Count On Me

I recently read Sticky Fingers, journalist Joe Hagan's biography of Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone magazine. The title, of course, is taken from a Rolling Stones' album--just as every chapter in the book is named after a song or album.  It's a decent book about an interesting life.  Wenner promoted rock music, but was just as interested in promoting himself. 

But sometimes I wondered about the editing.  For instance, look at this sentence on page 99:

Wenner, in his early column called Rock and Roll Music, defined and defended the local [San Francisco] scene, which consisted of seven "indigenous" bands (the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Country Joe and the Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service) and was defined by long live shows with liquid light displays.

One can argue about the merits of the San Francisco sound, but what one can't argue about is there are only six bands listed, not seven.

What's the missing band?  Blue Cheer?  It's A Beautiful Day? Sopwith Camel?  Whoever it is, I doubt they'll be good enough to raise the quality to a level where it backs up Wenner's claims.

Or look at page 317:

With Anne Wexler's Rolodex and Avedon's fame, Rolling Stone procured access to Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, Cesar Chavez, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Jerry Brown, Katharine Graham, Bella Abzug, Nelson Rockefeller, Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, George Herbert Walker Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, George McGovern, George Wallace, Lady Bird Johnson, Ralph Nader, Ted Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter.

In case you missed it, the list starts and ends with the same name.  I know there are a lot of names in between, but are there so many no one could remember them all by the time they got to the period?  Or was Hagan trying to make up for the missing name on page 99?