Interview with Lawrence Azerrad about his Grammy Award-winning vinyl package for Wilco’s Ode To Joy

Wilco’s Ode To Joy Special-Edition Vinyl Package

By Mike Goldstein, Album Cover Hall of Fame.com

Posted May 28, 2021 – It’s called “Album Cover Art”, so what I take from that name is that it is something created by artists (artisans?) who create the products we see by hand, using their innate talents and abilities to deliver something unique and appealing (and, in the case of product packaging, something that sells and makes the people that buy these products happy with their purchases). In the case of box sets and limited-edition “special” packages, it’s all the more important that the artists/artisans working on those products “get it right”, as the products are typically more expensive, as collectibles are expected to be, so the value proposition (OMG – I’m back in Marketing!) has to appeal to fans who are being asked to spend (often, many) hundreds of dollars on a product that there may only be a few hundred copies made. Additionally, the designers of these products have to be sure that their client(s) is/are ultimately happy, since the packages are typically the latest/best expressions of their music or, even more often lately, career retrospectives that are attempting to put the totality of the featured musical acts’ musical and lyrical (and, in most cases, visual) output out in a comprehensive package. To do that well, there must be an effective collaboration between the design teams and their clients, with the best examples of those successful collaborations garnering positive critical/fan reviews and, in special cases, special recognition from their industry peers, such as the Grammy Awards that were handed out earlier this year to musician Jeff Tweedy and designer/art director Lawrence Azerrad for Wilco’s Ode To Joy limited-edition set that they produced and released in late 2019 on the dBpm label.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for March 2021

 

 

 

 

Posted March 1, 2021 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Hello again from Chicagoland, where we’ve finally seemed to throw off the worst of Winter and can stop referring to where we live as “the frozen tundra”. While my wife and I are still avoiding having to go out for anything other than food, we have been able to take some walks around the neighborhood and, even better for our senses, our birds (cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches and the occasional woodpecker or two) have returned to our feeder. It’s calming to see that the parts of nature that Man hasn’t yet totally mucked up are still out there and free to travel and interact to their heart’s content. Maybe some day we’ll figure out how to do that as well.

ACHOF Interview with Stephen Paley on Sly Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On

Interview with designer/photographer Stephen Paley about his work on the album cover for Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted 1/15/2021 by Mike Goldstein, Album Cover Hall of Fame.com

Sly and the Family Stone’s follow-up to their hit record Stand debuted at the top of both the Pop and Soul album charts when it was released on Epic Records in November, 1971, and its lead single (“Family Affair”) soon took the crown on the Pop singles charts as well. It’s title is intended as a detailed response to a question Marvin Gaye had posed (i.e., “What’s Going On?”), with the record’s ominous (but funky) mood and red, white and black flag cover (with suns substituting for stars, and with no identifying text) both standing to illustrate Sly’s mood at that point in his (and the nation’s) life. As Stone cleverly put it – “there are too many stars already in this world”.

Album Cover Hall of Fame Breaking News Update for December 16, 2020

ACHOF Breaking News update 12/16/2020,
by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Here are several timely bits of info that just couldn’t wait until the next monthly update:

a) December 16^th of this year marks the 250^th anniversary of the birth of classical composer Ludwig von Beethoven in Bonn, Germany and, as I just read in a brief story posted by Juxtapoz Magazine on the topic (https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/collectibles/1xrun-celebrates-beethoven-s-250th-birthday-with-print-set-by-john-van-hamersveld/), another genius in his own right – designer John Van Hamersveld – has teamed up with the Detroit, Michigan-based specialty art publisher 1XRUN to release a set of very limited-edition art prints featuring JVH’s well-known depiction of LVB. Originally one of two works John created of important classical composers (the other being Mozart), the image was used as the basis of several prints and posters he’s released over the years, including one he did for the New West Symphony’s 2006 “Masterpieces” concerts.

ACHOF Interview with artist Jann Haworth

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s Interview with artist Jann Haworth

Jann Haworth/SLC Pepper – photo by Chad Kirkland

Posted December 7th, 2020 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

As a key member of the troupe that created what many consider to be the most-memorable (and, certainly, the most-parodied!) record package of the past 60 years – and winning a Grammy Award for her work on the cover image for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band which, if I’m not mistaken, looks to be one of just two “official” album cover credits – it’s been a goal of mine to be able to interview artist Jann Haworth and share the results of that effort with my readers. I’ve been including bits of info about her career for several years now, including an item in my September summary about her newest (and Pepper-related) project in Salt Lake City, UT, but it wasn’t until late that month that collector/curator/friend of the ACHOF Richard Forrest was able to make an introduction on my behalf and that I was then able to ask her a few questions about that project (thanks again, Richard!).

