Ben Fong-Torres
Ben Fong-Torres is one of the legendary names of rock writing. One of the first writers and editors at Rolling Stone, Ben worked for the magazine for many years, writing seminal profiles of the leading rock figures of the late '60s and '70s. He is the author of the Gram Parsons biography Hickory Wind and of The Hits Just Keep On Coming, a history of Top 40 Radio in America.
41 articles
List of articles in the library
Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969
FOLK MUSIC, which pushed rock and roll into the arena of the serious with protest lyrics and blendings of Dylan and the Byrds back in ...
Donna Summer: A Disco Queen is Born Again
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Austin American-Statesman, 1 November 1981
DONNA SUMMER is a puzzle. She's the Rubik's Cube of pop singers. you might say a multicolored, at least six-sided mystery. She steps onto the ...
The Rolling Stones: The Stones
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 10 January 1982
On its latest tour, the band pulled in a cool $30 million. How? Ask its leader Mick Jagger who, at thirty-eight, still leaps with satisfaction. ...
Rick James: Why MTV Is Shaking the Music Industry
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 May 1983
HUEY LEWIS, leader of the Marin County-based Huey Lewis and the News, loves MTV: "Everywhere I go," he says in a promo spot on the ...
Frank Zappa: The '60s Mother Still Breaks Social, Musical Convention
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 1984
STOP THE presses! Frank Zappa, that mother of a curmudgeon, has been spotted actually smiling! Get out the red ink – he even chuckled once ...
Linda Ronstadt: Performing Is Not My Gift
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, TV Guide, May 1984
SHE LOOKS SO darling, standing there on a Santa Barbara, Cal., stage in front of Nelson Riddle and his 43-piece orchestra, ready for the first ...
Jefferson Airplane, The Tubes: Groupies: They're Still Grabbin' for the Stars
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 30 September 1984
Sweet Spencer,So many feelings I have experienced with you that you have become a part of me. The other day, from out of a heavy, ...
The Rolling Stones: The Stones
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, California Living, 1985
ON ITS LATEST tour, the band pulled in a cool $30 million. How? Ask its leader Mick Jagger who, at thirty-eight, still leaps with satisfaction. ...
David Lee Roth - Hyperactive, Irrepressible, Self-Satisfied
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 10 February 1985
DAVID LEE ROTH bounds up the wide, concrete steps from the forest that is his back yard toward his mansion. This, his visitor says, reminds ...
Natalie Cole Is Back From the Fast Lane
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 February 1985
SINGER'S DRUG REHABILITATION ...
Michael Nesmith: Mike Nesmith: Ex-Monkee Puts Parts Together
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 March 1985
On TV, Michael Nesmith says he'll be 'the big cheese, the honcho, the stud duck' ...
Report by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 April 1985
IF THE reports from her first concert in Seattle are any indication, you can expect Madonna to ask San Francisco, early in her show at ...
Angela Bofill: Bofill: A Cool Mama on a Sophisticated Circuit
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 26 May 1985
IN THESE days of instant first-name informality, I shouldn't have been surprised when the caller identified herself simply as "Angela." "Which Angela is this?" I ...
Not a Perfect Portrayal Of Rolling Stone Editor
Film/DVD/TV Review by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 June 1985
I JUST saw Perfect, the new movie with John Travolta as a Rolling Stone reporter and Jann Wenner (the actual editor of Rolling Stone) as ...
The Pointer Sisters — Their Day of Honor: Better Late Than Never
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 September 1985
13 years tardy, Oakland pays tribute to homegrown singers ...
Jan Hammer: Miami Vice's Hammer: A Composer Blends Hot Cops, Cool Rock
Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 September 1985
Kent, New York A SOUNDTRACK album for a TV show doesn't seem to make much sense. The thought conjures up a short stack of failures, albums ...
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard: The 'Twist' and Turns of a Rock Pioneer
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 December 1985
HANK BALLARD wrote and recorded ‘The Twist’, but it was Chubby Checker who had the big hit record. With the early R&B group, the Royals, ...
James Brown: He's So Good, He Says
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 February 1986
JAMES BROWN is a litany of hit songs and personal titles. He's the Godfather of Soul, the King of Soul, the Living Legend of Soul, ...
James Brown: Papa's Got A Brand New Hit
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, BAM, 11 April 1986
"CALL HIM MR. BROWN," a colleague advised me on the eve of my first meeting with James Brown. "Or he might not talk to you." ...
