I’m re-posting this great blog from famed Classic Rock radio consultants Fred & Paul Jacobs. After roughly 30+ years of dealing with tiny microscopic cassette boxes, cold plastic CD jewel cases and now NO COVER ART AT ALL (thanks to very impersonal, intangible digital audio downloads), the tangible album cover seems to finally be making a comeback with today’s young generation!!
Remembering back…What kind of effect did the vinyl album with album art have on you growing up? What do you think of the “no liner note” era we’ve had to deal with lately? What are some of your favorite album covers of all-time? Let me hear from ya!!
And thanks for the memories Mr. & Mr. Jacobs!!
Final Vinyl?
Last month, the Rock family lost an important person in the history of the genre – and chances are, you never heard of him. But you are sure familiar with his work.
Strom Thorgerson, the guy who designed album covers like Dark Side of the Moon and other iconic LPs from Pink Floyd, 10cc, Zeppelin (Houses of the Holy), Genesis (A Trick of the Tail), and many others. His company, Hipgnosis, designed hundreds of album covers, elevating that genre to a true art form.
At one time, I owned a coffee table book of Hipgnosis album art and spent hours looking over those amazing covers. Album covers are a lost art. During their heyday in the ‘60s and ‘70s, they allowed fans to become closer to the music and the vision of the musicians in ways that CD jewel cases, websites and Facebook fan pages cannot.
From song lyrics to art to pictures to credits, great album artwork revealed a very different side of the music. Listening to music was a more focused activity. Instead of shuffling from one band, genre, or style to another – and back again – the process of listening to an entire album was different. It provided the time to sit down, look at the front, back, and in some cases the inside, while you discovered and enjoyed the music – and what went into it. And it was designers like Thorgerson who provided their own interesting interpretations of the music with their art.
Notably, he was apparently not an easy craftsman to work with. On Floyd’s website, drummer Nick Mason wrote, “Scourge of management, record companies and album sleeve printers; champion of bands, music, great ideas and high, sometimes infuriatingly high, standards. Endlessly intellectual and questioning. Breathtakingly late for appointments and meetings, but once there, invaluable for his ideas, humor and friendship.”
When we think back to some of the most creative people we’ve ever worked with in radio, chances are they were a bit lacking in the social skills department. But you put up with that because you enjoy and benefit from their genius and talent.
Back to Thorgerson’s legacy, I could wax nostalgic about the demise of the vinyl record, but that would be a mistake. Because an interesting thing is happening – it’s called a revival. It turns out that vinyl sales soared 16% last year (CDs were down), and they were up 36% in 2011.
Something’s going on here as Boomers and their kids rediscover the lost art of LPs and the album artisans who designed their covers. Late last month, Record Story Day was celebrated for the sixth year, celebrating those cool, independent record stores where browsers love to discover music.
It was not lost on me that Thorgerson passed away close to the time that many music lovers and radio stations celebrated the 40th anniversary of Dark Side.
Like so many great artifacts of the past, albums aren’t going away. Something’s going on here, and it makes you wonder if books might not undergo the same phenomenon at some point.
While digital music is almost in our atmosphere, permeating every environment, website, and device, there is something charming, warm, and rich about albums. They feel good to the touch, and the experience of taking in the artwork from geniuses like Thorgerson is a reminder of just how seminal albums really were in the history of recorded music. And if you own a turntable, you know the simple pleasure of watching the tone arm sink into a vinyl groove, producing something musical and special.
Those who have hung onto their albums (like WCSX morning guy Ken Calvert’s record collection pictured above) know just how satisfying it can be to own hundreds or even thousands of these vinyl treasures. They are as important to the history of rock n’ roll as the music itself.
And an occasional pop or crackle is almost comforting to hear in a perfect, digital world.
(So what’s your favorite album cover?)