The History of Album Art(matthewstrom.com)
matthewstrom.com
The History of Album Art
https://matthewstrom.com/writing/album-art/
11 comments
Friend of mine is a retired, high-level music exec.
He has a story about the cover art for Their Greatest Hits (Eagles)[0].
The bird skull is sitting in what looks like "snow."
Apparently, that's what it was. After the shoot, they snorted it all.
[0] https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0566/5105/5295/files/eagle...
He has a story about the cover art for Their Greatest Hits (Eagles)[0].
The bird skull is sitting in what looks like "snow."
Apparently, that's what it was. After the shoot, they snorted it all.
[0] https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0566/5105/5295/files/eagle...
The artist says that's a common myth https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-the-eagles...
Thanks for clearing that up. Makes sense. I'll let him know.
Here is a book on the history of the best,
curated by Roger Dean: ( There are 3 volumes.. )
https://www.amazon.com/Album-Cover-Roger-Dean/dp/0061626953
https://www.amazon.com/Album-Cover-Roger-Dean/dp/0061626953
This is great and has a lot of early historical perspective that I had never seen chronicled before.
But it is necessarily limited in the amount of album covers it can feature from what many would consider to be their heyday, the 1950s through the 1970s.
If you just want to feast your eyes on a lot of great album covers from that period, pick up a copy of the "Album Cover Album" [1] or one of its six (!) follow-ups. Designers Storm Thorgerson (who worked with Pink Floyd) and Roger Dean (who worked with Yes) created these incredibly lush books, with album covers printed nice and large in vivid color, organized in a really insightfully thematic way. A bit more speedy than your average used book, but not by much. Highly recommended, good for hours of reverie.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5304267-album-cover-albu...
But it is necessarily limited in the amount of album covers it can feature from what many would consider to be their heyday, the 1950s through the 1970s.
If you just want to feast your eyes on a lot of great album covers from that period, pick up a copy of the "Album Cover Album" [1] or one of its six (!) follow-ups. Designers Storm Thorgerson (who worked with Pink Floyd) and Roger Dean (who worked with Yes) created these incredibly lush books, with album covers printed nice and large in vivid color, organized in a really insightfully thematic way. A bit more speedy than your average used book, but not by much. Highly recommended, good for hours of reverie.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5304267-album-cover-albu...
Thorgerson and Powell ran Hipgnosis, which made a large number of the craziest and most memorable covers of the 70s/80s, not just PF. There are only three days left to watch the great documentary that Anton Corbijn made about them: https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81721595
I have this book
https://biblio.co.uk/book/album-cover-album-book-record-jack...
And also a lot (well some - it’s a large book…) of the depicted albums.
I find it sad that cover art is reduced/dead due to 12” -> 120mm -> gone (LP -> CD -> mp3/streaming.
I really enjoy my covers for all the ‘old’ music I have.
Thank you Rockaway Records from where I bought > 1.000 vinyls when living is LA in ‘87…!
I find it sad that cover art is reduced/dead due to 12” -> 120mm -> gone (LP -> CD -> mp3/streaming.
I really enjoy my covers for all the ‘old’ music I have.
Thank you Rockaway Records from where I bought > 1.000 vinyls when living is LA in ‘87…!
Gotta admit: Yes's wild album covers drew me in so that their sound could get me hooked on Prog Rock so long ago. Creative album covers seem to be one of the many victims of today's single-focused and streaming-focused music landscape.
>> Roger Dean (who worked with Yes)
And Space Needle, https://store-us.rogerdean.com/products/space-needle-59x86cm....
And Space Needle, https://store-us.rogerdean.com/products/space-needle-59x86cm....
And Asia
Factory Records not even mentioned? Their cover art certainly charted a new aesthetic.
It's not dead yet. Since vinyl is profitable we'll still be seeing new album art for years to come.
"In the first half of 2023, vinyl records brought in 72% of all non-digital recorded music format revenues in the US."
"In the first half of 2023, vinyl records brought in 72% of all non-digital recorded music format revenues in the US."
So... With "digital" being slang for "not physical", are CDs part of the denominator?
Some time ago, someone here posted this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40795227
It was a "TIL" day, for me.
