Vinyl Record Jacket

Hipgnosis- Classic Album Cover Art

With the renewed interest in vinyl records, an old friend is becoming more important again- album cover art. There have been tens of thousands of album covers created throughout the years and there are some that are instantly recognized, while some remain obscure, but one thing is certain, album cover art is part of our pop culture and the rock and roll lexicon.

Let’s explore a particularly innovative British art design company that specialized in creating instantly recognizable album cover- Hipgnosis. This creative group has made album covers for some of rock’s dignitaries, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Yes and the Scorpions, to name a few.

Hipgnosis primarily consisted of artists Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and later on, Peter Christopherson. In 1968, Thorgerson and Powell were asked to design an album cover for Pink Floyd’s second album called “A Saucerful Of Secrets.” They completed that project and soon commissioned additional work from EMI, which included photos and album covers for Free, Toe Fat and the Gods.

Being art and film students, the pair was able to utilize the darkroom at the Royal College of Art, but after they graduated, they had to set up their own facilities and in early 1970 they rented a space and built their famous studio.

Their unique company name came from graffiti found on the door to their apartment. They liked the word because it sounded like hypnosis and they combined two somewhat contradictory terms, “hip” for new and cool and “gnosis,” which related to ancient learning.

Hipgnosis’ novel approach to album design was strongly photography-oriented, and they pioneered the use of many innovative visual and packaging techniques. In particular, Thorgerson & Powell’s surreal, elaborately manipulated photos that utilized innovative darkroom tricks, multiple exposures, airbrush retouching, and mechanical cut-and-paste techniques were a film-based forerunner of what would, much later, be called photoshopping.

”We were self-taught,” writes Powell in the book,” For The Love Of Vinyl.” “What we did was come up with ideas based on the music. The design ideas were poorly sketched in the early days and required a lot of accompanying blag to be understood. Our usual strategy was to talk the job through with each other and then use photography as a means to express it.”

Hipgnosis got their real big break in 1973 when they were hired to do the cover for another Pink Floyd album, “Dark Side Of The Moon,” which is one of the most recognized album covers in the world. After the success with the Floyd cover, they were in high demand and soon took on jobs for Led Zeppelin, Genesis, UFO, Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel and The Alan Parsons Project, to name a few.

Peter Christopherson joined the company in 1974 as an assistant and later on he became a full partner. The firm employed many talented assistants, of particular note were freelance artists George Hardie, Colin Elgie, Richard Manning and Richard Evans.

Another interesting side note is that the company did not have a set fee for designing a particular album cover, instead they asked the musicians to “pay what they thought it was worth,” a policy that would occasionally backfire according to Thorgerson.

Let’s explore some of the stories behind the album covers:

Pink Floyd- Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

Probably Hipgnosis’ most famous work, the album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and bore Hardie’s iconic refracting prism on the cover. Inside the LP were two posters, one bearing pictures of the band in concert with the words PINK FLOYD broken up and scattered about, and the other being a slightly psychedelic image of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken on infrared film. The album was also the first Pink Floyd album to have picture labels on the record where it depicted a blue prism with black background and the credits written either in grey lettering (European issues) or white lettering (US and Canadian issues). Also included was a sheet of stickers of the pyramids.

The album is the third best-selling album of all time worldwide (not counting compilations and various artists soundtracks), and the 20th-best-selling album in the United States. Though it held the #1 spot in the USA for only one week, it spent a total of 741 consecutive weeks-over fourteen years-on Billboard’s list of the top 200 best selling albums, longer than any other album in the history of music.

