What a picture. I pored over that collar bone so many times and the half human / half alien creature who possessed it. What was that mercurial-looking substance pooling there? It was about to drip down into the white space where the red and blue lettering of the album's strange title was placed.
There was that, and also this.
The chiselled faces staring out from the rocks became carved in my memory too. I didn't know about Mount Rushmore at 7 or 8 years old, but I could sing along to all the "ah ah" bits in 'Child In Time'..!
This one too.
Those slender, androgynous young men became so familiar, the same ones who were lovingly blue-tacked onto my sister's moss green and chocolate brown painted bedroom walls. For me the early '70s are connected now not just with the sounds but also the imagery from her record collection and the process of that particular form of osmosis must've begun. Album sleeve art seeping in, finding its way effortlessly into my pre-teen brain, with every intention of staying there for the long term.
Putting together the two puzzle posts last year (to identify album covers from a small snippet of artwork) got me thinking about it some more. How come we recognise so many records, even those we've never owned? Neither I, nor anyone I've lived with, has ever had a copy of 'Tapestry', 'Hotel California' or 'Astral Weeks', for instance, but they're just so familiar. As I selected covers which I thought might work best I realised that they mainly (though not all) came from a time when vinyl was dominant, when the cover artwork was a vital component of the whole package and we knew nothing else. I guess these are sleeves many of us saw regularly even if we didn't want them, flicking past them as we rummaged through the racks in our favourite shops, perhaps time and time again, one finger flipping forward a Beach Boys perhaps to get to a Buzzcocks - or whatever your taste pursued. Or when looking around at the wall displays in a second-hand record emporium, searching through musty boot sale crates and jumbled up charity shop boxes.
Working in a record shop increased that for sure, but it goes back further. And I'd be hard pushed now to recognise as much album art from recent decades - certainly some, but I don't think as much has really stuck. Apart from perhaps only seeing them as small form CD inlays, far fewer of them have amassed the same history or had that ubiquitous presence like their predecessors.
As well as the ones I mentioned, others I became aware of early on had a degree of shock value at the time, like Hendrix's 'Electric Ladyland' and the Blind Faith album but many just had striking imagery which has lodged itself in the brain - 'Abraxas' by Santana, for instance, and King Crimson's 'In The Court of the Crimson King' - memorable artwork in its own right.
How about you? Which album covers have become permanently lodged in your memory, whether or not you own/owned them?
I'll be testing it out again soon! Hoping to compile another 'Covered Up' quiz next month.
Excellent topic.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of album covers I can think of but the one that has probably had the biggest impact in terms of my musical taste and education was '5000 Spirits or the Layers of The Onion' by the Incredible String Band.
I had never heard of them when I found a copy in a junk shop when I was about 16. I bought the record based purely on the cover but the contents blew my then tiny mind and I have been a devoted fan of them and their ilk ever since.
https://uk.rarevinyl.com/products/the-incredible-string-band-the-5000-spirits-or-the-layers-of-the-onion-uk-vinyl-lp-album-record-euk257-818569?pb=0&srsltid=AfmBOopelV2mzalYdSKkyUVUkbAY5IFtGwYBNV8oLAR3e5MtdeVjVC6q
Oh yes, I love that gorgeous psychy album artwork, and by the Fool too, I could just imagine it as one of their murals. It's great that you bought it on the strength of the art alone - quite a risk - and then had your mind blown by the music too; would have been such a shame if it had been a letdown! With a cover like that though at least you knew it was unlikely to be a selection of Morris dancing favourites...
DeleteIf that was what I was after I would have gone for this:
Deletehttps://mainlynorfolk.info/guvnor/records/morrison.html
Ooh, some well-respected and cool musicians on there - and a concertina of course - but I just can't get with the Morris dancing vibe! But if we see you wearing all white and brandishing a hankie and a wooden stick then your secret is out...
DeleteLondon Calling is obviously iconic but I have a softspot for Sweethart of the Rodeo by The Byrds
ReplyDeleteAgreed - two very different but memorable sleeves. I find it quite strange to think too that at the time of buying London Calling, seeing it for the first time, we simply had no idea that it would become so enduring and famous an image.
DeleteYou are so right, it's not just the early '70s songs that are lodged in our brains it's the album covers too. Why? I think there were probably less of them as there had only been a vinyl music industry really since the '50s. The really popular albums were owned by lots of people we knew (even if we didn't have them) and they were in record shops, and printed in our magazines. We must have seen those covers so many times over the years so definitely lodged in there.
ReplyDeleteLovely description from you of the mercury like substance on Aladdin Sane - don't think I had every really looked at it that closely before but beautiful.
There were album covers with extras too. I remember getting the new Bay City Rollers album Wish Upon A Star. It had tabs at the top for each Roller and you could pull each one out to find a card with their picture!
That's a really good point about how relatively young the music industry was then, I hadn't thought of that. And all those early shellac 78s that our parents and/or grandparents had came in brown paper sleeves. I suppose it was the sheet music then that was usually illustrated or decorative but not the music itself.
