Dr John Wallace looks at a book detailing the history of the most influential magazine in pop culture, Rolling Stone, which doubles as a history of the culture of recent times
A fascinating book, Rolling Stone, 1000 Covers, is not just about the evolution of a magazine, but about the evolution of the culture of our times. The work is illustrated with a complete collection of 1,000 Rolling Stone covers from 1967 to the present day.
Everyone who is anyone has, at some time, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The lead singer of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, has been on the cover 27 times so far and he still holds the all-time record.
It all began in November 1967, when editor Jann S. Wenner had the idea of reporting on rock and roll, but this time, treating the subjects involved with intelligence and respect.
Initially, he did not understand the importance of the cover and all the things that it could do. A cover, he soon realised, defines a magazine’s identity. It also determines the magazine’s sales and even confers a special status on the cover subject and artist.
The covers of Rolling Stone may have been odd, but they have always been powerful and adventurous, such as the 2003 cover with Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, entitled Double Trouble.
h4. Eric Clapton
In the early 1960s, there was no rock photography as such, though mainstream photographers like David Bailey, Lord Snowden and Cecil Beaton had shot the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. But even this had not happened yet in San Francisco or New York.
Once serious music photographers came on board, they quickly distinguished the magazine’s identity. These pop photographers knew their music and also the bands. Consequently, they produced clean, well-composed, insightful photography.
The staff of Rolling Stone then selected various striking images from what photographs were on hand and used them for the covers.
The book is a celebration of four decades at the heart of popular culture. The covers had to be honest and authentic. They have featured poets and presidents, outsiders and insiders. Magazine-making is a collaborative art. It all depended on the photographers, art directors, photo editors and the cover subjects themselves.
‘Rock and roll’ means more than just the music. It is also about books, movies and people, not just simply records that are labelled ‘rock and roll’. The magazine is about change, the ability to see it – and also to live with it.
The Beatles’ John Lennon was on the first cover, a marriage of music, movies and politics. Later, the editors began to use images like that of Eric Clapton, shot specifically for the magazine by photographers like Linda Eastman. She later married the Beatles’ Paul McCartney and was the first woman to shoot a Rolling Stone cover.
h4. Jimi Hendrix
When Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix died within weeks of each other in 1970, the covers contained simple, classic portraits, with the type just stating the artist’s name and date of birth. The magazine aimed for dignity and respect, and there was nothing more that had to be said.
The first commissioned cover portrait was also used in 1970: that of John Lennon by photographer Annie Leibovitz. The shot had humanity, simplicity and truth.
After this, the covers for Rolling Stone were portraits and, until 1973, they were all in black and white. After that, the images got bigger and moved into the world of illustration and ‘concept covers’.
The publication was now defined not just by how it read, but how it looked. This, in turn, depended very much on the photography that gave the magazine its unique personality and depth.The cover gave the magazine legitimacy and credibility and in 1974, the cover got a sparer, poster-type look. Annie Leibovitz, a regular photographer at the magazine, took the famous portrait photo of Brian Wilson, founder of the Beach Boys, when he emerged after years of ‘internal exile’ in his bedroom. She did 143 covers and left in 1983.
On 8 December 1980, John Lennon met with Annie Leibovitz and chose an image that he liked. That night he was assassinated outside his home. This cover was the last portrait taken of him.Richard Avedon, with his formal style of working, came on board in 1976 and thereafter he and David Bailey shot many of the covers. They continued to produce high-gloss, vivid images that captured the spirit of the age. Events and personalities were shot for the cover by some of the world’s finest photographers and many of the images were controversial.
h4. Coverage
The coverage inside the magazine was often highly personal and lively, and the cover was usually linked to the prestigious Rolling Stone interview contained in the body of the magazine. According Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards, the Beatles’ George Harrison was a guy who always looked for the best in people.
The former Beatle was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997. It spread quickly to his lungs and brain.
By autumn 2001, he had travelled the world, to various clinics, desperate to save his life. Viewing his imminent death, he said that this life was transient and that “every human soul is on a journey to perfection”. He discovered Eastern religion in the mid-1960s and his faith had never wavered. Rolling Stone reported that his favourite saying was: ‘Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait.’
h4. Bob Dylan
The interviews have yielded insights into the thinking of different artists and personalities. According to Bob Dylan, in a 1978 interview, rock and roll ended in 1959 with the break-up of Little Anthony and the Imperials!
Mick Jagger in an interview disclosed: “It’s awful to be the centre of attention. It makes you a child.” Bruce Springsteen was concerned with the morality of his concerts in his interview. “There is a certain morality to the show and it’s very strict,” he confided.
Johnny Carson, the American television presenter, told the interviewer in 1978: “I wondered if there is a certain moment of self-esteem or self-worth upon which you build every other experience. “A lot of people don’t have a capacity for happiness, but I’m getting better at it all the time.” He was shy with two people, but not with 50,000 people.
The magazine first came out in 1967, the same year as the Beatles’ album, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. It started in a loft above a printer in San Francisco and became one of the world’s leading publications. Stars with an IRish connection such as Bono, Elvis Costello, Boy George and Sinead O’Connor have all featured on the cover.
More recently Gwen Stefani, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Heath Ledger and Kiefer Sutherland have been featured. In the early 1970s, Dr Hook and The Medicine Show had a big success with their single, On the Cover of the Rolling Stone. The lyrics dealt with the difficulties involved in getting their picture on the cover of the prestigious magazine. In March 1973, to their surprise, they achieved their ambition.
John Wallace is a medical doctor with an interest in photography.
About Gary Culliton
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