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!
This article was last modified on May 17, 2023
This article was first published on April 10, 2009
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