It was a "TIL" day, for me.
> In the early 1900s, ... Early vinyl records
Vinyl didn't come out until much later. In the early 1900s records were made from acetate, and could shatter.
Vinyl didn't come out until much later. In the early 1900s records were made from acetate, and could shatter.
My grandma had shellac records in storage, which we took out once.
From the article, in regards to Blakey, Monk, Bird, Dizzy, and Trane: “…because of their drinking, drug use, and frenetic schedules, labels wouldn’t work with them.”
Is this claim documented somewhere? (All but one of the footnote links are dead for me)
Is this claim documented somewhere? (All but one of the footnote links are dead for me)
author here! sorry for the broken footnote links, i fixed 'em.
There's a lot of documentation of those players' heroin and alcohol use. Miles Davis' autobiography has a list in it somewhere of all the players that were abusing substances; a lot of it had to do with their need to play gigs back-to-back through the night to make a living. As for the schedules, I think it was Miles' book, but I can't find it exactly ... because they played all night, and rehearsed early in the morning after the clubs closed, it was hard to keep a group on a predictable recording schedule. The majors wanted big names with well-known hit songs, and the loose ensemble nature, original compositions, and unpredictable improv of bebop was pretty much the opposite of commercially viable at the time.
Scott DeVeaux's The Birth of Beebop is a great source, too.
There's a lot of documentation of those players' heroin and alcohol use. Miles Davis' autobiography has a list in it somewhere of all the players that were abusing substances; a lot of it had to do with their need to play gigs back-to-back through the night to make a living. As for the schedules, I think it was Miles' book, but I can't find it exactly ... because they played all night, and rehearsed early in the morning after the clubs closed, it was hard to keep a group on a predictable recording schedule. The majors wanted big names with well-known hit songs, and the loose ensemble nature, original compositions, and unpredictable improv of bebop was pretty much the opposite of commercially viable at the time.
Scott DeVeaux's The Birth of Beebop is a great source, too.
I enjoyed the article, but I think this particular part is sloppy writing and connecting two things without proof. Despite substance abuse issues, it doesn't necessarily track that that's why majors avoided them. It could just as easily be because of these artists not being well known enough at the time. Or even other factors. If you're going to make such assertions about these people, I'd have the citations to back it up.
Plus, Bird had many labels release his music, including Savoy, Columbia, and Mercury. Dizzy was notoriously straight-laced, especially because of what happened to Bird. He lectured musicians about this all the time. He also preferred dealing with independent labels as opposed to the majors (although Bluebird was a subsidiary of RCA).
I know you don't include Miles in the list of people that labels avoided, but he didn't exactly have a reputation of being easy to deal with, and he signed with Columbia in 1955.
As for Trane, if I recall correctly, he was constantly panned by critics in the earlier years. He was signed to Atlantic in the late 50s before Giant Steps was released. They were certainly a major, no?
Plus, Bird had many labels release his music, including Savoy, Columbia, and Mercury. Dizzy was notoriously straight-laced, especially because of what happened to Bird. He lectured musicians about this all the time. He also preferred dealing with independent labels as opposed to the majors (although Bluebird was a subsidiary of RCA).
I know you don't include Miles in the list of people that labels avoided, but he didn't exactly have a reputation of being easy to deal with, and he signed with Columbia in 1955.
As for Trane, if I recall correctly, he was constantly panned by critics in the earlier years. He was signed to Atlantic in the late 50s before Giant Steps was released. They were certainly a major, no?
There's also a full documentary movie "The Cover Story" by Eric Christensen that is pretty interesting, if long and redundant in parts.
I'll just leave this here... https://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/back-again-in-the-dhss/dickie-...
https://ecmrecords.com/
Also Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson of Hypgnosis, who created a long line of definitive covers for artists from the 70s and 80s, including Pink Floyd. (I met Thorgerson once. He was notorious for being a complete arse - and so it proved. Unique talent though.)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/hipgnosis-lif...
And of course Factory Records and Pete Saville, especially this infamous classic "sample" from an astronomy paper.
https://f.media-amazon.com/images/I/81T-loBJ40L._SL1291_.jpg