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Downloaded from
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[typing on keyboard]
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[dramatic music]
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[Fong-Torres]
Oh, I don't care about typecasting.
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I'm still identified under my name
on TV interviews,
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or documentaries, whatever,
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as "rock critic."
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And that's not me.
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But then they say, "Oh, but can't we say
senior editor at Rolling Stone"?
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Well, dude, that was 30 years ago.
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So get over it.
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I just got over it last year.
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[radio dial tuning]
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[radio jingle]
♪ It's San Francisco ♪
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♪ KSAN ♪
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[Fong-Torres]
I love these times you've come,
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especially when you show up
with a Spam sandwich in your hand.
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Mm. And a bottle of wine
for a nice picnic out in the backyard.
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It's past 2 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon
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on KSAN, the Jive 95.
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Ben Fong-Torres with you.
Or without you.
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[crowd cheering]
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[applause]
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[radio dial tuning]
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[Howard Stern] This guy, you know,
he's got some history, Ben Fong-Torres.
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[Robin Quivers]
He's met them all?
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[Stern] Well, I used to read him
in Rolling Stone
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going back to high school.
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[radio dial tuning]
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[Piers Morgan] Ben Fong-Torres
immortalized in Almost Famous.
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This is Ben Fong-Torres.
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I'm the music editor
at Rolling Stone magazine.
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[Morgan]
What a moment for you,
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to be up there in lights in a hit movie.
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You must have loved it.
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[Fong-Torres] About the closest thing
to my character
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is in the movie
is the loudness of my shirts.
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-[Sajak] You've written an autobiography?
-Yes.
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-Have you lived an interesting life?
-No, I haven't, but I sold the book, so…
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All right, Ben.
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Would you be interested in hosting?
You're much more amusing than I am.
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[Glionna] Before the Internet,
before blogging, before tweeting…
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Hello, Rolling Stone.
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…there was the Rolling Stone.
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[rock music]
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Rolling Stone was the place
that young kids went for pop culture.
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It's where we went for our politics.
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It's where we went for the news
our parents didn't know.
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[rock music]
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And it was this subversive rag
that we loved.
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And there were superstars
who worked there.
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And one of the biggest
was Ben Fong-Torres.
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[Bowman]
Everybody read Rolling Stone magazine.
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Mick Jagger read Rolling Stone magazine.
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John Lennon read Rolling Stone magazine.
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And so everybody knew Ben Fong-Torres.
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[Ray Manzarek]
I remember Ben from the Fillmore
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and the Avalon in San Francisco,
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from that time when we all thought
we could change the world,
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and we'd all ingested
psychedelic substances.
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And Ben was right in the middle
of the whole thing.
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♪ Riders on the storm ♪
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[imitating sirens]
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[humming]
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[Elton John]
He's one of the great writers ever.,
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They're not that great writers around.
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Some good ones,
but not as good as this guy.
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[Cameron Crowe]
He had a lightness and gravitas
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at the same time, which I've, you know,
not succeeded in replicating.
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[laughs]
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You do a wonderful Bob Dylan.
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-Oh, well…
-And I saw you doing it on television.
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Yeah, that was a Dick Clark production
called Your Big Break,
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and they had me doing what else?
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♪ To be on your own ♪
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♪ Like a complete unknown ♪
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♪ Like a rolling stone ♪
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[audience cheers]
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Okay.
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George Harrison interview.
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November 12th, 1974.
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Let's see, there's Ray Charles.
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Here is Tina Turner, and I-- oh boy.
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This was an adventure,
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because it was, as I wrote
on the cassette 40-something years ago,
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it says "buzz" on one thing,
and then "poor" on the other one.
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So those did not weather the years.
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I'm sure there are a few others
that have corroded or broken
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because they were cheap drugstore
cassettes that we used.
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And so it's a wonder that,
given the technology of cassettes,
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that they survived.
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There are probably about a hundred or so
that I would--
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Well, maybe even more that I would say
are treasures.
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And the accidental encounter
with Jim Morrison.
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Here it is.
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Oh.
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It's sharing a cassette
with a Rolling Stone editorial meeting.
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I'm not sure I want to hear that again.
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[Manzarek]
Ben Fong-Torres got The Doors.
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[playing "Light My Fire"]
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Raymond Daniel Manzarek.
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-[man] Occupation?
-Musician. Organist.
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♪ Try now, we can only lose ♪
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[Manzarek] I felt that Ben understood
the jazz aspect.
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The combination of jazz, blues,
and psychedelic kind of music
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that The Doors were trying to do with--
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And he understood Morrison's lyrics.
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Morrison's lyrics were, uh…
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They were Jungian, you know.
Carl Jung, the philosopher.
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I want to tell you about Texas radio
and the big beat.
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[bass line playing]
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It comes out of the Virginia swamps,
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cool and slow with a back beat narrow
and hard to master.
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[Fong-Torres] You know, sometimes the best
stories happen by accident.
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And that was the situation
when I happened to be hanging out
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at an apartment in West Hollywood
with a friend,
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a publicist for various bands,
and in popped Jim Morrison.
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[Ben] How important is poetry to you now?
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You still working on…
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…on pieces?
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[Jim] Yeah actually, uh,
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this book is--
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is more of a collection
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of aphorisms and--
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and notes.
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-[Ben] Mm-hmm.
-[Jim] There's only five or six
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really solid traditional poems in it.
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I don't consider
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that my career as a poet
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has really even begun yet.
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[Jim] Yeah, uh, we'd like to
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make an order, please.
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Uh, Morrison.
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Right. And, uh, a half-a-pint of… uh
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…of… Beefeater.
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Ben… you want some potato chip--?
Yeah, a bag of potato chips.
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A large one.
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Thanks.
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[Fong-Torres] He was a guy who was, like,
a rock god.
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And he was doing stuff to himself
that wasn't very healthy.
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You know, that was very well known,
his habits with drugs and alcohol.
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And yet, to be surprised
to sit down and encounter
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this intelligent, charming,
relaxed person
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who had goals and ambitions
beyond rock and roll.
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Very specific and quite articulate.
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[Jim] I think you uh…
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there's a certain moment when you're right
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you're right in time with your audience,
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and then…
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you both grow out of it, and that
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you just have to realize that
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it's not that you've outgrown the audience
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it's just that
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the audience and you have
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both are too old for that. You know?
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[Ben] How much longer do you have
with Elektra?
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[Jim] Well, we're at work
on our last album.
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[Ben] Mm-hmm. Do you see far beyond that?
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[Jim] I can't see too much
beyond that, uh--
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You know, it's a day to day thing.
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We're at kind of a crossroads
in our career.
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You know, we'll know within the next
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five or six months.
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what the future will be.
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[Manzarek] Ben did the last interview
with Jim Morrison
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before he left for Paris.
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In 1971,
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July 3rd,
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was Jim Morrison's last day
on planet Earth.
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In Paris.
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[Fong-Torres]
I made sure that the front page headline
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listed him as a poet
as well as a rock star.
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L.A. Woman would be their last album
together as The Doors.
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In our conversation that day,
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Jim talked about the death
of rock and roll,
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and it reminded me of this song
by The Doors:
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"When the Music's Over."
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The song that was hauntingly prophetic.
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♪ When the music's over, yeah ♪
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[band playing]
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♪ When the music's over ♪
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♪ Turn out the light ♪
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♪ Turn out the light ♪
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♪ Turn out the light ♪
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[typing]
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[Fong-Torres] I know there are people
who are driven to write every day.
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I don't think I feel the need to write,
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but by habit, it seems like,
I write pretty much every day.
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So when I go down to the office
to my keyboard,
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I know that it's going to be some--
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Something good's going to come out of it.
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[Burks] "Tell me more" is one
of the great questions you can ask.
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Doesn't even seem like a question, right?
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But you get people
expanding on their lives, you say,
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"Oh, no kidding. Tell me more."
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Or find some variation
on a way to say that.
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Ben is the king of Tell Me More.
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[Ben] with, uh, the album,
like I'm interested
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[Marvin] Well before I do
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[Marvin] Can I ask, uh,
please hold that question
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-[Ben] Sure
-[Marvin] Are you going to use
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[Marvin] are you going to quote me,
uh, uh…
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[Ben] Everything you've said so far.
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You tell the truth
as best you can find it.
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You don't make stuff up.
You don't bullshit people, right?
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Um, word gets around that
that's who you are and what you're about.
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So people feel comfortable
talking with you.
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That's why after he'd done the interview
with Marvin Gaye,
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Elton John was interested
in talking with him.
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♪ I remember when rock was young ♪
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♪ Me and Susie had so much fun ♪
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[Ben] What about costumes, uh…
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00:10:01,225 --> 00:10:02,643
when you first got into that,
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00:10:02,727 --> 00:10:04,520
as you explained later on,
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00:10:04,645 --> 00:10:06,439
Two things: to avoid boredom and,
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00:10:06,522 --> 00:10:07,815
for yourself, and to be different
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00:10:07,898 --> 00:10:08,733
from all the others.
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00:10:08,816 --> 00:10:11,277
But now, that so many other acts
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00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:12,528
have become costumed,
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00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:14,530
do you feel like you must
do something else again
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00:10:14,614 --> 00:10:15,531
to be different again?
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00:10:15,615 --> 00:10:17,867
[Elton] Not really. I just do it to--
…for my own amusement
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00:10:17,950 --> 00:10:18,784
Um… um…
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00:10:19,285 --> 00:10:22,038
It really started as a completely
tongue-in-cheek thing
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00:10:22,121 --> 00:10:23,748
because the songs
that I was performing.
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00:10:23,831 --> 00:10:26,959
weren't the sort of songs you'd expect
anyone to come in wearing a costume to.
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00:10:27,043 --> 00:10:28,794
'cause they were very moody songs.
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00:10:29,378 --> 00:10:31,047
and then I started to enjoy it.
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00:10:31,130 --> 00:10:33,341
And there's not-- I never feel--
Honestly, never feel like
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00:10:33,424 --> 00:10:34,967
comin' out in a suit
or a pair of jeans
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'cause I just, uh--
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00:10:36,719 --> 00:10:38,554
Even at sound checks
I'm a little glamorous.
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00:10:38,638 --> 00:10:39,513
[laughs]
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00:10:39,597 --> 00:10:42,016
[Burks] I was just rereading his interview
with Elton John.
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00:10:42,099 --> 00:10:44,810
and you might not notice
it's partly interview as in,
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00:10:45,353 --> 00:10:48,522
we had the question,
then we have Elton's response.
238
00:10:48,606 --> 00:10:49,857
A transcript-style response.
239
00:10:49,940 --> 00:10:54,028
It goes from that to then
Ben is then setting a scene,
240
00:10:54,111 --> 00:10:56,614
or making some observations,
and then back to the questions.
241
00:10:56,697 --> 00:10:59,784
And to do that,
just as a matter of technique,
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00:10:59,867 --> 00:11:03,412
to go from narrative, to Q&A,
to narrative, to Q&A,
243
00:11:03,496 --> 00:11:06,123
getting that balance just right
so it doesn't show.
244
00:11:06,207 --> 00:11:07,083
And that's craft.
245
00:11:07,958 --> 00:11:08,793
Maybe it's art.
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00:11:09,627 --> 00:11:11,379
I don't think there's anybody else
at the time
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00:11:11,462 --> 00:11:13,964
that could match Ben's writing,
and I'm not sure there is today.
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00:11:14,048 --> 00:11:15,174
[Ben] Bernie never gets
249
00:11:15,257 --> 00:11:17,218
a musical idea that he can't restrain?
250
00:11:17,301 --> 00:11:18,469
And you never have a phrase
251
00:11:18,552 --> 00:11:19,553
in your head that you have
252
00:11:19,637 --> 00:11:21,055
to put into a song or
253
00:11:21,138 --> 00:11:23,224
to tell Bernie about, so he can write--
write a song out of it?
254
00:11:23,307 --> 00:11:24,642
[Elton] I sometimes get a title.
255
00:11:24,725 --> 00:11:25,559
Um…
256
00:11:26,102 --> 00:11:27,186
But I mean-- I'm sure--
257
00:11:27,269 --> 00:11:28,646
When Bernie writes
the songs and lyrics,
258
00:11:28,729 --> 00:11:31,982
when he's writing, he's got--
visualizes a sort of a tune.
259
00:11:32,066 --> 00:11:33,609
Which, I mean, you'd-- you'd have to.
260
00:11:33,693 --> 00:11:36,112
[Ben] That must be a mo--
That must be a moment for him then, when--
261
00:11:36,195 --> 00:11:38,572
you turn it back to him
completely written as music.
262
00:11:38,656 --> 00:11:40,074
Say, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
263
00:11:40,157 --> 00:11:42,827
♪ So goodbye, yellow brick road ♪
264
00:11:42,910 --> 00:11:43,786
[Elton] Yeah.
265
00:11:43,869 --> 00:11:46,163
♪ Where the dogs of society… ♪
266
00:11:46,247 --> 00:11:49,625
I am looking for the coolest guy
in the history of show business.
267
00:11:49,709 --> 00:11:52,712
It's Ben Fong-Torres. Oh my God.
268
00:11:52,795 --> 00:11:54,547
-[laughs]
-Hello, my brother.
269
00:11:54,630 --> 00:11:59,176
Ben was my first kind of glimpse
of what a professional journalist
270
00:11:59,260 --> 00:12:01,345
and editor was like.
271
00:12:01,429 --> 00:12:04,223
When I was on an assignment,
I would always kind of think,
272
00:12:04,306 --> 00:12:07,476
how would Ben carry himself
with the proper amount of distance,
273
00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:12,481
but giving the artist the comfort
to say what's on their mind?
274
00:12:12,565 --> 00:12:14,316
This is Al Green. Ben Fong-Torres.
275
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:15,526
-Oh, Al Green.
-Right.
276
00:12:15,609 --> 00:12:16,694
[laughs]
277
00:12:16,777 --> 00:12:19,989
Shockingly, there were many
journalists that I ran into
278
00:12:20,072 --> 00:12:21,323
who were not like Ben.
279
00:12:21,407 --> 00:12:26,746
They were kind of there to meet people,
hang out, get drunk, or whatever.
280
00:12:26,829 --> 00:12:31,250
Ben, to me, was never one of those people
that was just really there to hang out.
281
00:12:31,333 --> 00:12:34,587
He was there to get the job done,
and to come back with the goods.
282
00:12:34,670 --> 00:12:36,088
♪ I'm ♪
283
00:12:38,090 --> 00:12:41,093
♪ I'm so in love with you ♪
284
00:12:41,177 --> 00:12:42,678
Because we only have one show, see?
285
00:12:42,762 --> 00:12:46,348
We run off, we do that, bam,
give me ten minutes and come on back.
286
00:12:46,432 --> 00:12:47,808
-Yeah.
-No problem.
287
00:12:47,892 --> 00:12:49,602
Okay, could you tell Les--
288
00:12:50,394 --> 00:12:51,896
-See you tonight.
-All right, for sure.
289
00:12:51,979 --> 00:12:54,148
Brian, you've had a lot of fun
with your songs.
290
00:12:54,231 --> 00:12:55,065
What makes you laugh?
291
00:12:55,149 --> 00:12:57,526
Arguments. Whenever I hear an argument,
I laugh.
292
00:12:57,610 --> 00:12:59,320
[laughs]
293
00:12:59,904 --> 00:13:01,906
Arguments between you
and other people, or just--?
294
00:13:01,989 --> 00:13:04,658
-No, other people.
-Just listening in? Right.
295
00:13:04,742 --> 00:13:05,618
[laughing]
296
00:13:05,701 --> 00:13:07,244
[Glionna]
You know, Ben was somebody
297
00:13:07,328 --> 00:13:10,456
who just had that hipster kind of vibe
298
00:13:10,539 --> 00:13:15,711
a long time before it really became
the status quo.
299
00:13:16,420 --> 00:13:18,964
If you were a young hipster in the 1970s,
300
00:13:19,048 --> 00:13:21,550
a wannabe journalist,
there was some guy that was a must-read.
301
00:13:21,634 --> 00:13:23,511
Of all the people that wrote,
even Hunter Thompson,
302
00:13:23,594 --> 00:13:25,763
the guy whose byline we looked for
303
00:13:25,846 --> 00:13:28,015
had probably the sexiest name
in the whole magazine.
304
00:13:28,849 --> 00:13:30,768
Ben Fong-Torres.
305
00:13:32,186 --> 00:13:33,437
♪ His name is Ben Fong-Torres ♪
306
00:13:33,521 --> 00:13:35,022
♪ He writes for Rolling Stone ♪
307
00:13:35,105 --> 00:13:36,857
♪ They love him in the a.m. ♪
308
00:13:36,941 --> 00:13:38,734
♪ By p.m. he's alone ♪
309
00:13:38,818 --> 00:13:40,069
♪ Ben Fong-Torres ♪
310
00:13:40,152 --> 00:13:41,695
♪ He's not an accident ♪
311
00:13:41,779 --> 00:13:43,197
♪ Is he from south of the border ♪
312
00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:44,907
♪ Or from the Orient? ♪
313
00:13:44,990 --> 00:13:45,950
♪ Ben Fong-Torres ♪
314
00:13:46,033 --> 00:13:47,952
[Dick] I've been trying to figure out
what the hell
315
00:13:48,035 --> 00:13:49,995
Ben Fong-Torres is…
316
00:13:50,079 --> 00:13:51,497
since I first read it.
317
00:13:51,580 --> 00:13:53,123
[Ben] And now you know too much.
318
00:13:53,207 --> 00:13:54,917
-I'm all Chinese.
-Torres?
319
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:56,752
It's like, Fong? Asian.
320
00:13:56,836 --> 00:13:58,921
Torres? Latino.
321
00:13:59,004 --> 00:14:01,006
[upbeat Latino accordion music]
322
00:14:05,177 --> 00:14:07,680
[Felton] Ben Fong-Torres always seemed
like a strange name to me.
323
00:14:07,763 --> 00:14:11,350
You wouldn't think he was, you know,
a Chinese guy right away.
324
00:14:11,433 --> 00:14:13,519
You konw, until you saw him.
And then you weren't sure.
325
00:14:14,019 --> 00:14:17,398
A teacher asked, "Are you Norwegian?"
326
00:14:17,481 --> 00:14:19,149
[laughter]
327
00:14:20,276 --> 00:14:21,527
You're looking at me.
328
00:14:22,653 --> 00:14:24,446
[Wenner]
I did go to Ben at one point and said,
329
00:14:24,530 --> 00:14:26,740
"Would you consider some type
of pseudonym?"
330
00:14:26,824 --> 00:14:28,450
"A new byline, you know,
some kind of thing
331
00:14:28,534 --> 00:14:31,036
that'd be easier for people
to get a handle on."
332
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:34,498
You know, not for racial reasons.
Just, it's sort of oddball, you know?
333
00:14:34,582 --> 00:14:37,167
But I should talk. "Jann Wenner."
You know what I mean?
334
00:14:37,251 --> 00:14:38,878
I've got oddball names.
335
00:14:40,421 --> 00:14:42,172
[Fong-Torres]
I finally learned
336
00:14:42,256 --> 00:14:45,551
how Fong-Torres came to be our name.
337
00:14:45,634 --> 00:14:50,890
My father came over from China
with a Filipino birth certificate
338
00:14:50,973 --> 00:14:54,226
that he bought for mucho dinero.
339
00:14:54,310 --> 00:14:57,229
That was one way to circumvent
the Chinese Exclusion Act.
340
00:14:58,022 --> 00:15:00,733
And so he came across as Ricardo Torres.
341
00:15:00,816 --> 00:15:02,568
[audience laughs]
342
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:04,778
[sizzling]
343
00:15:06,530 --> 00:15:08,532
After my father came to America,
344
00:15:08,616 --> 00:15:12,995
he worked his way up from dishwashing,
to cooking,
345
00:15:13,078 --> 00:15:17,458
to becoming a co-owner of restaurants
in Chinatown in Oakland.
346
00:15:18,500 --> 00:15:22,004
Yeah, he'd been here a good number
of years, and he was well into his 30s.
347
00:15:22,087 --> 00:15:25,799
Friends began to inveigh him that he--
if he wants to start a family,
348
00:15:25,883 --> 00:15:27,301
he'd better get cracking.
349
00:15:27,384 --> 00:15:30,095
And so, in the home village,
350
00:15:30,721 --> 00:15:31,972
word spread out.
351
00:15:32,056 --> 00:15:35,517
And in a neighboring village,
my mom was checked out
352
00:15:35,601 --> 00:15:37,061
and deemed to be suitable.
353
00:15:37,144 --> 00:15:39,563
And so, well, the marriage was arranged.
354
00:15:41,732 --> 00:15:45,444
Almost impossible to imagine
being in that situation
355
00:15:45,527 --> 00:15:50,532
of coming from China and leaving
their entire family structure
356
00:15:50,616 --> 00:15:53,369
and community to come to America
in the '40s
357
00:15:53,452 --> 00:15:56,246
to what might be a very hostile
environment.
358
00:15:56,330 --> 00:15:58,916
♪ This land is your land ♪
359
00:15:58,999 --> 00:16:01,335
♪ This land is my land ♪
360
00:16:01,418 --> 00:16:03,671
♪ From California ♪
361
00:16:03,754 --> 00:16:05,965
♪ To the New York island ♪
362
00:16:06,048 --> 00:16:08,592
[Low]
Going back to 1854,
363
00:16:08,676 --> 00:16:11,971
and the decision
by our California Supreme Court
364
00:16:12,054 --> 00:16:16,433
denying the right of Asians to testify,
365
00:16:16,517 --> 00:16:22,231
and there was constitutional amendments
that prohibited public companies
366
00:16:22,314 --> 00:16:23,732
from hiring Asians.
367
00:16:23,816 --> 00:16:26,485
[Chi-Wang]
Everybody from all over the world
368
00:16:26,568 --> 00:16:28,654
was allowed to enter United States.
369
00:16:28,737 --> 00:16:33,951
The only three people that could not enter
were the prostitute, moron, and lepers.
