleaned up version called `Dance with Me Henry.'...Decca used the McGuire Sisters (on their Coral subsidiary) to cover the Moonglow's `Sincerely' (Chess) and made it the #7 best-selling pop song in 1955, along with their cover of Joe Turner's `Shake, Rattle, and Roll.'

"Pat Boone...built his reputation...by covering black rhythm and blues tunes. His label, Dot, was the most successful company at the practice. Boone recorded `Ain't That A Shame' (Fats Domino), `i Almost Lost My Mind' (The Harptones) and `Tutti-Frutti' (Little Richard), among others."

How `Rolling Stone' Magazine Rolled The Money In Prior To 1990

Although former Rolling Stone writer Hunter Thompson claimed that Rolling Stone magazine "began its slide into conservatism and mediocrity in 1977," by 1989 its then-parent company, Straight Arrow Publishers Inc. "was worth perhaps $250 million [equal to over $533 million in 2020]--over thirty thousand times its value twenty-two years before," according to the 1990-published book, Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History by Robert Draper.

According to the same book, Rolling Stone magazine's founder and then-owner, Jann Wenner, was personally worth over $100 million in 1990 [equal to over $203 million in 2020] and had used his youth market profits from "Rolling Stone Incorporated" to maintain "an ostentatious lifestyle of private jets, country villas and choice social connections to match."

According to Draper's Rolling Stone Magazine book of 1990, at that time Wenner spent about four months out of the year at his three-story country manor in East Hampton, Long Island and employed servants there. Wenner also then owned a five story Manhattan townhouse and a Mercedes limousine which was driven by his chauffeur. In 1985, Wenner also had spent $2.5 million [equal to over $6.1 million in 2020] of his surplus wealth to purchase and own US Magazine, for awhile.

Although much of the music that Rolling Stone magazine has covered and profited from since the late '60s is rooted in African-American rhythm and blues, ironically, its pre-1990 "reluctance to cover Black music" was "infamous" and "not coincidentally, Rolling Stone" had "never employed a single Black writer," prior to 1990, according to Draper's 1990 Rolling Stone Magazine book.