Hipgnosis Special

A question for now ... 

Anyone seen the HIPGNOSIS special out there? I finally plunked down a few bucks and watched it, and it has some far out moments, although it is sad that Storm T. was already gone many years back. But Andrew P. is far out, funny, and nuts, all into one, and you and I know that the Hipgnosis crew were all that and then some.

The special's review will be added to this thread a bit later ... I forgot I had not written it up yet ... but wanted to get a heads up on it.

It's a great special. I wish it were longer, and I think that it misses the start a lot, and concentrates too much on their early days with Pink Floyd, when there were at least 50 other bands with their covers already, and I wish that they had a better editorial sight, than sticking to the fame and the famous ... it's like no one else can say anything, except Jimmy, Robert, Dave, Roger ... and just about no one else ... which to me is sad.

In the days of the early PF days, and the "Hipgnosis Breakfast Cereal" (posted elsewhere here but added), I went after all of these folks and they were all far out. Sadly, it's like they never existed, or that anyone gives a merde about them at all ... which to me is sad ... no one realizes that Hipgnosis's cover for one Edgar Broughton Band was actually an immediate take on what was supposed to be a cover for a Beatles album that was declined so fast ... you would think the atom bomb went off!

I was around, and went for a lot of those covers, and to just see them listed and shown in their BIG BOOK (Hipgnosis Album covers and also the Album Cover book) ... is something that no one here has ever seen, or will ever look at, and an immense part of rock history is gone ... totally gone, and only a few beautiful words by Jimmy Page ... make you cry ... you remember how good, and great so many of these covers were ... and my hats off to Storm and Andrew ... but in my own silly way, a tongue out for the folks that did this ... it should have been 4 hours and not about a couple of well known stars ... who really were not what helped define Hipgnosis ... a hundred other bands and covers were way before them all, although PF might get an inch of credit here, the words by Dave about the cow ... misses the point ... and he obviously did not get it, and thought it was stupid. Sometimes you have to be "anti-art" for folks to ... wow ... that is far out! And guess what ... that album was just that! 

I miss those days ... the artistic side of it all is long gone in favor of commercialism and is so evident here on PA with more bands playing exactly the same thing with the same sound ... and worse, the same format! It's a complete anti-thesis of what Hipgnosis and those artistic days were all about ... but no one, even here, gives a merde about the art ... and there goes Hipgnosis, with the last shot of Andrew Powell in tears! A sad, not exactly fitting end, to a most beautiful artistic work, and one of those that stands out in the 20th century for its great images. 

One might even ask ... does it really matter? For "time" it seems not to, but for those that were there, and lived in that time, the "magic" was there ... and is long gone, replaced by plasticene and cardboard!

Haven't seen the new big-screen Rockumentary (yet), but I've recently seen another +/- long footage and perused at a friend's place a book about their works.

They (Storm & Po) seem to have done their best works for prog bands (Tormato excepted), but not really so for others (UFO or later Zeppelin). I did discover they had done stuff that I wasn't aware of (Wings, for ex), but nothing that really floored my like Trick Of The Tail, W&W, GFTO or Floyd sleeves. 

Some of those 90's sleeves (not just Muse) are rather nice, but I often don't see a concept relating the to the music.

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