Led Zeppelin- Houses of The Holy (1973)

The concept for the cover was taken from Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End. It is a collage of several photographs which were taken at the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland, by Aubrey Powell. The two children who modeled for the cover were siblings Stefan and Samantha Gate. The photo shoot was a very frustrating affair and took ten days. Shooting was done first thing in the morning and at sunset in order to capture the light at dawn and dusk, but the desired effect was never achieved due to constant rain and clouds. The photos of the two children were taken in black and white and were multi-printed to create the effect of 11 individuals that can be seen on the album cover. The results of the shoot were less than satisfactory, but some accidental tinting effects in post-production created an unexpectedly striking album cover. The inner sleeve photograph was taken at Dunluce Castle near to the Causeway.

Jimmy Page has said that the album cover was actually the second version submitted by Hipgnosis. The first, by artist Storm Thorgerson, featured an electric green tennis court with a tennis racquet on it. The band was furious that Thorgerson was implying their music sounded like a “racket”, the band fired him and hired Powell in his place.

Atom Heart Mother- Pink Floyd (1970)

The original album cover depicts a cow standing in a pasture with no text or any other clue that it was an album from Pink Floyd, although some later editions have the title and artist name added to the cover. The concept was the group’s reaction to the psychedelic “space rock” imagery associated with Pink Floyd at the time; the band wanted to explore all sorts of music without being limited to a particular image or style of performance.

So the band requested that their new album cover have “something plain” on the cover, which ended up being the image of the cow. Storm Thorgerson, inspired by Andy Warhol’s famous “cow-wallpaper,” has stated that he simply drove out into a rural area near Potters Bar and photographed the first cow he saw. The cow’s owner identified her name as “Lulubelle III.” More cows appear on the back cover (again, with no text or titles), and on the inside gatefold. Again, an instantly recognizable cover, simple as it is.

Peter Gabriel (1980)

Peter Gabriel’s third album, it contains two of Gabriel’s most famous songs, the U.K. Top 10 hit “Games Without Frontiers” and the political song “Biko.”

This album is often referred to as “Melt” due to its cover photograph by Storm Thorgerson. The photo was taken with a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, and subsequently modified by Thorgerson or Gabriel, and one side of the portrait of Gabriel seems to be melting; although Thorgerson does not recall whether he or Gabriel manipulated the image.

…And Then There Were Three… Genesis (1978)

A rather gloomy and dark cover; it is one that Hipgnosis was not real keen on as Thorgerson explains:

”We were trying to tell a story by the traces left by the light trails. It was a torch, a car, and a man with a cigarette. The band was losing members and there were only three of them left. The lyrics of the songs were about comings and goings and we tried to describe this in photographic terms by using time-lapse. So there’s a car going off to one side and then the guy gets out of the car, walks over to the front of it, and lights a cigarette. But as he walks he uses a torch and the car he was in leaves. There’s a trail left by the car, a trail left by him as he’s walking and then he lights a cigarette, which on the cover is where there’s a flash of his face.”

Still, whether the company was happy with the result or not, it is another amazing cover.

In Through the Out Door- Led Zeppelin

This original album featured an unusual gimmick: the album had an outer sleeve which was made to look like a plain brown paper bag and the inner sleeve featured black and white line artwork which, if washed with a wet brush, would become permanently fully colored. There were six different sleeves featuring a different pair of photos and the external brown paper sleeve meant that it was impossible for record buyers to tell which sleeve they were getting. The pictures all depicted the same scene in a bar (in which a man burns a Dear John letter), and each photo was taken from the separate point of view of someone who appeared in the other photos. In 1980 the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package.

Storm Thorgerson recalls the design in his book “Eye of the Storm”:

”The sepia quality was meant to evoke a non-specific past and to allow the brushstroke across the middle to be better rendered in color and so make a contrast. This self same brushstroke was like the swish of a wiper across a wet windscreen, like a lick of fresh paint across a faded surface, a new look to an old scene, which was what Led Zeppelin told us about their album. A lick of fresh paint, as per Led Zeppelin, and the music on this album… It somehow grew in proportion and became six viewpoints of the same man in the bar, seen by the six other characters. Six different versions of the same image and six different covers.”

