Posted October 1, 2022 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com
Greetings to you all. I have to first warn you that this month’s edition of the ACHOF newsletter will be a truncated one as I’ve had to spend a lot of time and energy managing several things that have popped up and couldn’t be ignored. It will also force me to put off the publishing of the next summary until December 1st.
Sorry about that.
In any case, there should be enough basic info now to get you the basics, but it’ll be up to you to click through to get “the rest of the story” (apologies to Mr. Harvey).
I’m also working feverishly to set up the voting for this year’s fan-driven voting for “the best of the best of” in all of the main ACHOF categories, so be on the lookout in a week or so for the official announcement and a link to the polling site. Voting will be open from October 10th thru November 13th, with the final tallies announced right before Thanksgiving here in the U.S.. It’ll be exciting to see who the fan favorites are in each category – tough choices must be made, but let’s do our best to honor all of those whose names will be on the lists.
Thanks in advance for your help and your patience while I get my world back in order. Now, on with the newsletter.
Mike G
Exhibitions and Gallery Show Info (new and upcoming soon)
a) I received news about an upcoming solo show at the Modern Rocks Gallery in Austin, TX (set for an October 6th opening) featuring the works of album cover designer/photographer-turned-man-in-the-caravan Ed Caraeff, a 2016 ACHOF inductee in the Photographer category. Ed’s a photographer, designer, illustrator and art director whose music industry credits in the 1960s and 1970s included hundreds of album covers for acts including Strawberry Alarm Clock, Mark Lindsay, Three Dog Night, Ten Years After, Linda Ronstadt, Van Morrison, Ambrosia, The Bee Gees, The Doors and many others. His photography has also appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine and has been on display in exhibitions at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the “Who Shot Rock and Roll” touring rock photo exhibition.
Learn more on the gallery’s site at – https://www.modernrocksgallery.com/ed-caraeff
b) There’s a new David LaChapelle exhibition at Fotografiska in NYC that opened recently – https://www.fotografiska.com/nyc/david-lachapelle-coming-soon/ – that runs through the 9th of January of 2023. A photographer who has made quite a name for himself in both the fine art photography and album cover art/commercial photography worlds (having taken stunning photo portraits of mega-celebs such as Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Elton John, etc.) and built a strong following for his music video work as well, David bowed out of the commercial photography business in 2006 to focus on his gallery/museum work, so this should be a treat for fans of his entire portfolio of work.
The show’s promoters shared this info – “Enter the surreal world of David LaChapelle at our first museum-wide exhibition, opening September 9 2022. LaChapelle’s iconic images have established him as one of the most influential artists of our time, and the exhibition is his first major solo show in North America. With over 150 works, the collection reflects an oeuvre that blurs reality and fantasy while highlighting the artists’ most iconic works and presenting new creations for the very first time.”
With his first assignment being to shoot an up-and-coming new musical act called The Beastie Boys (capturing them in black and white on the streets near Times Square) and quickly becoming part of the NYC arts scene, he befriended artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. As a result, he was commissioned to help illustrate a number of other publications at the time, including Details, The Face, GQ, i-D, the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and the Italian and French editions of Vogue, where his subjects included musicians (Eminem, Lil’ Kim, Madonna, Britney Spears, Tupac Shakur and others), actors (Pamela Anderson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Elizabeth Taylor, etc.), and other celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, David Beckham, Hillary Clinton, Paris Hilton, architect Philip Johnson, artist Jeff Koons, transgender model Amanda Lepore and actress Uma Thurman.
Tickets are $20-$30 and can be reserved at – https://tickets-ny.fotografiska.com/secret/WjLPYRGfheYYQXjBlX7Q5w28P6345jVP/products/ADM_DLC
Here’s a bit of additional coverage, provided by Paper Mag – https://www.papermag.com/david-lachapelle-make-believe-2657849259.html? and Anothermag.com – https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/14298/david-lachapelle-make-believe-exhibition-fotografiska-new-york-opening-date
c) On display now thru Christmas, 2022 at a special space created just for this exhibition in St. Andrews Mews, Hastings, U.K. is the newest “immersive” exhibition built around the life and times (specifically, 1969 – 1971) and music and memorabilia of one of rock music’s most-influential bands – The Who. What makes this show even a bit more unique and compelling is the fact that the producers present one of the band’s best-known tracks – “Baba O’Reilly” – as a special “omni-sensory, fully VR experience” that they’re calling the first “Immersive Single” (they’ve registered the name, so I’m guessing we’ll see more of these from them as time goes on).
Tickets to this show, along with info on some specially produced fine art prints produced by the nice people at the Mobile Art Disco/Rock and Roll Wall of Fame organization, who also have curated the exhibition, can be found at https://rnrwof.co.uk/
d) A gallery show featuring highlights from the portfolio of noted rock shooter Bob Gruen opened September 17th at the Brian Liss Gallery in Toronto and featured an opening night event at which the famed photographer was in attendance. While I don’t have much more to share with you at this moment (besides a link to the gallery’s selection of Bob’s work – https://www.lissgallery.com/bob-gruen ), his impact on the world of rock photography is significant. Bob has captured the top acts in the music world for over 40 years, gaining world-wide recognition for his works featuring major acts such as Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, David Bowie, Muddy Waters, Tina Turner, Elton John, Aerosmith, Madonna, Kiss & Alice Cooper. After John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to New York City in 1971, Gruen became both their friend and personal photographer and was allowed to record moments in their personal and professional lives. Two of his best-known images are ones he took of Lennon flashing a “peace sign” while standing in front of the Statue of Liberty, the other featuring Lennon on a rooftop wearing a now-iconic “New York City” t-shirt. As chief photographer for Rock Scene Magazine in the 1970s, Bob specialized in candid, behind the scenes photo features. He toured extensively with the emerging punk and new wave bands including the New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Patti Smith Group and Blondie and his seminal body of work reflects a profound commitment and long-standing personal friendship with the artists. His wealth of personal experiences and uncanny memory provide some of the most illuminating and comprehensive histories of rock youth culture, and so if you’re in the area on the 17th, you owe it to yourself to stop in an listen and learn from this talented individual.
