Daily Dose for August 6, 2007
By Cathy Heard, Web Content Developer and Graphic Designer for WXPN.
Bruce Warren is on vacation and will resume the Daily Dose Monday, August 13th.
Album Covers I Wish I Designed
The forced retirement of vinyl was one of the greatest tragedies dealt to graphic design’s marriage to pop music.
I tumbled into my career as a graphic artist with little training other than some computer savvy, an ok eye and solid bullsh*tting skills. And no degree. But looking back on my childhood, this choice makes a hell of a lot more sense. Now 32, vinyl was already dying when I was a kid. I started collecting music early on - age five or so - but I stopped acquiring vinyl between mid-elementary school and embracing music geekdom in high school.
But there were always my parents’ records. I used to stare at them for hours listening to, admittedly, hit or miss staples of my parents’ baby boomer youth and weird castoffs from my grandparents’ collections. I was fascinated by the dye cut, mix and match faces of the Mama & the Papa’s Papas & Mamas - where one could surreally substitute Mama Cass’s chin for Mama Michelle’s. I wanted to identify all the personalities on the cover of Sgt. Pepper. I gawked at the dated cheesecake of 50s-60s easy listening collections from Enoch Light & the Light Brigade, Martin Denny and Jackie Gleason (yes, that Jackie Gleason). And, of course, Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights is far more memorable for its cover art than its music - forever burned into the “brains” of men my father’s age. All sorts of art have made an impression on me, but album covers were the earliest. I wanted to have as much attitude as Debbie Harry on the cover of Parallel Lines. I peeked inside the tight jeans on Mick Jagger (actually a Warhol hanger-on, not Jagger) within Sticky Fingers, immaturely disturbed by the bulge, the tighty whiteys and the happy trail. Then there are the countless records I’ve bought in thrift stores strictly for the cover and the slim possibility the music would be as outlandish as the art.
For all the excitement of technology’s progress from vinyl to online music sharing, there’s nothing that can compete with vinyl’s power to sell and enhance the rock experience. I make no apologies for my luddite devotion to vinyl art. The art keeps shrinking! This is weird when you consider the long history of art school rejects that have achieved rock stardom (consider 60s/70s British rockers alone). A tiny thumbnail on iTunes is hardly an adequate substitute for gatefolds and the secrets herein. Granted, an all mp3 collection would free up space in my house and ease back strain schlepping music to DJ gigs. But eschewing vinyl would be akin to amputating one of my rock nerd limbs.
But railing against progress (my bread and butter, anyway) isn’t going to preserve the past. Honoring the classics is the best I can do. Tell me, what are your favorite covers?
My favorites:
The Rolling Stones - With the exception of Satanic Majesties Request, they used to have almost unerringly good taste - Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Some Girls, Exile on Main Street (with work by one of my favorite photographers - Robert Frank). The one major design blunder in this segment of their discography is the fact that the zipper from Sticky Fingers’ original pressing actually damaged the vinyl - right in the middle of “Sister Morphine”!
The Who - Sell Out and Who’s Next
Peter Saville’s work for Factory Records, some of the best design of the 80s.
Jazz covers, particularly the typography and iconic portraiture of Blue Note’s releases
Warhol’s early cover illustrations
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
The Go-Go’s - Beauty & the Beat - which immediately communicated the girlie fun, touch-in-cheek femininity, retro roots but new wave irreverence of the band
Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
Herb Alpert - Whipped Cream and Other Delights (and the ensuing parodies over the years)
Big Brother & the Holding Company aka Janis Joplin - Cheap Thrills - In a lot of ways R Crumb’s art is better than the album.
Patti Smith - Horses - Mapplethorpe’s portraiture was utterly starmaking
The Clash - London Calling
Sparks - Kimono My House
Frank Zappa - Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Beatles - Yesterday … and Today - the original, controversial cover - so utterly against their image but so disgustingly hilarious
Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power - photography by Mick Rock
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Bow Wow Wow - See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah! - Controversial recreation of Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass with 15-year-old lead singer Annabella Lwin. Malcolm McClaren. Always the consummate media manipulator.
