Best and worst album covers
mik...@freewwweb.com
old albums with very unusual covers:
- can't remember the artist but this cover is a picture of a harp from a
very strange angle- It looks so strange I had to look at for several
minutes to even guess what the thing was. One of the most unusual covers
in all of classical music. No doubt about it. Is it good or is it bad?
It's bad. Very bad.
- the "I Love Tchaikovsky" LP cover from Capital records. This cover
shows four pictures of a cute blonde at the beach wearing a tee-shirt
with Tchaikovsky's picture and "I Love Tchaikovsky" on it. She is
sitting on the sand next to a portable record player listening to
Tchaikovsky. Behind her is a surfboard (upright in the sand) just
waiting to be used. I always take Tchaikovsky with me to the beach,
don't you? Is it good or is it bad? It's good. Very good. And
definately out of print.
Mike
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Greg Fernandez
<mik...@freewwweb.com> wrote in message news:7qbrcb$7bu$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> I know we had this discussion thread a few months back,
Sorry to have missed it. How far did you get into the Westminster Gold
catalogue?
> but I found two old albums with very unusual covers:
>
> - can't remember the artist but this cover is a picture of a harp from a
> very strange angle- It looks so strange I had to look at for several
> minutes to even guess what the thing was. One of the most unusual covers
> in all of classical music. No doubt about it. Is it good or is it bad?
> It's bad. Very bad.
>
> - the "I Love Tchaikovsky" LP cover from Capital records. This cover
> shows four pictures of a cute blonde at the beach wearing a tee-shirt
> with Tchaikovsky's picture and "I Love Tchaikovsky" on it. She is
> sitting on the sand next to a portable record player listening to
> Tchaikovsky. Behind her is a surfboard (upright in the sand) just
> waiting to be used. I always take Tchaikovsky with me to the beach,
> don't you? Is it good or is it bad? It's good. Very good. And
> definately out of print.
>
> Mike
I have a friend named Lon who found an album of Jayne Mansfield reading
Shakespeare to the music of Tchaikovsky. He tells me Will & Peter ogle her
on the cover. He also supposes Peter was more interested in her mink.
Good Cue Sign
Greg Fernandez
Richard Schultz
: I know we had this discussion thread a few months back, but I found two
: old albums with very unusual covers:
I came across a recording of Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette which, as a
two-record set, had a fold-out cover (i.e. the picture continued onto
the back). When you unfold it, you get a picture of two reclining models:
a woman in front, naked and lying on her stomach, posed to obscure her
naughty bits. And in back, there is a man (also posed to hide his
naughty bits), naked except for a pair of black socks. I don't know
if that's good or bad, but it's certainly eye-catching. At least the
black socks are.
-----
Richard Schultz sch...@mail.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry tel: 972-3-531-8065
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel fax: 972-3-535-1250
-----
Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed.
They've dragged her to the bushes, and now she's being stabbed.
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain.
But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game.
Matthew B. Tepper
pondered what I'm pondering as follows...
>
>mik...@freewwweb.com wrote:
>: I know we had this discussion thread a few months back, but I found
>: two old albums with very unusual covers:
>
>I came across a recording of Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette which, as a
>two-record set, had a fold-out cover (i.e. the picture continued onto
>the back). When you unfold it, you get a picture of two reclining
>models: a woman in front, naked and lying on her stomach, posed to
>obscure her naughty bits. And in back, there is a man (also posed to
>hide his naughty bits), naked except for a pair of black socks. I
>don't know if that's good or bad, but it's certainly eye-catching. At
>least the black socks are.
That's the Monteux recording on Westminster Gold, and it's one of my
all-time favorite covers. Note also that the woman's bare bottom is
visible, and that you can see that she has tan lines from wearing a
bathing suit. That for me is as much of a visual "punch line" as the
guy's black socks.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/index.htm
My main music page --- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/berlioz.htm
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
"Compassionate Conservatism?" * "Tight Slacks?" * "Jumbo Shrimp?"
Richard Schultz
: That's the Monteux recording on Westminster Gold, and it's one of my
: all-time favorite covers. Note also that the woman's bare bottom is
: visible, and that you can see that she has tan lines from wearing a
: bathing suit. That for me is as much of a visual "punch line" as the
: guy's black socks.
Now that you mention it, it is probably more likely that Romeo wore
black socks than that Juliet hung around the beach working on her tan.
Did Olivia Hussey have tan lines? (Or has that scene been excised
since it's probably child pornography by today's standards?)
