Account of the influence of music on society from the 1960s through the 1980s written by journalist Robert Sam Anson. "Brilliantly interwoven, here are new insights into rock-as-religion (The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane) and rock-as-letdown (recent Dylan); events from Altamont to the rescue of Carter's campaign by the Allman Brothers in 1976; the impassioned journalism of staffers Jon Landau and Greil Marcus; the maniacal genius of Hunter S. Thompson; Rolling Stone's spectacular investigative coup in the Patty Hearst case." -- from dust-jacket end flaps.