Easy listening covers of the 60s
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast. Yeah… it’s “lowbrow” (whatever) but is there a better metal mascot than Eddie?
Links
“The Greatest”
Greatest Album Covers of the 70s
VH-1 Greatest Covers List
Grammy Award Winners
Best Metal Album Covers
Hip-Hop Covers
International Herald Tribute – Style & Design
Beck’s Favorites
Controversy!
Designers
Cover Collections and Ephemera
LP Cover Lover
Rock Town Hall: Album Covers That Made You Take the Plunge
Ear Farm
Gallery Exhibitions: Album Covers That Never Were
Trivia, Quizzes & Parodies
http://www.funtrivia.com/en/Music/Album-Covers-10564.html
http://mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php?q=73
Parody: Evil Corporations Ruin Classic Album Covers
General
http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/coverartlinks.html
Video
YouTube viral video of classic album covers attacking each other
Books
In the Groove: Vintage Record Graphics 1940-1960
For the Record: The Life and Work of Alex Steinweiss
In Search of the Lost Record: British Album Cover Art of 50’s to 80’s
Heavy Metal Thunder: Kick-Ass Cover Art from Kick-Ass Albums
This Ain’t No Disco: New Wave Album Covers
Vinyl Hayride: Country Music Album Covers 1947-1989
Even though the cover art form isn’t as widely embraced now in the online age (I’d even argue that the music video isn’t as inventive these days either), it still is great to see that there are plenty of artists that still take this very seriously and continue to drive their artistic vision not just through music, but in all other accompanying forms.
August 6th, 2007 at 2:44 pmBeing (slightly) older than you, I have a fairly extensive, and now somewhat obsolete, collection of vinyl albums. Yet as a young buck, I too had the cover of my father’s copy of Whipped Cream and Other Delights burned into my memory. But I do cherish many of my old albums for their artwork. While I have many personal favorites for reasons that wouldn’t apply to others (the album struck an emotional chord with me when it came out), and skipping some of the obvious classics, here are some of my top picks:
- Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick, for being entirely a newspaper spoof.
- Neil Young’s American Stars ‘N Bars, since it took me a while to figure out what the scene/perspective of the front cover was while… uh… in an altered state. (And when it came to me….. Like totally cool, man.)
- Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, for the different window combinations you could make.
- Led Zeppelin’s Presence, for the omnipresent object in retro scenes. Almost, but not as good as Wish You Were Here.
- Lynryd Skynyrd’s Street Survivors, the original with the flames around them. I got this just before the plane crash, and the cover art change. Foreshadowing?
- CSNY’s So Far, for Joni Mitchell’s artwork.
- Alan Parson’s Project’s Eve, for it’s eerie, if disconcerting, photo of beautiful women with flaws partially hidden by viels.
- Joe Walsh’s Barnstorm, because I just like the sepia-toned photo of the log cabin ruin. Evocative of the tone of the album.
- Monty Python’s Complete Record Collection (original release), which folded out into a box you could put on your shelf to create the appearance of just such a thing. Clever.
- Monty Python’s Another Monty Python Record, for using a Beethoven album and just scratching it out. Economical.
- Charlie’s No Second Chance. Okay, I was 13 and this was my version of my father’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights.
Thanks for giving me a reason to peruse through my old vinyl collection! It was a nice trip down memory lane.
August 6th, 2007 at 10:41 pmRE: Physical Graffiti.
That’s another fantastic example of the really incredible interactive things that could be done with vinyl art.
RE: Street Survivors.
Since I first saw this cover long after the plane crash, it always struck me as seriously creepy. Plus the song “That Smell” is also extra morbid in retrospect.
RE: Alan Parsons.
Wow. Art rock and prog rock covers should be another whole blog entry. Did you know Phil Hartman (of SNL fame) was a graphic designer who worked on some of these?
Thanks for reading!
August 7th, 2007 at 1:30 pm