Déjà Vu All Over Again at Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone subscribers might momentarily feel like they're having a flashback this week when they receive their new issue. Wrapping the magazine is an ad for ABC's high concept 21st Century cop in the 1970s show, Life on Mars, which consists of a reprint of the magazine's March 29, 1973 cover and a two-page timeline of cultural landmarks from the year 1973.

As Boston.com's Viewer Discretion blogger Matthew Gilbert noted yesterday, the ad is "obviously a joke." What else can you call such a ridiculously dated cover, featuring as it does a Gerry Gersten cartoon of "Where are they now?" semi-hit wonders Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show?

The cover also sports perfectly dated cover lines like "How Jack Kerouac Hit the Road"; "The Day George Burns Met Alice Cooper"; and "Evel Knievel at the Demolition Derby."

Thankfully, when readers tear off the gag cover, they encounter the magazine's real cover, which features a cartoon of John McCain by Observer contributor Robert Grossman and very contemporary cover lines plugging Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, and Santana.