Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years

What started in 1967 as an “underground” newspaper that embraced the hippie subculture while maintaining journalistic professionalism, Rolling Stone has long since become the authority on what’s relevant in music, entertainment and left-wing politics. And although Rolling Stone has made its share of mistakes with regards to its cover (read: Zack Efron, Fall Out Boy, King Kong, Borat, Avril Lavigne, The Rock, and the six-cover issue featuring ‘Nsync – and that’s just since 2000), it’s the cover that’s the coveted spot that often tells up-and-comers that they’ve arrived.

In 2007, Rolling Stone issued three unique issues that celebrated its 40 years of existence; and the issues must have been a smash because now the respected publication has released Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years. Cover to Cover is a simple, easy-to-use DVD-ROM that allows you to search its digital archives from the last 40 years.

You can easily navigate to the issue of your choice using the “cover flow” type of technology or you can narrow your search by selecting a specific year. Once you’ve found the issue you want, call up the table of contents and find the article you’ve been looking for. If Rolling Stone has a particular writer that you like, you can search for every piece he has written for the publication. While reading the article (which appears on your screen as if you had a hardcopy issue spread out in front of you), you can easily zoom in and out to make reading easier.

Essentially, Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years is your tour guide to the last 40 years of rock, pop, counterculture, and politics. So if you want to read timely articles about the death of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain or Saddam Hussein, or if you want to read about the cultural climate during every presidential campaign year since 1967, or if you just want to look at the charts and read the new release blurbs, then Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years is a must-have.

So, what else is inside Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years? Well, you get every issue up to and including 1026 and 98,000 articles appearing as they did when originally published. You also get a 208-page coffee table book that’s filled with photos that tell the tale of Rolling Stone’s history. They even threw in a one-year subscription.