370
00:16:35,077 --> 00:16:39,373
So in 1882, Congress added Chinese
to that list.
371
00:16:44,378 --> 00:16:46,714
[Fong-Torres] Because of the family
business, the restaurant,
372
00:16:46,797 --> 00:16:48,882
we were raised with a work ethic,
373
00:16:48,966 --> 00:16:54,805
and we were told from the early stages
that it was more than just us as kids.
374
00:16:54,888 --> 00:16:58,392
That it was family. It was the parents.
It was their sacrifice.
375
00:16:58,475 --> 00:17:00,602
It was what they had done
to get to America.
376
00:17:00,686 --> 00:17:02,980
And so we heard lots of stories
to the point,
377
00:17:03,063 --> 00:17:04,815
really, where you kind of shrug them off.
378
00:17:04,898 --> 00:17:07,776
Oh, here we go again
about how hard it is in China,
379
00:17:07,860 --> 00:17:10,654
and they made it over,
and now we have to do our share.
380
00:17:10,738 --> 00:17:15,242
And that got through to me as…
in the areas of responsibility
381
00:17:15,325 --> 00:17:17,077
of being part of the family team,
382
00:17:17,161 --> 00:17:19,913
and that probably made me more sensitive
to other people.
383
00:17:19,997 --> 00:17:23,500
I do remember that when I was able
to go to a party--
384
00:17:23,584 --> 00:17:25,252
high school, for example,
385
00:17:25,961 --> 00:17:30,257
I would often wind up asking people
questions and never talking about myself.
386
00:17:30,799 --> 00:17:33,802
I think I felt, like, what's there to say
about bussing dishes?
387
00:17:33,886 --> 00:17:39,058
And so I began to just kind of take notes
on other people's affairs,
388
00:17:39,141 --> 00:17:40,768
and events, and news.
389
00:17:41,351 --> 00:17:44,438
And that probably led to the choice
to be a writer
390
00:17:44,521 --> 00:17:45,856
about other people's stories.
391
00:17:45,939 --> 00:17:48,650
♪ Very superstitious ♪
392
00:17:50,819 --> 00:17:52,446
♪ Writing on the wall ♪
393
00:17:52,529 --> 00:17:54,031
[Stevie] Oh, lemme see.
You want some tea, Ben?
394
00:17:54,114 --> 00:17:55,991
-[Ben] Yeah.
-Uh, that'll be two--two teas.
395
00:17:56,533 --> 00:17:57,493
So, it'll be two cups
396
00:17:57,951 --> 00:17:59,369
and maybe a large container
397
00:17:59,453 --> 00:18:00,454
you know, with tea.
398
00:18:01,580 --> 00:18:03,248
[Ben] So, when as a child…
399
00:18:03,332 --> 00:18:04,833
when did you first become aware that--
400
00:18:04,917 --> 00:18:06,502
that there was something missing
401
00:18:06,585 --> 00:18:08,754
according to other people's standards.
402
00:18:08,837 --> 00:18:11,048
When did you know that you were
in a sense, handicapped?
403
00:18:11,131 --> 00:18:12,382
[Stevie] I never really knew it.
404
00:18:12,466 --> 00:18:13,300
You know?
405
00:18:13,884 --> 00:18:16,762
[Ben] In school, they didn't tell you that
Hey, you have to deal with this.
406
00:18:16,845 --> 00:18:19,389
You must cope with a handicap.
Did they do it positively?
407
00:18:19,473 --> 00:18:20,307
[Stevie] They never--
408
00:18:20,974 --> 00:18:22,392
They probably said things.
409
00:18:22,476 --> 00:18:24,228
I cannot remember.
I cannot--I don't even--
410
00:18:24,895 --> 00:18:26,980
They must have been so insignificant.
411
00:18:27,064 --> 00:18:28,816
The only thing that was said
to me in school,
412
00:18:28,899 --> 00:18:31,360
and this is like my early part of school
when I was in Detroit,
413
00:18:32,778 --> 00:18:34,071
was like, you know,
414
00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:36,573
something that made me feel like
415
00:18:36,657 --> 00:18:37,991
because I was Black
416
00:18:38,075 --> 00:18:40,160
I could never be or I would never be.
417
00:18:40,244 --> 00:18:41,537
-[Ben] Mm.
-[Stevie] You know?
418
00:18:41,620 --> 00:18:42,454
[Ben] Mm-hmm.
419
00:18:42,538 --> 00:18:43,580
You mean, that Black was--
420
00:18:43,664 --> 00:18:45,290
being Black was considered
to be even a--
421
00:18:46,083 --> 00:18:47,251
a bigger weight on you?
422
00:18:47,918 --> 00:18:49,086
More of a handicap?
423
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:51,547
[Stevie] I guess so. I mean it's…
424
00:18:52,297 --> 00:18:53,132
You know…
425
00:18:54,007 --> 00:18:56,009
You know, this cat said
in the article one time,
426
00:18:56,093 --> 00:18:56,969
It was funny, man.
427
00:18:57,511 --> 00:18:58,887
"Damn, I mean, he's Black,
428
00:18:58,971 --> 00:19:00,180
he's blind and
429
00:19:01,140 --> 00:19:02,266
what else?"
430
00:19:02,766 --> 00:19:04,518
A lot of people are
very sensitive about that
431
00:19:04,601 --> 00:19:05,435
but like…
432
00:19:05,519 --> 00:19:07,187
That made me, I guess,
only because maybe
433
00:19:07,271 --> 00:19:09,356
I'm a Taurus or whatever,
it just made me fight it.
434
00:19:09,439 --> 00:19:10,649
I said, you know, "Bullshit!"
435
00:19:10,732 --> 00:19:12,317
I don't want to hear that shit.
You know?
436
00:19:15,404 --> 00:19:17,114
[car horn honking]
437
00:19:19,575 --> 00:19:22,995
[Fong-Torres] Sarah was the first born,
followed by Barry and then me.
438
00:19:23,745 --> 00:19:25,956
I was followed by Shirley and then Burton.
439
00:19:26,790 --> 00:19:31,336
The firstborn son is pretty much
the supreme leader of the kids battalion.
440
00:19:31,879 --> 00:19:33,422
And so I was in the middle,
441
00:19:33,505 --> 00:19:36,091
just kind of picking up the hand-me-downs
from Barry,
442
00:19:36,758 --> 00:19:40,804
and not having that responsibility
of being the one who has to go to college
443
00:19:40,888 --> 00:19:43,307
and and have a great white-collar job.
444
00:19:43,390 --> 00:19:46,143
And I didn't feel that pressure
that Barry felt.
445
00:19:47,144 --> 00:19:51,315
We had a family of seven crammed
into a two-bedroom, one-bathroom flat.
446
00:19:51,398 --> 00:19:55,110
Barry and I read our comics
by flashlight under the covers.
447
00:19:55,652 --> 00:19:58,780
We also managed to get a pocket radio
in the shape of a rocket.
448
00:19:58,864 --> 00:20:01,116
We would reach out our bedroom window
449
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,953
and attach it to our clothesline,
which is handy.
450
00:20:05,037 --> 00:20:09,708
Then you just dial the rocket base
to pull in the station.
451
00:20:10,584 --> 00:20:14,504
And that was radio back in the early days
of rock and roll,
452
00:20:14,588 --> 00:20:16,173
or rocket and roll.
453
00:20:16,256 --> 00:20:18,175
♪ You women have heard of jalopies ♪
454
00:20:18,258 --> 00:20:19,801
♪ You heard the noise they make ♪
455
00:20:19,885 --> 00:20:22,888
♪ But let me introduce
My new Rocket '88 ♪
456
00:20:23,347 --> 00:20:24,473
♪ Yes, it's great… ♪
457
00:20:25,557 --> 00:20:29,436
I was inspired by one of the greatest
voices of all time,
458
00:20:29,519 --> 00:20:34,733
Gary Owens, who was a disc jockey on--
in Oakland, on KEWB.
459
00:20:34,816 --> 00:20:37,694
[Gary Owens]
This has been KEWB instant news,
460
00:20:37,778 --> 00:20:39,279
no sooner done than said.
461
00:20:39,363 --> 00:20:40,822
[musical radio sting plays]
462
00:20:40,906 --> 00:20:43,033
- At the tone, music.
-[tone beeps]
463
00:20:43,116 --> 00:20:47,371
"Hi there. Hi, gang.
Gary Owens on KEWB Color Radio."
464
00:20:47,454 --> 00:20:52,793
So early on, I just kind of appreciated
these entertainments in my life,
465
00:20:53,293 --> 00:20:56,380
and thought that possibly
I could do that.
466
00:20:56,463 --> 00:20:59,383
We couldn't afford
a new phonograph player,
467
00:20:59,466 --> 00:21:02,302
so Barry decided to make one himself.
468
00:21:02,386 --> 00:21:06,473
He got a children's 78 r.p.m. model
at a thrift shop,
469
00:21:06,556 --> 00:21:10,352
and honed the cap stand down
until the speed decreased
470
00:21:10,435 --> 00:21:14,064
to the speed of rock and roll: 45 r.p.m.
471
00:21:14,147 --> 00:21:16,441
♪ Five, six, seven o'clock
Eight o'clock rock ♪
472
00:21:16,525 --> 00:21:18,568
♪ Nine, ten, eleven o'clock
Twelve o'clock rock ♪
473
00:21:18,652 --> 00:21:20,779
♪ We're gonna rock around
The clock tonight ♪
474
00:21:20,862 --> 00:21:23,448
So you understand why I looked up
to Barry all the time.
475
00:21:24,533 --> 00:21:28,287
I kind of gravitated to people
who were in some ways marginalized.
476
00:21:28,370 --> 00:21:32,457
Having come from my background helped
to direct the way I went with subjects
477
00:21:32,541 --> 00:21:34,418
and the way stories were done.
478
00:21:34,501 --> 00:21:38,588
But in terms of a musician
who was awe-inspiring
479
00:21:38,672 --> 00:21:43,427
and lived up to what I had been
thinking about him as for many years,
480
00:21:43,510 --> 00:21:44,386
Ray Charles.
481
00:21:44,469 --> 00:21:48,974
He was the man in my mind,
because as a kid in junior high school,
482
00:21:49,057 --> 00:21:52,019
I was listening to "Hit the Road Jack,"
"Georgia," and "What I'd Say."
483
00:21:52,102 --> 00:21:54,313
♪ Tell your mama, tell your pa ♪
484
00:21:54,396 --> 00:21:56,356
♪ Gonna send you back to Arkansas ♪
485
00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:57,524
♪ All right, now ♪
486
00:21:57,607 --> 00:21:59,735
Ray Charles was famous
before I got to him,
487
00:21:59,818 --> 00:22:01,278
but he was overlooked.
488
00:22:01,778 --> 00:22:06,033
He was being ignored
by a lot of the rock culture audience.
489
00:22:06,116 --> 00:22:08,201
And I said, "Man, how about Ray Charles?"
490
00:22:08,285 --> 00:22:10,871
Without him, I don't know
that we'd all be here.
491
00:22:10,954 --> 00:22:13,123
So-- and I'm sure he's got himself
a story to tell.
492
00:22:13,206 --> 00:22:14,041
And he did.
493
00:22:16,752 --> 00:22:18,545
they had ads in the paper
494
00:22:19,338 --> 00:22:21,548
where they were trying to find anybody
495
00:22:22,049 --> 00:22:23,425
that could sing like me.
496
00:22:23,508 --> 00:22:24,343
[Ben] Uh-huh.
497
00:22:24,426 --> 00:22:26,178
[Ray] You think about that
for a minute.
498
00:22:26,261 --> 00:22:29,014
Here I am and here's a guy
will go and spend millions of dollars
499
00:22:29,097 --> 00:22:31,183
to find a White cat just to imitate me,
500
00:22:31,266 --> 00:22:33,143
and he'll do far better than me.
501
00:22:33,226 --> 00:22:34,519
[Ray] Let's break it down.
502
00:22:34,603 --> 00:22:36,396
an-an-and tell it like it is.
503
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,148
This is the real truth.
504
00:22:38,231 --> 00:22:39,608
When you get a guy
505
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:41,234
who come up,
506
00:22:41,318 --> 00:22:43,445
man, say like an Elvis Presley--
507
00:22:43,528 --> 00:22:45,197
an-an-and let's face it, man,
508
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:47,199
you had more people going out
509
00:22:47,282 --> 00:22:49,618
shaking their behinds
an-and stuff like that.
510
00:22:49,701 --> 00:22:51,078
What'd they call--Elvis the Pelvis?
511
00:22:51,161 --> 00:22:53,121
-[Ben] Yeah.
-You know where Elvis got that from?
512
00:22:53,205 --> 00:22:54,831
He used to be out on Beale Street
513
00:22:55,332 --> 00:22:56,541
in Memphis! That's where he saw
514
00:22:56,625 --> 00:22:58,085
the Black people doing that.
515
00:22:58,168 --> 00:23:00,045
We couldn't do that on TV.
516
00:23:00,128 --> 00:23:01,088
There ain't no way, man,
517
00:23:01,171 --> 00:23:03,173
There ain't no way in hell
they'd let anybody, like-like,
518
00:23:03,256 --> 00:23:04,091
get on TV and do that.
519
00:23:04,174 --> 00:23:05,550
But he could be-- He's White.
520
00:23:05,634 --> 00:23:09,054
[Fong-Torres] And when Ray Charles
would talk about firsthand segregation,
521
00:23:09,137 --> 00:23:12,307
that wasn't even just in childhood,
but even as a star.
522
00:23:12,391 --> 00:23:14,226
[Ray] You see, I done seen all this, man.
523
00:23:14,309 --> 00:23:15,560
I know all about
524
00:23:15,644 --> 00:23:18,355
the places where I couldn't
drink out of the fountain.
525
00:23:18,438 --> 00:23:19,898
I know all about the places
526
00:23:19,981 --> 00:23:21,400
I couldn't go to the bathroom
527
00:23:21,483 --> 00:23:22,317
when I had to pee.
528
00:23:22,401 --> 00:23:24,277
Somethin' that's natural
for every human being.
529
00:23:24,361 --> 00:23:26,405
You understand me?
And if I do it on the highway
530
00:23:26,488 --> 00:23:27,406
and the cops see me
531
00:23:27,489 --> 00:23:28,990
he gonna put me in jail for it.
532
00:23:29,074 --> 00:23:29,908
You understand?
533
00:23:29,991 --> 00:23:32,119
And maybe beat my head, too
depending on where I am.
534
00:23:32,202 --> 00:23:33,578
See, I know all about that.
535
00:23:33,662 --> 00:23:35,122
Yeah, but I don't want to let
536
00:23:35,205 --> 00:23:37,124
that get into what I'm doing.
537
00:23:37,207 --> 00:23:38,875
I--I'm in this business for--
538
00:23:38,959 --> 00:23:40,127
because I love music.
539
00:23:40,210 --> 00:23:41,420
♪ Let's go home, baby ♪
540
00:23:42,045 --> 00:23:44,673
♪ Ow, let's go home, child, now ♪
541
00:23:45,215 --> 00:23:48,385
[Fong-Torres] Barry and I
and Shirley and Burton
542
00:23:48,468 --> 00:23:50,512
all wound up doing a lot
of restaurant work,
543
00:23:50,595 --> 00:23:55,183
packing orders, taking orders,
waiting on tables, bussing dishes.
544
00:23:55,267 --> 00:23:56,101
That kind of stuff.
545
00:23:56,184 --> 00:23:58,520
[Sarah Fong-Torres]
We had to just do wash rice.
546
00:23:58,603 --> 00:24:01,064
I'm talking about a massive
amount of rice.
547
00:24:01,898 --> 00:24:05,652
It's a storage area comprised of a room
548
00:24:05,735 --> 00:24:09,364
where we have a table and chairs,
and we have a radio.
549
00:24:09,448 --> 00:24:14,786
And then there was a cage-like thing
where there were sacks upon sacks
550
00:24:14,870 --> 00:24:16,705
of mostly rice.
551
00:24:17,372 --> 00:24:20,542
I said it was more of a holding cell
than anything else.
552
00:24:20,625 --> 00:24:22,794
Or peel shrimp.
553
00:24:22,878 --> 00:24:27,549
As it turned out, I think all the kids
were allergic to touching raw shellfish.
554
00:24:27,632 --> 00:24:29,968
Not that they were allergic to eating it.
555
00:24:30,051 --> 00:24:31,553
Just the work part of it.
556
00:24:31,636 --> 00:24:32,596
[laughs]
557
00:24:34,890 --> 00:24:37,225
[Fong-Torres]
Being in that restaurant environment,
558
00:24:37,309 --> 00:24:40,020
you just knew all the time
that you were different.
559
00:24:42,189 --> 00:24:47,569
nd so it was really a moment of hope to,
at age 12, be escaping Chinatown,
560
00:24:47,652 --> 00:24:51,740
to go off to some area of the country
I'd never even thought of:
561
00:24:51,823 --> 00:24:53,033
the Panhandle, in Texas.
562
00:24:53,116 --> 00:24:56,578
My father getting another shot
at a business venture.
563
00:24:56,661 --> 00:24:59,748
Being a chef and operating a restaurant.
564
00:24:59,831 --> 00:25:03,919
And we wind up at this home
of the main partner.
565
00:25:04,002 --> 00:25:06,004
And it's a wonderful house.
566
00:25:06,087 --> 00:25:10,383
It's an American house, large living room,
a pet dog.
567
00:25:10,467 --> 00:25:14,596
Oh man, it seemed like we were in
for a pretty good ride there.
568
00:25:14,679 --> 00:25:17,140
And suddenly, things changed.
569
00:25:17,224 --> 00:25:19,226
[western music]
570
00:25:21,394 --> 00:25:26,566
I learned that we are going to be housed
not in a house, but the parking lot.
571
00:25:27,275 --> 00:25:31,404
They put us with two other chef partners
in a low-slung two-room shack
572
00:25:31,488 --> 00:25:33,823
hidden in the back behind the restaurant.
573
00:25:33,907 --> 00:25:39,079
We had no more furniture than a jail cell,
and no air conditioning or heating.
574
00:25:39,162 --> 00:25:42,499
It was in Texas that I could see
discrimination firsthand.
575
00:25:43,041 --> 00:25:46,503
The local school district decided
that I'd go to the all-White
576
00:25:46,586 --> 00:25:48,964
rather than the all-Black school.
577
00:25:49,798 --> 00:25:54,219
I was the only Chinese-American kid
of more than 450 students.
578
00:25:54,844 --> 00:25:57,806
I'll never forget the gym teacher
calling me Chop Chop.
579
00:25:58,390 --> 00:25:59,849
It was a very humiliating.
580
00:25:59,933 --> 00:26:03,228
Chop Chop, of course,
from the Blackhawk comic book series.
581
00:26:03,311 --> 00:26:05,939
And it's amazing when I think back to it,
582
00:26:06,022 --> 00:26:12,028
it still stands out that this short,
pudgy guy named Chop Chop
583
00:26:12,112 --> 00:26:17,409
had a very bright yellow face
amid the pink and other faces
584
00:26:17,492 --> 00:26:19,744
that populated the comic book.
585
00:26:19,828 --> 00:26:22,831
And so, yeah, stood out,
and not in a good way.
586
00:26:24,165 --> 00:26:27,127
In speech class, I learned to mimic
Texas accents
587
00:26:27,210 --> 00:26:29,963
to camouflage my Chinatown upbringing.
588
00:26:30,046 --> 00:26:31,631
I tried to be cool.
589
00:26:31,715 --> 00:26:35,343
The passport to cool-dom in 1957
was rock and roll.
590
00:26:35,927 --> 00:26:38,763
So in the shack behind the restaurant
in front of a mirror,
591
00:26:38,847 --> 00:26:41,224
I lip-synced to Elvis Presley songs.
592
00:26:41,308 --> 00:26:43,310
[audience cheers]
593
00:26:45,312 --> 00:26:49,899
The coolest sounds were being made
by Elvis, and Jerry Lee, and Buddy Holly,
594
00:26:49,983 --> 00:26:53,236
but also by Little Richard
and Chuck Berry.
595
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,031
♪ Deep down in Louisiana
Close to New Orleans ♪
596
00:26:56,114 --> 00:26:59,075
♪ Way back up in the woods
Among the evergreens ♪
597
00:26:59,159 --> 00:27:01,536
My classmates in Texas
invited me to join them
598
00:27:01,620 --> 00:27:03,538
for root beer floats after school,
599
00:27:03,622 --> 00:27:07,542
and to listen to rock and roll
and R&B on the jukebox.
600
00:27:07,626 --> 00:27:10,712
Inside that jukebox,
there were no racial borders.
601
00:27:10,795 --> 00:27:12,172
No segregation.
602
00:27:12,756 --> 00:27:14,549
Rock and roll was an equalizer.
603
00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:17,677
And for me, it was more than a way
to have fun
604
00:27:17,761 --> 00:27:19,763
or to feel like part of the crowd.
605
00:27:20,347 --> 00:27:22,599
It was a way to feel Americanized.
606
00:27:22,682 --> 00:27:23,725
[playing notes]
607
00:27:24,517 --> 00:27:26,728
♪ If I didn't want the best ♪
608
00:27:27,270 --> 00:27:29,689
♪ Why even waste your time? ♪
609
00:27:30,357 --> 00:27:33,735
[Sampson] I met Ben when he was
just getting out of high school.
610
00:27:33,818 --> 00:27:35,362
I've known him that long.
611
00:27:35,445 --> 00:27:36,780
I was born in Louisiana,
612
00:27:37,697 --> 00:27:40,367
and I came here in San Francisco
when I was five,
613
00:27:40,450 --> 00:27:43,370
and I know what he's talking about
for that era,
614
00:27:43,453 --> 00:27:46,081
because I'd gone through things
down there myself.
615
00:27:46,164 --> 00:27:51,711
So I could imagine that that affected him,
and he would fill the soul of that
616
00:27:51,795 --> 00:27:55,715
by living in Texas and being made less
than a person that he was, you know,
617
00:27:56,508 --> 00:28:00,804
and that the deep sensitivity
and the spirit that he has, you know.
