Rolling Stone Rock Trivia

Rolling Stone Magazine has been around since 1967. It's still an important magazine for breaking political stories and for its profiles of, and interviews with, rock musicians. The magazine has gone through several changes over the decades, but continues to be very successful. Many now world famous individuals started with Rolling Stone, including photographer Annie Leibowitz; Writer Hunter S. Thompson was a major political writer for Rolling Stone (Johnny Depp's latest movie "The Rum Diary" was an adaptation of a novel written by the late gonzo journalist). Cameron Crowe, wrote and directed "Almost Famous" about his time as a Rolling Stone jornalist. Crowe also directed the films "Jerry Maguire", "Elizabethtown", "Vanilla Sky" and 2011's "We Bought A Zoo" starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. Joe Eszterhas was a longtime featured writer for Rolling Stone. His movie writing credits include "Flashdance", "Basic Instinct", "Nowhere To Run', "Showgirls" and his latest, "Lust", due to be released in 2012. Recently, the company published a book of trivia titled "Rolling Stone Rock Trivia". It's 120 pages with hundreds of questions spanning six decades of rock history. It's available at your favourite book or magazine store right now. This time out, I thought we'd quiz you with questions about Rolling Stone Magazine itself. They're all fairly easy, so give them a whirl.

QUESTIONS:

1. Which member of The Beatles was the first to have his picture featured on Rolling Stone Issue # 1?

2. Rolling Stone Magazine recently published a list of the Top 100 Guitarists of All Time. Who made # 1 on the list? (HINT: and not by the skin of his teeth either).

3. Who was the co-founder of Rolling Stone Magazine? He's still listed today as editor and publisher.

4. In What city did Rolling Stone originate? (HINT: It was the home to Flower Power and the hippie movement).

5. It was considered an important milestone in your career to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. One band, who at that point had NOT made the cover, recorded a hit song about it that debuted on the charts in late 1972. Can you name the song and the group?

ANSWERS:

1. Rolling Stone used a film still of John Lennon in his uniform as "Sergeant Gripweed" from Richard Lester's 1966 movie, How I Won The War" on the cover of Issue # 1 dated November 9, 1967. One of the most iconic Rolling Stone covers features a naked John Lennon wrapped around his wife Yoko Ono, who was clothed, for the issue dated January 22, 1981, a month and several weeks after Lennon had been shot and killed in New York City.

2. The # 1 Guitarist, according to the guitarists Rolling Stone Magazine polled, was Jimi Hendrix, who occasionally would play his guitar with his teeth. The rest of the Top Ten included Eric Clapton (#2), Jimmy Page (#3), Keith Richards (#4), Jeff Beck (#5), B.B. King (#6), Chuck Berry (#7), Eddie Van Halen (#8), Duane Allman (#9) and Pete Townshend (#10).

3. A young Jann Wenner (pronounced 'yawn') borrowed several thousand dollars from his family and founded Straight Arrow Publishers Inc with Rolling Stone Magazine as its first (and for many years, it's Only) publication. Jazz and pop music critic and writer Ralph J. Gleason was the co-founder. Gleason died in 1975. The company is now called Wenner Media Inc. and along with Rolling Stone Magazine, publishes US Weekly and Men's Journal magazines.

4. These days, Rolling Stone Magazine's headquarters are in New York City, but back in 1967, Jann Wenner and company launched the magazine from San Francisco. They moved to New York in 1977. Jann Wenner had been born in New York in January of 1946, but his family moved to San Francisco while Jann was still an infant.

5. Who could forget the lyrics to that 1973 Dr. Hook hit "The Cover of the Rolling Stone", a song written by humourist Shel Silverstein, a longtime contributor to Playboy Magazine. The song made it as far as # 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and Dr. Hook, although in caricature form, did make the cover of Rolling Stone on March 29, 1973. The cover copy read "What's-Their-Names Make The Cover".