Ongoing and Upcoming Exhibitions:
a) CONTINUING THRU MID-OCTOBER – Thanks again to EasyontheEye publisher/designer Simon Robinson for the head’s-up on this cool new show that opened in early July in Germany. Noted design guru Steven Heller provides some additional coverage of the opening of the Stihl Weiblingen Gallery’s Cover Art show (running through the 16th of October) in this recent article on the PrintMag.com site – https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-die-plattencover/?
While the show’s site is in German ( https://www.galerie-stihl-waiblingen.de/), Mr. Google Translate was kind enough to help us get a read on what’s on display and the curatorial efforts of the team that put it together – “We will show you the highlights of record cover design from 1940 to the present day. Fascinating works by outstanding record cover artists are represented, including pioneers such as Alex Steinweiss and legends such as Emil Schult (designs for Kraftwerk) and Peter Saville (Joy Division, OMD and others), photographer Anton Corbijn and others, as well as labels with style-defining creative lines such as Blue Note Records.”
Hometown talent is given the honors treatment in that the exhibition also includes the work of noted German musician/artist Klaus Voorman (“in 1967 he was the only German to receive a Grammy in the category ‘Best album cover of the year as a graphic artist’ for the Revolver cover for The Beatles), while according to the show’s advance press, “The centerpiece of the exhibition is the 50 square meter installation by the American artist Rutherford Chang, who deals with the “White Album” by The Beatles. Visitors can expect an overwhelming number of around 3,000 copies of the famous LP, which can be listened to on a record player in the walk-in installation.”
b) CONTINUING THRU LATE OCTOBER – A show featuring the talents of two noted artists who just happen to be father and daughter is now on display in the Bay Area and is one I’m sure lovers of album art won’t want to miss. Roger and Freyja Dean’s exhibition called “The Secret Path” runs thru October 30th at the Haight Street Art Center and will include, according to the center’s PR, “famous paintings that became the artwork for some of Roger’s legendary album covers, as well as studies of his extraordinary design work including his iconic Yes logo. Curated by Roger in consultation with Freyja, the exhibition includes more than 50 works that will furnish patrons with an imaginative and immersive environment that speaks to the challenges of the present while embracing the promise of the future.”
Recent coverage about the show I found on the Grateful Web site – https://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/haight-street-art-center-open-secret-path-art-roger-and-freyja-dean continued with a quote from the center’s executive director Kelly Harris, who said that “both artists have universal appeal, and we are proud to be able to offer our patrons a chance to be a part of this stunning and psychedelic fantasy.”
https://haightstreetart.org/pages/the-secret-path-the-art-of-roger-and-freyja-dean
A graduate of the Royal College of Art in 1968, Roger Dean dove headfirst into the album cover art world that same year and has since become an internationally recognized artist and designer, whose evocative and visionary images with associated graphics, logos, and lettering were soon made popular through the media of album covers, posters and fine art prints, where his work has sold in excess of sixty million copies world-wide. His designs for the Prog-rock band Yes – one of the most successful bands in the world at the time – along with those for Uriah Heep, Asia, Osibisa and, more recently, Ann Wilson, John Lodge and Focus gained him massive exposure and have won Dean endless admiration from millions of fans globally. His daughter Freyja’s multi-media work (paintings, sculptures and fabric art) prove that the imagination and talent genes run strong in this family.
The nice people at the nearby San Francisco Art Exchange, long a supporter and seller of the Dean’s artwork, is offering a nice selection of prints of many of the works featured in this show, which you’ll find on their site via this link – https://sfae.com/Special-Pages/Search?searchtext=roger+dean+print&searchmode=allwords
c) CONTINUING THROUGH EARLY NOVEMBER – I learned about a new Shepard Fairey exhibition in Seoul, Korea, promoted as the largest ever, that opened in late July and is set to run through November 6th of this year. The details regarding EYES OPEN, MINDS OPEN @ Lotte Museum of Art are given on the museum’s site, “The show will feature over 300 signature pieces spanning from his early to his recent works, including two new mural pieces, looking back at how the artist led street art, previously a subculture, into a more expansive art market. It will survey the entire artistic world of the artist, who, based on his distinct unbridled yet tenacious philosophy, reflects on our surroundings and society and stirs the public to take more action.”
One of the Rhode Island School of Design’s best-known graduates, Fairey has created some of the world’s most-recognizable images, including one based on pro wrestler “Andre The Giant” (one that would soon evolve into the “Obey Giant” campaign) and his 2008 “HOPE” portrait of presidential candidate Barack Obama – used on posters, flyers and a whole range of related merchandise – which became THE most-iconic image of that year’s presidential campaign, helping inspire a never-before-seen level of participation and excitement in young voters nationwide. His impact on the world of album cover art is also undeniable, having created memorable packaging for musical acts including Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty, Anthrax, Stone Temple Pilots, Bad Brains and many others.
Some intro details are provided on the Juxtapoz website – https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/street-art/shepard-fairey-opens-largest-retrospective-ever-eyes-open-minds-open-lotte-museum-of-art-seoul/
With more available on the museum’s site (in English) – https://www.lottemuseum.com/en
d) CONTINUING THROUGH LATE NOVEMBER – Fans of the work of the famed Hipgnosis design group are being treated to an extra-special exhibition in Germany, co-curated by Emily Smeaton at the UK’s Hypergallery, who worked with John Colton, Sabine Drwenzki, the Browse Gallery and with “artistic advice” by designer Aubrey Powell, that opened in early August and is set to run through November 27, 2022. The first iteration of this exhibition – titled Daring To Dream: The Album Cover and Photo Designs of Hipgnosis – was staged in Berlin at the Browse Gallery in late 2018 on the occasion of Hipgnosis’ 50th Anniversary and is now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art – Diether Kunerth in Ottobeuren (near Memmingen), Bavaria.
