A wonderful update of previous books (and in 2007 a CD--ROM version) like 2001 with 728 covers and 2006 the thousandth cover book. Here are 1301 of them right up to November thirty, 2017. Rolling Stone is rightly considered the leading magazine about rock music and popular culture though as it was founded in 1967 it couldn't be said to have been around since the birth of rock.
As with the previous books founder Jann Wenner writes an interesting Introduction about the magazine and in particular the covers (and he's credited with the cover photo of Pete Towshend for issue eighteen back in September 1968) and various photographers and Art Directors. 1981 was a pivotal year for the publication, in the previous December Annie Leibovitz had taken the famous photo of John and Yoko on the same day that John was shot, the picture was used for the January twenty-second issue (and it's on the front of this book) the logo was changed to a slightly more flamboyant one, glossy paper replaced the untrimmed newsprint and the page dimension was reduced to the size RS is today.
The book is a treat to look through because it's not just beautifully reproduced covers but frequently short essays, long captions and quotes about issues of the day and the individuals on the covers who had something to say about music or pop culture. I always though the covers were particularly well designed, great photos but interesting cover-line typography that easily separated the magazine from others on a newsstand though these days over ninety percent of sales are subscription.
So, who took all these fascinating photos? The back of the book has a fourteen page photographer and illustrator index. Mark Seliger took the most starting in 1987 with a photo of Paul Simon and the last in the book of Elon Musk, 2017. Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts, Matthew Rolston and Albert Watson are the other frequently used photographers. Bob Grossman and Ralph Steadman did the most cover illustrations.
In these 760 pages you can see the history of rock pass before your eyes and it could well be a history of your musical life too.
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