james brown was 25 when he recorded try me at beltone studios on west 31st street and fifth avenue, not very far from the observer. i’m 25 too and i barely deserve to look at this beautiful album cover, let alone hear the song. early james brown is better than anything i’ll ever dream up. it’s shameful. it’s a disgrace. the two lines of smoke coming up from the gun, and the zero from the unlit cigarette, don’t even begin to get at it.
ringo keeps his umbrella white, his turtleneck black, and his spectacles blue
there’s blow, and blowing, blows, blown, blew and blower, all of which are important in their own ways. but johnny griffin called his 1957 album with john coltrane and hank mobley—which means there were three tenor saxophonists—a blowin’ session, the best choice of all. it’s available here, thanks to the lovely blog buns o’plenty.
“my daddy was a bankrobber/ but he never hurt nobody/ he just loved to live that way/ and he loved to steal your money.”
watch out, here come the best handclaps this side of 1960.
early marvelettes, marvelous.
this is a blog post about album covers, featuring xtc’s go 2, the best album cover 1978 ever saw. this is a joe tex album cover with only writing on it, this is the back of a prince buster album cover with only writing on it, and this is a david bowie inner sleeve with only writing on it. this is a smiths album cover with no writing, this is an even better fairport convention album cover with none, and this is a marvin gaye inner sleeve with none. this is a kanye west album cover with no writing on it that pretends to be designed by peter saville, this is a photograph of zircon crystals that should have been an album cover designed by peter saville, and this is a pink floyd album cover with no writing on it that was designed by hipgnosis, who that designed xtc’s go 2. this is a directory of good album covers.
if you need me i’ll just be in my room reenacting this 1958 album cover from a group named the playings.
if you’re anything like me, and how could you not be, you’re anxious about finding just the right album to listen to at dusk on overcast evenings this summertime. fear not because i have found just the thing: dave van ronk’s folksinger from 1963. it’ll sound ceaselessly good coming through the dark heavy air into your ears. download it here.
while you’re admiring the quiffs and cardigans on your wallet pix of the everly brothers, it’s comforting to recall that don and phil didn’t talk to each other for the entire 1970s, except for “family crises” and reunion concerts that ended with don, alone onstage, telling the audience “the everly brothers died ten years ago.”
happy thoughts about belle and sebastian’s upcoming nyc show aside, i wonder what would happen if their perfect album covers had a bloody battle to the death with the smiths’ very extraordinary cover art (and posters). who would win? no one can say for sure, although certainly there would be a lot of very well art-directed carnage.