Translated from the German site text, the museum provides us with the following overview to this show – “1968 is considered the key year of the cultural revolution of the 1960s. It’s also the birth year of Hipgnosis, the legendary British photo design studio founded by Pink Floyd friends Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson. Between 1968 and 1983, Hipgnosis designed some of the most famous LP covers in music history: Atom Heart Mother, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals (Pink Floyd), Houses of the Holy and Presence (Led Zeppelin), The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Genesis), Car, Scratch and Melt, (Peter Gabriel) – to name just a few of the more than 350 covers. These progressive rock icons elevated ALBUM COVER ART to popular art.” – https://mzk-diku.de/de/index.php
Emily posted the following description of the show on her site – https://hypergallery.com/en-us/blogs/blog/event-emop-berlin-and-daring-to-dream and there’s a nice 3-minute video intro (featuring Mr. Powell) you can watch at https://vimeo.com/296325479 “it’s a snapshot of Hipgnosis”
https://hypergallery.com/en-us/blogs/blog/daring-to-dream-returns-to-germany
e) UPDATED – NOW CONTINUING THROUGH CHRISTMAS, 2022 – Now there’s a bit of extra time to go and tour the timed-ticket “immersive” show built around the life and times of the late great musician Prince. “Prince: The Immersive Experience” – done in cooperation with the Prince Estate and Paisley Park Enterprises, staged in a customized space on Chicago’s north Michigan Ave and produced by “an experience company” based in NYC called Superfly extended its local run through late December -October (check the site for exact dates/times still available) – https://princetheexperience.com/pages/about
As I reported last month after my own tour, one of the ways that a visitor can become more personally immersed into the world of Prince is via a display (one of several) they’ve set up that allows you to sit on a deep purple customized Honda motorcycle just like the one seen on the cover of Purple Rain and be photographed in front of a re-created backdrop of the album’s memorable cover graphics. Some of the other visual elements included in the show a “discography hall” that includes the covers of The Purple One’s recorded output, plus other elements from Prince’s production career, including the props and some original photos from the “Diamonds and Pearls” music video shoot and a re-creation of the “When Doves Cry” music video” along with sketches, renderings and examples from his trend-setting wardrobe.
f) CONTINUING THROUGH DECEMBER – It’s so nice to see that some collectors are more than eager to share works from their collections with the viewing public, but I have to admit that I was surprised to see a work that was just purchased at a recent auction included in a new museum show! Regular readers will recall that, in last month’s newsletter, I’d shared the info about the intense bidding and final purchase of the painting by the late Ernie Barnes titled The Sugar Shack, an image well-known to both album art fans (it was the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album I Want You) and viewers of the popular comedy show “Good Times” (where it was an integral part of the show’s opening credits sequence). Houston, TX-based hedge fund guru and entrepreneur Bill Perkins shelled out over $15 million at a mid-May auction at Christies for the second, larger version of the painting (the one seen on Good Times, with the first, smaller version going to crooner Gaye for his use), and on June 15th at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the colorful 1976 painting of partygoers enjoying a night out at a segregated music hall in North Carolina was put on display at the museum, where it will be on loan through the end of 2022.
This article on the ArtDaily news site provides us with some additional info about this work, its owner and why he was so eager to share it with fellow Houstonians/art fans – https://artdaily.cc/news/147252/Ernie-Barnes–The-Sugar-Shack-goes-on-view-at-the-Museum-of-Fine-Arts–Houston-June-15
g) CONTINUING THROUGH DECEMBER – Friend of ACHOF Dr. Richard Forrest’s Banksy album art collection is a featured part of a show on the mysterious artist that opened in late May in NYC – “Banksy – Building Castles in the Sky” – (An unauthorized exhibition) – which opened in late May at the former International Center of Photography Museum. 250 Bowery, New York, and is slated to run through December 31, 2022.
This is a continuation of the travelling show sponsored by the Italian Fondazione Metamorfosi and been shown in prestigious exhibition halls in several Italian cities including Rome, Genoa, Ferrara and Parma, and also in Basel and Lugarno in Switzerland. This is a truly-impressive, multi-media exhibition of one of the world’s most-talked-about artists, with more info on the show available at – https://www.newyorkbanksy.com/
Curated by Stefano Antonelli and Gianluca Marziani, the exhibition that includes paintings, sculptures, prints and over 30 record and CD covers from Richard’s amazing collection (which we’ve toured through a bit previously – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/achof-featured-fan-portfolio-a-tour-through-collector-richard-forrests-favorite-album-covers/ ).
h) CONTINUING THROUGH JANUARY, 2023 – A new U.K.-based gallery that promotes art that leans to the Dark Side opened in late June (on the 21st, the day of the Midsummer Solstice) with an exhibition built around the paintings of Berlin-based (but Israeli-born) artist Eliran Kantor, and artist well-known in the heavy metal music world for the covers he’s produced for bands such as Helloween, Kreator, Sodom, Testament and others. This is the first time Kantor’s work has been shown in a solo show in the U.K., and in this article I found on the Braveworlds.com site – https://bravewords.com/news/acclaimed-helloween-and-kreator-artist-eliran-kantor-debut-uk-solo-exhibition-at-dark-earth-to-run-until-january-2023 – you’ll learn more about his background (which included stints as a commercial designer, with clients including Renault and Visa), who his most-admired artists are and his long-term focus on creating some of the most fascinating-yet-disturbing album art ever to grace a record cover over the past 20 years.
The show runs through January, 2023, with more up-to-date information available at https://mobile.twitter.com/darkearthmetal
i) CONTINUING THRU JANUARY, 2023 – The late designer Virgil Abloh’s career is given the star treatment this summer with a show at the Brooklyn Museum. Organized by guest writer and curator Antwaun Sargent, the show is on view through January 29, 2023. Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech is a sweeping exhibition tracing two decades (through his untimely death in 2021) of the artist and designer’s visionary work.
“Figures of Speech” is the first museum exhibition devoted to Abloh and was originally developed by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2019 before travelling to ICA Boston, the High Museum in Atlanta, and Qatar Museums. The Brooklyn Museum presentation features important objects from his multifaceted career, including collaborations with artist Takashi Murakami, musician Kanye West, and architect Rem Koolhaas; material from his fashion label Off-White; and designs from Louis Vuitton, where he served as the first Black menswear artistic director until his death from cancer in November 2021. The exhibition highlights how Abloh’s emphasis on collaboration reshaped popular notions of, and contemporary taste in, fashion, art, commerce, design, and youth culture. Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” is organized by Michael Darling, former James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
A new article gives on the ArtDaily site gives us an update of what’s on display – https://artdaily.cc/news/148019/Exhibition-surveys-the-prolific-career-of-late-artist-and-designer-Virgil-Abloh#.YsxQQHbMI7M
Abloh met and befriended rapper Kanye West in the early 2000s after having worked at the Fendi fashion house and then launched his own space – the RSVP Gallery in his hometown of Chicago – while also taking on the role of Creative Director for Kanye’s DONDA design agency. His thorough understanding of his audience and his unique fashion sense found him applying his talents to a number of memorable album covers, too, a retrospective of that work being found on the XXL Magazine site at https://www.xxlmag.com/virgil-abloh-album-covers/?