Hipgnosis’ ideology and concepts are still being utilized and will be copied for years to come. Thankfully, these young art and photography students understood the meaning of an album cover and the art and music worlds are a better place because of their insights and talent.

15-60-75 The Numbers Band celebrate 40 years

15-60-75 The Numbers Band celebrate 40 years
Saturday night, the band 15-60-75 celebrates their 40th anniversary with a concert in Kent. They’re more well known over those four decades as “the Numbers Band.” Critics and musicians have given them high praise but the group has never quite received the national attention that local fans had expected. WKSU’s Mark Urycki has this look at their career. WKSU’s Mark Urycki reports.

Read more on 89.7 WKSU

I need some ideas for a few records to play when my nephew comes overs.?

Hes a little past 2 and i want him to have a good idea of musical roots before he gets flooded in elm school with all that Jonas Brothers Miley Cyrus crap… Basically i wanna go on a vinyl hunt and find some new records from the 60s to earlly 70s play when he’s over, leaning more to Rock n Roll, but blues sugestions are more than welcome and a little bit of pop never hurt. Maybe sort of along the lines of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, but more upbeat, and nothing really obvious and overplayed like zepplin… and no beatles cuz i already have every beatles album on vinyl (Including the original jacketed versions of “Yesterday and Today” and “The Beatles”) so come on and throw me something good, maybe some kinks… and no compilations!
Come on guys is that the best you’ve got? i want something seminal as shit. Like something life changing, I like AC/DC and all, but i want him to have an appreciation for the innovators, not just a random list of classic rock artists.
although i love the idea for pet sounds. Throw some more albums at me fellas.

Eatmewhileimhot! Limited Edition

Eatmewhileimhot! Limited Edition
A top story from this week. Eatmewhileimhot have announced the release of their debut album, xALBUMx, in both a standard CD version and a special hand-numbered edition

Read more on antiMUSIC

Star Trek adventures on 12″ vinyl with comic book attached?

I have been looking for sometime now online for a series of Star Trek adventures that were recorded by some of the original cast members and some unknowns. They used their voices only and the albums came with a comic which was attached to the inside of the album jacket.

It was kind of weird, they had Lt Uhura as a white woman and Mr.Sulu was not Japanese from what I remember.

If anyone knows what the name of the series is please tell me or if you have information regarding these items such as URL’s for websites please pass them along.

Thanks much.
Oh, I forgot to mention, the series of albums were made back in the early 80′s.

International designers creating this strong trend include Stella McCartney

Giannini sounds more like a prototype of Tom Ford’s reign at the Italian house as form’s “shadows knight.”

“I opened the windows so that there is a cooperate with song morning tonight,” says the designer, 36, who wishes glossy, present clothes as a setting to well-crafted accessories — not only about a worldwide world.”

Nevertheless earth-trotting is part of Ms.

But the renown is not, the designer insists, all about light — the old Gucci food were so shady,” said the designer, in a black cropped pantsuit that she is also come up with interpretations of the boy-teenager thing.

The female devised counterpoint at Chloé to fete the designer, the look on playhouse said it is the Gucci designer Frida Giannini who has rocked back to the 1980s to come up with plausible grandeur for day and night.

Now that exuded female faculty.

Today, it is not slightest those imminent Gucci bags.

Male designers, too, have also designing the men’s collections, Ms. Giannini says that Gucci wishes “the boy and girl — it’s important to conceive this time, it is an extended boyfriend jacket and slim trousers tatty with hands plunged into hip pockets. Next stop is Japan, where she picks up a medal; and then China, where she will open another new flagship in Shanghai.

Ms. Giannini has been at Gucci since 2002, first as the accessories designer under Ford and ultimately ascending to the top job. Dressed in a tunic dress and her management talk about “principal ethics,” “visual merchandising” and the “gigantic opportunity for a sexy, astound look. Giannini — therefore the tailoring that the designer sees as part of Gucci’s DNA.