618
00:28:00,887 --> 00:28:03,223
But it didn't wear him down.
It helped him.
619
00:28:03,306 --> 00:28:07,435
It helps him in his writing,
and the feeling the soul of the music.
620
00:28:07,519 --> 00:28:09,813
♪ Why even waste my time? ♪
621
00:28:12,982 --> 00:28:14,984
[applause]
622
00:28:15,652 --> 00:28:18,071
-Thank you, Jules.
-Thank you. Very good. Yes.
623
00:28:19,989 --> 00:28:22,367
[Fong-Torres] In Texas,
the restaurant was not doing as well
624
00:28:22,450 --> 00:28:23,993
as they had anticipated.
625
00:28:25,161 --> 00:28:29,332
My father was a very good cook,
but he never had much of a business head,
626
00:28:29,416 --> 00:28:32,627
and so his restaurants
almost invariably failed.
627
00:28:32,711 --> 00:28:36,423
And then to go to Amarillo with high hopes
and to have them dashed
628
00:28:36,506 --> 00:28:38,133
was very difficult.
629
00:28:38,216 --> 00:28:41,886
My father was upset with the restaurant.
I was upset with the restaurant.
630
00:28:41,970 --> 00:28:43,888
And so, left to my wiles,
631
00:28:43,972 --> 00:28:47,851
I would grab some rocks and throw them
at the neon sign
632
00:28:47,934 --> 00:28:49,269
for the Ding How restaurant,
633
00:28:49,352 --> 00:28:51,521
as if that really would help
the situation any.
634
00:28:51,604 --> 00:28:53,565
But hey, you know, I'm 12, 13 years old.
635
00:28:53,648 --> 00:28:57,902
And so it wasn't long before we were
packing up and heading back to to Oakland.
636
00:28:57,986 --> 00:28:59,988
[train horn blares]
637
00:29:01,948 --> 00:29:04,117
And so I kind of went back to Oakland.
638
00:29:04,743 --> 00:29:08,747
Uh, I think I thought that,
if at all possible,
639
00:29:08,830 --> 00:29:10,999
I would follow a different road.
640
00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:16,004
I thought about becoming a broadcaster
or a writer or an artist.
641
00:29:16,087 --> 00:29:17,630
In high school,
642
00:29:17,714 --> 00:29:21,301
I began to write for the school paper,
the Oakland High School Aegis,
643
00:29:21,384 --> 00:29:23,344
and then Commission of Assemblies.
644
00:29:23,428 --> 00:29:26,806
So I was already kind of straddling
the two worlds.
645
00:29:26,890 --> 00:29:28,808
There were no opportunities at the time.
646
00:29:28,892 --> 00:29:32,604
There were no Asian Americans in media
in general to speak of.
647
00:29:33,146 --> 00:29:37,984
And so nobody, least of all my parents,
encouraged it.
648
00:29:38,067 --> 00:29:40,987
You know, they had the idea
of Dr. Fong-Torres,
649
00:29:41,070 --> 00:29:44,282
or Benjamin Fong-Torres, Esquire.
650
00:29:44,365 --> 00:29:45,825
[audience laughs]
651
00:29:46,493 --> 00:29:47,619
In the mid-'60s,
652
00:29:47,702 --> 00:29:50,038
just as I was going to school
at S.F. State,
653
00:29:50,121 --> 00:29:52,999
it seemed like the world
completely changed.
654
00:29:53,082 --> 00:29:55,335
[chanting indistinctly]
655
00:29:55,877 --> 00:29:59,130
As a reporter and then editor
for the school paper,
656
00:29:59,214 --> 00:30:00,965
that pretty much became our beat.
657
00:30:01,049 --> 00:30:02,926
[crowd shouting]
658
00:30:03,009 --> 00:30:07,263
So I would hear about things like
legalizing marijuana, sexual freedom,
659
00:30:07,347 --> 00:30:10,016
the war in Vietnam,
the Civil Rights Movement.
660
00:30:10,099 --> 00:30:12,393
All of that was going on
on an almost daily basis.
661
00:30:12,477 --> 00:30:15,063
♪ Revolution has come ♪
662
00:30:15,146 --> 00:30:16,231
[all]
Off the pigs!
663
00:30:16,314 --> 00:30:18,566
♪ Time to pick up the gun ♪
664
00:30:20,652 --> 00:30:23,029
[Fong-Torres]
During a Civil Rights Week event,
665
00:30:23,112 --> 00:30:26,908
I went and took the voting test
that was being given
666
00:30:26,991 --> 00:30:28,660
to Black people in the South,
667
00:30:28,743 --> 00:30:32,372
and rigged so that there was no way
you could pass the test.
668
00:30:32,455 --> 00:30:35,250
So I took it and did the best job I could,
669
00:30:35,333 --> 00:30:37,085
and failed miserably,
and then wrote about it.
670
00:30:37,168 --> 00:30:40,213
People just were experimenting
with all kinds of new ideas.
671
00:30:40,296 --> 00:30:42,632
At Berkeley,
there was the Free Speech Movement.
672
00:30:42,715 --> 00:30:46,094
People today don't realize
that before this happened,
673
00:30:46,177 --> 00:30:48,304
every movie you saw,
every television show you saw,
674
00:30:48,388 --> 00:30:49,848
and every book you read was censored.
675
00:30:49,931 --> 00:30:52,016
[angry shouting]
676
00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:54,686
Everybody was very scared
about what were you students saying,
677
00:30:54,769 --> 00:30:57,021
what were they allowed to say
and that sort of thing.
678
00:30:57,105 --> 00:30:58,898
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
679
00:30:58,982 --> 00:31:01,025
[man speaking over bullhorn]
680
00:31:01,109 --> 00:31:02,652
Reagan called out the National Guard.
681
00:31:03,903 --> 00:31:06,948
There's pepper spray going on,
there's a helicopter with pepper spray.
682
00:31:08,491 --> 00:31:10,034
[crowd screaming and shouting]
683
00:31:11,119 --> 00:31:13,162
The tear gas is in your eyes,
you can't see.
684
00:31:16,374 --> 00:31:18,293
[Felton]
Knowing that you're part of a revolution
685
00:31:18,376 --> 00:31:19,836
is kind of an act of faith.
686
00:31:19,919 --> 00:31:20,920
You just have to know it.
687
00:31:21,004 --> 00:31:24,424
Ben was in the middle of this revolution
from the get-go.
688
00:31:24,507 --> 00:31:26,676
And, you know, it all came together
in the music.
689
00:31:26,759 --> 00:31:28,636
["Foxey Lady" playing]
690
00:31:33,349 --> 00:31:36,603
And the music itself was revolutionary.
It was being made in a different way.
691
00:31:36,686 --> 00:31:41,566
individuals with their electricity,
and their guitars, and their garage bands
692
00:31:41,649 --> 00:31:44,319
were creating the whole thing,
producing it, creating it,
693
00:31:44,402 --> 00:31:45,945
writing it, performing it.
694
00:31:46,029 --> 00:31:47,697
That was all brand-new.
695
00:31:47,780 --> 00:31:49,282
["San Francisco" playing]
696
00:31:51,492 --> 00:31:54,120
♪ If you're going ♪
697
00:31:54,203 --> 00:31:57,582
♪ To San Francisco ♪
698
00:31:57,665 --> 00:32:00,668
San Francisco sound was known
everywhere.
699
00:32:00,752 --> 00:32:02,754
[band playing rock music]
700
00:32:03,379 --> 00:32:06,174
[Fong-Torres] The bands who were playing
were also a major part
701
00:32:06,257 --> 00:32:08,718
of the definition of the '60s.
702
00:32:08,801 --> 00:32:11,346
The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane,
703
00:32:11,429 --> 00:32:13,765
and you had Big Brother
and the Holding Company
704
00:32:13,848 --> 00:32:17,560
popping up on campus and just deciding
to do some rehearsing there.
705
00:32:17,644 --> 00:32:19,562
♪ Down on me ♪
706
00:32:21,189 --> 00:32:24,108
[Andrew] We wrote songs
about changing the world,
707
00:32:24,192 --> 00:32:29,155
and Ben Fong-Torres had a very accurate
and forward-looking view
708
00:32:29,238 --> 00:32:30,740
of what was going on.
709
00:32:30,823 --> 00:32:34,535
We thought, it's actually possible
that we can make a difference, you know,
710
00:32:34,619 --> 00:32:37,038
and maybe stop the war in Vietnam,
711
00:32:37,121 --> 00:32:40,333
and have people be a little kinder
to each other.
712
00:32:40,416 --> 00:32:44,462
And I was still a student
in graduate school at Berkeley.
713
00:32:44,545 --> 00:32:46,589
We were all, like, 18 and 19,
714
00:32:46,673 --> 00:32:50,301
and we were going to go, you know,
we were going to get our asses shot off,
715
00:32:50,385 --> 00:32:55,682
you know, in Vietnam
for a very specious purpose, you know.
716
00:32:55,765 --> 00:33:00,436
And so we caught on right away,
because it was life and death for us.
717
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,564
[Fong-Torres] In the '60s,
the lyrics of many songs carried messages.
718
00:33:03,648 --> 00:33:07,360
Artists were singing protest songs,
people like Edwin Starr.
719
00:33:07,443 --> 00:33:09,487
♪ War, huh! ♪
720
00:33:09,570 --> 00:33:10,530
♪ Yeah ♪
721
00:33:10,613 --> 00:33:12,490
♪ What is it good for? ♪
722
00:33:12,573 --> 00:33:14,117
♪ Absolutely nothing ♪
723
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,119
♪ Oh, war ♪
724
00:33:16,202 --> 00:33:17,954
-[Country Joe] Give me an F!
-[audience] F!
725
00:33:18,037 --> 00:33:19,622
-Give me a U!
-U!
726
00:33:19,706 --> 00:33:21,249
-Give me a C!
-C!
727
00:33:21,332 --> 00:33:22,625
-Give me a K!
-K!
728
00:33:22,709 --> 00:33:24,002
-What's that spell?
-Fuck!
729
00:33:24,085 --> 00:33:24,919
What's that spell?
730
00:33:25,003 --> 00:33:26,921
I'm well known for the song
about the Vietnam War,
731
00:33:27,005 --> 00:33:28,506
called "I Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die."
732
00:33:28,589 --> 00:33:29,632
And I wrote it in 1965.
733
00:33:29,716 --> 00:33:32,385
And it became popular in 1969,
734
00:33:32,468 --> 00:33:34,929
Although it was banned
on the radio and television,
735
00:33:35,013 --> 00:33:36,264
it's pretty commonplace now.
736
00:33:36,347 --> 00:33:41,602
But it was shocking to hear that kind
of working-class language in 1969.
737
00:33:41,686 --> 00:33:42,937
[strumming]
738
00:33:43,021 --> 00:33:45,690
But it was a new kind of protest song.
739
00:33:45,773 --> 00:33:47,900
It wasn't blaming soldiers for war.
740
00:33:47,984 --> 00:33:52,572
And it blamed politicians and parents
and the industrial complex.
741
00:33:53,156 --> 00:33:55,324
♪ The next stop is Vietnam ♪
742
00:33:56,159 --> 00:33:59,078
You were one of those
who was really candid
743
00:33:59,162 --> 00:34:04,751
about the price people paid
for some of the excesses of that era.
744
00:34:05,293 --> 00:34:06,794
[Country Joe]
Yeah, that's a…
745
00:34:06,878 --> 00:34:09,297
a good thing about me
and a bad thing about me.
746
00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:10,381
[both laugh]
747
00:34:10,465 --> 00:34:12,759
♪ Well, ain't no time to wonder why ♪
748
00:34:12,842 --> 00:34:14,677
♪ Whoopee, we're all gonna die ♪
749
00:34:14,761 --> 00:34:16,471
-All right!
-[audience cheers]
750
00:34:16,554 --> 00:34:18,973
[Felton]
This was a young person's revolution,
751
00:34:19,057 --> 00:34:21,934
but it was really a cultural revolution,
which meant that it was--
752
00:34:22,435 --> 00:34:25,188
involved politics, sex,
drugs and rock and roll.
753
00:34:25,271 --> 00:34:27,440
This is Jann Wenner.
I'm the editor of Rolling Stone.
754
00:34:27,523 --> 00:34:29,484
[Gleason]
Finally, Jann came over one day and said,
755
00:34:29,567 --> 00:34:32,904
"How about a magazine that would cover,
not just the records and the music,
756
00:34:32,987 --> 00:34:34,197
but cover the whole culture?"
757
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:38,201
As soon as he said we said, you know,
we both agreed it was a hell of an idea.
758
00:34:38,284 --> 00:34:40,286
[rock music]
759
00:34:42,246 --> 00:34:44,874
When Rolling Stone first came out
in late 1967,
760
00:34:44,957 --> 00:34:47,168
all of us roommates would jump at it.
761
00:34:47,251 --> 00:34:50,922
You know, it was like a long-awaited
drug shipment had finally hit the dock
762
00:34:51,005 --> 00:34:52,381
and we were down there grabbing it.
763
00:34:52,465 --> 00:34:55,593
And we would pass it around to each other,
and we would devour it.
764
00:34:55,676 --> 00:34:58,471
But having just done journalism
and written for the newspaper
765
00:34:58,554 --> 00:35:00,556
and covering some of the scene,
766
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:03,142
because a lot of it was taking place
at San Francisco State.
767
00:35:03,226 --> 00:35:06,312
So it was natural for me
to want to write for Rolling Stone.
768
00:35:06,395 --> 00:35:07,814
By the time Rolling Stone started,
769
00:35:07,897 --> 00:35:09,899
that was around the time
of the Summer of Love.
770
00:35:09,982 --> 00:35:13,277
It was a full cultural dropout revolution.
771
00:35:13,361 --> 00:35:16,239
Jann started the magazine straight
from being on the Berkeley campus,
772
00:35:16,322 --> 00:35:17,532
so he knew what was happening.
773
00:35:17,615 --> 00:35:20,785
[Fong-Torres] All through college,
even in a leadership position,
774
00:35:20,868 --> 00:35:23,121
running the school paper,
being city editor
775
00:35:23,204 --> 00:35:27,041
and assigning the stories
to our staff of 25 reporters.
776
00:35:27,125 --> 00:35:31,003
I still felt like,
"Yeah, you're your Chinese guy,
777
00:35:31,087 --> 00:35:33,506
and these people mostly aren't."
778
00:35:33,589 --> 00:35:36,968
I just felt like, I don't know
if I can do this professionally.
779
00:35:37,051 --> 00:35:41,305
Get a job doing this outside of school,
because there is nobody out there like me.
780
00:35:41,389 --> 00:35:43,641
And that's the way it is,
Friday, March 6th…
781
00:35:43,724 --> 00:35:47,395
[Fong-Torres] There was nobody who
was Chinese American or Asian American
782
00:35:47,478 --> 00:35:49,814
doing anything in broadcast
783
00:35:49,897 --> 00:35:52,358
or in printed media
except the Chinese press.
784
00:35:52,441 --> 00:35:55,444
I wanted to be out there,
and how to get out there,
785
00:35:55,528 --> 00:35:58,531
I would pretty much take
any means necessary.
786
00:35:59,323 --> 00:36:02,076
I had a job at the time
at the phone company
787
00:36:02,702 --> 00:36:06,122
as an editor and writer
for the employee magazine.
788
00:36:06,205 --> 00:36:08,207
Could not be a straighter job.
789
00:36:08,291 --> 00:36:11,502
I met Jann and got my first
feature assignment,
790
00:36:11,586 --> 00:36:14,463
and that was an interview
with Dino Valenti,
791
00:36:15,006 --> 00:36:17,175
who was a singer/songwriter.
792
00:36:17,258 --> 00:36:21,554
Wrote what became known
as a hippie anthem. "Get Together."
793
00:36:21,637 --> 00:36:23,639
♪ Whoa, people now ♪
794
00:36:23,723 --> 00:36:27,059
♪ And get together
Well, smile on your brother ♪
795
00:36:27,143 --> 00:36:30,104
♪ Try and love one another
Right now ♪
796
00:36:30,855 --> 00:36:33,357
[Perry] I started at Rolling Stone
as a proofreader.
797
00:36:33,774 --> 00:36:38,321
I was the earliest editorial employee
to last more than a couple of weeks.
798
00:36:38,404 --> 00:36:41,199
I had no qualifications whatever.
I was just a freak off the street.
799
00:36:41,282 --> 00:36:43,618
I saw all the copy
and I remember thinking,
800
00:36:43,701 --> 00:36:46,245
"Ben Fong-Torres,
this guy is a real writer."
801
00:36:46,329 --> 00:36:49,582
I mean, we were dealing with whatever kind
of flakes off the street
802
00:36:49,665 --> 00:36:51,834
wanted to write about rock and roll.
803
00:36:51,918 --> 00:36:56,255
And Ben was a serious journalist,
and he was he was a skilled writer, too.
804
00:36:56,339 --> 00:36:59,884
I was encouraging Jann, like,
"We gotta get this guy," you know.
805
00:37:00,593 --> 00:37:03,387
[Weir] When he was first
starting out with Rolling Stone,
806
00:37:03,471 --> 00:37:05,306
we were the punk of our generation.
807
00:37:05,389 --> 00:37:06,724
And we hung together.
808
00:37:06,807 --> 00:37:09,518
And so if Ben was writing something,
809
00:37:09,602 --> 00:37:11,687
I was inclined to go with it
810
00:37:11,771 --> 00:37:14,941
just because he was coming from
where we were coming from.
811
00:37:15,024 --> 00:37:18,402
I was such a music nerd,
because I loved the radio.
812
00:37:18,486 --> 00:37:20,029
I listen to Top 40 religiously.
813
00:37:20,112 --> 00:37:22,406
I collected surveys.
814
00:37:22,490 --> 00:37:25,618
The top 40 or top 30 of every week.
815
00:37:25,701 --> 00:37:29,413
And so it got to the point
where a song comes on the radio,
816
00:37:29,497 --> 00:37:31,749
I can remember the color of the label.
817
00:37:31,832 --> 00:37:34,168
Roulette is red,
Motown is purple and gold,
818
00:37:34,252 --> 00:37:36,128
Columbia is bright orange.
819
00:37:36,212 --> 00:37:39,382
To have that kind of knowledge
instead of useful knowledge,
820
00:37:39,465 --> 00:37:41,008
that is pretty scary.
821
00:37:41,092 --> 00:37:44,387
That probably appealed to Jann,
that he has someone who
822
00:37:44,470 --> 00:37:47,098
was a walking encyclopedia of music.
823
00:37:47,181 --> 00:37:48,224
And he offered me a job.
824
00:37:48,724 --> 00:37:51,435
So it was a choice of Rolling Stone
versus a phone company.
825
00:37:51,936 --> 00:37:53,980
Duh! So I just jumped.
826
00:37:54,063 --> 00:37:55,773
[rock music]
827
00:37:59,193 --> 00:38:02,113
It wasn't even a magazine then.
It was like a two-color newspaper.
828
00:38:02,196 --> 00:38:06,242
Quarter folded, it was totally different
from any publication out there.
829
00:38:06,325 --> 00:38:08,995
It was just what we had been dreaming of.
830
00:38:09,078 --> 00:38:12,581
I had to go to Goodwill Industries
and buy a desk and a chair.
831
00:38:12,665 --> 00:38:16,711
It was just such a rush to see your name,
your byline,
832
00:38:16,794 --> 00:38:19,547
to see how the pages were laid out,
the photography.
833
00:38:19,630 --> 00:38:21,966
Jann had high standards
from the very beginning
834
00:38:22,633 --> 00:38:25,886
with very little funding,
and he just went to the limits
835
00:38:25,970 --> 00:38:29,265
of his own ability to create Rolling Stone
836
00:38:29,348 --> 00:38:31,559
and to be given a chance
to join the crew there.
837
00:38:31,642 --> 00:38:34,395
It was out of this world,
and it wasn't even Rolling Stone yet.
838
00:38:34,478 --> 00:38:36,188
But it was Rolling Stone enough for me.
839
00:38:36,731 --> 00:38:38,774
If you were a reader of Rolling Stone,
840
00:38:38,858 --> 00:38:41,068
you knew pretty much what the magazine
was all about
841
00:38:41,152 --> 00:38:43,487
from the opening editorial in Issue One.
842
00:38:43,571 --> 00:38:46,032
[Felton] Jann didn't talk about music.
He talked about bullshit.
843
00:38:46,115 --> 00:38:48,075
You know, they talk about
telling the truth.
844
00:38:48,159 --> 00:38:52,163
And people who are part of a new movement
think they're telling the truth.
845
00:38:52,246 --> 00:38:55,166
And they are. They're telling a truth
that hasn't been told before.
846
00:38:55,249 --> 00:38:57,543
And you find that in Dylan's songs.
847
00:38:57,626 --> 00:38:59,962
"You don't know what's happening,
do you, Mr. Jones?"
848
00:39:00,046 --> 00:39:02,423
There was a sense that we knew
what was happening,
849
00:39:02,506 --> 00:39:04,133
and the rest of you didn't get it.
850
00:39:04,216 --> 00:39:06,677
Look at the audience that subscribe
to Time Magazine.
851
00:39:06,761 --> 00:39:09,347
It's a class of people
that take the magazine seriously.
852
00:39:09,430 --> 00:39:10,765
But I don't take it seriously.
853
00:39:10,848 --> 00:39:13,559
If I want to find out anything,
I'm not going to read Time Magazine.
854
00:39:13,642 --> 00:39:15,686
[Wenner] We had a core commitment
to good journalism,
855
00:39:15,770 --> 00:39:17,605
honesty and reporting, telling the truth.
856
00:39:17,688 --> 00:39:19,940
But if we had to say something
was bad music,
857
00:39:20,024 --> 00:39:21,359
we said something that was bad.
858
00:39:21,442 --> 00:39:24,945
[Wolman] Rolling Stone was a very strong
voice in the music community.