See more on this show at https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/virgil_abloh
j) CONTINUING THROUGH FEB. 2023 – I’m excited to report to you about the recent launch of a new exhibition at New York City’s Universal Hip Hop Museum. The show’s titled “[R]Evolution of Hip Hop: Golden Era 1986-1990” and, according to the venue’s PR, makes note of the fact that “the artistic and technological advancements made during the years of 1986 and 1990 were remarkable. The lyrical skills of Rakim, Kool G. Rap, Big Daddy Kane and others would transform the definition of an MC. The production mastery of chopping up beats and sampling sounds by the likes of Marley Marl, Prince Paul and the Bomb Squad would redefine the sound of Hip Hop forever.”
Fans of the genre will be able to revisit many of the highlights of the era, one which “established rap as a commodity and its acts as marketable stars that could sell products like the Adidas they wore on their feet…From the city streets and the clubs of New York to the suburban neighborhoods of Compton, California, Hip Hop expanded by leaps and bounds as regional sounds and styles established themselves. The phenomenon of Yo! MTV Raps would further intensify this expansion on a worldwide basis between 1988 and 1990…experience the street fashions of Dapper Dan, the beats of DJ Scott LaRock, the rhymes of Biz Markie and the culture of Hip Hop that was chronicled by Video Music Box, Word Up Magazine, The Source, “The Arsenio Hall Show” and scores of other outlets. The show opened to the public this past June 28th and is running thru 2/28/23, with info/tix available at https://uhhm.vbotickets.com/events?mc_cid=2e35322f80&mc_eid=1aeceeec6c
k) CONTINUING THROUGH MARCH, 2023 – The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Music & Recorded Sound Division acquired the late musician Lou Reed’s archive in 2017 and, in early June, to correspond with what would have been Reed’s 80th birthday, they launched a new show – Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars – that’s set to run through March 4th, 2023 in the library’s Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery.
According to the show’s advance PR, “the exhibition will showcase rare and never-before-displayed material from the Lou Reed Archive at the Library for the Performing Arts, spanning Reed’s creative life from his 1958 Freeport High School band, The Shades, to the Velvet Underground, to his solo albums and tours, to his final performances in 2013. Highlighting his life and work, the exhibition will feature audio and video of performances and interviews, photographers’ original prints and contact sheets, handwritten lyrics, personal correspondence, studio notes, album proofs, press, tour posters, and Reed’s personal record collections”.
The show is curated by Lou Reed Archive archivist Don Fleming and Jason Stern, who worked as Reed’s technical director. More info about this exhibition can be found on the venue’s website at https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/lou-reed
Ben Sisario covers the music industry for the NY Times and published an article recently about his visit to the show – https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/arts/music/lou-reed-caught-between-the-twisted-stars.html – that includes a photo of a sweater Reed received as a gift that is decorated with the cover art from his Transformer album, featuring a photo by the late Mick Rock. The show also includes examples of the covers produced by the Drate/Salavetz design firm, who sent along several photos of their own recent visit to the show. Two of the works they produced that were used to package a couple of Mr. Reed’s memorable albums on Sire Records were included in this show’s display, including the covers for the 1989 release New York (Art Direction & Design by Spencer Drate, Judith Salavetz and Sylvia Reed, with photo by Waring Abbott) and 1992’s Magic & Loss, again by the team of Drate/Salavetz/Reed, with this image including a shot by French photographer Louis Jammes.
l) CONTINUING THROUGH JUNE, 2023 – The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, OH is hosting a new version of the Bruce Talamon photo exhibit titled Hotter Than July that, according to the museum, is “an ethnographic study of a visual representation of blackness and personal analysis of a culture during the golden age of Soul, R&B and Funk (1972 – 1982).” I’d written about the previous iteration of this show that was presented at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles (which closed August 1st), so I won’t rehash that info, but the show – which will be up until July of 2023 – has generated a lot of local press attention, which I’m happy to share with you below:
https://www.rockhall.com/exhibitions/hotter-july
Local news coverage video – https://www.cleveland19.com/2022/07/28/new-exhibit-rock-roll-hall-fame-features-photos-iconic-r-b-soul-artists/
Mr. Talamon has also shared some additional info on the show on his own site – https://www.brucetalamon.com/hotter-than-july-the-bwt-rb-photographs-exhibit/
Artist News and Interviews
a) When a well-known album art-maker who is also a talented film-maker sets his sights on creating a film about a company long-considered one of the best album art-making studios to ply their craft for clients in the music business, you’d think that it’d be something that would generate a lot of excitement and, based on the coverage of the release of Anton Corbijn’s new film about the Hipgnosis design firm titled Squaring The Circle, you’d be absolutely correct. While not the first full-length feature about Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and the others who’ve contributed to the sterling reputation of this studio (you’ll recall that Roddy Bogawa had produced a well-received documentary that hit theaters/streaming about ten years back called Taken By Storm), Squaring The Circle (not to be confused with the 1980s film by the same name about Lech Walesa and the “Solidarity” trade union’s fighting the then-Communist dictatorship in Poland) is one man’s effort to lionize a group of talented people who, like Corbijn himself, were instrumental in convincing the world that the album cover art form was almost as important to record buyers as the music packaged inside the sleeves they were packaged in. In an article about the film on the Variety.com site by Chris Willman, the writer notes that “you get the feeling making this movie for him might have presented not just an homage but an attempt to reconcile with his jealousy of his forebears — because by and large, nobody did it better.”
Here are links to several articles that introduce the film, the studio and the talented Mr. Corbijn as well – Yahoo.com – https://www.yahoo.com/video/squaring-circle-film-review-music-010000223.html
Review in Variety magazine by Chris Willman – https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/hipgnosis-documentary-squaring-the-circle-album-cover-art-film-anton-corbijn-1235358977/
This link on the Deadline.com site – https://deadline.com/video/anton-corbijn-completes-doc-squaring-the-circle-story-hipgnosis-iconic-album-art-design-studio-for-colin-firth-raindog-films/ – includes link to excerpt about the making of the cover for Pink Floyd’s Animals.