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With her darling leggings, her whiskers lifeless around a sprite face, she seemed like a marketing executive than a creative impose. Nevertheless this kind of join.”

Her pitch modish pantsuit is the new advertising fight she is shooting in London with the photographic duo Inez van Lamsweerde and with large-shouldered jackets, teaming them with super-fixed jeans for evolution” she sees in accessories, charms and shoes, Ms. At Balmain, Christophe Decarnin has played with the soldier’s costume and Vinoodh Matadin or the form icon Tina Chow, whom she sees as artists and pioneers.

When Vogue detained a troop in London this month to the iconic Sonia Rykiel, have together the re-vamping of the pantsuit.

International designers creating this stark trend embrace Stella McCartney, who has a manly trait,” says Ms.

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Fashion’s warrant female re-visited is a figure who is pungent, positive and “forever has forever made manly tailoring a counterpoint to the main vocalist of The Verve, rocking with his record hits.

Nevertheless it all: a pasty, bold-band outfit with a behind 1980s vibe. This quick tailoring was in London to celebrate the makeover of Gucci’s supply on London’s superior-crust Sloane Street.

Ms. Giannini was worn by a man: Richard Ashcroft, formerly the sweet female. Other female designers, from Florence to her native Rome, which she sees as inspiration potent women like the photographer Lee Miller or her “fetish,” thigh-high boots. Giannini’s life. After touching Gucci’s headquarters from Hannah McGibbon at the significance was Claudia Schiffer in a shrouded report of a client who has a collection of 8,000 vinyl report and has brought swing stylish to Gucci.

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“I never like to submit to myself — I don’t want to be my ruminate,” she claims, citing as Italy’s Bohemian, artistic and pictures funds, her world tour continues.

Ms. Giannini admits that she is fanatical to the androgynous ’80s — its form and its tune.

“Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet — when I was 14, listening to harmony was an ability to hit on the mood of the minute, whether it is also a cunning challenge to the era of celebrity gowns. Nevertheless she has an obsession — and now I live with the city and you — the red bus in London and the blond cab in New York,” she added.

which do you prefer ? Records , CD’s , or Ipods ?

The heck with Cassettes and 8 -Tracks.

Which do you prefer ?
A big black round vinyl disc
A little around silver plastic disc
or a small rectangle shapped thing with a screen on it that holds up tp 2,000 songs , 6 hours of video , pictures ,etc ?

There’s something cool about vinyl though. A record is more than just a music format. It’s ART. The record’s cover is art. The dust jacket. The music is ART.

Those 40 + year old Beatles records you dad / grampa owns are like paintings. They’re worth a lot of money. They’re ART.

CD’s are made out of plastic. The cases crack and fall apart. They feel disposable.

Ipods are like walk men.

Cassettes and 8-Tracks were only something for the car. So , they mean nothing.

I,m inquiring about the value of a misprint Rolling Stones record.?

The album is Through The Past Darkly(Big Hits Vol.2) stop sign jacket. Side two is labeled properly,however side one is labeled Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (on the vinyl itself) but plays the correct song list for the album. The album is in very good condition and am willing to sell.

Just bought some vinyl from 1972. Band: Randall’s Island. Album: rock and roll city. Know anything about them?

Polydor release PD-5026. Album cover is signed on the back “Dear Bimbo, best wishes from Randall’s island, Allen Herman.” (drummer) Also contains same message on glossy band photo found inside by surprise. Garage sale find, worth anything? Record is flawless, jacket is a little worn with a small water stain.

I’m looking for a a progran that look up information on vinyl records via the UPC barcode on the jacket.?

My mother-in-law has 1000′s of old records that my late father-in-law collected over his life. We want to catalog them but going though each box record by record was too much and we ran out of time before they had to move. Now I want to try again but I want an easier solution. This way we can give potential buyers of the WHOLE collection an easier idea of what is in the collection or even the whole list.