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Summary Bonus Update for September 2, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

ACHOF BONUS NEWS CONTENT –
UPDATED September 2, 2020

By Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Just as I was hitting the “publish” button on my site – the one that sent my September 1 update out into the EtherWebs – several new alerts arrived that were timely enough that I thought it important to share them with you (as if I didn’t give you enough to read and ponder on Tuesday!). So, here ya go:

ACHOF Interview with designer and illustrator John Kehe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted July 29, 2020 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Back in the early 1970s, several members of the popular British band The Move – drummer Bev Bevan and singer/songwriters/instrumentalists Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne – were motivated to concentrate their efforts on a side-gig designed to test their concept that rock music would be made a bit more interesting with the addition of the instruments traditionally found in classical “light orchestras”, such as strings, horns and woodwinds. Calling themselves the “Electric Light Orchestra”, the group released several singles and one LP in the U.K. on the Harvest label, including a Top-10 hit “10538 Overture” in 1971 (on the Electric Light Orchestra album, released in December), “Roll Over Beethoven” in 1972 and “Showdown” and “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle” in 1973.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Summary for July, 2020

 

 

 

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s Monthly News Update and Summary – July, 2020

Posted July 1, 2020 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com (updated on July 3, 2020)

Early July greetings to you all from my now-extremely-familiar home office – with the Independence Day holiday coming up this weekend and the state I live in (Illinois) slowly (at least on paper) re-emerging from a self-imposed quarantine, I wanted to make sure that I’d put together and delivered my monthly update prior to my move to the den to view the carefully-curated shows that make up my Holiday Watchlist (inc. a recording of the Chicago Symphony playing Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0qarHJOSYg). While many of my local countrymen seem to feel that it’s time to “get back to normal” (based on what exactly?), my wife and I are happy to continue on keeping to ourselves, venturing out only as-needed and enjoying the great take-out food and downloaded books, music and movies that have kept us safe and sane over the past few months while this pandemic remains active and dangerous.

I’ve continued to add new bios to the ACHOF site and will soon be adding some new themed searches to the site that will let you dig deep into the ACHOF archives for more stories, interviews and news about your favorite album cover makers. I’ve also spent some quality time trying the impressive number of quality gins and tonics that are now available on the market, so certain aspects of my quarantine time have proven to be quite fruitful (and delicious).

Album Cover Hall of Fame Special Edition News Release – June 5, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACHOF QUICKIE NEWS UPDATE FOR June 5, 2020

By Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Greetings to you all – while we continue our slow (hopefully, not too fast) emergence from the COVID-related quarantine we’ve been living under since early March, I am hoping that you are all doing as best you can under the circumstances. While I’m not due to put together a big news summary for a few weeks, I’d read about a couple of things that I felt needed to be shared ASAP – one about an in-progress auction of prints from a noted album cover photographer designed to raise money for COVID-19-related service organizations and the second about some fascinating album cover imagery created for an emerging streaming media platform. Also, I’m sad to say, I’ve included a brief note about the death of a noted album cover designer who was responsible for one of classic rock’s most-memorable psychedelic album covers…

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Summary for May, 2020

 

 

 

 

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Summary – May, 2020

Posted May 1, 2020 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Greetings from my home office, a place where I’ve spent a good chunk of the last month sitting at my desk, reading emails and news stories and watching videos (both live and recorded) on a million different subjects. I’m trying so hard not to watch too much TV (I did, however, find a 9-show series produced in 2015 by Irish TV called Treyvaud’s Travels that left me longing to spend the rest of my life in SW Ireland – highly recommended) and I’ve read several books while stretched out in my comfy chair but, quite honestly, the one thing that’s perhaps made me the happiest – and something I did a lot less of when I was free to do whatever I wanted without catching the plague – has been staying in contact with some of the people I know around the world, getting their unique perspectives of how they’re living their lives and maintaining a positive lookout on life in spite of the hardships we’re all having.

Keeping this in mind, I still work hard to reserve time to continue typing like a madman to prep interviews, articles and news summaries for all my chums out there, most of who are, like me, stuck indoors. Accepting that my readers’ priorities are not so focused on what’s happening in the world of album cover art and packaging, I’m continuing to proffer a truncated-yet-informative summary document both to keep fans of album art informed and to prove that creative people are continuing to create and entertain while we ride this storm out together.