-----
Richard Schultz sch...@mail.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry tel: 972-3-531-8065
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel fax: 972-3-535-1250
-----
"You go on playing Bach your way, and I'll go on playing him *his* way."
-- Wanda Landowska
Jaime Jean
work I'm hearing for the first time is often influenced by the album cover.
I can't help linking the album cover, no matter how good or bad, to the
music, and in some cases this has happened for years, so the colors or
general mood on the album cover is deeply rooted in my perception of that
piece of music.
I still think of horses when listening to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies (re:
Roberto Szidon on DG), a female praying shadow when listening to Gorécki's 3
(Zinman), or flowers when listening to Schubert's Impromptus (Kempff on DG).
I often wish all album covers were a neutral color with no art, only the
needed information about the album. I'd be left without some good artwork,
but I couldn't care less.
Jaime
Matthew B. Tepper
were, I imagine that my favorite recordings would be Monteux' Berlioz' _Roméo
et Juliette_, Maazel's EMI Ravel collection including "Bolero," an Abbado DGG
issue with Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy," Ansermet's "Scheherazade" (when I was
feeling old-fashioned, anyway) ... and probably a Blind Faith album and a few
by Robert Palmer.
In article <rss0k4...@corp.supernews.com>, jj...@data.net.mx pondered what
I'm pondering as follows...
>
--
mik...@freewwweb.com
duo I've ever seen:
"Hindemith: Das Marienleben"
Roxolana Roslak, soprano
Glenn Gould, piano
Columbia Masterworks M2 34597 (2 LP set, 1978)
This cover is a beautiful life-size faces only photo of this duo.
Roxolana is THE most beautiful woman to ever appear on an album cover.
Stunningly beautiful. Forget all those other ladies who are half
naked, etc.. This is a stunning LIFE-SIZE photo close up (faces
only). But I think this photo is only on the original 1978 LP set and
not on the CD release. Roxolana won a Juno Award for this performance
of Hidemith's atonal song cycle. Gould looks fine too, ladies. There
are not too many male/female duo covers out there, and even fewer of
life-size faces only.
Just for the cover only, this is a must find collector's item.
Lawrence H. Robins
as "good" or "bad". Most classical CD covers that I know of
show a tasteful landscape, still life, or portrait/photo of
the composer/conductor/performer - inoffensive and forgettable.
Probably coincides perfectly with the typical record company
executive's concept of classical music :-(
Here are some covers that I rate above average:
Performer/composer portraits
1. Mozart Piano Conc. 10+19+20, Argerich/Rabinovitch,
Teldec 4509-98407
photo of the two performers, just sitting on a couch,
conveys a strong sense of their personalities
2. Haydn Symphonies 88+92, Bernstein/VPO, DG 413777
"Bernstein x 16", 16 views of the conductor at work
3. Copland Sym. 3 + Quiet City, Bernstein/NYPO, DG 419170
excellent photo of Copland (with Berstein?)
4. Dvorak Sym. 8+9, Kubelik/BPO, DG Originals 447412
Kubelik standing, placed against an urban skyline (I
would assume Berlin) to make him look "larger than life".
A giant among conductors, indeed...
5. Beethoven Sonatas 3+4+27, S. Richter, Olympia 336
An impressionist-style portrait of Richter, in profile,
leaning over the piano
Pictures related in some way to the music
1. Handel, Water Music, Pinnock/English Concert/Archiv 410525
Poseidon driving his chariot, rising from the sea
2. Martinu, Sym. 1 + Double Conc., Belohlavek/CPO, Chandos 8950
A photo of a Prague street scene, but "posterized" to look
like some visual art of the 1930s
3. Shostavich, Sym. 5, Haitink/Concertgebouw, London 410-017
Painting specially done to convey the spirit of the work
(according to the liner notes) - looks like objects and
people being mangled by some earthquake or calamity
4. Stravinsky, Firebird, Dutoit/Montreal, London 414409
Surrealistic view of the Firebird her/itself, possibly
based on a photo of a ballerina in costume but altered
to appear magical and inhuman
p.s. "Jaime Jean" <jj...@data.net.mx> wrote:
> I often wish all album covers were a neutral color with no art, only the
> needed information about the album. I'd be left without some good artwork,
> but I couldn't care less.
Hmm, some people dislike covers with "character" just
as some object to (what they hear as) "perfomers imposing
their personality on the music" - obviously I don't agree.
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