Lou Reed: The Prince of Darkness Lightens Up
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, GQ, September 1986
I NEVER SAW the Velvet Underground during their five-year lurch through the New York music scene. From 1965 to 1970 I was on the left ...
Eddie Kendricks, The Temptations: Motown No Longer Lures Temptations Vet
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 September 1986
Chill reheated career but Kendrick has bad memories ...
David Byrne, Talking Heads: Talking Heads' Byrne Chats Up His Movie
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 October 1986
THE LAST TIME we saw David Byrne on the big screen, he was herky-jerking his way through a Talking Heads concert, doing his chaotic, turkey-necked, ...
Huey Lewis and the News: Huey Lewis: It's Hip To Be Nice
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 February 1987
BOB BROWN was a young, successful stock trader from New York who got transferred to San Francisco, settled in peaceful Mill Valley, happened onto a ...
Chris Isaak: Teen Idol or Tin Elvis?
Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, GQ, April 1987
CHRIS ISAAK, whose first album, Silvertone, drew clusters of stars from critics at the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and many points in between, ...
Report by Ben Fong-Torres, GQ, April 1987
AMONG THE many mini-debates raging in the record business is the future of the 45-revolutions-per-minute single. It was born in 1949, came to life by ...
Donovan: The Graying of Mellow Yellow
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 July 1987
Donovan admits he feels a little creepy at his ritzy hotel gig ...
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 September 1987
YOKO ONO looks impenetrable behind her trademark wraparound sunglasses, a sober demeanor and a never-ending haze of cigarette smoke. ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni Rocks Again
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Chatelaine, June 1988
JONI MITCHELL was a folk star in the '70s, ignored in the '80s when she turned to jazz. Her new album, which tackles everything from ...
The Byrds, Gram Parsons: Gram Parsons: The Father of Country Rock
Retrospective by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 1991
GRAM PARSONS wasn't exactly bursting with credentials when he came up for consideration as a member of the Byrds in the early spring of 1968. ...
The Doors: Jim Morrison: Last Meeting With a Fallen Star
Memoir by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 1991
NEAR THE END of his 27-year life, was Jim Morrison – as depicted in Oliver Stone's new movie, The Doors – a fat, abusive, alcoholic, ...
A Last Farewell To Bill Graham
Obituary by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 November 1991
BILL GRAHAM was a movie of a man. His 60-year-long life, which came to an end in a helicopter crash in Sonoma County the night ...
Grateful Dead: Land of the Dead
Report by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 1995
WHEN IN THE MID-SIXTIES San Francisco came to represent nothing left to lose, there was a handful of identifiable pioneers who changed the face, the ...
The Mean, Mean Month of March: Judith Sims and Les Malloy
Memoir by Ben Fong-Torres, The Gavin Report, 5 April 1996
IT'S BEEN a miserable month. I lost two friends, from two different worlds and generations, yet somehow connected with you and me. ...
Profile by Ben Fong-Torres, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1997
CALL THEM what you want – the Jackson 5, the J5, the Jacksons – they were, in the end, Michael and four of his brothers. ...
Dusty Springfield: 'That Noise Is the Joy…'
Retrospective and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, AllMusic.com, September 1999
IT WAS just one of those things. I interviewed Dusty Springfield for two hours in Beverly Hills one afternoon in May, 1973, for Rolling Stone. ...
Mickey Newbury: On the Porch With Mickey Newbury
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, AllMusic.com, January 2000
MICKEY NEWBURY is 60, and he's slowed down a bit, spending much less time on the road than at his home in Oregon, where he's ...
The Beatles, George Harrison: George Harrison: Harrison in the Haight
Retrospective by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 December 2001
IT WOULD BE a stretch to say that George Harrison ever left his heart in San Francisco. ...
Jefferson Airplane: Obituary: Spencer Dryden
Obituary by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 10 February 2005
Jefferson Airplane's inventive drummer was one of the best of the psychedelic era ...
Al Green Is Still in Love With You
Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, TONEaudio, June 2008
WHEN THE REVEREND Al Green decided to return to singing love songs, he did more than revive his pop music career. He may have saved ...
Memoir by Ben Fong-Torres, Uncut, September 2009
A personal memoir of "the hands-down premier entertainer of his generation". ...
Jimi Hendrix: Eddie Kramer on Jimi Hendrix's Valleys of Neptune
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, eMusic.com, February 2010
EDDIE KRAMER'S credit on Valleys of Neptune is co-producer, along with Janie Hendrix (Jimi's sister) and John McDermott of Experience Hendrix, the company owned by ...
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