Rolling Stone: The Complete Covers, 1967-1997

The covers of Rolling Stone Magazine have been controversial, memorable and are a marker for musicians that they have made it. Some covers have created a stir such as a teenage Britney Spears posing in a provocative outfit, a topless Janet Jackson with a pair of male hands covering her and the last photograph session of John Lennon in which he is naked on a bed next to a fully clothed Yoko Ono. Most of the covers are simple photographs of everyone from Bob Dylan to Richard Nixon and even Dr. Hook who sang a song called "Cover Of The Rolling Stone", but they are some of the best works by the some of the best photographers in business like Annie Leibovitz and Herb Ritts.

This book is a virtual history of American rock'n'roll. Each cover says something about the times, such as the now rather melancholy shot of Nirvana, form early 1994, on the verge of a huge comeback, just months before Kurt Cobain shot himself, or Annie Leibovitz's moody 1971 study of John Lennon, then deeply into his Working Class Hero phase. Rock'n'roll stars compete for cover space with politicians and film stars, depending upon what the issue or the hot stuff of the day was - Warren Beatty and Jerry Falwell both feature in political and pop-cultural contexts (the shot of Beatty is from 1975, when he was promoting Shampoo, a film set just days before the Kennedy assassination) and the text is sprinkled with plenty of choice quotes form both camps, making this a book to be slowly savoured for its pictorial and historical content time and time again.

In the words of Mick Jagger to Rolling Stone, "You set the tone of a magazine by the cover - that's very important". He is correct. From issue #1 of Nov. 1967, John Lennon launches Rolling Stone in war garb and continues to grace more covers with and without the Beatles. "The Complete Covers" is a time machine of photographs (most from acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz) reminding us of the issues that we faced and the climate of the music. We can watch our rock heroes get older with us and witness the new birth of music groups over again. Politics are always included at critical time periods and, of course, our more liberal movie stars are here to set another kind of tome for the period. Although ending in 1997 with the cover of 'Women In Rock', you can bet that Rolling Stone gives us another in 2027. Enjoy!

One Magazine that has covered Pop Culture for so long.while Rolling Stone has Been as Lame as MTV for almost a Decade now in it's past Glory the Covers were as Interesting as the Story's that were being told.Music & Pop History on display here.I Like TO Remember when Rolling Stone actually Kinda Mattered.

This book was one of School Library Journal's Best Adult Books for Young Adults 1998. It was originally reviewed in SLJ in August of 1998.