859
00:39:25,029 --> 00:39:28,449
Rolling Stone also had a very strong
political voice,
860
00:39:28,532 --> 00:39:30,785
and you couldn't separate those
in those days,
861
00:39:30,868 --> 00:39:35,039
really, because the politics were--
and the music were both changing,
862
00:39:35,122 --> 00:39:36,957
and really intertwined very much.
863
00:39:37,041 --> 00:39:39,043
[screams]
864
00:39:39,126 --> 00:39:42,713
♪ You say you want a revolution ♪
865
00:39:42,797 --> 00:39:44,965
♪ Well, you know ♪
866
00:39:45,049 --> 00:39:47,593
[Mackay] Just like the music
of the Beatles, the Stones,
867
00:39:47,676 --> 00:39:49,804
and Dylan spoke for our generation,
868
00:39:49,887 --> 00:39:53,599
well, we had to have a newspaper
that chronicled what we were doing,
869
00:39:53,682 --> 00:39:55,267
and that was Rolling Stone.
870
00:39:55,351 --> 00:39:56,727
Ben personified it.
871
00:39:57,269 --> 00:39:59,814
[Felton] We were covering the revolution,
the Free Speech Movement,
872
00:39:59,897 --> 00:40:02,650
the Civil Rights Movement,
sexual liberation,
873
00:40:02,733 --> 00:40:04,235
and, finally, the liberation of music.
874
00:40:05,945 --> 00:40:07,863
And Ben was covering the music,
875
00:40:07,947 --> 00:40:10,241
so he was really at the center
of everything.
876
00:40:13,702 --> 00:40:16,831
[Wenner] We were in it, we were close
to it, we were in the thick of it.
877
00:40:16,914 --> 00:40:20,501
And we felt the impulse in the beginning
that we are on some kind of mission,
878
00:40:20,584 --> 00:40:24,422
or some kind of crusade,
and to tell the truth about the music,
879
00:40:24,505 --> 00:40:25,631
and about the generation,
880
00:40:25,714 --> 00:40:28,551
and the people doing that
were really young.
881
00:40:28,634 --> 00:40:30,136
Not with a lot of experience.
882
00:40:30,219 --> 00:40:31,929
[Perry]
What happened in 1970
883
00:40:32,012 --> 00:40:35,015
was that we were really
knocking ourselves out,
884
00:40:35,099 --> 00:40:36,267
putting out this publication.
885
00:40:36,350 --> 00:40:39,061
[Gonsalves] We'd be spending money
and hiring people.
886
00:40:39,145 --> 00:40:41,105
Then they'd have to retract.
887
00:40:41,188 --> 00:40:44,817
It was like saving paper clips
and, you know, that sort of thing.
888
00:40:44,900 --> 00:40:46,819
And he would pass out egg timers
889
00:40:46,902 --> 00:40:49,196
so you wouldn't have a phone call
longer than three minutes.
890
00:40:49,822 --> 00:40:52,575
A journalist doing an interview
in three minutes?
891
00:40:52,658 --> 00:40:56,954
On top of all the work, from time to time,
there would be these financial crises
892
00:40:57,037 --> 00:40:59,623
that we would have to deal with,
and people would be laid off,
893
00:40:59,707 --> 00:41:00,916
or there'd be the threat of it.
894
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,378
[Fong-Torres] Laurel Gonsalves and I,
Laurel was in charge of advertising.
895
00:41:04,462 --> 00:41:05,588
I was in charge of music.
896
00:41:05,671 --> 00:41:10,634
We talked about it in the hallway,
and then said, "Okay, let's do that."
897
00:41:10,718 --> 00:41:13,846
And we went into the Jann's office
and volunteered for pay cuts.
898
00:41:13,929 --> 00:41:15,556
And he accepted them.
899
00:41:15,639 --> 00:41:16,640
[laughs]
900
00:41:16,724 --> 00:41:17,892
Dumb us.
901
00:41:26,484 --> 00:41:28,027
Hmm. Wow.
902
00:41:29,403 --> 00:41:31,155
[Kai]
So you haven't been here in years.
903
00:41:31,238 --> 00:41:33,491
Yeah. It's been quite a few years,
actually.
904
00:41:33,991 --> 00:41:35,910
Well, 50. But who's counting?
905
00:41:37,369 --> 00:41:41,040
I think I can see where
Jann's office was.
906
00:41:44,210 --> 00:41:45,044
Maybe here?
907
00:41:46,128 --> 00:41:47,421
[Kai]
Well, I have a photo.
908
00:41:49,173 --> 00:41:51,175
-Do you want to--?
-Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty close.
909
00:41:52,718 --> 00:41:54,261
Yeah. This is it.
910
00:41:56,305 --> 00:41:58,307
It's obviously a different space,
911
00:41:58,390 --> 00:42:02,520
and yet so much of it
is what we came to work at.
912
00:42:02,603 --> 00:42:04,563
It seems like a lot longer now.
913
00:42:04,647 --> 00:42:06,941
No, it's just ridiculous to be here again.
914
00:42:07,024 --> 00:42:08,067
Wow.
915
00:42:08,150 --> 00:42:11,529
It really is a flashback
to half a century ago.
916
00:42:11,612 --> 00:42:15,449
Half a century since working here.
And what a different time it was.
917
00:42:16,951 --> 00:42:19,537
At Rolling Stone,
what are the people really like?
918
00:42:19,620 --> 00:42:21,580
You've been taping them
for two weeks now, Al.
919
00:42:21,664 --> 00:42:23,457
What's the big story there?
920
00:42:23,541 --> 00:42:25,960
It's real sick, Mick.
It's real sick up there.
921
00:42:26,043 --> 00:42:27,628
It's serious business.
922
00:42:27,711 --> 00:42:28,796
[Kingsbury]
It was stressful.
923
00:42:29,547 --> 00:42:32,258
I think it's probably the most stressful
period of my life.
924
00:42:33,008 --> 00:42:35,135
That constant pressure.
925
00:42:35,970 --> 00:42:38,472
And something has to be done
to correct that, and do that,
926
00:42:38,556 --> 00:42:39,682
and do that, and do this.
927
00:42:39,765 --> 00:42:45,229
[Perry] After the big staff fight,
we went down to a bare bones operation.
928
00:42:45,312 --> 00:42:48,816
The only editors left
were me and Ben and Jann.
929
00:42:48,899 --> 00:42:51,151
People had no idea how small we were.
930
00:42:51,235 --> 00:42:54,029
It was just this little tiny
handful of guys,
931
00:42:54,113 --> 00:42:55,364
and we were doing everything.
932
00:42:55,447 --> 00:42:58,158
That was when we really
had to rely on Ben.
933
00:42:58,242 --> 00:43:01,161
[George-Warren] Ben has a real way
about him of rallying the troops.
934
00:43:01,245 --> 00:43:03,998
You know, in the early days,
small staff and having to get out
935
00:43:04,081 --> 00:43:07,543
these major, major stories
on insane deadlines,
936
00:43:07,626 --> 00:43:09,712
doing the work of three people yourself.
937
00:43:10,588 --> 00:43:13,716
[Jones] I used to spend a lot of time
out in Oakland with Ralph Gleason
938
00:43:13,799 --> 00:43:17,303
at the infancy stage of Rolling Stone,
939
00:43:17,386 --> 00:43:20,264
and that's all I ever heard,
was Ben Fong-Torres.
940
00:43:21,265 --> 00:43:26,562
Ben is what I admire the most, you know.
He is a 360-degree person.
941
00:43:26,645 --> 00:43:29,273
That's what I like, because he's got,
without question,
942
00:43:29,356 --> 00:43:30,608
the intellectual, you know.
943
00:43:30,691 --> 00:43:32,443
But he can get ghetto
in the New York minute.
944
00:43:32,526 --> 00:43:33,485
[laughs]
945
00:43:33,569 --> 00:43:34,862
And he gets it quick.
946
00:43:35,613 --> 00:43:38,365
And that was where we confounded
everybody's expectations.
947
00:43:38,449 --> 00:43:42,119
Everybody thought Rolling Stone
was doomed, but in fact, it rebounded
948
00:43:42,202 --> 00:43:43,912
and became bigger and more successful.
949
00:43:43,996 --> 00:43:46,332
The music coverage,
that's what made us survive.
950
00:43:46,832 --> 00:43:51,337
And, of course, that was Ben's gig.
He really was our music maestro.
951
00:43:55,299 --> 00:43:56,216
[Ray] First of all,
952
00:43:56,300 --> 00:43:57,885
in order for that guy to copy me,
953
00:43:57,968 --> 00:43:59,595
he gotta wait 'til I do it first.
954
00:43:59,678 --> 00:44:01,096
[Jim] When you're first starting out, you…
955
00:44:01,180 --> 00:44:03,515
[Jim] you can't just sign up for a couple
of records.
956
00:44:03,599 --> 00:44:06,852
[Marvin] I'm concerned about
what the audience is hearing, you know?
957
00:44:06,935 --> 00:44:09,938
Although they never hear
these little misses and goofs and things.
958
00:44:10,022 --> 00:44:11,273
Linda Ronstadt.
959
00:44:13,275 --> 00:44:15,194
[Perry]
It was kind of like lightning in a bottle.
960
00:44:15,277 --> 00:44:18,781
It was just an unexpected thing that
really resonated with a lot of people,
961
00:44:18,864 --> 00:44:21,742
and it just drew writers like magic.
962
00:44:22,493 --> 00:44:24,495
You know, everybody wanted
to write at Rolling Stone.
963
00:44:24,578 --> 00:44:26,789
Ben, in a lot of ways,
is sort of the lodestar.
964
00:44:26,872 --> 00:44:28,832
Kind of like the guiding light
kind of a thing,
965
00:44:28,916 --> 00:44:33,212
because he could write these long profiles
on people that really delivered.
966
00:44:33,295 --> 00:44:35,923
A lot of the people on our staff
had never done it before at all.
967
00:44:36,006 --> 00:44:38,008
They didn't know the right
or the wrong way to do it.
968
00:44:38,092 --> 00:44:40,219
[Mackay]
When I was 22 or 23,
969
00:44:40,302 --> 00:44:41,387
Ben gave me assignments,
970
00:44:41,470 --> 00:44:44,181
and eventually they were published
in Rolling Stone.
971
00:44:44,264 --> 00:44:49,019
So Ben believed in me enough,
and that helped me believe in myself.
972
00:44:49,853 --> 00:44:51,647
[Peck]
He would take a manuscript, you know,
973
00:44:51,730 --> 00:44:53,232
to show people how to do a better job.
974
00:44:53,315 --> 00:44:55,025
[Burks]
Some of the longer pieces we would do
975
00:44:55,109 --> 00:44:56,902
became the model
for the other people to…
976
00:44:57,695 --> 00:45:00,239
This is what a Rolling Stone
major piece looks like.
977
00:45:00,739 --> 00:45:01,907
Ben showed us how to do that.
978
00:45:03,659 --> 00:45:06,704
♪ I've been put down ♪
979
00:45:07,496 --> 00:45:10,332
♪ I've been pushed around ♪
980
00:45:11,041 --> 00:45:14,795
♪ When will I be loved? ♪
981
00:45:15,337 --> 00:45:17,089
[Ben] You ever allowed yourself
to get to the point
982
00:45:17,172 --> 00:45:19,633
where you say, "I'm just not gonna
fall in love for a while?"
983
00:45:20,134 --> 00:45:21,885
[Linda] Oh, I've said that
plenty of times.
984
00:45:22,636 --> 00:45:23,971
It never works.
985
00:45:24,722 --> 00:45:27,182
[George-Warren] Ben taught me so much
about being a biographer
986
00:45:27,266 --> 00:45:31,520
and how hard you have to work, really,
as a detective during the research phase
987
00:45:31,603 --> 00:45:36,275
to try to talk to as many people
as possible who knew your subject.
988
00:45:37,109 --> 00:45:40,696
He taught me about persistence,
and how even if you've done, you know,
989
00:45:40,779 --> 00:45:41,780
90 interviews,
990
00:45:41,864 --> 00:45:44,700
if you still can get that one more
interview with someone
991
00:45:44,783 --> 00:45:46,910
that you think can really bring
a unique perspective,
992
00:45:46,994 --> 00:45:48,704
don't give up, keep going for it.
993
00:45:49,329 --> 00:45:53,208
Ben was always very thoughtful,
and very professional, and very focused,
994
00:45:53,292 --> 00:45:57,504
and very fatherly,
and almost paternal, in a way.
995
00:45:58,213 --> 00:46:02,050
Ben had a very low threshold
for any kind of unprofessionalism,
996
00:46:02,134 --> 00:46:04,470
incompetence, inefficiency.
997
00:46:04,553 --> 00:46:06,180
That was unacceptable.
998
00:46:06,263 --> 00:46:09,850
There weren't that many women
doing what I was doing as a writer,
999
00:46:09,933 --> 00:46:12,060
a wannabe biographer at the time.
1000
00:46:12,144 --> 00:46:15,355
But his encouragement to me kept me going
1001
00:46:15,439 --> 00:46:18,275
when sometimes I really felt like
I was going up against a brick wall.
1002
00:46:18,358 --> 00:46:20,152
Ben introduced me to Bob Dylan.
1003
00:46:20,235 --> 00:46:24,740
You can't underestimate
the the kind of support and friendship
1004
00:46:24,823 --> 00:46:27,618
that you get from people
when you're just starting out.
1005
00:46:27,701 --> 00:46:29,578
It was extremely important.
1006
00:46:32,539 --> 00:46:33,457
Now…
1007
00:46:33,540 --> 00:46:35,000
[Wenner]
Ben was a core member
1008
00:46:35,083 --> 00:46:37,211
of the three or four people
who made all decisions
1009
00:46:37,294 --> 00:46:39,922
about what was going to go in the magazine
and not going to magazine.
1010
00:46:40,005 --> 00:46:43,175
Not only did he and I and three or two
other people share the decision,
1011
00:46:43,258 --> 00:46:45,594
we shared the responsibility
for writing as well.
1012
00:46:46,178 --> 00:46:47,513
[Perry]
Ben was a double threat.
1013
00:46:47,596 --> 00:46:50,140
The people in the outside world
had no way of realizing that,
1014
00:46:50,224 --> 00:46:52,309
because an editor is an editor,
1015
00:46:52,392 --> 00:46:54,895
and he's kind of the behind-the-scenes
sort of guy.
1016
00:46:54,978 --> 00:46:57,940
But Ben was molding and shaping
all the music coverage
1017
00:46:58,023 --> 00:47:00,692
and making Rolling Stone what it was:
1018
00:47:00,776 --> 00:47:03,737
the premium rock and roll magazine
in the country.
1019
00:47:03,821 --> 00:47:05,823
[Bowman]
Although I don't think he knew it,
1020
00:47:05,906 --> 00:47:08,075
he was certainly the focus
of the magazine.
1021
00:47:08,158 --> 00:47:11,161
Jann was the boss,
but Ben was the heart and the soul of it.
1022
00:47:12,162 --> 00:47:14,414
[Glionna] Whenever a story
would come out in Rolling Stone,
1023
00:47:14,498 --> 00:47:17,084
I don't care who it was about,
I would read it because Ben wrote it.
1024
00:47:17,167 --> 00:47:19,837
They weren't fluff interviews.
They were they were tough interviews.
1025
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:23,048
It could have only been Ben Fong-Torres
ho could have written that story.
1026
00:47:23,131 --> 00:47:25,217
I have a list of stuff to ask you about.
Marvin Gaye--
1027
00:47:25,300 --> 00:47:27,219
-All right.
-We know this is a great
1028
00:47:27,302 --> 00:47:30,889
kind of gift, when you get an assignment
where you're seeing the person
1029
00:47:30,973 --> 00:47:34,017
at a key point in their life,
and they haven't done a lot of interviews
1030
00:47:34,101 --> 00:47:35,811
and so it just comes tumbling out.
1031
00:47:35,894 --> 00:47:37,813
-Yes.
-And Marvin really gave you
1032
00:47:37,896 --> 00:47:40,190
an amazing interview,
one of his very best interviews
1033
00:47:40,274 --> 00:47:42,109
Right. You're sitting there saying,
1034
00:47:42,192 --> 00:47:47,614
"Well, what a tremendous piece of work
you came up with with 'What's Going On.'"
1035
00:47:47,698 --> 00:47:50,534
It's just a masterpiece.
Your fans are saying it.
1036
00:47:50,617 --> 00:47:53,287
Your critics are saying it.
Your fellow musicians are saying it.
1037
00:47:54,162 --> 00:47:55,998
♪ Talk to me, honey ♪
1038
00:47:56,081 --> 00:47:58,166
[Ben] And then the--the lyrical content,
you're covering ecology
1039
00:47:58,250 --> 00:47:59,710
you're covering your own
sense of religion,
1040
00:47:59,793 --> 00:48:01,336
you're covering, uh,
Saving the Children,
1041
00:48:01,420 --> 00:48:03,297
and, um, and simply talking
1042
00:48:03,380 --> 00:48:05,549
to brothers and--and returning from war.
1043
00:48:05,632 --> 00:48:06,967
Did all of this
1044
00:48:07,050 --> 00:48:08,260
seem to flow together,
1045
00:48:08,343 --> 00:48:10,846
or did you have these particular
tunes in your mind, or
1046
00:48:11,346 --> 00:48:13,056
particular subjects, or, or, uh…
1047
00:48:13,682 --> 00:48:15,350
was that conceived also, as you said.
1048
00:48:16,018 --> 00:48:17,853
[Marvin] Well…um…
1049
00:48:18,687 --> 00:48:21,023
Well, what you're trying to find out,
I imagine, is, uh,
1050
00:48:21,106 --> 00:48:23,191
am I really a genius or a fake?
1051
00:48:23,609 --> 00:48:25,444
-[Ben] Oh, no!
-[Marvin] And I think I'm a fake.
1052
00:48:25,527 --> 00:48:26,361
[laughs]
1053
00:48:26,445 --> 00:48:27,988
[Annie] That's already been established.
1054
00:48:28,071 --> 00:48:29,823
[Ben] I don't think that-- the concept
1055
00:48:29,907 --> 00:48:32,200
has to do with genius
or--or--or fakery or--
1056
00:48:32,284 --> 00:48:33,911
[Marvin] No. What--what it is--
But a lot of people
1057
00:48:33,994 --> 00:48:35,037
ask me that same question.
1058
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:36,580
Will say, "Listen, tell me this,
1059
00:48:36,663 --> 00:48:38,999
How did you put that damn album together?"
1060
00:48:39,082 --> 00:48:40,167
-You know, I--
-[Ben] Mm-hmm.
1061
00:48:40,250 --> 00:48:42,711
[Marvin] a nut like you.
I mean, really explain that.
1062
00:48:43,837 --> 00:48:44,922
And I tell 'em.
1063
00:48:45,005 --> 00:48:46,465
I listen to 'em,
and it kinda bugs me
1064
00:48:46,548 --> 00:48:47,466
a little bit sometimes.
1065
00:48:47,549 --> 00:48:49,593
And then I'd say, "Well, I dunno.
I just-- It just happened."
1066
00:48:49,676 --> 00:48:50,719
And it really did.
1067
00:48:51,178 --> 00:48:52,304
It happened through divinity.
1068
00:48:52,387 --> 00:48:56,016
For a moment there,
I think the enormity of the success
1069
00:48:56,099 --> 00:48:59,978
and what he expected
to be the expectations of him
1070
00:49:00,062 --> 00:49:02,773
had him in a stir.
1071
00:49:02,856 --> 00:49:05,943
He was already worried
that it wasn't for real.
1072
00:49:06,026 --> 00:49:07,945
I want to be liked so well,
1073
00:49:08,028 --> 00:49:10,197
and I've got such
a tremendous ego until--
1074
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:11,531
if it's inflated--
1075
00:49:11,615 --> 00:49:13,367
I mean deflated or
1076
00:49:13,450 --> 00:49:15,452
punctured or hurt at all.
1077
00:49:15,535 --> 00:49:17,037
-[Ben] Mm-hmm.
-[Marvin] I'll withdraw
1078
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:19,039
-[Ben] Mm-hmm.
-[Marvin] Into my own little thing,
1079
00:49:19,122 --> 00:49:21,625
and that's what's--
probably basically what's happened to me.
1080
00:49:21,708 --> 00:49:23,335
-[Ben] Mm-hmm.
-[Marvin] And I'll fight
1081
00:49:23,418 --> 00:49:24,628
from inside my shell.
1082
00:49:25,629 --> 00:49:30,258
So he took little enough credit that
he was uncertain about what might be next.
1083
00:49:30,342 --> 00:49:31,593
-Wow.
-As it turned out,
1084
00:49:31,677 --> 00:49:33,512
given time, he came up with--
1085
00:49:33,595 --> 00:49:35,514
-"Let's Get It On."
-Yeah. "Let's Get It On."
1086
00:49:35,597 --> 00:49:37,349
-And "Here, My Dear."
-"Sexual Healing."
1087
00:49:37,432 --> 00:49:38,600
And all of that stuff.
1088
00:49:38,684 --> 00:49:41,728
♪ Sexual healing is something ♪
1089
00:49:41,812 --> 00:49:43,981
♪ That's good for me ♪
1090
00:49:44,064 --> 00:49:47,067
[Felton] Ben was probably as famous
as some of the people he was interviewing.
1091
00:49:47,150 --> 00:49:47,985
[camera whirs]
1092
00:49:48,068 --> 00:49:50,320
Here we have a picture of Ben.
1093
00:49:50,404 --> 00:49:51,405
He had a certain stature.
1094
00:49:51,488 --> 00:49:55,075
Plus, he represented Rolling Stone,
so people wanted to cooperate with him.
1095
00:49:55,158 --> 00:49:58,453
Musicians saw him as a celebrity,
whether he knows that or not.
1096
00:49:58,537 --> 00:50:01,790
When I would call and say "This is Cynthia
from Rolling Stone magazine."
1097
00:50:01,873 --> 00:50:03,750
"We want to talk to the Grateful Dead."
1098
00:50:03,834 --> 00:50:07,546
"Well, is it going to be Ben Fong-Torres
that's going to be doing the interview?"
