Album covers that say "Buy me", or, why I miss 12" LP artwork!

There was a cover on an old DGG lp of Stavinsky's Rite of Spring that had ballet dancers lit by a deep green light and a huge eye behind them. I think the conductor was Michael Tilson Thomas. I must have listened to it once.

I also like George Harrison's Cloud Nine cover with him smiling and holding that black Gretsch Duo-Jet.

And John's Double Fantasy cover.

These covers only really grab me as 12 inch covers. CD covers suck in terms of visual impact.

Size does matter.

 

I just had an experience with a new, sealed "American Beauty" Lp. I've seen the CD a million times, fully aware of the stained glass cover. Well, I walked into a record store, glanced at the rack, and WOW! That's a magnificent, absolutely gorgeous, beautiful stained glass album cover! It didn't hit me until I saw it on Lp, so good, I thought about buying it just to frame.

 

It does bear noting that Nectar's restaurant is still in operation. But, it is not the same without the old Greek guy behind the counter. "A Picture Of Nectar" is Phish's best album, IMO. It's cool how Trey slowed down his vocal on "Chalkdust Torture", so he sounds more like Tommy Chong than himself!

 

Arlo Guthrie: "Running Down The Road"

 

Venusian Summer by Lenny White. Good music on it too.

 

Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon"

 

Matthew Sweet - "Girlfriend"

Had no idea who Matthew Sweet was and didn't care about his girlfriend, but that photo of Tuesday Weld did it for me.
On the backside of Forever Changes LP is a great photo of Arthur Lee that convinced me to buy that album even though I never heard of Love before. Sadly that photo is awol on the cd version.
On the other hand, it took me a long time to buy The Notorious Byrd Brothers, mainly because on the coverphoto the Byrds look like they starred in XXX-rated movies at the time.

 

The B52's first two albums!

The self titled debut album...

 

And the second one...

"Wild Planet"

 

Interesting note here is that Sweet had originally intended to title the album Nothing Lasts, but Weld didn't feel comfortable with the pairing of that title and the picture of her as a much younger, more physically beautiful woman (in other words, you may have had your beauty but nothing lasts).

Sweet was so enamored with the photo that he agreed to change the title of the album, and thus Girlfriend was born. I've never seen a copy of the album with the original title, but one of the early promo singles made a reference to it.

 

In the 60's and 70's I bought many albums based on covers and word of mouth.
Roxy Music
Gong - Flying Teapot
Hawkwind - DoReMi FaSoLaTiDo
Faust - 1st (if that xray hand clear record doesn't scream buy me, nothing does)

 

Radiohead - Hail To The Thief

 

Two other jazz labels had covers that made the purchase tempting.

Remember Verve's series of Stan Getz bossa nova albums that featured the abstract Albizu paintings on the jackets? I grew up fascinated by the copy of Getz/Gilberto due to that yellow and orange painting surrounded by the black border.

When Creed Taylor launched CTi as a label with A&M, the late Sam Antupit designed the covers: a large white border surrounding one of Pete Turner's abstract photos. Turner's photos are near legendary from being included on CTi albums throughout the years. Check out his website:

http://www.peteturner.com

I recall looking at some of the A&M innersleeves during the 60's and wondering what those albums were like. My mother owned Paul Desmond's Summertime which featured a Pete Turner photograph of icicles with sunlight behind them...very striking.

 

So "Buy Me" wasn't the exact message you got from that cover, eh?

 

My all-time favorite cover is "The Who Sell Out", especially Daltrey in a tub of baked beans. I bought it, having just read "Before I Get Old" by Dave Marsh, which mentioned how great the album was. I also enjoyed Dean Torrence's cover to "The Jan and Dean Anthology Album",which included a six-page booklet. It had an essay by Dave Marsh, which I still think is the only time a serious rock critic wrote about them. And The Beach Boys' "All Summer Long", in particular Al Jardine's tongue-in-cheek quote from his set of liner notes: "They say the life of a musician is glamorous: two hours of sleep a night and tranquilizers with every meal".

 

I guess I am the only person that keeps buying copies of "Hasten Down the Wind" by Linda Ronstadt! She gives the "No Secrets" Carly a bonafide run for the "frontal" money and hastens to not leave many secrets. Wow.

Bill

 

file:///C:/nikon-

I know what you mean Steve

[IMG]file:///C:/nikon-photo/Img0005/100NIKON/DSCN0074.JPG

 

Here's two albums has "Buy me, don't worry about the music" written all over

 

Bionic Boogie

 

This is for all you Pink Floyd fans(not album cover, jus a poster).

 

Woohoo...I could really go somewhere with that one! "____ Me"...just fill in your desired...umm....whatever there.

This cover was also parodied quite a few times. Soul Asylum had one called Clam Dip & Other Delights, and what was so delightful about this one is that even the liner notes on the back were parodied. (If you don't mind my shameless self promotion... http://www.tijuanabrass.com/tjb5.php3 toward the bottom of the page.)

There was also one called Spaghetti Sauce & Other Delights by a comedian (who was, of course, covered in a main course of spaghetti), and another called Sour Cream & Other Delights that had an old lady (or two?) on the cover.

Dolores Erickson (pregnant during that photo shoot!) was the lucky girl plastered on millions of album covers throughout the 60's. (And it's shaving cream, actually.) In recent years, there has been a guy driving around an old Chevy covered in dozens of covers of the TJB's Whipped Cream album...he enters the car in parades and even has a girl who sits on the hood who gives it the finishing touch.

 

That Jan and Dean lp is awesome (save for the rechanneled stuff - grrrrrr) - I sure wish Steve could get his mitts on that set and work some magic...

 

I thought Meat Loafs "Bat Out Of Hell' album cover was cool.

 

That one fueled this teenager's imagination for many a year!