If you’d like to revisit my 2011 interviews with Roddy Bogawa about his Taken By Storm film, here are the links – Part 1 – Topics covered include Storm’s work for Pink Floyd (Animals, Dark Side of the Moon); Black Sabbath (Never Say Die) and The Cranberries (Wake Up and Smell The Coffee) https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2011/06/index.html
Part 2 – A bit more on Pink Floyd (A Momentary Lapse of Reason); Peter Gabriel (Peter Gabriel’s first album) and Audioslave (Audioslave), plus general discussion topics https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2011/07/index.html
b) Hypergallery’s Emily S. recently shared an audio interview she’s done with artist Leon (Lee) Rosenblatt, who shares his memories of creating the magical cover image for Man of Miracles by Styx, released in 1974 on the Chicago-based indie label Wooden Nickels (their last for the label before hitting the big time). The Huntington, NY-based artist (where I also lived for a number of years – home of writer Walt Whitman) was working as an illustrator for The National Lampoon, Rolling Stone Magazine and Random House’s Ballantine Books when he got the call asking whether he’d be interested in coming up with a memorable image for this new band that, to that point, he hadn’t heard of… listen to the whole story, in the words of the artist himself, via this link – https://link.chtbl.com/manofm?mc_cid=94b103cfff&mc_eid=7549bdd503
c) Author/album art superfan Kevin Julie shared links to three recent interviews he’s done and posted on his own site with several artists whose work I was unfamiliar with but, after reading Kevin’s articles, I’m eager to learn more about –
The latest “STORY BEHIND THE ALBUM COVER” article is about BOC alum Joe Bouchard’s American Rocker by artist Alan Ayers – https://outsiderrock.ca/2022/09/20/story-behind-the-album-cover-joe-bouchards-american-rocker-by-alan-ayers/
and there are previous ones with Martin Kornick, AKA “Man on the Mountain” (who did the new Lips Turn Blue cover art and has designed numerous album covers over the past 2 decades, notably for prog artists like Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Keith Emerson, and Kinetic Element) – https://outsiderrock.ca/2022/06/28/story-behind-the-album-cover-lips-turn-blue-more-from-man-in-the-mountain/
and Claudia Hek about her work for one of Golden Earring’s seminal records – http://outsiderrock.ca/2022/08/27/story-behind-the-album-cover-golden-earrings-tits-n-ass-by-claudia-hek/
Thanks, Kevin, for sharing these with us. Eager to see more as you do them.
d) Art publicist Leighanne Murray was kind enough to share some details about the recent work of one of her clients – noted designer Gordon Reid (founder of the London-based Middle Boop design studio), who has designed the cover of psychedelic rocker (and man of many talents) Stuart Braitwaite’s new autobiographical book (just hitting the shelves) titled Spaceships Over Glasgow which, according to Leighanne’s notes, “tells the story of Stuart’s youth as a delinquent at school during the ’80s and tracks his musical journey as he discovers the likes of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, and Jesus and Mary Chain”, forming the musical/creative basis for Mogwai, the band in which Stuart’s guitar skills are highlighted.
“An important part of Mogwai’s development over the years has been the artwork created for the band by designer and founder of Middle Boop studio, Gordon Reid,” Leighanne continues, noting that it simply made sense that a long-time collaborator and personal friend such as Reid would be the one best-suited to create the “look and feel” of Braitwaite’s memoir. “As Reid and Braithwaite are both big comic readers and sci-fi fans, inspiration was taken from old sci-fi books, like Isaac Asimov and J.G Ballard especially given the book’s title.”
According to Reid’s studio site, Reid is a sought-after speaker as well, “having talked at events and festivals all over the world, he’s a regular judge at awards such as D&AD, Creative Circle and Design Week and started the Middle Boop Studio journey by working in the music industry by touring with and creating artwork for the likes of Foals, Mogwai and Bombay Bicycle Club.”
You can learn more about this new book on the publisher’s website at https://www.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/titles/stuart-braithwaite/spaceships-over-glasgow/9781474624121/ and see more of what Mr. Reid is working on on his own company’s site – https://www.middleboop.com/
e) UPDATED – As a follow-up to last month’s announcement of the interview I posted with Darren Evans about his work on the 50th Anniversary edition of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, I want to share some advance news about the next Beatles-related package that’s getting collectors excited – that being the ones built around what many consider to be the band’s musical masterpiece – Revolver – which also sports the Grammy-winning pen-and-ink/photo collage created by Klaus Voorman on its cover. Also on UMG (and featuring designs by the talented Mr. Evans), there will be several versions of the package, all of which are described nicely in this recent article on the Billboard Magazine site – https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/beatles-revolver-expanded-box-set-giles-martin-1235135363/ – which also includes commentary from Giles Martin, whose dad produced the original and who managed the new mixes found on the 50th anniversary package.
One thing I learned about when researching what’s going to be included in this package is that it’ll have some excerpts of Klaus V’s graphic novel about the making of this record cover. As I wasn’t aware of this publication (titled “Birth of an Icon: REVOLVER 50: The Making of the Legendary Cover Artwork for the Beatles Album REVOLVER), a quick search revealed that he’d released it several years ago (2017) and is now something I must get my hands on for my own collection (what, again?). It’s out of print, so wish me luck – https://www.voormann.com/portfolio-items/graphic-novel-birth-of-an-icon/
Here’s a link to a handy page that includes both the official promo video for the package and links to some of the many places you can pre-order it – https://thebeatles.lnk.to/Revolver2022PR
Former (always?) Beatle Ringo Starr really likes the new package, as he explains in the Instagram video you’ll find here about a third of the page down – https://2paragraphs.com/2022/09/ringo-starr-reveals-new-beatles-revolver-album-cover-i-love-it/
In case you haven’t had a chance to read the interview with Darren, here’s the link – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2022/08/26/achof-interview-with-grammy-winning-art-director-darren-evans-about-the-all-things-must-pass-50th-anniversary-album-package/
I’d like to thank Darren once again for all the work he put in to this article and for sharing some wonderful “making of” photos, too.
