April 29, 2017
"The 70 Best Magazine Covers of the '70s."
I doubt if these actually are the best, and the ranking seems haphazard, but I was in the mood to reminisce about magazines in the 1970s. Here, I picked out 4 to show you. Kind of working on a theme:
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Glaser's designs were okay but I think those of George Lois from the '60's were much better.
If #2 hadn't been on that list, I'd've said it was no list at all.
#2 and #10 are the only two I really remember.
The GQ cover.
Ungainly font: the letters are wearing bell-bottoms, practically.
Taut rope coming at you from the vicinity of the man's crotch.
The viewer is on the receiving end of the Good Life's Money Shot.
I am Laslo.
Obviously the rope extending from the man's crotch is a phallus, but what about the rope extending from the woman's crotch? It was the visual language of the 70s.
What about the absence of a phallus on naked Jack Nicholson and the whole body phallus of the Woman In Revolt?
Seems to me everybody's got a phallus except for the naked man.
Back in the 70s.
And the message is: Escape the 70s. Run back to the 40s. It's the only place you'll still have a phallus.
@MadisonMan
I'm sure you remember #31.
It should have been first.
Theme -- sex sells.
On the phallus topic, #12 makes my point better than the ones in the post.
#9 cuts the other way.
Okay, apparently that was really "70 best covers that weren't National Lampoon".
And, 72 Curtiss St, Hartford, CT (directly adjacent to Trinity College) has either been chopped into apartments since 1970 (which I doubt), or they trusted your mailman to be able to figure out which mailbox was whose back then ...
I don't remember #31 that as a Magazine cover per se -- and my parents were subscribers. But it was a Big Hit as a poster -- that I never really saw much 'til I got to the Midwest! That cover was when I was a Jr in High School -- probably wasn't really paying much attention to the New Yorker at that point -- except for the cartoons.
I'd say a Best Magazine covers of the 90s would have to include this one. In the top 10 at least.
Ann Althouse said..."Obviously the rope extending from the man's crotch is a phallus,.."
Burroughs referred to ejaculation as 'thin white rope' in "Naked Lunch."
Also, from Urban Dictionary: Rope of Cum:
Ejaculate that possesses the physical properties of rope upon departing the urethral opening.
I'm sticking with "Good Life's Money Shot."
I am Laslo.
Take that mom, dad, and the church. Stupid mom, dad and the church acquiesced due to Vietnam and segregation white guilt.
"Burroughs referred to ejaculation as 'thin white rope' in "Naked Lunch.""
Tangent:
"Thin White Rope" was taken as a name decades ago by one of my favorite bands. Feral Biker Band Desert Rock (before 'Desert Rock' became a thing.) It's OK.
God, I miss this band.
I am Laslo.
And, yes, they threw in a token at number 2 (National Lampoon). Your "theme", Professor does put me in mind of John Leo's "Take Me, Hurt Me, Smoke Me" (his analysis of those Newport's wacky, self-styled 'Alive with Pleasure' ad campaign from the 70s...
Unsurprisingly many of the best are from Life. Not edgy just powerful.
The happy 1940's? The second half perhaps, after the war ended.
#2 is the only one I remember. But that may have been because I was pretty young back then.
Lots of very New York-centric magazines, which also may have something to do with it (New York did not impinge on my consciousness much back in the 70's, except when it ran out of money).
Remarkable how amateurish much of that design looks now, like something your high school yearbook committee might reject as being too low quality.
"100 Reasons people like to look at numbered lists."
Oh yes, #31. How could I forget that? My parents were subscribers.
70's cover art, short course:
1. Funky typography
2. Naked women
3. Throw in some words
4. Profit!
53 mia farrow and the pearl necklace? C'mon Laslo you're slipping....
Esquire wins. Norman Rockwellian; the naughty years.
The National Lampoon one was the best magazine cover of the decade.
Their comment about it is a bit ridiculous:
"It sparked a lot of debate and conversation surrounding the media, animal rights, and more."
Animals rights? Did anybody think they really shot that dog? "And more?"
It was a hell of a funny cover. I don't remember anybody having solemn debates and conversation about it.
The "Women in Revolt" cover....the woman has arms like a Gibbon. What a freaky picture
The next one. Lady on a Swing. She needs to see a doctor about that spinal deformity. Scoliosis? perhaps.
They definitely left out two I specifically remember - The Jonestown Massacre cover from Time http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19781204,00.html which gave us "drinking the Kookaid" and the crucified Easter Bunny from Hustler https://www.amazon.com/Hustler-Adult-Magazine-April-Number/dp/B0015H3EFA.
Interview Magazine had many covers better than the ones shown.
"It sparked a lot of debate and conversation surrounding the media, animal rights, and more."
The commentary for each cover was clearly written by a 20-something intern with no idea of the context involved. In some cases I wonder if they even saw the cover.
Back then, when I read Mad Magazine, there were a few back covers that made an impact on me -- one depicting a junkie being crucified on a syringe, and a couple other drug abuse related images on other back covers.
Remember when we called opioid users "junkies"?
I remember 64, 53, 43 and 27. Mark Spitz swimming, Mia Farrow, Ski jumper and Cher!
I think Life and Time were the only magazines that my mom and dad subscribed to and I remember Mia Farrow because I thought she was an odd choice to play Daisy. I graduated from high school in 1970 and was certainly aware of what was going on around me so I remember the events shown on the covers but I don't remember those particular covers. I was also a big Olympics fan and would dream about the exotic locals and sports that I only knew about through exposure on Wide World of Sports.
Weasels ripped my flesh.
#2 should have been #1. #2 is on everybody's list of greatest magazine covers of all time. It's the Citizen Kane of magazine covers. #1 makes no sense.
(I wish there was a law that required keyboards to give the keyboardist an electric shock -- a stiff one -- every time the word "iconic" was typed.)
Only remember the Commies at War cover and, of course, the Heavy Metal covers. Great magazine and curiously difficult to find now.
Everybody else seemed to miss the theme: It's boobs, from the smallish set on the yacht and the woman in revolt, to the big bouncers on the swing, to the mid-sized pair on Jack.
What was it about 1970, anyway? Fully twenty of the seventy on this list are from 1970...nearly three times what would be expected (seven). Did everyone look at the calendar and say, "Yea, 1970! We can do whatever we want!"?
There's no MAD covers, so immediately disqualified.
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