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Scanning Around With Gene: Winning Album Covers from You!
As a fitting end to his series on album covers, Gene now shares some of the scans sent in by readers. They run the gamut from spicy to silly.
Written by Gene Gable on April 10, 2009
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When I invited you readers to send me your favorite album cover designs, I wasn’t sure what to expect. For one thing, I neglected to consider the obstacle of scanning such large pieces, and I heard from a few of you who wanted to make submissions but didn’t have a scanner big enough. My bad on that.
Nevertheless, I received some great stuff. Thanks to all of you! Since I wasn't able to get everyone's permission, I'll showcase covers without saying who sent them. Next week, after I select one of you at random and get your OK to name names, I’ll announce the winner of the contest and the fabulous prize!
And so on to this week's Scanning Around with Gene’s Readers.
I’ll start with a few oddball ones, like this astrological record for Taurus, which happens to be my sign. I would love to see the entire collection and wonder if they used the same model and just changed costumes, or if they chose models that somehow looked like the characteristics of the sign. That cover is followed by the soundtrack for the movie “Patty” about Patty Hearst, who may or may not also be a Taurus.


Several people made reference to the Allman Brother’s Eat a Peach album, so I’ve cropped in on the main artwork. Then there's an early “stereo” demonstration album, which infers that a pair is always better than a single. And somehow that logically leads to the Roxy Music cover and on to Blind Faith (previously identified as Led Zeppelin). But since those last two might offend some readers, you'll have to click on the warning labels to see them.


You can’t really argue with the creativity of The Moody Blues' music or album covers, so three are included here.



I love albums from groups like The Surfaris, and it seems everyone had at least one copy of “Whipped Cream” from Herb Alpert, as well as “It’s a Beautiful Day” and “Time Out” from Dave Brubeck.



I really do love this album design from King Crimson, but I’m a little worried that another reader of my columns is a Barry Manilow fan (you know who you are). However, that same person also likes Bread and Elton John, so I'll withhold judgment.




You can tell each generation of readers by the music they listen to. In this case, try to guess what era these albums from Meatloaf, Rick Springfield, and Styx came from.



And so many other good albums, both musically and artistically. There’s Cream, of course, Paul Simon’s Graceland, the Yes 90125 album and any number of Stones efforts.





I wish I could run them all. Thanks again to all of you who sent me entries. I’ll be in touch with the randomly selected winner of the Scanning Around With Gene Big, Honking, Mega-Contest in the next day or two. I'll need to know the most intimate details of your life to custom-tailor an appropriate prize!













Astromusical house of...
No they didn't use the same model for all the Astromusical Albums. The series featured 'hip' girls from all ethnic groups in strangely extended poses and trendy, Astro-sign cued outfits. They are all named the Astromusical House of (insert sign) with the exception of Cancer....guess it was a scarry thought even back in 1969...Cancer gets replaced with 'The Moon Child'. Ed Bland produced the albums and they included a booklet explaining the significance each song has to the sign. Its all Jazz baby...
Rolling Stones is a lenticular album cover
If my memory serves me, the coolest thing about the last album cover in this list is that it has a lenticular cover (you can turn it and see their heads "move"). I don't know if that was the first album cover to have such technology, but it was "totally nifty" to me back then.
Just as a random aside: I really loved seeing all these, Gene. My step-mom was a graphic designer and when I was a wee lad, she and I would design album covers together as a fun after-school art project.
How to get the most out of your stereo
Man, that's a freakin' awesome album cover / advert - can you imagine a time when that was actually acceptable?? I'd be interested to hear if people find that more offensive than the ones you labelled as "not safe for work" - you could claim some justification through "art" for the Blind Faith/Roxy Music, but "Most out of your Stereo" seems really out there - some good weed was being passed around during that art directors meeting...
"Led Zeppelin" cover
The hidden "Led Zeppelin" cover is actually the album cover from Blind Faith--the only album they released.
Voting for the Astro cover
I'm voting for the Taurus cover (my sign too) -- not only for the era-appropriate art, but also because the person who bought this has to have an interesting take on life!
Pam Pf.
Not 'Zep
Naughty album cover #2 was the import version of Blind Faith's only album. Deemed too naughty for american audiences, it was released with the domestic version sporting a beige duotone image of the band on the cover.
The back story.
Whenever I see questionable graphics I always wonder what the client meeting was like. For the astrological cover – client: I want to hire 12 beautiful women in 12 designer dresses – designer: how will that ‘read’ astrological sign? –client: That’s the best part! I designed a logo myself in Publisher for each sign that we can use!
My vote is for the Graceland cover. Not because it is outrages, but mostly because it isn't.
Whipped Cream …
Herb Alpert and the rest of the crew at A&M tried to find the model for that album. They wanted commemorate the album. They could not find her. Same story with Apple. They could not find the woman who threw that hammer.
Album covers, Whipped Cream , 1984
Gene,
This album cover series was great. Brought back a lot of memories, considering that I own most of the albums listed. Might have to drag "Whipped Cream & Other Delights" out of storage, if only to ogle the lovely girl on the cover. ;-)
Speaking of... One of the commenters mentioned that both the Whipped Cream model and the Macintosh "1984" actress can no longer be found. This is not so. The Whipped Cream model, Dolores Erickson (now 72 years old), is an impressionist painter living in Washington state. Anya Major, the "1984" hammer thrower, is now 42 years old and living quietly with her husband and kids in England. Apparently, she still gets a substantial amount of fan-mail from people who remember her from the ad.
Man, that's a freakin'
Man, that's a freakin' awesome album cover / advert - can you imagine a time when that was actually acceptable?? I'd be interested to hear if people find that more offensive than the ones you labelled as "not safe for work" - you could claim some justification through "art" for the Blind Faith/Roxy Music, but "Most out of your Stereo" seems really out there - some good weed was being passed around during that art directors meeting
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