Typically controversy sells – however not this time. On the heels of a disastrous New York Occasions interview, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner has launched The Masters, which is presently ranked 7,639th by guide gross sales on Amazon.
77-year-old Wenner’s newest guide, full title The Masters: Conversations with Dylan, Lennon, Jagger, Townshend, Garcia, Bono, and Springsteen, formally turned accessible to the general public yesterday. Spanning about 370 pages, the work, as its identify suggests, consists of “new and picked up interviews” with “a number of the biggest rockstars,” together with a “never-before-seen” dialogue with Bruce Springsteen, in line with the suitable description.
(Springsteen at this time revealed that he “will proceed remedy” for peptic ulcer illness “by the remainder of the yr on physician’s recommendation,” together with his deliberate reveals postponed till 2024. The 74-year-old’s staff is anticipated to announce the rescheduled dates subsequent week.)
In the meantime, the initially talked about Occasions sit down appeared to expertise heavy turbulence out of the gate, with Wenner acknowledging that he’d allowed his interviewees to edit their feedback (instantly on the transcripts) previous to publication. “It’s interview topics clarifying what they wish to say,” maintained the Like a Rolling Stone creator.
Issues hardly improved from there, for Wenner proceeded to downplay the lazy, defamatory, and very damaging “A Rape on Campus” article printed by Rolling Stone in 2014.
And to prime off the trainwreck of a dialog, Wenner offered a extremely offensive and demeaning try at an evidence as to why he didn’t interview any feminine artists (“simply none of them had been as articulate sufficient on this mental stage”) or black artists (“Perhaps Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I imply, they only didn’t articulate at that stage.”).
However the ensuing controversy, full with a public denunciation from Rolling Stone, hasn’t resulted in a significant industrial increase for The Masters, as highlighted on the outset.
Apart from being ranked 7,639th general on Amazon’s book-sales checklist and having obtained only one on-platform evaluation, The Masters was on the time of this writing occupying the 96th spot within the ecommerce big’s “Arts & Literature Biographies” class, the twenty fourth place within the “Essays & Correspondence (Books)” class, and the fourth rating in a decidedly particular class for Beatles books.
Moreover, the value of the guide’s major Amazon itemizing had been lowered by 10 p.c to $27 – with different sellers providing The Masters for barely lower than that. To not be outdone, a vendor on Walmart has moved to draw library-averse readers with an aggressive $23 value level.