For those of you who don't know, back in the early 1970s the magazine Rolling Stone actually devoted itself to music. (Kinda like how MTV actually used to show music videos.) At that time, a musical act could get some serious sales traction from being featured in the magazine. (Today, of course, the magazine talks about everything.)
Rule Forty Two:
In 1972, cartoonist and songwriter Shel Silverstein visited Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show in the studio with a question: would they like to be on the cover of Rolling Stone? Since they were struggling for a hit, they said absolutely, although they couldn’t imagine how he would manage the trick. Silverstein then proceeded to play them “The Cover of Rolling Stone,” a complaint of jaded rock stars who haven’t yet achieved their dream of appearing on the front page of this publication...
So they recorded it.
The song became popular as kids like me listened to it. And guess what happened next?
Yes, that cover says "What's-Their-Names."
But wait - it gets better.
You'll recall that the original song includes a line that says, "Gonna buy five copies for my mother." Well, Rolling Stone was based in San Francisco at that time, so three members of the band went to Rolling Stone's offices to get those five copies. As Rule Forty Two notes, the band encountered a receptionist who apparently wasn't clued in to the music world.
“We were in full hippie regalia, with about thirty pounds of hair between the three of us,” Elswit said. “The receptionist didn’t know who we were or why we were there, and furthermore, didn’t much care. We were frostily informed that we could buy some from the dispenser machines downstairs."
At that point, someone with a clue showed up and gave the band members exactly five copies.
Dreams do come true.
P.S. If you haven't heard about MY album, go here.
Or listen to this. Not quite the rollicking fun of Dr. Hook, though.