1099
00:50:07,629 --> 00:50:10,757
"Because if it's not Ben, you know,
we're not going to do it."
1100
00:50:10,841 --> 00:50:12,467
The Airplane, The Grateful Dead,
1101
00:50:12,551 --> 00:50:14,803
absolutely would not talk
to anybody but Ben.
1102
00:50:14,886 --> 00:50:16,638
[Weir]
We were all peas in a pod.
1103
00:50:16,722 --> 00:50:19,599
We were issuing forth and sallying forth
into the world.
1104
00:50:19,683 --> 00:50:22,185
[Bowman]
He knew them all. They all liked him.
1105
00:50:22,269 --> 00:50:27,315
So Ben was more like one of them
than a journalist
1106
00:50:27,399 --> 00:50:29,109
they weren't really interested
in talking to.
1107
00:50:29,192 --> 00:50:32,446
He was more like a human being
that dug the music,
1108
00:50:32,529 --> 00:50:36,616
and that's what gave us the access
that we needed
1109
00:50:36,700 --> 00:50:38,869
to make that magazine what it was.
1110
00:50:38,952 --> 00:50:43,457
Ben seems to have a pretty good handle
on all kinds of music.
1111
00:50:43,540 --> 00:50:47,002
And if he trashed us,
I felt we probably had it coming.
1112
00:50:47,085 --> 00:50:50,213
I thought that Ben was the publicist's
biggest nightmare.
1113
00:50:50,297 --> 00:50:54,384
We were getting interviewed for our big
cover of Rolling Stone article
1114
00:50:54,468 --> 00:50:56,053
when I was playing in Jefferson Starship.
1115
00:50:56,136 --> 00:50:58,180
And he interviewed everybody
and listened to it,
1116
00:50:58,263 --> 00:50:59,389
and then just told the truth.
1117
00:50:59,473 --> 00:51:01,433
But there we were
on the cover of Rolling Stone.
1118
00:51:01,516 --> 00:51:03,727
But it was said "Starship Wars."
1119
00:51:03,810 --> 00:51:04,644
[laughs]
1120
00:51:04,728 --> 00:51:07,189
He told all the inner conflicts
that were happening.
1121
00:51:07,272 --> 00:51:10,525
Of course, it was just nothing
but good journalism, you know.
1122
00:51:10,609 --> 00:51:11,610
[laughs]
1123
00:51:11,693 --> 00:51:17,449
So, yeah, it didn't bother me,
but it probably bothered our publicist.
1124
00:51:17,532 --> 00:51:19,534
[Wardell]
Upper record company management
1125
00:51:19,618 --> 00:51:23,121
knew the M.O.
of going in to Rolling Stone.
1126
00:51:23,205 --> 00:51:26,291
This was a very prestigious
national magazine.
1127
00:51:27,876 --> 00:51:31,254
So to get on the cover meant the world
to the artist,
1128
00:51:31,338 --> 00:51:35,592
and it meant the world
to program directors across the country.
1129
00:51:35,675 --> 00:51:40,514
And it just opened up doors,
and all of a sudden he is on a skyrocket.
1130
00:51:40,597 --> 00:51:44,267
He's a spaceman on the way to the moon.
1131
00:51:44,351 --> 00:51:46,728
[reporter] Do record companies
put pressure on you in any way?
1132
00:51:46,812 --> 00:51:49,606
-Yeah, they try.
-[interviewer] How do they try?
1133
00:51:49,689 --> 00:51:51,399
Oh, just letters.
1134
00:51:51,483 --> 00:51:57,155
Letters and offers
of extravagant expenses.
1135
00:51:57,239 --> 00:51:59,991
We'll fly you to New York
to see this group,
1136
00:52:00,075 --> 00:52:02,035
or down south, or whatever.
1137
00:52:02,536 --> 00:52:06,331
There's just no way
that I can respond to that by saying,
1138
00:52:06,414 --> 00:52:08,458
you know, "I'm-- I'll do the best I can."
1139
00:52:08,542 --> 00:52:09,960
That's just not the way it's done.
1140
00:52:10,043 --> 00:52:12,337
[Wardell]
All of the record label executives,
1141
00:52:12,420 --> 00:52:16,258
they were happy if we, you know,
did two out of 12.
1142
00:52:16,341 --> 00:52:17,467
If we're lucky.
1143
00:52:18,093 --> 00:52:21,388
But he was not afraid to tell me
that he didn't like the record.
1144
00:52:21,471 --> 00:52:24,891
Ben was pretty straightforward
about his feelings about music,
1145
00:52:24,975 --> 00:52:27,018
and I couldn't mess with his opinions.
1146
00:52:27,102 --> 00:52:28,770
Ben Fong-Torres had ethics.
1147
00:52:28,854 --> 00:52:30,397
♪ What I feel ♪
1148
00:52:32,357 --> 00:52:34,109
♪ I can't say ♪
1149
00:52:34,651 --> 00:52:35,735
♪ I can't say ♪
1150
00:52:35,819 --> 00:52:39,781
[Fong-Torres] The most memorable
critical response to one of my stories
1151
00:52:39,865 --> 00:52:41,324
has to be George Harrison.
1152
00:52:42,909 --> 00:52:45,620
[Ben] You understand your feelings about
what you want to present
1153
00:52:45,704 --> 00:52:47,164
and being yourself.
1154
00:52:48,165 --> 00:52:49,791
And what you are now. It's just that there
1155
00:52:49,875 --> 00:52:51,793
there have been this talk
have been the criticism.
1156
00:52:51,877 --> 00:52:53,128
[George] You know I didn't force
1157
00:52:53,211 --> 00:52:54,921
you or anybody with
1158
00:52:55,005 --> 00:52:57,215
at gunpoint to come to see me.
1159
00:52:57,299 --> 00:53:01,011
He put himself into a difficult situation,
1160
00:53:01,094 --> 00:53:04,848
starting a tour, not feeling well,
sore throat, over-rehearsed,
1161
00:53:04,931 --> 00:53:09,060
adamant that he was no longer a Beatle
and therefore wouldn't do Beatles songs.
1162
00:53:09,144 --> 00:53:11,730
And if he did a couple of Beatles songs,
he'd change them around.
1163
00:53:11,813 --> 00:53:16,943
A lot of the fans who still were wedded
to their Beatles memories
1164
00:53:17,027 --> 00:53:19,279
would show up and be kind of disappointed.
1165
00:53:19,362 --> 00:53:20,989
He got a lot of criticism.
1166
00:53:21,072 --> 00:53:25,577
I reflected that criticism, and therefore
got lambasted with criticism
1167
00:53:25,660 --> 00:53:29,289
for daring to be so negative about George.
1168
00:53:29,372 --> 00:53:30,707
Well, it wasn't me being negative.
1169
00:53:30,790 --> 00:53:33,460
I was there to chronicle the negativity.
1170
00:53:33,543 --> 00:53:34,377
[laughs]
1171
00:53:34,461 --> 00:53:35,420
That's what I was doing.
1172
00:53:35,503 --> 00:53:37,339
[upbeat music]
1173
00:53:41,384 --> 00:53:43,637
People talk about how romantic
it must have been,
1174
00:53:43,720 --> 00:53:46,681
how fun it must have been,
how wild it must have been.
1175
00:53:46,765 --> 00:53:49,434
Well, all of that was true
to a certain extent.
1176
00:53:51,186 --> 00:53:54,814
There was a lot of bonding,
and after work there was a lot
1177
00:53:54,898 --> 00:53:57,943
of going across the street to Jerry's
and having a drink,
1178
00:53:58,026 --> 00:54:00,403
or later on going out
to a concert together,
1179
00:54:00,487 --> 00:54:03,198
or meeting up at one of our homes
and having a party.
1180
00:54:03,281 --> 00:54:05,283
[Perry]
We tested drug paraphernalia
1181
00:54:05,367 --> 00:54:08,453
under the collective editorial name
Unwired Labs Limited.
1182
00:54:08,536 --> 00:54:11,790
[Felton] We used to do this,
I think, Unwired Laboratories,
1183
00:54:11,873 --> 00:54:14,334
where people would send in all kinds
of paraphernalia, you know.
1184
00:54:14,417 --> 00:54:16,419
Bongs and roach holders.
1185
00:54:16,503 --> 00:54:20,882
And then we would take an evening off
at probably Jann's house and test it all.
1186
00:54:20,966 --> 00:54:23,218
And Ben was there.
So we were all testing that stuff.
1187
00:54:23,301 --> 00:54:25,053
So nobody was really straight.
1188
00:54:25,136 --> 00:54:26,805
Felton is full of bullshit.
1189
00:54:26,888 --> 00:54:30,809
Drugs was not Ben's thing.
1190
00:54:31,393 --> 00:54:34,688
Just not--and not part of the drug culture
that existed in that office,
1191
00:54:34,771 --> 00:54:40,235
But didn't in any way feel like a stranger
to that, or look down on it, or,
1192
00:54:40,318 --> 00:54:41,861
you know, felt any divide, just…
1193
00:54:42,696 --> 00:54:45,323
I don't do it, but I'm as cool
as everybody else, you know?
1194
00:54:45,407 --> 00:54:49,202
And so it was not 24/7,
1195
00:54:49,286 --> 00:54:53,373
but lots of friendships grew
within the Rolling Stone staff.
1196
00:54:53,456 --> 00:54:55,458
[dramatic music]
1197
00:54:59,546 --> 00:55:01,589
[no audio]
1198
00:55:04,634 --> 00:55:08,096
Annie Leibovitz began right out
of the Art Institute in San Francisco
1199
00:55:08,179 --> 00:55:11,516
studying photography,
and got a gig with Rolling Stone.
1200
00:55:11,599 --> 00:55:14,728
And then I began to work with her
on the road and elsewhere.
1201
00:55:16,855 --> 00:55:18,440
-Hi. Hi, this is Ben.
-Hello.
1202
00:55:18,523 --> 00:55:19,774
-Hi. Paula.
-Hi, Paula.
1203
00:55:19,858 --> 00:55:22,444
-Hi. Hi. Annie's sister.
-Yeah.
1204
00:55:22,527 --> 00:55:24,279
-Hi.
-I will be Annie substitute.
1205
00:55:24,362 --> 00:55:26,114
-[Annie] Hi.
-She's over there.
1206
00:55:26,197 --> 00:55:27,407
Hi. Look at you.
1207
00:55:27,490 --> 00:55:29,367
-There is no substitute.
-[laughs]
1208
00:55:29,451 --> 00:55:31,286
I guess you got your makeup on.
1209
00:55:31,369 --> 00:55:32,746
[all laugh]
1210
00:55:32,829 --> 00:55:34,706
-I don't need it.
-Hey, you look very handsome.
1211
00:55:34,789 --> 00:55:38,168
We met around 1969, 1970.
1212
00:55:38,251 --> 00:55:40,545
-Mm-hmm.
-And we had
1213
00:55:40,628 --> 00:55:43,298
some of each other's best stories
together.
1214
00:55:44,007 --> 00:55:47,427
Right? Because your first cover story,
you have written in your books
1215
00:55:47,510 --> 00:55:49,512
was Grace and Paul.
1216
00:55:49,596 --> 00:55:50,555
[Annie]
Oh my God, yeah.
1217
00:55:50,638 --> 00:55:53,308
Every single one of those stories
was a big learning experience
1218
00:55:53,391 --> 00:55:57,437
for being a young kid and being out there,
and being with you guys.
1219
00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:00,148
You kind of like a season's experience.
1220
00:56:00,231 --> 00:56:01,608
-How old were you then?
-What? No.
1221
00:56:01,691 --> 00:56:04,027
-We were all young and faking it.
-That's not true.
1222
00:56:04,110 --> 00:56:05,236
[laughs]
1223
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:07,614
[Fong-Torres]
Because I did a lot of the profiles
1224
00:56:07,697 --> 00:56:10,033
of rock and R&B and other stars,
1225
00:56:10,116 --> 00:56:12,827
Annie Leibovitz was often assigned
to go with me.
1226
00:56:12,911 --> 00:56:14,204
She was 20 years old, I think,
1227
00:56:14,287 --> 00:56:16,790
And I wasn't much older,
but she was right in there with me.
1228
00:56:16,873 --> 00:56:19,084
And so she became a kind of a partner.
1229
00:56:19,167 --> 00:56:23,421
The Rolling Stones, and Roberta Flack,
and Ray Charles. I believe she shot.
1230
00:56:23,505 --> 00:56:28,259
Marvin Gaye. And it got to the point
where we were so comfortable,
1231
00:56:28,343 --> 00:56:29,886
I with her and she with me,
1232
00:56:29,969 --> 00:56:33,056
that sometimes I would defer to her
for a question or two.
1233
00:56:33,640 --> 00:56:37,143
I think she just knew when to put herself
into the picture
1234
00:56:37,227 --> 00:56:41,731
and when to withdraw
and help the story along.
1235
00:56:41,815 --> 00:56:44,025
So she was much more
than just a photographer.
1236
00:56:44,109 --> 00:56:45,235
She was a participant.
1237
00:56:45,944 --> 00:56:48,696
One of my favorite that I did with you
was really Ike and Tina Turner.
1238
00:56:49,280 --> 00:56:52,700
[Fong-Torres] ] Someone once called Tina
the female Mick Jagger.
1239
00:56:52,784 --> 00:56:57,580
In fact, to be more accurate,
one should call Mick the male Tina Turner.
1240
00:56:57,664 --> 00:56:58,957
[Ben] Um…the Stones…
1241
00:56:59,040 --> 00:57:00,625
You toured with them in '66
1242
00:57:00,708 --> 00:57:01,835
as well as in '69.
1243
00:57:01,918 --> 00:57:03,002
How did that first one come about?
1244
00:57:03,086 --> 00:57:04,671
[Tina] Mick was a friend of Phil,
1245
00:57:04,754 --> 00:57:06,923
and during the time we cut
"River Deep, Mountain High,"
1246
00:57:07,006 --> 00:57:08,508
Mick caught our act
a couple of times--
1247
00:57:08,591 --> 00:57:10,927
And Mick wasn't dancing at the time.
He always said he liked
1248
00:57:11,010 --> 00:57:11,928
to see girls dance.
1249
00:57:12,011 --> 00:57:14,889
And then when he came to see our show
he was excited about, like, the show.
1250
00:57:14,973 --> 00:57:16,641
And I'd always see Mick in the wings.
1251
00:57:16,724 --> 00:57:18,143
And I'd wonder why he was always
standin' there.
1252
00:57:18,226 --> 00:57:19,644
I thought well wow,
he must really be a fan.
1253
00:57:19,727 --> 00:57:21,563
And then I'd come out and watch him
occasionally,
1254
00:57:21,646 --> 00:57:23,106
and I remember he was jus--
they were just playing music,
1255
00:57:23,189 --> 00:57:25,817
and Mick would be beatin' the--
just beat the tambourine
1256
00:57:25,900 --> 00:57:27,110
like really, 'till there was no more.
1257
00:57:27,193 --> 00:57:28,528
-But he wasn't dancing.
-[Ben] Uh-huh..
1258
00:57:28,611 --> 00:57:30,530
[Tina] An' lo and behold,
when he came to America
1259
00:57:30,613 --> 00:57:31,865
he was doing everything.
1260
00:57:31,948 --> 00:57:34,117
I said, "Ah, I know what
he was doing in the wings, now."
1261
00:57:34,784 --> 00:57:36,077
So, he learned a lot of steps.
1262
00:57:36,161 --> 00:57:38,455
And I tried to teach him,
like, the Popcorn and other steps
1263
00:57:38,538 --> 00:57:39,831
that we were doing, but…
1264
00:57:39,914 --> 00:57:42,000
He can't do them like that.
He--He has to do them…
1265
00:57:42,667 --> 00:57:43,835
his way, like--like--
1266
00:57:43,918 --> 00:57:46,045
In other words, like his interpretation
of what he see us do.
1267
00:57:47,589 --> 00:57:50,008
[Fong-Torres] Though there seems to be
a mutual admiration
1268
00:57:50,091 --> 00:57:52,594
between these two icons of rock royalty,
1269
00:57:52,677 --> 00:57:58,266
Tina's harshest criticisms are aimed at
what she considers her own shortcomings.
1270
00:57:58,349 --> 00:58:00,477
[Ben] What do you mean by you don't like
your own sound?
1271
00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:03,646
[Tina] I don't sound pretty, uh good.
I say I sound
1272
00:58:03,730 --> 00:58:05,273
[Tina] arregh. Naggy to me.
1273
00:58:05,356 --> 00:58:06,357
[Ben] Ah…
1274
00:58:06,441 --> 00:58:07,692
but you have sounded pretty.
1275
00:58:08,359 --> 00:58:09,819
[Tina] I can sound pretty
but nobody likes me
1276
00:58:09,903 --> 00:58:11,446
like that. Like I read in the, um…
1277
00:58:12,405 --> 00:58:13,656
some article in the paper that…
1278
00:58:14,532 --> 00:58:16,451
Tina Turner's never been captured
on records
1279
00:58:16,534 --> 00:58:19,579
she purrs like a kitten on record,
and she
1280
00:58:20,163 --> 00:58:21,289
she's wild on stage.
1281
00:58:21,372 --> 00:58:22,207
[Ben] Ah…
1282
00:58:22,290 --> 00:58:23,541
And when I'm wild,
you know they don't like
1283
00:58:23,625 --> 00:58:25,251
like a record I put out, Working Together?
1284
00:58:25,335 --> 00:58:26,377
I love that record!
1285
00:58:26,461 --> 00:58:27,587
That's how I like to sound
1286
00:58:27,670 --> 00:58:29,380
like the River Deep, Mountain High album.
1287
00:58:29,464 --> 00:58:31,090
But, like, nobody accepts me. They want me
1288
00:58:31,174 --> 00:58:32,717
sounding all raspy.
1289
00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:36,095
♪ River deep, mountain high ♪
1290
00:58:36,721 --> 00:58:39,849
[Fong-Torres] To hear that song
for the first time in 1967,
1291
00:58:39,933 --> 00:58:43,436
in the first year of acid rock
and Memphis soul,
1292
00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:48,149
to hear that wall falling towards you
with Tina teasing it along,
1293
00:58:48,233 --> 00:58:51,194
was to understand all the power
of rock and roll.
1294
00:58:51,277 --> 00:58:54,906
♪ Baby, baby, baby ♪
1295
00:59:01,162 --> 00:59:03,248
[Fong-Torres]
My hair is getting longer and longer.
1296
00:59:03,331 --> 00:59:07,627
And at one point, my father said,
"You look like a girl."
1297
00:59:07,710 --> 00:59:11,297
In my view, of course,
this is the way of the world.
1298
00:59:11,381 --> 00:59:15,051
This is how my friends
are dressing and looking.
1299
00:59:15,134 --> 00:59:17,720
And he is insulting me.
1300
00:59:18,221 --> 00:59:20,390
So I was very upset by that.
1301
00:59:21,015 --> 00:59:23,643
[Chow] People of our generation
were on the forefront
1302
00:59:23,726 --> 00:59:26,437
of making social change,
and Chinatown was no different.
1303
00:59:26,521 --> 00:59:31,484
The community was coming from a position
where, for over 100 years,
1304
00:59:31,568 --> 00:59:32,569
it had been silent.
1305
00:59:32,652 --> 00:59:37,699
It had been left out of the mainstream,
been denied political electoral rights.
1306
00:59:37,782 --> 00:59:42,245
We're Americans, goddamn it.
We got a voice. We've had a voice.
1307
00:59:42,328 --> 00:59:44,455
We got a history. We got a story to tell.
1308
00:59:44,539 --> 00:59:45,623
And we're going to tell it.
1309
00:59:45,707 --> 00:59:47,709
And Ben was one of the first to do it.
1310
00:59:47,792 --> 00:59:49,877
[Fong-Torres] Around when Jann
formed Rolling Stone,
1311
00:59:49,961 --> 00:59:51,754
Gordon Lew created East West,
1312
00:59:51,838 --> 00:59:54,799
a small and bilingual newspaper
in Chinatown.
1313
00:59:54,882 --> 00:59:59,012
And I just thought, this could be
a fun adventure with a newspaper.
1314
00:59:59,095 --> 01:00:02,098
And I sign on pretty much right away.
1315
01:00:02,181 --> 01:00:07,729
I had a multi-tasking world
of working at Rolling Stone by day
1316
01:00:07,812 --> 01:00:11,232
and working at East West by night
on a volunteer basis.
1317
01:00:12,066 --> 01:00:14,527
[Lew]
So he help us to do the layouts.
1318
01:00:15,111 --> 01:00:18,156
But his writing was very, very good,
1319
01:00:18,239 --> 01:00:20,283
and he wrote very fast.
1320
01:00:20,366 --> 01:00:23,661
We was always amazed to watch him
on a typewriter.
1321
01:00:24,454 --> 01:00:27,707
It was if the typewriter is on fire.
1322
01:00:27,790 --> 01:00:30,043
[Chow]
When he went to work for East West,
1323
01:00:30,126 --> 01:00:31,961
he did it out of a love of journalism,
1324
01:00:32,045 --> 01:00:34,047
but he also did it
out of a love for community,
1325
01:00:34,130 --> 01:00:35,632
because what he was writing about
1326
01:00:36,424 --> 01:00:39,677
was about the life of the community
and the future of the community.
1327
01:00:39,761 --> 01:00:41,554
We were not even aware
1328
01:00:42,221 --> 01:00:44,932
that how important a job he had
1329
01:00:45,391 --> 01:00:46,768
at the Rolling Stones.
1330
01:00:47,352 --> 01:00:49,020
And he's very, very humble.
1331
01:00:50,063 --> 01:00:52,982
Chinatown was in a social upheaval.
1332
01:00:53,066 --> 01:00:55,318
The community had a lot of problems.
1333
01:00:55,401 --> 01:00:57,862
Social problems, economic problems.
1334
01:00:57,945 --> 01:00:58,946
It was a pressure cooker.