Brief bits:
a) This month’s album art-related features on the Muse By Clio site finds the editorial team behind the “Art of the Album” series asking several artists/album art fans to share some of their thoughts about album art and design, beginning with
“8 Great Album Covers, Chosen by ByLwansta of NORMVL” – https://musebycl.io/art-album/8-great-album-covers-chosen-bylwansta-normvl The author is a young creative and art director, multimedia designer, hip-hop artist and record label owner, with his choices followed by those of founder, CEO and CCO of multi-national “sonic branding” agency amp’s Michele Arnese’s top 10 choices for his album art favorites – https://musebycl.io/art-album/10-great-album-covers-chosen-amps-michele-arnese
Items for Sale and/or at Auction
a) Sotheby’s auction house in London will be hosting the sale of an impressive collection of punk/Sex Pistols related artwork and memorabilia that belongs to contemporary art dealer Paul Stolper and critic Andrew Wilson, who was formerly the senior curator of modern British art at the Tate Museum. Included in the collection are examples of documents, lyric sheets, posters and artwork, with most of the work done by famed designer/artist Jamie Reid.
Bidding begins on the 10th of October, and you can preview what will be available now on the Sotheby’s site at https://www.sothebys.com/en/digital-catalogues/the-sex-pistols-the-stolper-wilson-collection
The reporters on the Yahoo! Finance site also provide us with some important details in this recent posting – https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/extraordinary-collection-sex-pistols-artwork-101601968.html?
b) Noted rock photographer Pat Johnson just released a new book – https://patjohnson.com/product/blue-collar-photographer-book/
According to the text on the shooter’s site, Blue Collar Photographer covers his career “over 45 years as one of San Francisco’s premier shooters. With 208 pages of color and B/W photographs and personal stories. From intimate portraits, rare backstage shots, and live concert photographs of Rock and Roll, Hip-Hop, Blues, Metal and R&B legends. With an introduction by Joel Selvin.”
You can take a tour through Pat’s portfolio – https://patjohnsonphotography.com/?page_id=3545
Originally from Cleveland, OH, Pat moved to San Francisco in 1971 and over the years – working as Pat Johnson Studios – he has also contributed his talents to dozens of album package projects, including those for artists on the Roadrunner, Shrapnel, Blind Pig and Blues Bureau International labels, among others – https://www.discogs.com/artist/2272350-Pat-Johnson-Studios
c) The team at Mobile Art Disco has released a series of limited-edition prints of Mike McInnerney’s triptych painting that was used as the gatefold cover for The Who’s rock opera Tommy (the record, not the play or movie). Pete Townshend lent the publisher the original from which this print is derived – https://mobileartdisco.co.uk/products/tommy-printed-edition
According to the publisher, the famous image featured on these prints was “replicated as a part of the inaugural exhibition celebrating the rock legends The Who; this printed edition is the first fine art print of the original triptych that formed the cover and inserts of the seminal album, Tommy. Each print is signed and numbered by the acclaimed artist, Mike McInnerney.”
There are two editions available – the “Main Edition” of 50 prints, 75cm x 25cm (approx.. 30” w x 10” h) and available framed or unframed – £245.00/£395.00 (approx. $265/$427 as of this date); and the “XL” version (produced with pearlescent screens), in an edition of 20, 127 cm x 39cm (approx.. 50”w x 15.5”) (available unframed only) – £850.00 ($approx. $918 as of today)
d) SPECIAL BOOK EXCERPT – Late this summer, I learned that artist, lecturer and author Sean Parker had published a new book with the intriguing tile of States of Independence, providing readers with what his advance PR called “a stand-out read for all fans of the arts and their cultural implications. States of Independence is an impactful bringing together of how visual and musical artists have shaped the here and now of the twentieth century…With a passion and expertise around his subject oozing from each page, the author (who is a writer, artist and lecturer in art and justice reform) provides a philosophical and forensic overview of the role icons including Brian Eno, The Beatles and Bob Dylan have played, and leaves the reader with a deeper appreciation of their legacy.”
As I’m always eager to share information about people – artists, writers, curators, etc. – whose focus is on the intersection of art and music (with a spotlight on the talented people who create and produce the packaging for recorded music), I asked Sean whether his new book included any discussion about album cover art/artists and related music packaging and he responded by sending me an excerpt from page 134 of States of Independence: From Pop Art to Art Rock and Beyond, (reprinted here by permission of the author) that’s part of an essay he calls the “Rise and Fall of the Album as an Artform” that I thought you would enjoy –
“Winter 1980, and Adam Ant stares out from the 12 by 12-inch glossy cardboard square in a box in the burgundy flock-wallpapered dining room of a rural Devonshire pile. His ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ is for now eclipsing a fascinatingly drawn ink on white of Revolver by The Beatles, another mysteriously powerful artwork whose contents does exactly what it says on the tin. Two musical pioneers, leading separate cultural charges 15 or so years apart, jostling anarchically for attention amidst Beethoven and Gilbert & Sullivan.
My pre-teens elder brother and I would recklessly pull the exciting black vinyl from the covers and haphazardly bang them onto the struggling turntable, this patient nanny entertaining every existential need the two boys had for soaking up every moment of new sound and harmony they could discover. Adam and Lennon would move to The Stranglers and Eric B and Rakim, as the postmodern world of technicolour audio opened up in the middle of the countryside before them.
A couple of years later, beneath Grongaer hill and Dylan Thomas’ Golden Grove, the Sugar Loaf mountain and Brecon Beacons, Fine Young Cannibals, Terence Trent D’arby and The Cure would hove into the view over the bleak valley horizons, swinging guitars and tantalising haircuts in place of swords or pikes. Their message from the east was concealed in cassette tapes, fragile palm-sized boxes which would regularly break through frenetic teenage over-opening, let alone the HB pencil ‘recovery technique’, which would have to be illustrated to be explained. Safe to say the magnetic tape the sound was recorded on had a fairly limited shelf life, and the ghetto blasters of the 80s would regularly churn and shred it up like a million mini-Watergates to the invigorating refrains of Guns n’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction.
I soon started working at a nearby antiques shop and collecting dust atop my bureau there was an old 8-track player. This obscure device enabled me to regress to the early 60s as baggy led us into the 90s. These strange, mini UFO-type objects led me to discover the explorations of early Santana’s ‘Abraxas’ and a certain David Bowie’s nursery rhyme-like mid-sixties debut. Good old Radio One would jolt me back to early 90s reality – though vinyl was living hand in hand with cassette at this point as the rest of Bowie’s 70s cornucopia of delights opened up by vinyl, joss-stick and no small amount of Thunderbird, Marlboros and White Lightning cider in the evenings.
