Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone

The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson

By: Hunter S. Thompson

Narrated by: Phil Gigante

“Buy the ticket, take the ride,” was a favorite slogan of Hunter S. Thompson, and it pretty much defined both his work and his life. Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases the roller-coaster of a career at the magazine that was his literary home.Jann S. Wenner, the outlaw journalist’s friend and editor for nearly thirty-five years, has assembled articles that begin with Thompson’s infamous run for sheriff of Aspen on the Freak Party ticket in 1970 and end with his final piece on the Bush-Kerry showdown of 2004. In between is Thompson’s remarkable coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign — a miracle of journalism under pressure — and plenty of attention paid to Richard Nixon, his bête noire; encounters with Muhammad Ali, Bill Clinton, and the Super Bowl; and a lengthy excerpt from his acknowledged masterpiece, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Woven throughout is selected correspondence between Wenner and Thompson, most of it never before published. It traces the evolution of a personal and professional relationship that helped redefine modern American journalism, and also presents Thompson through a new prism as he pursued his lifelong obsession: The life and death of the American Dream.

©2011 Hunter S. Thompson (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

The Doctor Lives

Any additional comments?

I was downright terrified that some backwater idiot was going to read Hunters work to me in the weasel toned professorial way some of his other works have been handled. Not here. Here you'll get nothing but tough hard edging Phil Gigante being the behemoth his name implies. He channels the Doctors wit and charm and you can almost close your eyes and pretend the good Doctor never left us. Rest in Peace you doomed fool. You are gone but a man as unique as you will live on in the curses of wretched fools like Bush, Nixon, and their ilk for generations to come.

Great Overview of HST Work at RS. Don't Miss It.

I absolutely loved this book. HST uniqueness of writing style is captivating and they couldn't have pick a better narrator. Thank you

Good book, awesome narration

It's like an biography of his work, mostly work from the rolling Stones I think

Essential.

If you could sum up Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone in three words, what would they be?

Best of HST.

What did you like best about this story?

This is Hunter in his prime: he's young and wild and pissed off, and the English language in his hands becomes just as young and wild. What you get from the Rolling Stone work is eighteen hours of Thompson's most precise, observant, and gregarious reporting, including chunks of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, as well as the meat of Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. You get Nixon, you get Jimmy Carter, you get the whole works. And of course, football. But what you really get is one of the greatest courses on twentieth century American history available, without the crippling reverence to the system that renders a great deal of journalism irrelevant and dull. This is critical text.

What does Phil Gigante bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

This guy did his homework. I think it's perfectly appropriate to try to read this work in the writer's voice, since it's so thoroughly saturated with the writer's voice. There's no other way to say it than Gigante did his best Hunter S Thompson impression, and it's spot on. Seriously.

Any additional comments?

I guess having the physical text would be a kind of fetishistic necessity for fans of HST. But taking the time to listen to this audiobook is simply necessary for students of American literature and history. It's essentially like listening to a live reading by the man himself.

Brilliant

What an artist! He is missed. My favorite of all the anthologies due in no small part to the intros between articles. Great reader too.

A heavy trip Bubba

The narrator does a great job of channeling Dr Thompson. Very entertaining and often hilarious. He does a great job at bringing Thompson's mannerisms and speaking cadence to his written word.

Snippets of brilliance from the good Doctor.

Would you consider the audio edition of Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone to be better than the print version?

The single best thing about the audible version of the book is the narration by Phil Gigante, which is nothing short of masterful. He actually sounds like Thompson, albeit without the incoherent mumbling. I would love to hear him read all of the major HST books and short pieces ("The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved," for instance).

I had the privilege of seeing Thompson and the late, great Warren Zevon at a book discussion in the 90s in Louisville, Ky., and while I was thrilled to see a literary hero of mine, I can attest to the difficulty of actually listening to him speak. He spoke rapidly and in a barely audible mumbling tone that was difficult to understand or even recognize as English.

On another note, I don't really get the Scott Sowers hate on the other audiobook versions of Thompson's work. I preferred Gigante's version, as it was though Thompson himself was speaking directly to the listener, but Sowers did a very competent job that captured the hyperactive, hyperbolic tone that characterized much of Thompson's writing.

What other book might you compare Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone to and why?

I don't know that there is an equivalent in today's journalism/literature.

Has anyone actually read the drivel currently spewed out today by someone like Carl Bernstein, Thomas Friedman, George Will, or--god help us--anything written by anyone at Fox News? Very little real discussion, let alone analysis, of politics is available to a prospective reader/listener by any news source and what there is amounts to nothing more than a series of poorly written press releases written by journalists who are, for the most part, poorly paid PR flacks for either (or both) political parties. The books by these spokespeople tend to be bland, banal descriptions of the "he said/she said" variety of journalism that is in vogue today.

Listening to Thompson makes one realize that, once upon a time in our fading republic, a few reporters not only challenged the status quo but actually managed to change it in some way.

Which character – as performed by Phil Gigante – was your favorite?

Thompson, obviously.

If you could give Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone a new subtitle, what would it be?

It is perfect as is.

Any additional comments?

Reading Thompson should be mandatory for high school students. An HST School of Journalism might actually turn out some reporters whose writing is worth reading.

Thank You, Phil Gigante

I’m a die hard HST fan— to the point that I’d given up on audiobooks, nobody touches his writing voice... except this narrator. He absolutely nails it. This was so much better than I could have hoped for. Awesome compilation, awesome performance. Greatness.

Captivating & Riveting - As if HST narrated himself

This is a phenomenal collection of HST’s work at the R.S. A good dive into becoming a HST junkie. The narrator captured HST so closely I often forgot it wasn’t himself reading. Fantastic.

PLEASE have Phil Gigante perform all HST's books.

I long believed that no performer could capture Hunter Thompson's writing voice. Phil Gigante has finally done it.

Most narrators play Thompson as a corny rock-radio DJ: all snarl and grating, "edgy" machismo. (Even Johnny Depp, great as he is, sometimes lapses into mere caricature.)

Phil Gigante absolutely NAILS the tone of Thompson's writing. He knows when to accent HST's persona, and when to dial it back. He knows when to convey outrage, when to convey comedy, and when to blend the two. In other words: he gauges the writer's intent, and performs accordingly.

Of recent audiobooks, the only performance that exceeds this one is R.C. Bray's flawless read of The Martian. (And in a sense, Phil Gigante had the tougher job: he was competing with both an iconic literary voice and a deeply-engrained public image.)

TL;DR: Phil Gigante should be Hunter Thompson's default narrator. I would gladly repurchase Thompson's entire catalog if Gigante voiced it.