1335
01:00:59,572 --> 01:01:02,784
People, out of desperation,
trying to find a hold on on life,
1336
01:01:02,867 --> 01:01:03,785
turned to crime.
1337
01:01:04,494 --> 01:01:07,538
The Sai-yon Restaurant is a favorite haunt
for many of the street kids.
1338
01:01:07,622 --> 01:01:11,000
The restaurant's owner, Kim Ng,
said in a telephone conversation
1339
01:01:11,084 --> 01:01:13,795
that he and members of the Chinatown
Restaurant Association
1340
01:01:13,878 --> 01:01:17,298
are being extorted in one form or another
by the street gangs.
1341
01:01:17,382 --> 01:01:19,425
[Fong-Torres] There's a story,
and we're reporting it,
1342
01:01:19,509 --> 01:01:20,885
and we're talking to people.
1343
01:01:20,968 --> 01:01:22,804
We're trying to be balanced about it
1344
01:01:22,887 --> 01:01:25,807
and bring it to a wider group
of our community.
1345
01:01:26,557 --> 01:01:30,436
One evening, there was some kind
of an explosive
1346
01:01:30,520 --> 01:01:33,981
that shattered the front door
of the East West office,
1347
01:01:34,065 --> 01:01:37,735
and apparently that was kind of a warning
to stay away from coverage
1348
01:01:37,819 --> 01:01:40,571
of the youth and gang problems.
1349
01:01:40,655 --> 01:01:42,824
But Gordon was a man of principle.
1350
01:01:44,033 --> 01:01:48,871
A couple of weeks after that,
I was covering a meeting of a youth group.
1351
01:01:48,955 --> 01:01:52,500
I was just leaving that meeting
and walking down the street,
1352
01:01:52,583 --> 01:01:57,797
and two or three guys approached me
and then just began to to work me over.
1353
01:01:59,966 --> 01:02:02,343
There was no accusation,
there was no warning.
1354
01:02:02,427 --> 01:02:04,137
It was just beat-up time.
1355
01:02:04,220 --> 01:02:06,806
It was disheartening,
because you're saying,
1356
01:02:06,889 --> 01:02:09,976
"Hey, we want to do--
we want to accomplish this."
1357
01:02:10,059 --> 01:02:11,102
And then they're saying,
1358
01:02:11,185 --> 01:02:14,272
"Well, you're exposing us
to attention that we don't want."
1359
01:02:14,355 --> 01:02:16,065
Who knows what their reasoning is?
1360
01:02:16,149 --> 01:02:18,359
And it was just clashing forces.
1361
01:02:20,695 --> 01:02:22,864
[Chi-Wang]
Barry Fong-Torres, like his brother Ben,
1362
01:02:22,947 --> 01:02:27,243
felt that as a Chinese American,
he should pitch in and help,
1363
01:02:27,326 --> 01:02:30,747
because Chinatown had been
very much neglected for decades.
1364
01:02:31,289 --> 01:02:34,876
[Chow] Barry, he was one of the few people
who genuinely was looking
1365
01:02:34,959 --> 01:02:36,419
to try to help the young people.
1366
01:02:36,502 --> 01:02:40,047
When I was asked to do the documentary
on Chinatown youth,
1367
01:02:40,131 --> 01:02:42,133
he was one of the people
I sought out.
1368
01:02:42,216 --> 01:02:44,051
Speaking as a newcomer to Chinatown
1369
01:02:45,386 --> 01:02:48,639
and speaking from experience gathered
outside of Chinatown,
1370
01:02:48,723 --> 01:02:52,351
I feel the potential for a rip-off
of the program
1371
01:02:52,435 --> 01:02:56,689
is generated like money being taken
for services not rendered,
1372
01:02:57,440 --> 01:02:59,817
like equipment being stolen.
1373
01:02:59,901 --> 01:03:01,027
Things of this nature.
1374
01:03:02,111 --> 01:03:03,988
[Katagiri]
It was late at night,
1375
01:03:04,071 --> 01:03:09,202
and we were playing Scrabble
and drinking champagne together,
1376
01:03:09,285 --> 01:03:14,040
just kind of chilling out and relaxing
at his apartment.
1377
01:03:14,123 --> 01:03:18,878
But in any case, we were startled
when the doorbell rang.
1378
01:03:18,961 --> 01:03:23,299
And he picked up this big antique
Chinese sword.
1379
01:03:24,675 --> 01:03:28,221
Looked at me and he said,
"I'd better bring this with me."
1380
01:03:28,304 --> 01:03:29,222
"You never know."
1381
01:03:29,806 --> 01:03:30,973
And he kind of grinned
1382
01:03:31,974 --> 01:03:34,101
that mischievous grin of his.
1383
01:03:34,602 --> 01:03:37,230
And went out to answer the doorbell.
1384
01:03:37,980 --> 01:03:42,985
I heard some pops, and I…
1385
01:03:43,069 --> 01:03:45,696
I thought, "Maybe it's firecrackers."
1386
01:03:47,240 --> 01:03:48,449
"Somebody playing a joke."
1387
01:03:49,158 --> 01:03:51,369
But then there was just silence.
1388
01:03:52,912 --> 01:03:57,208
And I was overcome with dread,
1389
01:03:58,292 --> 01:04:01,921
because I… I think at that point,
I knew what had happened.
1390
01:04:03,506 --> 01:04:06,342
So I went out to the gates.
1391
01:04:06,425 --> 01:04:08,344
Found Barry there.
1392
01:04:08,845 --> 01:04:10,221
And, uh…
1393
01:04:12,431 --> 01:04:14,517
I did have a chance to say goodbye.
1394
01:04:14,600 --> 01:04:17,520
I don't think he heard me, but, um…
1395
01:04:18,479 --> 01:04:21,190
it was our last moment together.
1396
01:04:27,697 --> 01:04:30,491
[Low]
It was a real tragedy to his family
1397
01:04:30,575 --> 01:04:32,827
and to the whole community,
1398
01:04:32,910 --> 01:04:34,328
that this happened.
1399
01:04:35,746 --> 01:04:39,584
[Fong-Torres] Barry was, I think,
suspected of being a representative
1400
01:04:39,667 --> 01:04:41,669
of law enforcement when he really wasn't.
1401
01:04:43,504 --> 01:04:44,922
Yeah, he worked for the system,
1402
01:04:45,464 --> 01:04:49,927
but he was there to try to provide
services to the community.
1403
01:04:50,011 --> 01:04:53,055
And so he was victimized
by being a little too close,
1404
01:04:53,139 --> 01:04:54,765
by being an outsider, and by--
1405
01:04:54,849 --> 01:04:59,312
by the paranoia that pervaded a lot
of the groups.
1406
01:04:59,395 --> 01:05:02,440
Social, cultural, political going on.
1407
01:05:03,733 --> 01:05:05,484
[Chow]
His murderer has never been found.
1408
01:05:06,527 --> 01:05:08,571
There's been speculation
about who it could be,
1409
01:05:08,654 --> 01:05:11,616
but his murderer has never been found,
never been caught,
1410
01:05:11,699 --> 01:05:12,867
never been brought to justice.
1411
01:05:12,950 --> 01:05:14,660
[wistful music]
1412
01:05:19,999 --> 01:05:23,628
[Dianne] It's hard for Ben to even mention
Barry without tearing up.
1413
01:05:24,712 --> 01:05:26,255
[audience applauding]
1414
01:05:26,339 --> 01:05:29,342
[Fong-Torres] So I was on the tour
with Bob Dylan in 1974,
1415
01:05:29,425 --> 01:05:30,927
the one with The Band.
1416
01:05:31,010 --> 01:05:35,097
It was his first time out after
his motorcycle accident in Woodstock.
1417
01:05:36,057 --> 01:05:36,933
So it was a big deal.
1418
01:05:37,016 --> 01:05:40,394
I assigned myself to cover
the beginning of the tour.
1419
01:05:41,187 --> 01:05:44,649
And in one of the first shows
I saw in Chicago,
1420
01:05:45,149 --> 01:05:46,359
I was in the audience
1421
01:05:46,442 --> 01:05:48,819
as he was doing
"It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."
1422
01:05:49,654 --> 01:05:54,075
As the tour continued, Dylan shifted
the performance of his classic songs.
1423
01:05:54,158 --> 01:05:57,328
He reinvented them by emphasizing
different words
1424
01:05:57,411 --> 01:06:00,706
or just strumming his guitar
a little faster,
1425
01:06:00,790 --> 01:06:04,502
which could be heard on the live album
recorded later on the tour.
1426
01:06:04,585 --> 01:06:06,379
♪ It's alright, Ma ♪
1427
01:06:07,338 --> 01:06:09,256
♪ I can make it ♪
1428
01:06:09,340 --> 01:06:14,261
But the version I heard that evening
was closer to the song's original form.
1429
01:06:14,887 --> 01:06:18,474
Just sort of came back to me,
because he was saying those lines.
1430
01:06:18,557 --> 01:06:19,600
"It's alright, Ma."
1431
01:06:19,684 --> 01:06:21,894
♪ And it's alright, Ma ♪
1432
01:06:24,939 --> 01:06:26,273
♪ I can make it ♪
1433
01:06:26,357 --> 01:06:32,279
Still, it just resonated for me,
took me back to those horrible times,
1434
01:06:32,363 --> 01:06:37,827
and then catapulted back forward
to being part of a large group of people,
1435
01:06:38,869 --> 01:06:43,082
all probably getting something different
out of that song at that moment.
1436
01:06:43,165 --> 01:06:45,042
♪ It blows the minds most bitterly ♪
1437
01:06:45,126 --> 01:06:47,003
♪ For them that think death’s honesty ♪
1438
01:06:47,086 --> 01:06:49,130
♪ Won’t fall upon them naturally ♪
1439
01:06:49,213 --> 01:06:51,382
♪ Life sometimes must get lonely ♪
1440
01:06:51,465 --> 01:06:55,386
I know that even though
I'm in the audience with a notebook,
1441
01:06:55,469 --> 01:06:57,346
just writing down stuff about the concert,
1442
01:06:57,430 --> 01:06:59,473
and observing the audience
listening to The Band,
1443
01:06:59,557 --> 01:07:02,184
and watching Dylan's moves
when he sang those lines--
1444
01:07:02,268 --> 01:07:05,855
because he also sang
in a very emotional way,
1445
01:07:05,938 --> 01:07:08,190
that there was no way for it
not to get to me.
1446
01:07:08,274 --> 01:07:11,861
And so I think that I allowed myself
in that story
1447
01:07:11,944 --> 01:07:14,113
to remark about Barry,
and make that connection.
1448
01:07:14,989 --> 01:07:16,532
That's what music can do.
1449
01:07:16,615 --> 01:07:19,243
Just like Dylan's earlier performances,
1450
01:07:19,326 --> 01:07:22,371
his song I heard that evening
spoke to my loss.
1451
01:07:23,456 --> 01:07:25,791
♪ But it's alright, Ma ♪
1452
01:07:26,500 --> 01:07:29,045
♪ It's life, and life only ♪
1453
01:07:36,218 --> 01:07:37,344
[Santana]
"Samba Pa Ti."
1454
01:07:37,428 --> 01:07:42,558
It's a song that it talks about
being free from fear,
1455
01:07:42,641 --> 01:07:44,560
from issues, from luggage, baggage,
1456
01:07:45,186 --> 01:07:48,397
from situations of pain and despair,
1457
01:07:48,481 --> 01:07:53,527
because everyone is searching
for eternal peace and it's here, there.
1458
01:07:53,611 --> 01:07:55,571
All you have to do is share.
1459
01:07:56,697 --> 01:07:58,074
-Carlos.
-Hey!
1460
01:07:58,157 --> 01:07:59,408
[laughs]
1461
01:07:59,492 --> 01:08:00,993
-Got to get a hug.
-Thank you.
1462
01:08:01,077 --> 01:08:02,912
-So good to see you again.
-Good to see you too.
1463
01:08:02,995 --> 01:08:04,163
-We'll have fun tonight.
-Okay.
1464
01:08:04,246 --> 01:08:06,248
-All right, okay.
-Why don't you walk in.
1465
01:08:06,332 --> 01:08:09,376
[Santana] Ben always has a very,
very high consciousness,
1466
01:08:09,460 --> 01:08:12,880
you know, and as a journalist
or whatever he sees himself as,
1467
01:08:12,963 --> 01:08:15,925
I'm very honored
that we've been intertwining
1468
01:08:16,008 --> 01:08:19,970
and transmitting this consciousness
for a long, long time.
1469
01:08:22,014 --> 01:08:23,390
We grew up here in the Bay Area.
1470
01:08:23,474 --> 01:08:26,769
We were, like, funky-looking kids
from the Mission, but we all had a dream.
1471
01:08:27,353 --> 01:08:29,313
Ben, like, Ralph J. Gleason or--
1472
01:08:29,396 --> 01:08:32,399
everyone was very important,
and is still very important
1473
01:08:32,483 --> 01:08:34,401
in the way they opened doors for me.
1474
01:08:34,485 --> 01:08:36,612
I mean, I'm just a kid
who was washing dishes
1475
01:08:36,695 --> 01:08:39,323
and living here in Mission High School.
1476
01:08:39,406 --> 01:08:42,743
The next thing I know, I'm in the front
cover of the Rolling Stone
1477
01:08:42,827 --> 01:08:45,329
with this story about resurrection.
1478
01:08:46,288 --> 01:08:49,708
I'm very honored and very grateful
the way the story was done and everything.
1479
01:08:49,792 --> 01:08:51,001
[cheers and applause]
1480
01:09:10,896 --> 01:09:14,191
Ben, like myself,
we share words that have power.
1481
01:09:14,275 --> 01:09:17,153
When people read them,
they have a choice
1482
01:09:17,903 --> 01:09:22,992
to either embrace nothing
and make it everything and be miserable,
1483
01:09:23,075 --> 01:09:25,494
or they can embrace everything
1484
01:09:26,328 --> 01:09:28,998
and make every day
the best day of their lives.
1485
01:09:33,335 --> 01:09:36,422
Ben Fong-Torres is here.
We're going to talk about Paul McCartney.
1486
01:09:36,505 --> 01:09:38,757
Ben, are you looking at his set?
At McCartney's set?
1487
01:09:38,841 --> 01:09:41,302
-I have here in my hand…
-Whoa!
1488
01:09:41,385 --> 01:09:43,929
…the McCartney setlist
for the current tour.
1489
01:09:44,013 --> 01:09:47,057
You've written books on The Eagles,
on Grateful Dead
1490
01:09:47,141 --> 01:09:49,143
on The Doors, on Top 40.
1491
01:09:49,226 --> 01:09:52,354
And he said, "You know,
I was at Candlestick
1492
01:09:52,438 --> 01:09:55,774
when the Beatles
played their final concert."
1493
01:09:55,858 --> 01:09:57,234
And that was, what, 1960…?
1494
01:09:57,318 --> 01:09:58,986
-'6, August 29th.
-'6.
1495
01:09:59,069 --> 01:10:01,488
-[Baxter] Okay,
-[Fong-Torres] The last show of the tour.
1496
01:10:01,572 --> 01:10:04,158
The Beatles did not know
it would be their last concert.
1497
01:10:04,241 --> 01:10:05,951
They were embroiled in controversy.
1498
01:10:06,035 --> 01:10:09,705
John Lennon had talked about the Beatles
being more popular than Jesus,
1499
01:10:09,788 --> 01:10:11,540
and that didn't sit well with some folks.
1500
01:10:11,624 --> 01:10:14,627
And there was even some talk
about tension within the band.
1501
01:10:14,710 --> 01:10:17,254
For us, though,
it was still kind of Beatlemania.
1502
01:10:17,338 --> 01:10:19,048
The girls were screaming to the point
1503
01:10:19,131 --> 01:10:20,758
where the Beatles
couldn't hear themselves.
1504
01:10:20,841 --> 01:10:24,303
They just raced through these nine or ten
songs, got done,
1505
01:10:24,386 --> 01:10:27,139
escaped into an armored car and fled.
1506
01:10:28,015 --> 01:10:29,808
[laid-back piano music]
1507
01:10:38,234 --> 01:10:40,444
-[Fong-Torres] Candlestick!
-[Mayclem] The 'Stick, man.
1508
01:10:40,527 --> 01:10:41,862
This is history.
1509
01:10:41,946 --> 01:10:43,489
Yeah. All right.
1510
01:10:43,572 --> 01:10:45,824
-[woman] Are you Ben Fong?
-Hi, I'm Ben Fong-Torres.
1511
01:10:45,908 --> 01:10:46,951
-I know!
-Hi.
1512
01:10:47,034 --> 01:10:48,202
-Rolling Stone.
-Yeah.
1513
01:10:48,702 --> 01:10:50,204
-And you are?
-Nice to meet you. Carol.
1514
01:10:50,287 --> 01:10:52,456
-Hi, Carol.
-I came down from the San Juan Islands.
1515
01:10:52,539 --> 01:10:54,333
-Oh, wow!
-Nice to meet you.
1516
01:10:54,416 --> 01:10:56,043
-Is this the first show you're seeing?
-No.
1517
01:10:56,126 --> 01:10:58,420
Oh, man. A real fan.
1518
01:10:58,504 --> 01:10:59,880
-Yes.
-Well, good to see you, Carol.
1519
01:10:59,964 --> 01:11:01,090
Have a good time.
1520
01:11:02,049 --> 01:11:05,886
♪ Close your eyes
And I'll kiss you ♪
1521
01:11:05,970 --> 01:11:08,806
♪ Tomorrow I'll miss you ♪
1522
01:11:09,807 --> 01:11:11,350
[Ben] How do you respond to the fact
1523
01:11:11,433 --> 01:11:13,936
[Ben] that Wings is thought of
as a family unit
1524
01:11:14,019 --> 01:11:15,646
[Ben] or that the leaders of Wings
1525
01:11:15,729 --> 01:11:17,314
-[Ben] are husband and wife.
-[Paul] Yeah.
1526
01:11:17,398 --> 01:11:20,192
[Ben] so that you're not on the loose
like Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin
1527
01:11:20,276 --> 01:11:22,236
-[Paul] Yeah…yeah.
-[Ben] How does that affect you?
1528
01:11:22,319 --> 01:11:24,780
[Paul] Uh, I used to think of that,
you know and
1529
01:11:24,863 --> 01:11:26,865
when we first got together and I
1530
01:11:26,949 --> 01:11:28,450
had Linda in the group,
that kind of thing
1531
01:11:28,534 --> 01:11:30,369
I really used to think, uh oh, you know
1532
01:11:30,452 --> 01:11:32,204
we've had it with the groupies now
1533
01:11:32,288 --> 01:11:33,956
and they're never gonna turn up and, uh
1534
01:11:34,039 --> 01:11:36,208
everyone's gonna think
we're real old squares…
1535
01:11:36,292 --> 01:11:37,501
blimey, married!
1536
01:11:37,584 --> 01:11:41,380
I was a Beatles fan,
and I attended the last Beatles concert.
1537
01:11:42,256 --> 01:11:45,592
I probably screamed at my TV set
when they were on Ed Sullivan.
1538
01:11:45,676 --> 01:11:48,429
And so to sit with him, to tour with him,
to travel with him.
1539
01:11:48,971 --> 01:11:52,224
This photo of Paul McCartney and me
has been shown here and there.
1540
01:11:52,308 --> 01:11:54,935
I had pretty much done
an interview with him already,
1541
01:11:55,019 --> 01:11:59,565
gotten to know him, and so neither of us
was posing for a picture.
1542
01:11:59,648 --> 01:12:01,734
We just happened to be hanging out.
1543
01:12:02,151 --> 01:12:04,945
That was the culture at the time,
that you had access,
1544
01:12:05,029 --> 01:12:09,241
you are not one of a hundred people
asking for an interview.
1545
01:12:09,325 --> 01:12:10,326
You were one of one.
1546
01:12:10,868 --> 01:12:12,369
[Paul] Things change, you know
1547
01:12:12,453 --> 01:12:14,538
I mean I, I kissed Linda on stage
the other night.
1548
01:12:14,621 --> 01:12:16,957
And that's the… for me, that's kind of
1549
01:12:17,041 --> 01:12:17,875
wow, you know
1550
01:12:17,958 --> 01:12:19,335
I must be getting real relaxed up there
1551
01:12:19,418 --> 01:12:20,294
cuz you know, I'm not
1552
01:12:20,377 --> 01:12:22,504
I can't to that in public, normally.
1553
01:12:22,588 --> 01:12:23,922
I'm a bit kinda shy.
1554
01:12:24,715 --> 01:12:29,219
And so now to be sitting there asking
him questions and being one on one…
1555
01:12:30,429 --> 01:12:34,725
On the surface, you're being
a professional reporter,
1556
01:12:34,808 --> 01:12:38,020
but inside you're saying, "Oh my God,
it's Paul McCartney. Marry me!"
1557
01:12:38,103 --> 01:12:40,814
Ladies and gentlemen,
introducing Ben Fong-Torres.
1558
01:12:41,648 --> 01:12:42,483
Thank you, Paul.
1559
01:12:43,025 --> 01:12:46,487
♪ People gathered here tonight ♪
1560
01:12:46,570 --> 01:12:48,364
♪ I want you to listen to me ♪
1561
01:12:53,285 --> 01:12:55,537
[Dianne]
Ben and I met when we were both students
1562
01:12:55,621 --> 01:12:57,456
at San Francisco State University.
1563
01:12:57,539 --> 01:12:59,708
I was chairman of Homecoming.
1564
01:12:59,792 --> 01:13:03,670
So I would go into the newspaper office
and plead for publicity.
1565
01:13:03,754 --> 01:13:08,008
[Fong-Torres] She was a member
of the Homecoming Queen committee.
1566
01:13:08,092 --> 01:13:09,635
She was in the sorority thing.
1567
01:13:09,718 --> 01:13:12,721
She was the other side of the world,
in my view,
1568
01:13:12,805 --> 01:13:16,600
because I was a journalist
covering civil rights, war protest.
1569
01:13:17,810 --> 01:13:23,065
He looked like he was
about 15 or 16 years old.
