UnderCovers

Why???

The cover photo of Rolling Stone magazine has long been held in high regard despite past covers featuring The Backstreet Boys with their pants around their ankles, Justin Bieber in a tank top, and Snooki on a rocket.  Even with those embarrassments in the catalogue, not many other magazines hold the cultural impact and the aspirations of countless musicians trying to grace this cover.  It’s so revered that there is a well-known song about being on the cover written by none other than Shel Silverstein.  You don’t see any dinette sets writing a tune about being on “The Cover of the Good Housekeeping”.

With my limited grasp on how quarter notes and whole notes become quarterly royalty checks and whole world tours, I figured it would be easier to recreate and sketch a few iconic RS covers, then to get myself on the cover of Rolling Stone for any of my own musical ability or fame. 

The naked John Lennon curled up next to a fully clothed Yoko Ono may very well be the most famous picture ever printed by Rolling Stone.  It has the back-story of being taken by one of the country’s most famous photographers (Annie Leibovitz), being a stunning and arresting photograph with no cover lines or type of any kind, and being taken in the last professional photo shoot of Lennon’s life.  He was shot and killed hours later. 

I took all the history and beauty in that photograph and sketched out my attempt at this cover shot.  If I’m being easy on myself, I did a pretty damn good job with this one.  Aside from the lopsided butt-cheeks and a few misshapen limbs, this drawing represents the photograph fairly well.  I honestly don’t have too much bad to say about my result here, aside from my apologies to Ms. Ono for accidentally giving her a semi-mustache and a squiggly hairline.

My apologies to the Lennon family for making his right butt-cheek look like a soggy flapjack.

I chose this cover because I love Rodney Dangerfield.  Just look at that face, how could you not laugh at any sound or sight that comes from that?  This is another photo by Annie Leibovitz, and I would love to hear an interview on how this photo came together.  I assume the concept of him whining like a baby was pre-planned, but I like to think either Rodney showed up with his own prop (a small diapered child) or they found this baby in the bottom of trunk full of umbrellas, hats, leather pants, babies, and other cover fodder. 

My recreation of this is completely terrifying.  Aside from the suit jacket I don’t think I got one thing right about the photo.  My Dangerfield looks less funny and more like an offspring of Andre the Giant and the chupacabra.  The baby in my drawing is drawn to scale, and by scale I mean representing a 4-foot tall toddler with gargantuan legs, a severely dislocated elbow, and a pinhead.  But I don’t know how to faithfully draw Dangerfield, I started laughing every time I thought about the Rappin’ Rodney video (posted below).

I must say I gave Mr. Dangerfield 'No Respect' with the drawing of this monster.

As a fan of Hunter S. Thompson’s work from Fear and Loathing, to Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, to his appearances like this on Conan, I had to attempt a Ralph Steadman illustrated cover on a Thompson story.  I knew that my artistic lack of consistency, clean lines, and logical body types wouldn’t factor in a Ralph Steadman cover because his style reminds the viewer of vomiting up a terrifying and beautiful acid flashback mixed with a Rorschach test.

Is this ad referencing Nirvana as the American public's enemy? Or has Public Enemy achieved nirvana through Buddhism? Or is it just a reference to separate stories on both groups Public Enemy and Nirvana?

Songs for Making the Cover of Rolling Stone

- "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" - Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show

- "Like a Rolling Stone" - Bob Dylan

- "Rip This Joint" - The Rolling Stones

- "Magazine Called Sunset" - Wilco

- "Rappin' Rodney" - Rodney Dangerfield