2020 has been sobering to the extent that I just haven't had it in me to write the standard occasional "In Memoriam" piece for the website when friends and those we admire shuffle off this mortal coil. And, sadly, this year has presented all too many unfulfilled opportunities. But seeing as how it is already such a fraught week in the world, I thought I'd give it a shot and get back on that horse inasmuch as Baron Wolman has now left the building.

Coming of age as a huge music fan in the sixties, "Rolling Stone" (the magazine) was my go to read followed shortly by "Crawdaddy", "Jazz & Pop", "Rock", "Melody Maker", "N.M.E.", "Creem", "Downbeat", "Coda", and then too many more to mention. While Jim Marshall and Annie Leibovitz are the in-house photographers one usually remembers from those early days, Baron Wolman was actually my favorite. His duotone 1969 portrait of Sun Ra - taken while he was a lecturer in residence at UC Berkeley! - wearing those space-age shades is inarguably one of the coolest magazine covers of the decade. And then there was the Rolling Stone "The Groupies and Other Girls" special issue featuring The GTOs, Plaster Casters, and even a youthful Sally Mann that was a milestone in counterculture publishing. Don't get me wrong, his images of Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, Frank Zappa, and so many others are canon, but he was so much more. For instance, Wolman was the publisher of the idiosyncratic Squarebooks, which produced the classics "Levi's Denim Art Contest. Catalogue of Winners", Lisa Law's "Flashing on the Sixties", and his own "Profiles."

My favorite Baron Wolman endeavor was the short-lived, self-published Fashion magazine "Rags." Running for just thirteen issues between 1970 and 1971, it's art direction and tabloid look owed a lot to "Rolling Stone"; and was a monthly must-see for anyone interested in the stylings of post-Hippie American youth. Featuring articles primarily photographed by Wolman himself, it's West Coast-centric editorial coverage ran the gamut from The Cockettes to a pictorial contrasting the waitesses' workwear of LA's "Canter's" and Sausalito's "The Trident" to an original piece in printed form by Ed Ruscha entitled "Tanks Banks Ranks Thanks". More than a decade before "Pictures", Barbara Kruger worked in their art department for a hot minute! While "Rags" had to have been printed in runs of several thousand, fifty years later issues are as hard to find as they are sought after.

I am lucky enough to own a complete set (including the near-impossible to find prospectus issue!) in two volumes bound by the publisher in textured maroon boards gilt-stamped with the "Rags" logo that was an amazing find many years ago upstairs at "Moe's" in Berkeley - one of, if not my very favorite place to shop for books. And years later I was even more fortunate to get Mr. Wolman to sign these, Thank you Julia Dean for that.

So goodbye Baron Wolman! Our condolences go out to your family and friends. And to our readers, please enjoy these pictures of "Rags" from a kinder, gentler yet still turbulent America.

Lee Kaplan