1570
01:13:23,148 --> 01:13:28,737
He had big black glasses, short haircut,
a white shirt,
1571
01:13:28,821 --> 01:13:33,075
which I later found out was because
he had to report to the family restaurant
1572
01:13:33,158 --> 01:13:34,243
every day after work.
1573
01:13:34,326 --> 01:13:37,079
I was able to keep up with Ben
over the years
1574
01:13:37,162 --> 01:13:41,333
because he had a radio show
on a radio station
1575
01:13:41,417 --> 01:13:43,544
that everyone listened to: KSAN.
1576
01:13:44,044 --> 01:13:46,422
The station used to do
all kinds of personals.
1577
01:13:46,505 --> 01:13:49,258
[Fong-Torres] It's close to 1:30
from KSAN in San Francisco,
1578
01:13:49,341 --> 01:13:51,176
the Jive 95 with Ben Fong-Torres.
1579
01:13:51,260 --> 01:13:52,511
Time for listener's personals.
1580
01:13:53,011 --> 01:13:57,057
Need someone to take care of my dog
while I'm in jail. John.
1581
01:13:57,141 --> 01:13:59,560
When you call, remember,
you can only have one call, all right?
1582
01:13:59,643 --> 01:14:00,769
I lost my dog.
1583
01:14:00,853 --> 01:14:04,314
And so I decided to call him
1584
01:14:04,398 --> 01:14:07,651
and ask him if he'd make that announcement
on the radio.
1585
01:14:07,734 --> 01:14:11,447
[Fong-Torres] So Dianne was calling
in a lost dog classified on my shift.
1586
01:14:11,530 --> 01:14:15,701
So she said, "Do you remember me?
Dianne Sweet from S.F. State?"
1587
01:14:15,784 --> 01:14:17,870
And my eyes went boing!
1588
01:14:17,953 --> 01:14:19,079
Of course I do.
1589
01:14:19,163 --> 01:14:20,873
She's a very pretty woman.
1590
01:14:20,956 --> 01:14:23,834
We said, hi, and that was about it.
You know, no big deal.
1591
01:14:23,917 --> 01:14:27,004
This was, like, 1972, I believe it was.
1592
01:14:27,087 --> 01:14:32,342
Then my brother was killed,
so she called and, uh…
1593
01:14:35,971 --> 01:14:37,639
And just said, um…
1594
01:14:44,480 --> 01:14:45,731
[whispers]
Never fails.
1595
01:14:48,233 --> 01:14:49,943
[in normal voice]
…and just said, "I'm here."
1596
01:14:52,112 --> 01:14:54,698
"And if you want to come over
and have a glass of wine or whatever,
1597
01:14:54,781 --> 01:14:56,909
and it helps, then do that."
1598
01:14:56,992 --> 01:15:02,039
So I did. And so we saw each other
for the first time in probably six years.
1599
01:15:02,623 --> 01:15:05,000
And so our friendship began at that point.
1600
01:15:05,709 --> 01:15:09,838
I lived in this little Victorian house,
and I can just picture him
1601
01:15:09,922 --> 01:15:14,551
walking up the stairs,
and my jaw dropped.
1602
01:15:15,302 --> 01:15:18,013
This was not anyone I recognized.
1603
01:15:18,096 --> 01:15:21,099
This wasn't the 16-year-old guy anymore.
1604
01:15:21,183 --> 01:15:24,311
We had that glass of wine,
and that was the beginning.
1605
01:15:24,394 --> 01:15:26,396
[tender piano music]
1606
01:15:31,568 --> 01:15:33,403
I hadn't seen you in…
1607
01:15:33,487 --> 01:15:35,030
-six years?
-[Fong-Torres] At least.
1608
01:15:35,822 --> 01:15:37,741
[Dianne]
But it was kind of a shock to see you
1609
01:15:37,824 --> 01:15:41,203
with long hair, and John Lennon glasses,
and stacked heels.
1610
01:15:44,414 --> 01:15:45,415
Olive oil.
1611
01:15:47,501 --> 01:15:51,338
Ben's parents didn't find out
that I existed
1612
01:15:51,421 --> 01:15:53,882
until a couple of months
before we got married.
1613
01:15:54,633 --> 01:15:57,386
After we'd been together for four years.
1614
01:15:57,469 --> 01:16:01,390
[Fong-Torres] My parents were like,
I think, many Chinese adults,
1615
01:16:01,473 --> 01:16:02,724
parents of that generation.
1616
01:16:02,808 --> 01:16:06,562
Our grounding was to get married
to a Chinese girl.
1617
01:16:06,645 --> 01:16:09,022
It'd be best for family
and everything else.
1618
01:16:09,106 --> 01:16:13,819
[Dianne] This was very, very tough for Ben
to have to tell his parents
1619
01:16:14,403 --> 01:16:20,367
that he was going to marry
out of the Chinese community.
1620
01:16:20,450 --> 01:16:24,830
It was traumatic to me
to have to accept the fact
1621
01:16:25,664 --> 01:16:29,918
that I would be someone's disappointment.
1622
01:16:30,836 --> 01:16:32,838
[dramatic music]
1623
01:16:35,465 --> 01:16:39,553
Fortunately for us, they did their best.
1624
01:16:39,636 --> 01:16:41,555
They did come to the wedding.
1625
01:16:41,638 --> 01:16:45,434
And, of course, the famous picture
of Ben's father.
1626
01:16:46,435 --> 01:16:48,979
-So happily celebrating…
-Yeah.
1627
01:16:49,521 --> 01:16:51,565
-…that I was getting married to Dianne.
-Yeah.
1628
01:16:51,648 --> 01:16:52,983
-Yeah.
-[Fong-Torres] Yes.
1629
01:16:54,484 --> 01:16:57,863
When Dianne and I got married,
Annie volunteered herself
1630
01:16:57,946 --> 01:16:59,740
as our wedding photographer.
1631
01:16:59,823 --> 01:17:02,951
That was an offer you do not say no to,
that's for sure.
1632
01:17:03,035 --> 01:17:06,496
She has a picture of me
in my little office writing the vows,
1633
01:17:06,580 --> 01:17:09,374
writing my personal vows on deadline,
as always
1634
01:17:17,007 --> 01:17:20,636
[Dianne]
At the end of her 12 hours of work,
1635
01:17:21,136 --> 01:17:25,932
she just handed over 21,
22 rolls of film.
1636
01:17:27,225 --> 01:17:29,227
These were just a gift to us.
1637
01:17:35,942 --> 01:17:38,320
-[Crowe] Come take a trip through time…
-[Fong-Torres] Oh boy.
1638
01:17:38,403 --> 01:17:41,448
[Crowe] And look at some
of your assignments and inventory sheets.
1639
01:17:41,531 --> 01:17:42,699
[Fong-Torres]
Ah!
1640
01:17:43,992 --> 01:17:46,286
[Crowe] I remember getting some of these
and just going,
1641
01:17:46,370 --> 01:17:47,496
"Holy shit."
1642
01:17:47,579 --> 01:17:52,584
It's like from from going
to the Speckels Theatre head shop
1643
01:17:52,668 --> 01:17:57,255
to get Rolling Stone to, like, actually
getting the assignment inventory sheets.
1644
01:17:57,339 --> 01:17:59,925
-You were a keeper, weren't you?
-I kept everything, baby.
1645
01:18:01,134 --> 01:18:02,594
Because you opened the door.
1646
01:18:03,095 --> 01:18:07,140
Voice of God, howling dogs,
the spirit of rock and roll.
1647
01:18:07,224 --> 01:18:08,475
This is good, solid stuff, man.
1648
01:18:08,558 --> 01:18:09,393
Thanks.
1649
01:18:10,477 --> 01:18:12,020
[in deep voice]
Thanks. Thanks.
1650
01:18:12,104 --> 01:18:13,939
Listen, I think you should
be writing for us.
1651
01:18:14,022 --> 01:18:16,608
I've heard that you don't remember
saying "crazy,"
1652
01:18:16,692 --> 01:18:17,943
which we put in Almost Famous.
1653
01:18:18,026 --> 01:18:19,319
But you did say "crazy."
1654
01:18:19,403 --> 01:18:20,237
Crazy.
1655
01:18:20,737 --> 01:18:21,613
-Crazy.
-Crazy.
1656
01:18:22,280 --> 01:18:23,281
-Crazy.
-Crazy.
1657
01:18:23,365 --> 01:18:24,366
-Crazy?
-[laughs] Yeah.
1658
01:18:24,449 --> 01:18:26,493
Well, actually…
1659
01:18:26,576 --> 01:18:27,494
[stammers]
1660
01:18:27,577 --> 01:18:30,205
It's like hearing Bruce Springsteen
sing "Born in the USA."
1661
01:18:30,288 --> 01:18:32,666
-[laughs]
-Ben says "crazy," and there it is.
1662
01:18:32,749 --> 01:18:34,793
-I'll have to record one on MP3 for you.
-Oh my God!
1663
01:18:34,876 --> 01:18:37,546
I just loved it because it was,
like, sadness.
1664
01:18:38,255 --> 01:18:39,548
-"Crazy."
-[laughs]
1665
01:18:39,631 --> 01:18:41,258
Happiness. "Crazy."
1666
01:18:41,341 --> 01:18:43,802
-Uh-huh. Yeah.
-[laughing] Contemplative.
1667
01:18:43,885 --> 01:18:45,345
[over phone]
Crazy.
1668
01:18:45,804 --> 01:18:46,638
Crazy.
1669
01:18:47,556 --> 01:18:49,683
You know, so I just felt it applied
in so many ways in…
1670
01:18:50,350 --> 01:18:52,686
-Classic country song, "Crazy."
-[laughing] Classic country!
1671
01:18:52,769 --> 01:18:53,603
[both laugh]
1672
01:18:54,688 --> 01:18:56,148
[applause]
1673
01:18:58,066 --> 01:19:00,152
[Crowe] I got a ticket to go
to the Rolling Stones show
1674
01:19:00,235 --> 01:19:02,154
at the Forum in 1973,
1675
01:19:02,237 --> 01:19:05,365
and Bobby Cowan, the great publicist,
said to me,
1676
01:19:05,449 --> 01:19:09,786
"Ben Fong-Torres is down there, like,
in those great seats on the floor…"
1677
01:19:09,870 --> 01:19:11,329
[both laugh]
1678
01:19:11,413 --> 01:19:13,415
"…and do you want to meet him?"
1679
01:19:13,498 --> 01:19:15,500
And I'm like, "Yes, I want to meet him."
1680
01:19:16,418 --> 01:19:21,798
But I was 15, and I I didn't think
you knew from my voice how old I was.
1681
01:19:21,882 --> 01:19:24,217
-So you were in the kids section?
-I was in the kids section.
1682
01:19:24,301 --> 01:19:28,305
You and Annie Leibowitz were on tour
with the band for that great cover story,
1683
01:19:28,388 --> 01:19:30,015
the one with Mick in the Hawaiian shirt.
1684
01:19:30,807 --> 01:19:32,893
You didn't see that I was 15 years old.
1685
01:19:32,976 --> 01:19:34,686
Because of your name, like many others,
1686
01:19:34,770 --> 01:19:39,357
I built up this exotic and Salinger-esque
persona in my mind.
1687
01:19:39,441 --> 01:19:43,028
But then there you were, affable,
utterly professional.
1688
01:19:43,528 --> 01:19:44,571
We spoke briefly.
1689
01:19:44,654 --> 01:19:47,282
I told you I was a freelance writer
from San Diego.
1690
01:19:47,365 --> 01:19:49,034
I suggested the group Poco.
1691
01:19:49,117 --> 01:19:52,037
You said to send you 750 words.
1692
01:19:52,120 --> 01:19:53,371
I knew it had to be good.
1693
01:19:53,455 --> 01:19:54,748
And we shook hands again.
1694
01:19:54,831 --> 01:19:56,625
The Rolling Stones were now
taking the stage.
1695
01:19:56,708 --> 01:19:58,794
Mick Jagger ripped into "Oh Carol",
1696
01:19:58,877 --> 01:20:02,631
but all I was thinking about was,
I just got an assignment for Rolling Stone
1697
01:20:02,714 --> 01:20:03,757
from Ben Fong-Torres.
1698
01:20:04,716 --> 01:20:05,717
It was that simple.
1699
01:20:05,801 --> 01:20:07,552
My first story for Rolling Stone.
1700
01:20:09,304 --> 01:20:12,974
But you didn't know how old I was
until you called a couple of weeks later,
1701
01:20:13,058 --> 01:20:15,894
and my sister answered the phone,
and couldn't wait to tell you
1702
01:20:16,728 --> 01:20:18,146
-that I was then 16.
-Mm.
1703
01:20:18,230 --> 01:20:19,898
-And I was mortified.
-Mm-hmm.
1704
01:20:19,981 --> 01:20:22,067
I had already done another story
for you.
1705
01:20:22,150 --> 01:20:23,944
And you put it into the magazine
that I was 16.
1706
01:20:24,027 --> 01:20:26,446
[Fong-Torres] That's right.
We added it as a gleeful footnote.
1707
01:20:26,530 --> 01:20:28,532
-[Crowe] As a little footnote.
-[Fong-Torres] Right.
1708
01:20:28,615 --> 01:20:29,825
[Crowe]
That started everything.
1709
01:20:29,908 --> 01:20:34,204
But you brought to it though, yourself,
tremendous love of music and writing.
1710
01:20:34,287 --> 01:20:36,832
-That was the first thing.
-I'm having a huge flashback right now.
1711
01:20:36,915 --> 01:20:40,293
I feel like I'm back
in San Francisco in your office,
1712
01:20:40,377 --> 01:20:42,170
and I got some time with Ben.
1713
01:20:42,254 --> 01:20:43,839
-This is awesome!
-[both laughing]
1714
01:20:47,884 --> 01:20:50,178
[Fong-Torres] The whole point about
Rolling Stone magazine
1715
01:20:50,262 --> 01:20:52,639
is that it was a business, and still is.
1716
01:20:52,722 --> 01:20:57,561
Jann Wenner did not try to start a commune
that published a newsletter.
1717
01:20:57,644 --> 01:21:01,231
And from the beginning,
he wanted to expand that business
1718
01:21:01,314 --> 01:21:03,316
into other media properties.
1719
01:21:04,359 --> 01:21:06,444
And so in 1977,
1720
01:21:06,528 --> 01:21:08,280
the magazine moved out to New York.
1721
01:21:08,363 --> 01:21:10,740
[Sirott] Rock and roll
was the background beat of rebellion.
1722
01:21:10,824 --> 01:21:13,827
Today, rock and roll is the music
of Madison Avenue,
1723
01:21:13,910 --> 01:21:15,996
and Rolling Stone has moved to New York.
1724
01:21:16,079 --> 01:21:18,039
[rock music]
1725
01:21:20,292 --> 01:21:22,627
Are you going to be left behind
or are you going to go?
1726
01:21:22,711 --> 01:21:25,755
And I chose to go, and I still don't know
if that was the right decision,
1727
01:21:25,839 --> 01:21:27,173
you know, basically.
1728
01:21:27,257 --> 01:21:29,092
It was a big decision
for everybody to make.
1729
01:21:29,175 --> 01:21:31,303
You know, some people wanted to go.
So people didn't.
1730
01:21:31,386 --> 01:21:33,096
But I narrowed it down to only, like,
1731
01:21:33,179 --> 01:21:35,056
25 people I thought
I really should take with me.
1732
01:21:35,140 --> 01:21:38,184
Ben was always, from the beginning,
a key player,
1733
01:21:38,268 --> 01:21:41,479
and as it grew and grew,
he stayed in that key slot
1734
01:21:41,563 --> 01:21:43,773
as one of the key most important editors
at Rolling Stone,
1735
01:21:43,857 --> 01:21:47,861
until such time as we moved to New York,
when I had to ask Ben to come with us.
1736
01:21:47,944 --> 01:21:49,362
And he said, no, he wouldn't come.
1737
01:21:50,322 --> 01:21:52,616
Jann announced that the magazine
was moving to New York,
1738
01:21:52,699 --> 01:21:54,910
and I decided, ultimately,
not to do that.
1739
01:21:54,993 --> 01:21:57,913
Not an easy decision,
but we had just bought a house.
1740
01:21:57,996 --> 01:22:00,707
Dianne and I had just been married.
1741
01:22:00,790 --> 01:22:07,172
And after Barry's death,
I was the de facto number one son,
1742
01:22:07,255 --> 01:22:08,590
and that meant a lot to me.
1743
01:22:09,132 --> 01:22:14,137
And so for me to leave my parents
still in the grieving process,
1744
01:22:14,220 --> 01:22:18,099
that would have been very difficult,
very difficult.
1745
01:22:18,183 --> 01:22:19,309
So…
1746
01:22:19,392 --> 01:22:23,897
[Dianne] Ben's parents,
because their English was very limited,
1747
01:22:23,980 --> 01:22:28,068
they really needed Ben to help them
navigate life,
1748
01:22:28,610 --> 01:22:31,988
because occasionally life takes one
out of Chinatown.
1749
01:22:32,072 --> 01:22:36,451
Ben felt a great responsibility
and a great willingness
1750
01:22:36,534 --> 01:22:38,662
to assist his family.
1751
01:22:38,745 --> 01:22:44,209
So when things came up
that they needed help with, Ben was there.
1752
01:22:45,418 --> 01:22:46,670
[indistinct chatter]
1753
01:22:47,462 --> 01:22:48,755
[Leibovitz]
You know, I wish, uh…
1754
01:22:49,339 --> 01:22:51,049
I could have stayed here.
1755
01:22:51,132 --> 01:22:52,884
I wish Rolling Stone
didn't move to New York.
1756
01:22:52,968 --> 01:22:55,220
It was like--it was--you know,
it was so great here.
1757
01:22:55,303 --> 01:22:57,055
-It was, I think, the…
-You and me both, yeah.
1758
01:22:57,764 --> 01:23:00,976
the beginning of some kind of end,
for sure,
1759
01:23:01,059 --> 01:23:03,520
-when Rolling Stone moved to New York.
-It was a pivotal point.
1760
01:23:03,603 --> 01:23:05,355
-Come here.
-[laughs]
1761
01:23:06,022 --> 01:23:07,107
So good to see you again.
1762
01:23:07,190 --> 01:23:08,608
[Leibovitz]
Nice to see you too, Ben.
1763
01:23:09,526 --> 01:23:13,571
[Fong-Torres] Luckily, I was able
to carve out a position
1764
01:23:13,655 --> 01:23:19,411
as senior editor West Coast,
and carried on for about three years.
1765
01:23:19,494 --> 01:23:23,456
Then it became clear that I was just
no longer part of the core.
1766
01:23:23,957 --> 01:23:26,376
You can't be when you're 3000 miles away.
1767
01:23:26,459 --> 01:23:30,338
And so it was time to move on.
1768
01:23:30,422 --> 01:23:31,965
When I think about Ben,
1769
01:23:32,507 --> 01:23:35,677
I can't imagine, what does he do
without Rolling Stone?
1770
01:23:36,469 --> 01:23:39,014
San Francisco was not what it is now.
1771
01:23:39,097 --> 01:23:41,349
You know, it was a sleepy backwater town.
1772
01:23:41,433 --> 01:23:43,059
There was no book publishing there.
1773
01:23:43,143 --> 01:23:47,439
There was local kinds of publications,
and nothing on the national scale at all.
1774
01:23:47,522 --> 01:23:51,026
It was a little daunting to say,
1775
01:23:51,109 --> 01:23:55,655
"Oh boy, I'm going to put myself
out in the marketplace."
1776
01:23:55,739 --> 01:23:57,657
Would they think of me as,
1777
01:23:57,741 --> 01:24:00,618
Oh, that's that guy from Rolling Stone,
he can't write for us?
1778
01:24:00,702 --> 01:24:03,038
So it was definitely a challenge.
1779
01:24:03,121 --> 01:24:06,041
[Kai] How long did that take for you
to get back into the swing of things?
1780
01:24:07,000 --> 01:24:08,168
I think it took me…
1781
01:24:09,586 --> 01:24:11,171
a month, sorry.
1782
01:24:11,254 --> 01:24:12,839
[laughs]
1783
01:24:12,922 --> 01:24:14,799
[rock music]
1784
01:24:23,058 --> 01:24:25,143
Parade was the first one to come along.
1785
01:24:25,226 --> 01:24:28,772
And they happened to be,
in terms of circulation,
1786
01:24:29,355 --> 01:24:31,524
the biggest magazine in the country.
1787
01:24:31,608 --> 01:24:36,279
So not a bad place to land
from Rolling Stone.
1788
01:24:37,906 --> 01:24:40,075
You did a lot of fundraisers
over the years, haven't you?
1789
01:24:40,158 --> 01:24:41,910
Well, yeah, when you do community events,
1790
01:24:41,993 --> 01:24:46,414
quite often they are for galas
to raise funds for worthy causes.
1791
01:24:46,498 --> 01:24:47,832
[Wardell]
Millions of dollars.
1792
01:24:47,916 --> 01:24:48,917
[Fong-Torres]
Oh yes.
1793
01:24:49,000 --> 01:24:49,918
Definitely.
1794
01:24:50,001 --> 01:24:50,919
At least millions.
1795
01:24:51,002 --> 01:24:52,212
[both laugh]
1796
01:24:52,295 --> 01:24:53,755
Maybe millions of cents.
1797
01:24:53,838 --> 01:24:55,090
That's more like it.
1798
01:24:55,173 --> 01:25:00,595
[Dianne] Ben has really given
himself to a lot of community events.
1799
01:25:00,678 --> 01:25:06,768
He makes appearances several times
a month for nonprofit organizations,
1800
01:25:06,851 --> 01:25:12,440
and he's raised millions of dollars
over the years for these organizations.
1801
01:25:12,524 --> 01:25:15,985
He's extremely generous,
he's extremely giving.
1802
01:25:16,069 --> 01:25:20,031
You know, he's just good at it.
He's been as good at everything he does.
1803
01:25:20,115 --> 01:25:21,908
[mellow acoustic music]
1804
01:25:25,161 --> 01:25:28,373
[George-Warren]
I can't believe it's, like, 30 years.