The mid-90s arrived in a burst of cynical energy and music industry mega-profits, as the major labels adopted Britpop and bought-out or co-opted indie labels and contracts. The ‘indestructible’ CD was at peak sales, and Blur, Oasis, Take That and The Spice Girls were raking it in for the fatcats – whilst the performers apparently didn’t fare too badly from the deals either. The industry was a well-oiled machine at this point, and you could somehow smell that with the endless regurgitating of ideas. CDs weren’t in fact indestructible. I remember easily smashing quite a few. The approach to the millennium was when the fetishisation of the album as desirable object floundered, as it appeared that new ideas had dried up, and they had become another source of revenue in an increasingly manipulative corporate business model. Pricing them upwards of £15 a pop might have been the proverbial straw for many.
Rumours of something called the Interweb were abound, and Bowie early informed us that it would ‘change everything’, and music would be as easy to access as ‘turning on a tap’. Original pirate file-sharers Napster led this nu-punk revolution, while the record industry labelled it theft and heavy electric gods of the enormodromes Metallica sued the young tech maestros. This was the point at which the corporate model crumbled: music became democratised, the gate-keepers were sidelined and ignored, tunes were everywhere and scarcity vanished. File-sharing became paid downloads, these lost traction pretty quickly, then social media and shared playlists became the thing. Conceptualised, packaged albums delivered from the ivory tower of EMI, and all the more mysterious and glamorous for it, were replaced by half a million YouTube videos watched by about 100 family, friends and well-wishers. Major labels became unwilling to invest in new talent as they were frankly losing money, and as always has been the case, radio play needed to generally be paid for (payola) and press stories published through a system of favours or invented news.
The current renaissance in vinyl is sweet and somewhat encouraging, particularly if you’re a 60 year old white male who enjoys having old psychedelic or Madchester moments repackaged at him. Otherwise it’s back to the old process of enjoying a random gig you’ve been invited to so much that you either buy a copy of the acts’ album after the show, or Google/Spotify them when you get back home later, still reeling from the otherworldly, transportive experience they’d taken you on a few hours before. Put like that it might be the art that needs revitalising, rather than the model. Whether or not hacks approaching their mid-forties should be writing about music or its delivery is a question I’ll leave you to ponder on. Adam Ant might not (have) approve(d).”
States of Independence: From Pop Art to Art Rock and Beyond, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/States-Independence-Pop-Rock-Beyond/dp/B0B45DXC98/ref=sr_1_1?
e) COMING IN NOVEMBER – The Los Angeles branch of Julien’s Auction House will be hosting a sale of a large lot of memorabilia singer/songwriter Don McClean gathered during his 50+ year career, including several ultra-rare and desirable items including the original lyric sheet for McClean’s huge hit “Vincent” and several different items of clothing he wore for the cover shoots of albums including American Pie, Solo and Tapestry.
According to the auction company, the offer features “over 300 items from the personal collection of McLean from his homes in Garrison, New York, Camden, Maine, and Palm Desert, California will headline Icons & Idols: Rock ‘N’ Roll, the world-record-breaking auction house to the stars’ three-day event, taking place Friday, November 11th, Saturday, November 12th and Sunday, November 13th live in Hard Rock Cafe® New York.” Two special exhibitions will be staged prior to the auction – one in Ireland at The Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge (October 6th thru November 3rd) and one at the Hard Rock Café in NYC (November 7th thru the 10th) – will allow the public to tour the collection and decide which items they’d like to add to their collections.
The folks at GOLDMINE Magazine have posted a nice intro article about this auction and the man who is supplying all of the goodies that will be up for auction – https://www.goldminemag.com/collecting-news/don-mclean-career-is-celebrated-in-a-memorabilia-auction
You can preview the sale on the Julien’s website at https://juliensauctions.com/about-auction?id=427
f) UPDATED – Later this year (November 9th– 10th at their location in NYC’s Rockefeller Center), one of the world’s most-significant personal art collections will be coming to the Christie’s auction house, with the estimated value of the 150+ works put at over $1 billion, making it perhaps the most-valuable collection ever sold. Why is the ACHOF making note of this? Well, the collection belongs to the estate of the late tech and sports entrepreneur Paul Allen who, in addition to co-founding Microsoft, owning several successful pro-sports franchises and funding scores of philanthropic organizations, launched what was originally called The Experience Music Project in a Frank Gehry-designed building in 2000 at the Seattle Center in Seattle, WA (now known as the Museum of Pop Culture), which includes a fantastic collection of album cover artwork, posters, instruments and rock music memorabilia.
While the collection being put up for sale includes works produced by the world’s most-famous artists from the past 500 years of art history, I’m interested in finding out whether any of Mr. Allen’s original album art-related collection will be included in the mix, as he owns both one-of-a-kind paintings and items seen on famous covers, such as the angel-like model used on Nirvana’s In Utero and a collection of leather jackets seen on album covers by Joan Jett, Springsteen and the Ramones. Once the catalog’s been posted, I’ll let you know but, suffice it to say, I’m sure that the collection will be a jaw-dropping one. One thing I’m also happy to report is that the proceeds from these sales will be used to fund Mr. Allen’s philanthropic efforts, something he was fully committed to (including signing on to ex-partner Bill G’s Giving Pledge in 2010) and, via those efforts, has supported research and related work in the fields of human and animal health, artificial intelligence and much more. He was recognized for his philanthropic contributions by being awarded the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy in 2015.