DeleteOoh, though I never got into the Rollers I love that idea of the album cover with the pull out tabs/cards! Hours of fun (until they tore perhaps? ...probably not made to last too long!) Very playful! I remember seeing the Jethro Tull album with a gatefold sleeve which opens up to reveal pop-up characters, really sweet. Love all that kind of stuff!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/JETHRO-TULL-stand-gatefold-centre/dp/B00QKNBI4I
Indeed, and in the '50s the 7-inch single ruled supreme so it would have been into the '60s before albums really took hold amongst the younger generation. I still have my mum's 78s and you are right they just came in brown paper sleeves, sometimes with the name of the record label but nothing else.
DeleteAu contraire, my Bay City Rollers album is still in pristine condition so stood up to the swooning over our favourite Rollers. Shared on my BCR post: https://jukeboxtimemachine.com/2018/04/18/alysons-archive-6-rollermania-and-me/
Love the Jethro Tull gatefold - make for pop-ups when you think of it.
Oh you've looked after that so well! I'm sure many others will have bitten the dust. Perhaps one day they'll be museum pieces - I love those kind of exhibitions. Have you ever visited The Museum of Brands on any of your trips to London? https://museumofbrands.com/ They have some pop culture archives like that which triggers lots of memories.
DeleteSorry - missed your reply! No I've not been there but sounds right up my street.
DeleteThe local Runrig exhibition is very good with all those memorable album covers (for me anyway) and the Rip It Up exhibition in Edinburgh was fantastic. Wrote about it on my blog - whole rooms dedicated to really familiar album covers.
https://jukeboxtimemachine.com/2018/08/23/reunions-raincoats-and-rock-pop-memorabilia/
I bought an album because I liked the cover so much. Moonflower by Santana. The 14 or 15 year old me was extremely disappointed with the double album inside. The 63 year old me still gets bored with it.
ReplyDeleteHi George - argh, I wonder what you were expecting just from the cover, perhaps something more prog?! It's a great image, shame about the rest, then!
DeleteOh! That excitement of actually buying an album rather than a 99p single. I had Rattus Norvegicus (Stranglers) as part of my decor for months
ReplyDeleteOh Belinda, yes, exactly! A very grown-up moment. I had Rattus Norvegicus too - only the second album I'd ever bought - and spent many moments just absorbing that very evocative cover image.
DeleteAladdin Sane is my sister's favourite album. I remember being rather scared by that image when I first encountered it in her vinyl collection as a kid.
ReplyDeleteThe one that immediately leaps to mind from my own record collection is the cover of Born In The USA. It's not his best record, but it's such an iconic image that perfectly sums up the character of that album and explains how it conquered the world in 1984. As an image (and a record), I prefer the cover of Born To Run - especially the way it opens out to reveal Clarence on the back cover. But it's not as iconic as BITUSA.
He was a bit scary to young eyes, that Bowie!
DeleteThat Springsteen album, yes, what you might call simple but effective, I think and definitely memorable. Plus it matched perfectly with the music within.
Love the sensory details in your writing: moss green and chocolate brown. Really elevates the description.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, album covers. So, so many. The sleeve of George Best by The Wedding Present is pretty iconic for a certain generation of indie kids. Ditto the ambiguity of Suede's eponymous debut. And The Smiths Hatful of Hollow has a sleeve I wore in t-shirt form for years and years. And what about Sound Affects by The Jam, or Stanley Road by solo Weller? Both of those could be rich sources for round three of your quiz.
Thanks Martin. My sister's bedroom walls were very of that time, as was the rest of our house. We had a dark purple stairwell, orange dining room and a mustard living room. Sooooo '70s!
DeleteAgree with your choices too. The only ones I've owned out of your list are the Suede debut and Stanley Road but I can picture the others instantly in my mind. They're just in there, presumably forever!
Nice ideas for a future quiz, thanks ( I think I already included Stanley Road in one of them- and that you also got it immediately!)
Superb post....one that strikes a chord with so many of us who are of a certain vintage!
ReplyDeleteYup...there are many hundreds of albums that I've never listened to far less owned whose covers are very familiar, thanks to the many hours spent in record shops etc over the decades.
I also think the art involved in 7" singles is often equally as memorable especially when there's no image of the band involved - for instance, you could remove all the text from any Buzzcocks single, and I'd still instantly recognise it.
Hi JC, good to see you and thanks! You're so right about 7" singles covers - I hadn't thought about that. I'm with you on Buzzcocks, and the same would go for Smiths picture sleeves. The imagery was such a huge part of the whole thing - even in small form.
DeleteWhat a wonderful read, C. And yes, like so many others, there are covers of albums embedded in my memory that I never owned and actively avoided!
ReplyDeleteIt will be no surprise that there are some artists whose work is inextricably linked with certain bands, labels and individuals and who had a lifelong impact on me.
Andy Dog/Johnson’s work with brother Matt & The The, so unique and evocative of the music within. James Marsh’s stunning creations for Talk Talk, especially The Colour Of Spring album & singles. Anton Corbijn’s photography for, well, pretty much everyone, but particularly Depeche Mode. And Vaughan Oliver’s era-defining art for 4AD.
No wonder we pored over the sleeve and jackets whilst the record was playing!
Thanks Khayem! Yes, Andy's covers for The The were so unique, they very much stay in the memory. I love Talk Talk's The Colour Of Spring artwork too, fantastic, and there are so many others, like you say the 4AD label artwork, and of course Factory...
DeleteGoing back further, those ones that just seeped in even though they were earlier and I wasn't into the bands are the Roger Dean and Hipgnosis covers. So much fantastic art there in connection with music - as you say, no wonder we pored over it all.