MLT Club Member Jürgen
MLT Club MemberForum Replies Created
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The first Mike Oldfield album that caught my interest many years ago was QE2. The design wasn’t really pretty and somehow it seemed very technical to me. But it made me curious how the music would sound on this LP. The name of the record refers to the passenger ship of the same name: Queen Elizabeth 2. With a lot of imagination you can see the bow of the ship.
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Certainly not suitable for the masses and not for sound purists, but I like the idea: Shaped records.
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Why actually print the art work of an LP on a cardboard sleeve, when the disc itself offers enough space for a picture? Uriah Heep, along with many other musicians, have released some colorful picture discs in recent years.
The only colorful LP I’ve ever owned was a cover of the song La Bamba (La Bamba as a disco number 🙄 ). The disc was fiery red and the sleeve bright yellow and orange. Are any of you the proud owner of a particularly beautiful example? What do you think of the idea of the Picture Disc?
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Some interesting (and also very detailed …) information about Beatles Picture Discs:
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Tough guys, guitars and engines (and not a bit stereotypical…). And what does that have to do with LP covers? A lot at ZZ-Top. Bill Gibbons, the band’s guitarist, is not only a passionate guitar collector, he also collects fast cars. Accordingly, some of his personal dream cars can be seen on the covers of the band. Like this hot rod on the cover of the Eliminator LP. A converted Ford coupe. Original year of construction 1933.
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Kate Bush, known for her extravagant style and her expressive music, has also chosen unusual motifs for her LP sleeves.
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Ah David, now I get it. The cereal box records were cut out. Our cereal packages also had such cut-outs and handicraft figures. Maybe there were such cardboard records. But to be honest, the contents of the cornflakes boxes weren’t that interesting most of the time. A plate of sugar-sweet cornflakes and my need for the next few weeks was satisfied. That’s why the figures were cut out first and the battered rest of the pack was stowed away in the cupboard. Since my mother threatened that there would be no new pack until everything was eaten, the remaining cornflakes gradually disappeared.
The Original Record Waggon (that’s what it was called) really worked. It had no loudspeakers, but the car’s housing was used as a resonance chamber. A soft, rattling sound. Fluctuations in pitch and a ruined LP. But it worked.
Speaking of turntables: I found some unusual turntables here:
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Hi Jung,
when I heard “She’s leaving home” for the first time, I didn’t cry, I had to laugh. And it happened like this: It must have been around the time I was twelve or thirteen years old. Our English teacher announced that he wanted to present a song from The Beatles at the next lesson and that we will have to talk about this song (and of course sing it). I liked the idea very much, because that was the time when the Beatles came into my life. Most of the other kids didn’t like the idea. At that time, Queen and ELO were hot. „Lucifer“ and „A walk in the Park“ were played on the radio. But anything better than learning English grammar. Said and done. Our English teacher distributed the lyrics to the song, put the tape in the recorder and we listened to the song. There was quite a giggle as the high chorus sounded. Should we really sing that? Some of us were already moving rapidly towards break voice. The singing was canceled spontaneously and only the lyrics were translated and interpreted. So a nice idea turned into boring lessons once again. But it was still funny.
Yes, it’s interesting to see how everyday messages can turn into songs in the minds of musicians. Another good example is “A day in the life”. This was the time when the Beatles experienced a major musical upheaval. Their music became more sophisticated. The lyrics moved away from the pink soap bubble “I wanna hold your hand” to daily updated and also critical topics. A kind of maturing process.
Also an interesting development within The Beatles: while Paul increasingly was attracted by topics that were happening around him, John instead described things that were happening inside him, i.e. his personal experience and emotional states, like “Yer Blues” or this one:
(I hope the link works for you)
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Yeah Jung, „Sharp Dressed Man“, „Gimme All Your Lovin“ and „Legs“ are the three best tracks on this album. I was 16 years old at that time and wanted this record together with „Catch as Catch Can“ by Kim Wilde for Christmas. The car in the video clip really looks hot. I wonder what the driving experience is like. Relaxed gliding or rather a wild rodeo ride? The cameo appearance of ZZ-Top in “Back to the future” also remains unforgettable for me.
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Speaking of Picture Disks and Pink Floyd: a colorful LP version of the „Animals“ album has now been released. This time as a cover version by different artists, with a new sleeve design (let’s see how often this cow can still be milked…).
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Hi David and Tim,
as far as I know, we never had cardboard singles in cornflake packs, but instead there were lots of figures and stuff that you’re kind of keen on as a child. I also liked playing around with the record speed. I once owned a Single by Madonna. Reducing the speed from 45 to 33 resulted in a passable male voice (and the rest of the music went with it too). It actually sounded pretty good. Tim, I’m glad to hear, that I’m not the only one who sometimes has trouble understanding the Twins (they often speak fast and in a very high pitch. As a non-native speaker, it is sometimes difficult for me to listen to them. Slow down seems a good idea). 😀
And then there were those funny gimmicks that let you play your LPs, like this reissue of the Record Car (I would never have done that to my discs, but watching this was fun).
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Yeah, that’s a funny LP, David. Thanks for posting. It’s a pity that picture discs have always been treated as rarities. Whether they really sounded that much worse? I don’t know. Not everyone has a high end stereo system at home, to hear the difference. In any case, the production was more complex and cost-intensive. I could imagine that this was one of the reasons why picture discs never became mass-market. At that time I was already happy about the apple label from Apple Records. This halved apple sticker gave the otherwise mostly sterile black discs a somewhat friendlier and cheerful appearance.
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Hi Jung,
thank you for the entertaining contribution from the movie „The Piano Forrest“. Who knows, maybe the piano on the cover of Supertramp only sounds when a very special person is playing it? A very nice idea. Japanese manga tend to lead a shadowy existence here. I find the often philosophical ideas and mythologies behind them very interesting. I only know of Makoto Shinkai movies that tell modern fairy tales. Everyday stories of dreams, hopes and longings. Presented in a very unique, charming way.
And then I remember „Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within“. The first feature film created entirely on the computer – produced by 150 digital artists and 20 computer animators. A flop at the box office. Visually a feast for the eyes. I like the film, also because of the complex Far Eastern mythological basic idea, which was packed into a modern science fiction setting.
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Hi Jung,
I had a glimpse of the LP cover of “Crisis what Crisis?” at some point, but I never consciously noticed it. I like the theme very much. It reflects the daily madness that we live in very well. The human will and motivation to survive and enjoy even when the world descends into chaos. Or just purposeful optimism and a twisted perception of the world as it really is?
Music can create images in the mind of the listener and lead to daydreams or fantasy journeys. But sometimes images are also the actual source of music. A famous example is certainly Mussorgski’s work „Pictures of an Exhibition“. The modern pianist Martin Vatter was also inspired to make music by a picture exhibition. He received the inspiration for one of his music albums from the paintings of the artist Lovis Corinth, who captured the forest and lake landscapes of his homeland with brushes and paint.
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David and Jung, movies and music, a combination that is always impressive. Many film productions would never have had their effect without the appropriate music. For me, an impressive symbiosis of image and music is Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” when the spaceship docks at the space station to the sounds of “The Blue Danube”. It’s like a space dance. When I saw the movie in the cinema for the first time, I was very irritated. At some point I liked it. Up to this point I had only seen space operas like „Star Trek“ or „Star Wars“, but this kind of movie music sounded more heroic or groovy.