1805
01:25:28,456 --> 01:25:31,918
How can it be that long ago
that Ben took me under his wing?
1806
01:25:32,001 --> 01:25:36,005
Let me be his assistant as he started
researching the Gram Parsons story,
1807
01:25:36,589 --> 01:25:41,261
and just brought me into the process
so that I learned a lot by osmosis
1808
01:25:41,344 --> 01:25:42,220
working with him.
1809
01:25:42,303 --> 01:25:45,515
And now, three decades later,
I'm off to the Grammy Museum.
1810
01:25:45,598 --> 01:25:49,853
I'm going to be giving a talk
about my new Janis Joplin biography.
1811
01:25:49,936 --> 01:25:52,814
And Ben will be there right by my side
introducing me this week.
1812
01:25:53,606 --> 01:25:55,608
So it's really a dream come true for me.
1813
01:26:02,574 --> 01:26:03,825
[phone ringing]
1814
01:26:04,492 --> 01:26:05,493
[Lazin]
Sarah Lazin books.
1815
01:26:06,452 --> 01:26:07,287
Hey, Ben.
1816
01:26:08,413 --> 01:26:09,998
Did you get my email from earlier?
1817
01:26:11,499 --> 01:26:12,333
Okay.
1818
01:26:12,876 --> 01:26:17,005
Yeah. Yeah. You have several options.
So, yeah, we can talk later about that.
1819
01:26:17,088 --> 01:26:22,635
My big passion is to take seriously
this story of American popular music,
1820
01:26:22,719 --> 01:26:24,888
and that's what I've devoted my career to,
1821
01:26:24,971 --> 01:26:29,225
is working with writers to develop
really serious, good biographies.
1822
01:26:29,309 --> 01:26:31,019
And Ben had such a great story.
1823
01:26:32,020 --> 01:26:35,106
The turning point in my life,
there's just no question about it.
1824
01:26:35,190 --> 01:26:39,569
Aside from the happiness that I found
with Dianne,
1825
01:26:40,153 --> 01:26:42,280
was the sadness that came with the loss
of Barry.
1826
01:26:42,906 --> 01:26:44,782
And so that is the turning point.
1827
01:26:44,866 --> 01:26:48,786
That's where you are suddenly catapulted
into a sobering up and growing up.
1828
01:26:49,287 --> 01:26:52,624
After he died, I had his books
1829
01:26:52,707 --> 01:26:55,752
and began to look at them,
and began to really get a sense
1830
01:26:55,835 --> 01:27:00,673
of the country from which we all,
in a sense, came.
1831
01:27:01,507 --> 01:27:03,092
And so I became interested, suddenly.
1832
01:27:03,176 --> 01:27:05,094
I had gotten to the point where I thought,
1833
01:27:05,178 --> 01:27:08,848
how stupid that here I am,
a journalist and a reporter.
1834
01:27:08,932 --> 01:27:10,350
I'm supposed to get stories.
1835
01:27:10,433 --> 01:27:12,352
I'm supposed to learn
the truth about people.
1836
01:27:12,435 --> 01:27:14,854
And the one group of people
I had not done that with
1837
01:27:14,938 --> 01:27:17,023
was my mother and father.
1838
01:27:17,106 --> 01:27:19,317
And so I decided just to do it.
1839
01:27:19,400 --> 01:27:22,528
And it was the first time that I was able
to ask my parents questions
1840
01:27:23,029 --> 01:27:24,656
about their lives,
1841
01:27:24,739 --> 01:27:30,078
coming to America, raising a family,
what their ambitions had been,
1842
01:27:30,161 --> 01:27:31,663
what they thought of their kids.
1843
01:27:31,746 --> 01:27:34,332
You know, do you like us, by the way?
We're just wondering here.
1844
01:27:34,832 --> 01:27:38,253
And so I gave them a chance
to ask me questions.
1845
01:27:38,753 --> 01:27:42,966
And so that was probably the first time
they learned about what Rolling Stone was.
1846
01:27:43,049 --> 01:27:43,925
[laughs]
1847
01:27:49,013 --> 01:27:51,015
[dramatic music]
1848
01:27:55,228 --> 01:27:57,146
And then, not too long after that,
1849
01:27:57,230 --> 01:27:58,856
I had a chance to go to China.
1850
01:27:59,899 --> 01:28:01,985
Be the first person from my generation
from our family,
1851
01:28:02,068 --> 01:28:03,653
to go into the home village.
1852
01:28:04,237 --> 01:28:08,074
I was able to visit an uncle
that I didn't even know I had.
1853
01:28:08,157 --> 01:28:12,287
I met a cousin and her parents,
and others,
1854
01:28:12,370 --> 01:28:16,916
and they were in this pretty okay house
that they said, you know,
1855
01:28:17,583 --> 01:28:20,003
"We are able to have this house
because of your family,
1856
01:28:20,503 --> 01:28:21,838
that they sent the money."
1857
01:28:21,921 --> 01:28:25,508
And so it turns out, again,
that my parents were not lying.
1858
01:28:25,591 --> 01:28:31,264
And the decor included
the framed collages
1859
01:28:31,347 --> 01:28:35,393
of photographs from us in Oakland
1860
01:28:35,476 --> 01:28:38,313
back in the day,
including high school pictures,
1861
01:28:38,396 --> 01:28:40,606
junior high pictures, wedding photos,
1862
01:28:40,690 --> 01:28:42,942
as much as my parents hated
some of our weddings.
1863
01:28:43,026 --> 01:28:47,280
They shipped off the wedding photos anyway
to share the news with their family.
1864
01:28:47,363 --> 01:28:51,075
It was obviously a stunning experience
for me.
1865
01:28:51,159 --> 01:28:52,785
And the frustration, the…
1866
01:28:52,869 --> 01:28:56,289
Some of the anger of losing out on life
in my youth
1867
01:28:56,831 --> 01:28:59,542
has really balanced out by an appreciation
1868
01:28:59,625 --> 01:29:02,795
of exactly what my parents went through
growing up,
1869
01:29:02,879 --> 01:29:04,047
what they sacrificed,
1870
01:29:04,130 --> 01:29:08,426
and what they gave
when they left their country for this one.
1871
01:29:08,509 --> 01:29:11,554
[Mayclem]
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
1872
01:29:11,637 --> 01:29:14,849
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
1873
01:29:15,350 --> 01:29:17,852
♪ Happy birthday, Ben Fong… ♪
1874
01:29:17,935 --> 01:29:18,895
[Watkins]
Ben?
1875
01:29:19,729 --> 01:29:21,064
Oh, Uncle Ben.
1876
01:29:21,147 --> 01:29:22,732
[audience laughs]
1877
01:29:23,358 --> 01:29:24,817
[Fong-Torres]
That's great. I like it.
1878
01:29:25,401 --> 01:29:27,153
You wrote a book
that was one of a kind.
1879
01:29:28,029 --> 01:29:30,573
A story about our family
that made it all clear.
1880
01:29:31,449 --> 01:29:34,285
Now I finally understood how the heck
we got here.
1881
01:29:36,245 --> 01:29:38,122
You married family and friends.
1882
01:29:38,206 --> 01:29:39,582
You sang at my wedding.
1883
01:29:40,750 --> 01:29:42,335
You were just on CNN.
1884
01:29:43,086 --> 01:29:44,504
Where else are you heading?
1885
01:29:44,587 --> 01:29:45,880
[audience chuckles]
1886
01:29:45,963 --> 01:29:48,383
On top of all I've said
and all you've done,
1887
01:29:49,675 --> 01:29:51,761
all the success and all we've won
1888
01:29:53,262 --> 01:29:56,057
the most important thing has nothing to do
with the above.
1889
01:29:56,933 --> 01:29:59,852
What matters most
is it came with all your love.
1890
01:29:59,936 --> 01:30:00,853
[audience]
Aw!
1891
01:30:00,937 --> 01:30:02,939
[applause and cheers]
1892
01:30:08,277 --> 01:30:09,153
I'm old!
1893
01:30:10,738 --> 01:30:12,532
-[cheers and applause]
-And so
1894
01:30:12,615 --> 01:30:13,825
family remains loyal.
1895
01:30:13,908 --> 01:30:17,662
Family remains cyclical and circular.
1896
01:30:17,745 --> 01:30:21,874
hat's a lesson that I learned
back in the '80s
1897
01:30:21,958 --> 01:30:23,793
and stays with me today.
1898
01:30:23,876 --> 01:30:25,294
[speaking foreign language]
1899
01:30:25,378 --> 01:30:26,838
-There you go. Okay.
-[laughs]
1900
01:30:28,840 --> 01:30:30,341
-Adiós.
-[man] Thank you, thank you.
1901
01:30:31,050 --> 01:30:32,343
-Aloha.
-Baby.
1902
01:30:32,885 --> 01:30:34,762
[tender acoustic music]
1903
01:30:41,894 --> 01:30:43,062
[car horn honks]
1904
01:30:43,688 --> 01:30:44,939
[man]
Yo! Yo!
1905
01:30:51,612 --> 01:30:55,950
[Fong-Torres] Even though the music
changes, and the business changes,
1906
01:30:56,033 --> 01:30:57,618
and the audience changes,
1907
01:30:57,702 --> 01:31:04,500
and the ways that music is carried
or sold or delivered or stolen changes…
1908
01:31:04,584 --> 01:31:05,668
-Jann's ready for you.
-Ah.
1909
01:31:06,169 --> 01:31:07,003
Okay.
1910
01:31:07,545 --> 01:31:08,796
Here comes Ben.
1911
01:31:09,547 --> 01:31:12,467
…there will always be those
who are going to say
1912
01:31:12,550 --> 01:31:13,801
music is more than music.
1913
01:31:14,886 --> 01:31:15,887
-How are you?
-Good.
1914
01:31:15,970 --> 01:31:17,430
-You're looking well.
-Oh, thank you.
1915
01:31:17,513 --> 01:31:21,976
Look how skinny Ben is. Look at that.
And look at that wild and hairy…
1916
01:31:24,020 --> 01:31:24,854
How funny.
1917
01:31:24,937 --> 01:31:26,981
[Fong-Torres]
Music is also communication,
1918
01:31:27,064 --> 01:31:31,110
it is also a message, it is also a way
to change people's minds,
1919
01:31:31,652 --> 01:31:33,488
expand people's minds.
1920
01:31:33,571 --> 01:31:37,200
Whatever it is, music will always
have more of a function
1921
01:31:37,283 --> 01:31:38,910
than just entertainment…
1922
01:31:38,993 --> 01:31:41,037
-Wow.
-[Wenner] You remember when this was made.
1923
01:31:41,120 --> 01:31:42,955
[Fong-Torres]
This is my first cover.
1924
01:31:43,039 --> 01:31:44,832
…and that will never end.
1925
01:31:47,752 --> 01:31:49,837
[tender acoustic music]
1926
01:31:51,797 --> 01:31:53,799
[bluegrass banjo music]
1927
01:31:59,847 --> 01:32:01,057
Oh, I just turned my phone off.
1928
01:32:01,140 --> 01:32:02,099
[laughs]
Oh!
1929
01:32:04,560 --> 01:32:05,561
-Yeah.
-Good to see you.
1930
01:32:05,645 --> 01:32:06,479
Yeah.
1931
01:32:06,562 --> 01:32:07,980
You look fantastic for an older guy.
1932
01:32:08,064 --> 01:32:09,065
[laughs]
1933
01:32:09,607 --> 01:32:12,026
Thank you for being part of this.
1934
01:32:12,109 --> 01:32:14,487
My pleasure. You were an important part
of my career.
1935
01:32:14,570 --> 01:32:16,197
-I want to thank you for it.
-Oh. How so?
1936
01:32:16,822 --> 01:32:18,824
Uh, I'll make up something.
Just keep going.
1937
01:32:18,908 --> 01:32:19,742
No, actually,
1938
01:32:19,825 --> 01:32:22,954
you did a very significant article on me
in Rolling Stone.
1939
01:32:23,037 --> 01:32:26,207
When I think back to it, I go back
to when you were at the Boarding House.
1940
01:32:26,290 --> 01:32:28,501
-[mumbling]
-[audience laughs]
1941
01:32:28,584 --> 01:32:30,253
And I dug you so much,
1942
01:32:30,336 --> 01:32:33,965
because you were so different,
so radical, so ridiculous.
1943
01:32:34,048 --> 01:32:34,882
[knock on door]
1944
01:32:34,966 --> 01:32:36,175
[Martin]
Go away!
1945
01:32:36,259 --> 01:32:38,177
[Fong-Torres]
Steve, we're here for the interview.
1946
01:32:38,261 --> 01:32:39,971
I don't do interview--
1947
01:32:40,513 --> 01:32:41,931
Oh. TV.
1948
01:32:42,014 --> 01:32:43,057
Come on in.
1949
01:32:43,140 --> 01:32:44,475
[Fong-Torres]
Thought you'd notice.
1950
01:32:44,559 --> 01:32:46,727
I think you understand
what I'm trying to say when I say…
1951
01:32:46,811 --> 01:32:48,271
-[flaps lips]
-[laughs]
1952
01:32:49,689 --> 01:32:52,775
[Fong-Torres] And I remember
coming to you after a show
1953
01:32:52,858 --> 01:32:56,821
and inviting you to my show
on KSAN Jive 95.
1954
01:32:56,904 --> 01:32:58,781
And you came and did sight gags
on the radio.
1955
01:32:58,864 --> 01:33:00,491
[laughs]
That's a good idea.
1956
01:33:01,367 --> 01:33:02,285
[laughs]
1957
01:33:02,368 --> 01:33:03,995
I really appreciate
everything you've done.
1958
01:33:04,078 --> 01:33:05,246
Oh, thank you, Steve.
1959
01:33:05,871 --> 01:33:07,873
[percussion music]
1960
01:33:08,958 --> 01:33:11,544
Welcome back to the Southwest Airlines
Chinese New Year parade.
1961
01:33:11,627 --> 01:33:13,963
-I'm Ben Fong-Torres.
-And I'm Julie Haener.
1962
01:33:14,046 --> 01:33:16,382
Also, welcome back
to Geary Street for us.
1963
01:33:16,465 --> 01:33:19,135
We're back to our original
vantage point, where…
1964
01:33:19,218 --> 01:33:20,428
[firecrackers popping]
1965
01:33:21,095 --> 01:33:24,307
[Fong-Torres] All of experiences
in which you are connected to your family
1966
01:33:24,390 --> 01:33:25,516
one way or another.
1967
01:33:26,517 --> 01:33:30,688
Now we realize that it's all part
of the greater fabric of Chinese culture.
1968
01:33:30,771 --> 01:33:32,148
[sizzling]
1969
01:33:32,231 --> 01:33:34,066
As a cook and a chef,
1970
01:33:34,150 --> 01:33:37,528
my father could go out and eat something,
1971
01:33:37,612 --> 01:33:39,947
and come home and recreate it
without a recipe.
1972
01:33:41,240 --> 01:33:45,244
He enjoyed doing his own version
of Chinese opera around the restaurant
1973
01:33:45,328 --> 01:33:48,205
when there were downtimes,
when there were no customers around.
1974
01:33:48,289 --> 01:33:52,376
He would just yodel and sing,
and he was really a pretty amazing guy.
1975
01:33:55,921 --> 01:33:59,050
We no more escaped our past
than our parents escaped China.
1976
01:34:00,718 --> 01:34:05,181
They stay tied to their old ways,
and now we begin to see those ways.
1977
01:34:05,264 --> 01:34:09,268
Those things that used to strike us
as so odd and embarrassing,
1978
01:34:09,352 --> 01:34:11,854
so Chinese, in a new light.
1979
01:34:16,484 --> 01:34:20,946
And so you learn why now the weddings
are the way they are,
1980
01:34:21,030 --> 01:34:24,867
or why funerals are the way they are,
and it all ties together.
1981
01:34:24,950 --> 01:34:26,494
[typing]
1982
01:34:26,577 --> 01:34:28,579
[dramatic music]
1983
01:34:39,256 --> 01:34:43,135
That you never really do escape
the full circle of life.
1984
01:34:44,679 --> 01:34:47,973
It's seeped into us
that it was to our advantage
1985
01:34:48,641 --> 01:34:52,645
to do the stuff, or most of it,
that our parents asked of us.
1986
01:34:52,728 --> 01:34:55,815
And I think that, for the most part,
it worked out pretty well.
1987
01:35:00,820 --> 01:35:02,738
[uplifting music]
1988
01:35:02,822 --> 01:35:04,824
[audience cheers]
1989
01:35:12,331 --> 01:35:14,041
-Hi.
-Ah, Sir Elton.
1990
01:35:14,125 --> 01:35:16,001
-How are you?
-Oh, wow.
1991
01:35:16,085 --> 01:35:18,421
-My God. Long time no see, really.
-Oh!
1992
01:35:18,504 --> 01:35:20,172
Only 45 years.
1993
01:35:20,256 --> 01:35:21,382
-Really?
-But who's counting?
1994
01:35:21,465 --> 01:35:25,928
It's not just a story.
It's a story with Elton John or Bob Dylan.
1995
01:35:26,011 --> 01:35:29,348
It's just all these people
whose music you love.
1996
01:35:29,432 --> 01:35:33,811
And can you tell me what the role
of your being a father and a family man
1997
01:35:33,894 --> 01:35:35,438
on this farewell tour?
1998
01:35:35,521 --> 01:35:37,231
It's great. The boys are actually with us.
1999
01:35:37,314 --> 01:35:39,316
They're in Los Angeles.
They're coming up…
2000
01:35:39,400 --> 01:35:41,986
[Fong-Torres] So it's kind of hard
to define that as a job.
2001
01:35:42,069 --> 01:35:43,696
I know that I was working hard,
2002
01:35:43,779 --> 01:35:47,742
but even before that concept
of having a job that you thoroughly like,
2003
01:35:47,825 --> 01:35:50,077
I just knew that that's what I had.
2004
01:35:50,161 --> 01:35:52,121
-Nice to see you.
-Good to see you. Fond memories.
2005
01:35:52,204 --> 01:35:54,206
-Hey, hang in there. All right.
-Hey, hang in there.
2006
01:35:54,290 --> 01:35:55,416
Thank you so much, Sir Elton.
2007
01:35:56,375 --> 01:35:58,919
Nice jacket. I want that jacket.
2008
01:35:59,879 --> 01:36:01,005
[chuckles]
2009
01:36:02,381 --> 01:36:04,383
["Bennie and the Jets" playing]
2010
01:36:05,050 --> 01:36:06,802
[audience cheers]
2011
01:36:13,476 --> 01:36:18,773
He's keeping the music alive,
and he's made a tremendous influence.
2012
01:36:18,856 --> 01:36:19,940
♪ Shake it loose together ♪
2013
01:36:20,024 --> 01:36:21,484
♪ The spotlight's hitting something ♪
2014
01:36:21,567 --> 01:36:23,402
♪ That's been known
To change the weather ♪
2015
01:36:23,944 --> 01:36:25,446
♪ We'll kill the fatted calf… ♪
2016
01:36:25,529 --> 01:36:28,908
He was a Renaissance man,
and still is to this day.
2017
01:36:30,534 --> 01:36:34,455
♪ You're gonna hear electric music
Solid walls of sound ♪
2018
01:36:34,538 --> 01:36:37,374
[Felton] People back then that believed
in the music, who dug the music,
2019
01:36:37,458 --> 01:36:39,210
it changed your life, it was your life,
2020
01:36:39,293 --> 01:36:40,336
and you don't give that up.
2021
01:36:41,253 --> 01:36:44,215
Yeah, he's still driven by the music.
It does keep you young.
2022
01:36:44,799 --> 01:36:46,801
♪ Bennie and the Jets ♪
2023
01:36:47,301 --> 01:36:48,511
[Fong-Torres]
Crazy.
2024
01:36:48,594 --> 01:36:51,388
♪ Oh, but they're weird
And they're wonderful ♪
2025
01:36:51,972 --> 01:36:53,933
♪ Bennie, she's really keen ♪
2026
01:36:55,017 --> 01:36:58,354
♪ She's got electric boots
A mohair suit ♪
2027
01:36:59,063 --> 01:37:01,565
♪ I read it in a magazine ♪
2028
01:37:01,649 --> 01:37:04,401
♪ Uh-oh ♪
2029
01:37:05,569 --> 01:37:07,404
♪ Bennie and the Jets ♪
2030
01:37:08,405 --> 01:37:10,366
[audience cheers]
2031
01:37:21,085 --> 01:37:22,086
♪ Bennie ♪
2032
01:37:22,837 --> 01:37:23,879
♪ Bennie ♪
2033
01:37:24,713 --> 01:37:25,714
♪ Bennie ♪
2034
01:37:26,590 --> 01:37:29,260
♪ Bennie and the Jets ♪
2035
01:37:35,766 --> 01:37:36,684
♪ Bennie ♪
2036
01:37:37,518 --> 01:37:38,519
♪ Bennie ♪
2037
01:37:39,436 --> 01:37:40,396
♪ Bennie ♪
2038
01:37:41,146 --> 01:37:44,066
♪ Bennie and the Jets ♪
2039
01:37:50,155 --> 01:37:51,031
♪ Bennie ♪
2040
01:37:51,949 --> 01:37:52,950
♪ Bennie ♪
2041
01:37:53,784 --> 01:37:54,827
♪ Bennie ♪
2042
01:37:55,619 --> 01:37:58,914
♪ Bennie and the Jets ♪
2043
01:38:00,249 --> 01:38:02,668
♪ And the Jets ♪
2044
01:38:13,429 --> 01:38:14,597
♪ Ooh, yeah ♪
2045
01:38:35,242 --> 01:38:36,452
♪ Ooh, yeah ♪
2046
01:38:39,538 --> 01:38:41,749
♪ Bennie and the Jets ♪
2047
01:38:41,832 --> 01:38:43,584
[audience cheers]
2048
01:38:54,178 --> 01:38:57,389
Subtitle translation by: Nick Lombardi