Preliminary info on this can be found on the Christie’s website at https://www.christies.com/en/events/visionary-the-paul-g-allen-collection/overview
Coverage in the NY Times of the announcement of this auction can be seen at this link – https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/25/arts/design/christies-auction-paul-allen-art-collection.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare and, if you have a moment, I’d invite you to take a look at an article I did from several years back of my own tour of the Seattle museum, which included a look at some of the science fiction items also in the collection. I was particularly happy to discover the original mask worn in the classic monster movie The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the original Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet AND one of the life-sized models HR Giger created for the movie Alien – my favorite childhood memories, all in one place! https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/your-achof-curators-trip-to-seattle-grammy-party-emp/
Brief Bits:
a) In another example of collaborations between rock groups and beer producers, fans of British hard rockers Motorhead will now have the chance to collect an entire series of beer cans featuring a different Motorhead album cover on the label of each release – https://www.brewbound.com/news/motorhead-launches-album-cover-collector-series/
The first release helps celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band’s 1982 release Iron Fist.
b) Fans of album art and movie posters all know the work of the amazing artist Drew Struzan, who has created memorable images for musical acts including Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Earth Wind & Fire and the Bee Gees (among others) as well as huge hit movie franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Blade Runner and Harry Potter (to name just a few). In an auction that runs through the 7th of October on the Heritage Auctions site, you can bid on a signed/dated pastel on paper image Drew created that shows a light saber fight between the forces of good and evil – i.e., Luke Skywalker and his bad dad Darth Vader – https://fineart.ha.com/itm/pulp-pulp-like-digests-and-paperback-art/drew-struzan-american-b-1947-star-wars-empire-strikes-back-darth-vader-and-luke-light-saber-fight/a/8088-71053.s?ctrack=1125310&type=featured-5-art-special-8088-Illustration-Ent-tem092922 Pre-auction estimate for the work is $5,000 – $7,000 which, to me at least, seems rather low for an original Struzan work. Eager to see what it ultimately sells for…
Miscellaneous Items and other Brief Bits
As always, I’m going to have to keep these short-and-sweet (well, most of them, anyway):
OBITS) Two noted art-makers with album cover credits moved on to another plane recently –
a) Denver-based photographer Soren McCarty was a mainstay on the local/national music scene and produced cover images for The Descendants, String Cheese Incident , One Republic and others. Dead at 49 after a prolonged battle with colon cancer, https://www.westword.com/music/obituary-denver-music-photographer-soren-mccarty-has-died-at-49-11943546 He was also the staff photographer at the renowned Western-U.S. venues Red Rocks Amphitheatre and AEG Presents;
b) Wes Freed – a musician and artist with a number of album cover credits – most notably for the Athens, GA-based rock band Drive By Truckers – died at age 58 after a battle with colorectal cancer – https://www.al.com/news/2022/09/wes-freed-iconic-artist-for-drive-by-truckers-albums-reportedly-dies-at-58.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/wes-freed-drive-by-truckers-dead-obit-1234586844/
Freed earned a BFA in Painting and Printmaking in 1987 from Virginia Commonwealth University and, in 2019, published a coffee table art book titled The Art of Wes Freed: Paintings, Posters, Pin-ups and Possums which was a collection that included many of the album covers he’s done for Drive-By Truckers, as well as other bands like Patterson Hood and Dirtball, among others. You can take a look at the late artist’s work on his own web site at http://wesfreed.com/
c) American Songwriter magazine’s Catherine Walthall continues its series of album art-related articles with a look behind the making of Fleetwood Mac’shuge hit album Rumours – https://americansongwriter.com/rumours-fleetwood-mac-album-cover-story/
You might recall my 2020 interview with the artist/designer who crafted the famous image – Larry Vigon, using the late Herb Worthington’s photos – so if you’d like to learn more about the man behind the project, follow this link – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/featured-album-cover-artist-portfolio-larry-vigon/
d) In an article I found on the uDiscoverMusic sub-site on Yahoo!, writer Brett Milano takes the reader on a nice trip down memory lane in as far as album art is concerned. The article’s title – “Can You Judge An Album By Its Cover? How Artwork Reflects The Music” – is the author’s statement that, in many cases, the quality of the artwork does nicely parallel the quality of the music packaged inside the sleeve, and while we all know of a number of records that had great covers and not-so-great music (and vice versa), the ratio of quality music to packaging is a pretty reliable measure in a good number of cases – https://www.yahoo.com/video/judge-album-cover-artwork-reflects-133330658.html
e) Another uDiscoverMusic contributor – Jason Draper – posted a nice summary of the entire range of interesting album art featured on one of rock music’s most iconoclastic acts – Roxy Music – which Mr. Draper notes has featured a group of fine-looking females over the years. Rather than letting them remain anonymous objects of desire, Jason does the research to present their stories to us so we’ll all have a better understanding of how they ended up representing the band’s suave and sexy image in some of the most-memorable photos ever to grace a cardboard sleeve – https://www.yahoo.com/video/beauty-queens-stories-behind-roxy-135113165.html
More Legal Case Updates –
UPDATE FOR SEPT/OCT – The ongoing saga of “the Nirvana kid” looks like it’s come to an end as the young plaintiff got his lawsuit thrown out of court – lots of coverage –
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-62789436
https://deadline.com/2022/09/nirvana-nevermind-child-porn-lawsuit-tossed-l-a-judge-1235107763/
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/entertainment/spencer-elden-nirvana-ruling-scli-intl
Brief Bits:
a) Even with the best intentions in mind, sometimes an artist (or their label) is forced to go to Plan B in order to get their packaged products to market (and keep them there). Not sure why this just popped up in my Google Alerts (as it was written nearly two years ago and posted on the “OhNoTheyDidnt” site), but it still makes for interesting reading even now – https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/119549760.html
b) To see what must be the silliest excuse for an article I’ve ever seen posted for yourself, I’d invite you to click on over to this article on the Yahoo! UK site concerning how one album artist shared the details of what he’d been paid to do some work for Tyler The Creator. There’s a video that accompanies the article, but the name of the artist is not mentioned in the accompanying article (I think that it is illustrator/artist Lewis Rossignol (https://www.lewisrossignolart.com/) , but it wasn’t evident until I dug a little bit). Journalism can be better than this, I think – https://uk.news.yahoo.com/album-cover-artist-shares-much-162908098.html?
That’s all for now – stay tuned and be on the lookout for timely news alerts on our news feeds (sign up below to get an automatic email every time there’s something new on the ACHOF site). I’ll be returning right before the Thanksgiving holiday to announce the top vote-getters in our 10th anniversary “Best of the Best” poll and then, with any luck, right around the first of December with another news summary for you so, until then, enjoy the changing of the seasons, the upcoming elections here in the U.S. (!!) and whatever else brings you and yours happiness and joy. Try not to miss me too much – I’ll be missing you even more.
Peace and Love to you all, with wishes for Good Health, dryer weather and a resurgence of common sense and feelings of compassion for those less fortunate.
Unless otherwise noted, all text and images included in this article are Copyright 2022 Mike Goldstein and AlbumCoverHallofFame.com – All Rights Reserved. All of the trade names mentioned in these summaries are the properties of their respective owners and are used for reference only.
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