Who read the album covers?

There are some covers which have such small details on them it is a pity it so small. The vynil cover is more helpful in these cases. For instance the cover of Lizard (KC), Metropolis II (DT), The Masquerade Overture (Pendragon), Martian Chormicles (Solaris), Quella Vecchia Locanda (first and second albums), Il Passo Del Soldato (Nuova Era) and Zarathustra (Museo Rosenbach), to name some.

Apart from the lyrics and the art which I love to examine again and again, I particularly like reading the thank you list of the band and of each member. There are sometimes some ammusing notes there or some serious things that clarify certain aspects of the album. In metal albums this is particularly interesting. The band thank you list helps you see who's friends with who. For instance Blind Guardian and Iced Earth always used to mention one another in their thank you's. THey even refered to one another as Iced Guardian and Blind Earth. Hence the collaboration Demons and Wizards. Death, for example, or more accurately, Chuck Schuldiner (RIP) had always something to say. In Human for example you can understand his complex relationship with the media and certain critics and industry people and other "malevolent" people who were spamming him - He says there something like this: this is more than a record to me, it is a statement, it is revenge!. It is also interesting to see the lineup and the guest musicians (if any) to understand relationship between bands and to understand where some influences might have come from. For instance, Wobbler's multi-keyboardist is a member in White Willow. THe producer of their album is Holm-Lupo, WW mainman.

 

Cover art was so important in the 60s and 70s that sometimes it was the difference maker in choosing between several albums to buy.  I bet that's how a lot of folks ended up with "Fragile" in their record collection even though they had no idea who Yes was.  Roger Dean just pulled them right in.

Kid-A wrote: What's the problem with CD covers? They're slightly smaller, but still there

Small is exactly the problem. I am getting old and need reading glasses. For prog album cover, kind of missing a lot of details on a CD. They are there, but just too small to see them.
I have Palls The Sentinel on both LP and CD. I have a very hard time looking at the CD cover.
Age does take a toll.

Tony Fisher wrote: Read Thick as a Brick's cover. Whoever wrote that cover has spent a lot of time on it and needs to get a life! If you've ever read a British local newspaper, it's hilarious.

It's Ian Andersson himself, along with band members Jeffrey Hammond and John Evan.

Kid-A wrote: What's the problem with CD covers? They're slightly smaller, but still there

Record companies often just shrink the record cover straight to the CD cover, so it's too small to read on the CD. Check out Olias of Sunhillow where they just printed the outer cover of the booklet that was with the LP, so you got the first 2 and last 2 pages, and they were too small to read.

Also, the writing on the Yes Remixes CD is printed in a silver colour on a sort of translucent paper, which you can only read if you hold it up to the light at a certain angle.

im new

The art of covers was definetly ruined when CD's took the place of albums.
I think the only one's who appreciate that are people working for removal companies. 

spacecraft wrote: My mate and i used to read them every time we put an album on (prog or not), and used to try and put ourselves in the scenario of which the album was made (hope this makes sense).

Explain what you mean here.


Edited by Rising Force

utas wrote: Definitely. In the mid 70's I discovered quite a few prog bands by reading album covers for info about instrumentation and track lengths. Somehow I managed to develop a sixth sense for what prog albums looked like, to the point where I bought some LPs solely on the basis of what the covers looked like.

ME TOO! (BUT IN THE 80's). I DISCOVERED BANDS LIKE FOCUS, JETHRO, OR KANSAS THAT WAY!!!

 

Edited by Prog-man