I’m back after a fine Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of good food and football and family time. I didn’t make it to my local shop for Record Store Day Black Friday, the first one I missed since the concept of Record Store Day was invented. Nothing too compelling on the list of RSDBF releases, especially with so many titles being delayed or cancelled due to production issues (looking at you, Adele). I finally made it there three days late and found a Rolling Stones limited RSD release from 2019 that I had missed out on sitting in the bins. A holiday miracle, for sure.
After such a delightful break, I’m in the mood to throw out something fun today. The one thing vinyl records have to offer that no other music delivery format will ever improve on is album cover art. 12 ½" squares of high-quality printing on laminated card stock, with lyric sheets and album credits. They're really easy to fall in love with for the music-obsessed, and hard (impossible?) to give up for tiny CD inserts and phone images. So, let’s just take a moment to enjoy a few.
I’m pulling a few favorite examples from my own collection just to drive that point home for the unconvinced. This time, I’m sticking exclusively to art and illustration. I’ll likely do this again for photography somewhere down the road, but for now, enjoy, and be reminded that vinyl is king.
• Grateful Dead, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, 4/25/77 – The theme is turtles. More specifically, terrapins. What’s the difference you may be asking? Depends on where they live, I discovered. Technically, turtles live in salt water and terrapins in fresh. Tortoises are exclusively land-based, by the way. That’s today’s Google moment, folks, hope it helped.
Terrapin Station is a much beloved Dead album, with a long title suite made up of interconnecting musical segments. It was a huge favorite of the Deadheads when the band played the whole thing live, but more often than not the Dead only played pieces of it during their shows. It was considered a cosmic event among the faithful when they played the whole thing. This live release from New Jersey circa 1977 includes the whole suite and was considered quite a Deadhead special event when it was released on Record Store Day a handful of years ago. The band went all-out on the packaging and hired cartoonist Tony Millionaire to create the fabulous cover illustration. Tony’s the creator of the Maakies and Sock Monkey comic strips, featuring nasty people, nastier animals, liquor, and guns. And they are funny as hell. Millionaire’s The Drinky Crow Show was a hit cartoon on Adult Swim for a while, and SNL would occasionally toss in an animated Maakies short back in the day. The Grateful Dead cover is a brilliant example of his reverence for the band and his surreal (comic) world view.
EYEWORM: A short video sample of the insane world of Tony Millionaire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB-0NsZNXvo&list=PLedflAfnnzWYL4ojNcSde10OiPnueouT5
• The Joe Jackson Band, Beat Crazy – Illustrator and music video director Willy Smax was hired for this one. I did some googling, found out he had some impressive music video work on his resume, including The Traveling Wilburys and George Harrison. I also found he had something of a career in the U.K. as a children’s book author and illustrator, responsible for the entirely derivative and short-lived Benny the Tow Truck series. The look of absolute pandemonium he captured on the cover of Beat Crazy has been a favorite of mine for decades. I love the way the woman at the center is so caught up in the excitement that her hands fly off, while the bongo player’s arms are moving so fast, they look like decorative fans. A shoe is lost, a martini is sailing through the air, and the cat and mouse look to be having a whale of a time. Everything is in such vivid motion the scene almost animates itself.
EARWORM: The Joe Jackson Band, “Beat Crazy” (1980) – The song you hear in your head while looking at the riotous cover art.
• Willie Nelson, That’s Life - Willie’s Frank Sinatra tribute album. His second one, actually, he had released My Way a few years earlier. Old-school pop songs, string arrangements, some tasteful horns, all recorded in the same Capitol studio where Frank used to work. The decision was made to use a hand-painted, melancholy cover, just like some of the classic Sinatra LPs, specifically, the iconic In the Wee Small Hours. Enter Salt Lake City illustrator Paul Mann, who’s made a very successful career out of replicating that throwback style on book jackets and movie posters. His poster recreations for the Sean Connery Bond films and Raiders of the Lost Ark series have been licensed and sold by the studios, and his series of paintings of scenes from The Mandalorian were warmly embraced by Lucasfilm, with the original paintings selling for thousands. He was the perfect choice to set Willie in the Sinatra timeline.
EYEWORM: Wille Nelson, “That’s Life” (2021) – A real treat, the music video uses the title song as accompaniment to Mr. Mann working on the cover painting.
• The City Champs, Luna ‘68 – I looked up who was responsible for such a delightfully trippy cover, only to find that very little information is available. It’s credited to “sØlar surreal collage.” I’m not even sure if that’s one person or a team, the social media accounts are as obtuse as the artwork. I swear I don’t know how you’d hire sØlar surreal collage if you were of a mind. The music itself is appropriately out-there, made by three first-call Memphis studio musicians – guitar, organ, and drums – who enjoy getting together every once in a while to make some funky, jazzy, spacy instrumental music. Trust me when I say the cover art fits the sounds within perfectly, just don’t ask me to hook you up with the artist(s).
EARWORM: The City Champs, “Mack Lean” (2021) – A perfect introduction to their slippery, funky jazziness. Or jazzy funkiness.
• Neko Case, The Tigers Have Spoken – This one was a pleasant surprise. I’ve owned Neko’s excellent live album since it was first released on CD back in the day. It was a must-have when I was building the vinyl collection back to its former glory. I’ve admired the cover art since I first laid eyes on it. A lovely graphite drawing showing some real expertise with the medium. Subtle shading variations, expressive linework, an excellent feel for contrast, with a skewed sense of humor, to boot. I didn’t know until I looked it up for this post that Ms. Case herself is the artist. I think I'm in love.
EARWORM: Neko Case, “Soulful Shade of Blue” (2004) – Neko and her backup band, the excellent Sadies, offer a superb cover of a Buffy Sainte-Marie gem.
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