Like a Rolling Stone

Posted: Feb 04, 2008

I simply could not believe my luck.

I was at Barnes and Noble, drinking a cup of coffee and reading various periodicals and surfing the web via the WI-FI. When I was leaving, I strolled past the sale tables at the front of the store and happened to glance down to see the Rolling Stone Cover to Cover boxed set, marked down to $19.95.

Now mind you, this is the set I hinted for like a mad man last Christmas with no luck. Maybe it’s because the thing retailed for almost a hundred bucks. Now it was less than a twenty. I snapped that sucker up.

See, I grew up with Rolling Stone magazine. The first issue came out when I was only ten years old. Of course I bought my first issue at the age of 16 in 1973.

Rolling Stone stoked the imagination of America's social revolutionaries and fueled the careers of brilliant writers like Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Lester Bangs, Crowe, P.J. O'Rourke and visionary photographers including Annie Leibovitz and Mark Seliger. During it’s prime, the magazine was the bomb.

Celebrating their 40th anniversary, Rolling Stone Cover to Cover is a DVD ROM-based, searchable digital archive of every issue of Rolling Stone magazine from 1967 to 2007.Over 98,000 searchable pages, exactly as they first appeared in print--every story, review, interview and even every ad. Wow.

The first thing I did was search for The Marshall Tucker Band. There were articles I never knew existed, including a fine positive review of their debut album by Mr. Lester Bangs. I searched for Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers (Cameron Crowe’s cover story is amazing, the very same one he fictionalized in the semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous) and Delaney and Bonnie. And I have only scratched the surface. There are countless Gonzo articles I need to read, and plenty of counter culture stuff from my childhood and teens.

The box set also comes with a photo-filled, 208–page page companion book providing a behind-the-scenes look at the magazines history, from the beginning to today. There’s even a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone included. That’s a $12.95 value. I could actually say the book only cost me nine bucks, since they allow you to get the $12.95 cash rather than subscribe to the magazine, and let’s face it, given the decline in quality during the past years, I’d rather have the green.

What a great research tool. I have to be careful though, I did a search for Billy Bob Thornton, which naturally led to a search for his ex Angelina Jolie, And when you start looking at pictures of Angie, time really seems to fly.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern
Buffalo