Three Decades of Rolling Stone, and Still Counting

Can it be? Rolling Stone hits the newsstands today with its 30th anniversary issue.

Well, Let It Be.

Conceived during San Francisco’s summer of love by Berkeley dropout Jann Wenner--who scraped together $7,500 to launch it--Rolling Stone became the voice of a pre-MTV generation that rocked to the music of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

And, of course, the Rolling Stones, Wenner’s favorite rockers, from whom he co-opted the name for his fledgling magazine.

But Rolling Stone was never just about music. It was about the counterculture. Embracing the New Journalism, it created such media stars as gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson and photographer Annie Leibovitz, and showcased Tom Wolfe. It covered Patty Hearst and Charles Manson, George Wallace and George McGovern.

The anniversary issue’s lead story, by Gerri Hirshey, begins, “Let us return to 1970--just three years after this magazine was founded--and dare to inhale: incense, musk, burning hemp, the merest whiff of tear gas. The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ has just gone gold, and Grace Slick has been escorted from the White House grounds for trying to slip that naughty yippie Abbie Hoffman into Tricia Nixon’s tea party. . . .”

To mark its 30th birthday, Rolling Stone devotes an entire issue to the Women of Rock.

“I think it’s one of the biggest news stories in popular music,” Wenner says. “They’ve had the biggest-selling records for the last several years.”

On the cover, shot by Peggy Sirota at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, are Courtney Love, Tina Turner and Madonna. Not a hard choice, Wenner says--but choosing the other 26 women to interview took six months.

Not all of those asked to the party accepted. Patti Smith, once a Rolling Stone cover girl, declined, saying a special issue on women “genderizes” the music. And a few artists--Wenner demurs when asked to name names--were still miffed about past reviews.

The women talk of their music, their sexuality, their looks and how they’ve not only caught up with “the boys” but have brought a new voice and vitality to rock.

Ani DiFranco: “For many, many years, walking into a guitar store was almost an act of courage . . . it was very much a boys’ club. They would kinda look you up and down and say, ‘Hi, honey, are you here to get something for your boyfriend?’ ”

Fiona Apple: “I was called ‘dog’ in school. I’ve been saying all along that I didn’t want revenge, but maybe I did.”

k.d. lang, on being an openly lesbian musician: “It’s a great way to support a kid in a religious family in White Trash, Ariz., who’s having a more difficult time coming out.”

Diana Ross: “I haven’t given up on sex yet. . . . That’s probably why I’ve got five kids.”

Bonnie Raitt: “If I had had to be a woman before men and women were more equal, I would’ve probably shot somebody and been in jail.”

Also among the women rockers spotlighted are “godmother of grunge” Kim Gordon, rock tough girl Ronnie Spector, Scotland’s Shirley Manson, Natalie Merchant formerly of 10,000 Maniacs, Yoko Ono, Sheryl Crow, Sinead O’Connor, Jewel and Liz Phair.

But the magazine pays tribute, too, to Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, LaVern Baker, Etta James and Patsy Cline, all of whom helped pave the way.

Some say that Rolling Stone--like the Rolling Stones--is aging, is less cutting-edge than rival Spin. This clearly annoys Wenner, the publisher / editor, who dismisses Spin’s current issue on women in rock, with cover girl Fiona Apple, as “a pale imitation.”

At 51, Wenner, still a devoted Rolling Stones’ fan--”I, in general, lean toward people more my age”--has the challenge of keeping au courant for readers, whose average age is 27.

Yes, Rolling Stone remains cutting-edge, he says, then asks, “What is cutting-edge today? There’s so much media, so much culture. I don’t think there’s a trend that takes place in any city in the country that’s not immediately examined.”

Will rock still be the dominant form of popular music 30 years from now? Who knows, says Wenner, but “rock keeps absorbing everything that comes along.”