George Corneliussen inspired this article with his terrific article:
When Records Ruled : Turntables
I started thinking about how wonderful it was to bring home that big square of cardboard, covered loosely in plastic wrap.
The bins at the record stores were usually wide and deep. You would have to flip through the albums, taking in the artwork as you did so, to find what you wanted.
CD covers, with their small size and teeny tiny print, just don't have the impact that LP covers do.
I have a lot of albums. My Technics turntable, which still sits in a place of honor on top of my stereo rack, has a thick coat of dust on it. The last time I used it, it also had a thick coat of dust on it, but now, so many months later, I can't see my finger prints any more.
I'm a bit reticent to play my old records. As I told George, LP's were a bit wasteful. You bought them, you played them to death (if you liked it) and your reward was a scratched old used up piece of vinyl. It's hard to find the records that I like and want so much to replace. Instead of playing them, I bought their CD analogs instead. The covers don't make me happy the way LP's used to, but, by golly, I can listen to them forever, right?
Now, with my iPod ruling the musical roost in my household, I have digital versions of most of the CD's that now live on this little device.
I made a film of these covers -- some are wonderful, some embarrassing -- set it to music, and have put hosted it for Gatherites to maybe enjoy.
Clicking here will take you to this film -- it's a Quicktime movie, and it might take a few minutes to load (unless you have fast internet access). But, looking through my collection is a peek into my brain and my background. Maybe you'll be scared...
Ah, an old fart reminisces...
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Comments: 22
The CDs are easy to store, but I don't stare at them for hours like I used to do with Yes covers, Traffic, Jethro Tull, or Rare Earth.
In ways that CDs don't have the ability to do, albums made use feel like we were part of the process and event, and the art on the album's jacket
( and somtimes inner sleeve) was the reward for our effort.
http://www.allfloyd.com/images/covers/moment.jpg
http://www.allfloyd.com/images/covers/darkside.jpg
Mystery to Me, Fleetwood Mac from the early 70s, shows the wise man trying to teach the gorilla, and the gorilla just at a chunk out of the corner of a book.
Mambo for Cats, Perez Prado mid- 50s, shows cats playing drums and instruments - all as if Picasso had drawn it.
Ma, Rare Earth late 70s, is not for the easily offended.
Here's the first in a series of articles I'm writing on how to get your music from your records onto CDs or iPods.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976753807
If anyone knows how to do it on Mac, please comment on mine or write your own article. My instructions are for Windows machines.
Fine article and I found your film very enjoyable as well.
I think many of us who became artists were first inspired by all the great album covers over the years. I have a number of them framed. The Cars album "Candy-O" by Alberto Vargas is one of my favorites. I also have a number of Warhol covers: "Sticky Fingers" by the Stones, the infamous Bananna cover for Velvet Underground and a rare Warhol cover done for Tennesee Williams in 1952 for a reading of "The Glass Menagerie."
It's one part of the vinyl era I truly miss.