June 23 – Turntable Talk 27 : Unusual…But Great

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! This is our 27th round, believe it or not. By now all our regular readers know how this goes, but for any new readers, first off, welcome! I hope you find it interesting and check back from time to time here – new posts go up daily and we run the ‘Turntable Talk’ feature usually once a month. And second, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. We have an index of past topics, with the final one of each in the link, others could be found going back day by day from each of those.

This month, our topic is a little different – Art Rock. No, we’re not digging into obscure rock that somehow seems a tad too experimental for the masses, but the actual art of music. In specific, album art and packaging. Of course, that was a bigger deal when vinyl ruled… that big 12” square canvas that was a record cover let a lot of imaginations and artistic talents run wild! It created an initial impact. Even the Grammy Awards noticed that; since 1959 they’ve given out an annual award for Best Album Cover or Recording Packaging. Frank Sinatra won the first one; since then The Beatles Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, Chicago’s X, Supertramp’s Breakfast in America, Linda Ronstadt’s Get Closer and the Rolling Stones Tattoo You are among the many winners. Thus, we’ve asked our contributors to highlight an album which had packaging they found exceptional.

Today we bring this segment to a close with my own pick(s).

First off, thanks once again to my guest writers who’ve done a great job as always, with this round being a bit different in essentially making “A Sound Day” “A Sight Day” instead!

I thought of several album covers that I liked and thought were very worthy of mentioning. Of course there was Sgt. Pepper… which Max looked at well on Friday. The other one that popped into my mind simultaneously was Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Not only are both those pieces of music iconic, the album covers are as well. I would bet they are the two most widely-recognized album covers even among people who don’t like or follow pop/rock. I was very tempted to write about the Pink Floyd album and Storm Thorgerson who put it together, but I have done so on this site before and felt also, it was almost too obvious. But before I move on from it, let me say I think it is a fantastic image and the band were brilliant – and daring – in putting it out with no name or title on the cover.

I thought of a couple of less-obvious ones from the 1980 era that appeal to me a good deal, Moving Pictures by Rush and The Raven by the Stranglers. Both among their respective bands’ best records and also among the best of their cover designs. Rush’s has a lot going on it and cost close to $10 000 to photograph… more than the record company was willing to pay so the trio ponied up for it themselves!

The kind of stately-looking cover is a clever sort of play on words… the album is called Moving Pictures, and low and behold, there are a group of workmen clad in red… moving pictures. Literally taking them out of the building. Off to the side, a group of people are weeping, so moved by the impact of the pictures! And the back shows a wider view and suggests it’s a movie set, meaning its going to be in a… moving (motion) picture. Bonus points for noticing the actual paintings in the shot – one of Joan of Arc being burned, but the ones that seem to so move the crowd are one of dogs playing poker, and a depiction of a previous Rush album cover. Ahh, you Canadians and your “unique” sense of humor, I’m sure my sweetie would say while rolling her eyes.

The Raven on the other hand features a close-up image (I’m going to say photo…but maybe it is a detailed painting) of a raven’s head with an interesting cloud-scattered sky behind it. The bird looks intelligent – which they are – and a tad menacing, perhaps a good metaphor for the band itself. What really set it apart however, was the original release (only in the UK, alas) which had a “lenticular” cover. The picture was in essence, in 3-D and the bird’s head seemed to move when you moved around it. It can’t have been cheap to mass-produce and would explain why most later copies had a standard 2-D flat image.

All of those would have been worthy candidates, but the one I chose isn’t the best album cover ever, nor is it the best album. But it’s a really good cover with a really good album to sell. Cyndi Lauper‘s fun debut, She’s So Unusual.

Lauper was proof positive that perserverance pays off. She was already 30 when the record came out and she’d been in a recording act before – Blue Angel. Unfortunately, that band didn’t sell and they had a falling-out with their manager who in turn sued the band members. Lauper declared bankruptcy! And took a job at a second-hand store, but singing in clubs around New York City at night. Eventually that paid off as a scout for Portrait Records (a division of CBS) saw her and got her a record deal. What a fortunate meeting for CBS and Cyndi!

Billboard described the album as “nine tracks that encompass exuberant pop, delirious new wave, off-kilter torch songs and empowerment anthems (which) invited listeners to flaunt conventions, follow their own arrows and let their freak flags fly!” It was a fun and very different-sounding album, a really attention-grabbing arrival on the scene for the multi-color haired Lauper. It deserved a cover as different and attention-grabbing… and it got one!

Unlike the penny-pinchers at Rush’s label, the Portrait people must have known they had something special on their hands and weren’t afraid to spend to promote it. The now-iconic cover photo was taken by none other than Annie Leibovitz. Annie was one of the world’s most famous photographers at the time, being well-known for her portraiture that often adorned covers of Rolling Stone and Vogue. What made her special was seemingly her ability to really get a grip on what made her subjects special and depict it. She did that perfectly with Lauper.

She took her out to Coney Island for a photo-shoot, and let Lauper pick her outfit. The flashy red dress, the fishnet stockings, the red heels… all things Lauper had picked up at work at the used store. She took quite a few photos of her – Billboard showed this outtake (below) which is kind of fun too – but undoubtedly they got the best one on the LP. Lauper caught in motion, seemingly dancing barefoot in front of an old wax museum… it just summed up what she and her record were about. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, after all. The back cover pic (above) was kinda cool too.

The album went on to win her a Grammy for Best New Artist and sell over 15 million copies. It was the first debut album by a female to notch four top 5 singles (in fact it was the only album of the ’80s to fit that description by male or females to do so) – “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” “Time After Time”, “She Bop” and “All through the Night.” The music was great and fresh, the videos were equally catchy (“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” won an MTV Video Award) so it was probably destined to be a hit. But the album graphics sure didn’t hurt. When some of the other smashes of the day featured plain close-ups of the artists’ faces (think Reckless, Madonna, Sports to some degree) or in Springsteen’s case, jeans-clad butt, it was hard to miss Cyndi Lauper’s flash of color and energy on the store shelves.

She’s So Unusual won the Grammy Award for Best album packaging. (Imagine if they’d done it 3-D!) Interestingly, the winner the next year was Linda Ronstadt’s Lush Life that Keith featured.

Thanks again for reading, hope you’ve enjoyed “looking” at this round’s picks.