That History of Rock and Roll class that I mentioned in a previous blog required me to write a paper. We were to acquire the cover story of Rolling Stone Magazine that was released closest to my actual date of birth and compare it to the cover story of any magazine that was released in my birth month of this year. Upon perusing the archives of Rolling Stone, I found that Jim McMahon was the cover story. No, he wasn’t a musician or a strong political figure of the time. He was an athlete. The quarterback for the 1986 Super Bowl Champions, the Chicago Bears. Now, I have no problem against athletes but I became really annoyed after reading the article and coming to the conclusion that the only reason he was put on the cover was for his “Rock and Roll Lifestyle.” He rough-housed in public restaurants, drank himself silly, and purposely disobeyed Ditka’s rules. The magazine doesn’t even go into his skills. The only mention of anything of relevance to his job is that he was good at any sport he put his mind to when he was growing up and that after winning the Super Bowl, he was disappointed that it felt more like a job than an accomplishment. I suppose one could relate that to how some bands who tour their whole lives begin to feel like playing music is more of a chore than anything, but all this article does is focus on McMahon’s rock star attitude. For a magazine that started to expose its audience to the music and political issues of the day, I found it rather pointless that they chose McMahon for the cover. Maybe that’s just me, though. What do you think?
