A friend of mine asked me to design an album cover. I'm desperately trying to persuade them to stand out in a field next to a thatched cottage with a goat on a leash. Bright sunshine. It would be great.
My post yesterday showed I was shy of a few 'older albums' done in the 'older' styles. I guess I need to go to Amazon and see if I can find these treasure troves.......
Thank you!
As a Yank, I remember those albums.
David Curry's My Ireland and Copley 78s were what was played when we performed Irish Step Dancing in Connecticut in the 1960s.
Its funny that even growing up Polish (though our neighborhood was very ecumenical- several very Irish kids in my grammar school who learned to speak pigin Polish from the Holy nuns) I remember seing several of those albums.
Yes, album designs may be "gloriously hideous," but our own, deeply personal musical Odysseys were often guided by purchases we made based solely on the album cover.
My musical journey began at age eleven with this fortuitous buy, there under dim, greenish fluorescent lights in an F.W. Woolworth's:
Has anyone ever seen the cover of Tom McHale's "Pure Traditional Tin Whistle Music"? I can't find an image online. Great album. The cover image, inside clip-art Celtic knotwork, is a photo of a handful of brand-new brass tin whistles thrown, for God-knows-what-reason, on top of a stack of turf.
I don't know if the turf is supposed to be symbolic of Ireland, or whether they wanted to set fire to the whistles.
Thanks kilfarboy, the version I saw was a CD re-release. It's a great recording though, especially because every track starts with Tom announcing, in a dead-pan voice, the names of the tunes he's about to play. All studio albums should have that. I listen to music while washing the dishes and I can't check the track list to find out the name of a tune because I'll only get suds all over the cover.
Floss, I agree your album label is unintellidgable, but surely there are some sleeve notes ? Something on the insert if it's a cd ?
As to the general argument of this posting, it's all shorthand to sell easily, although some of the non-irish bad album covers are also unintentionally hilarious.
And who were all these ladies who bared their bosoms for the cameras, and what do they think of their exploits now, all these years later ?
No way, Sugarfoot! We have a busker like that here in Victoria, BC; dresses in a Darth Vader costume and plays the same two chords over and over, every day of tourist season (known locally as "fiddling Vader.") I didn't know there were others like him!
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Guernsey Pete:
And who were all these ladies who bared their bosoms for the cameras, and what do they think of their exploits now, all these years later ?
Not that I've ever done such a thing, but my guess is years later the ladies might think "Damn I wish they still looked like that"
The spin on Ireland...
The spin on Ireland...
http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/aia/exhibits/0012_spin/index.html
It's an interesting read if nothing else.
Love this one:
http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/aia/exhibits/0012_spin/too_album22.htm
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by davydd
Re: The spin on Ireland...
ah hahahahahaha:
http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/aia/exhibits/0012_spin/too_album21.htm
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by davydd
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Sweet mother of Jesus
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by D.J.F.
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Now we know why leprachauns are lucky!
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: The spin on Ireland...
There is a piper in scotland that has turned up at sessions dressed not too dissimilarly to the little guy with the pipe in the 2nd link above.
Not a man noted for not taking himself seriously either.
- chris
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Those were great, gleefully tacky. Not all of them, but davydd's two citings are gloriously hideous.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The spin on Ireland...
ha ha, bloody brilliant.
A friend of mine asked me to design an album cover. I'm desperately trying to persuade them to stand out in a field next to a thatched cottage with a goat on a leash. Bright sunshine. It would be great.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: The spin on Ireland...
My post yesterday showed I was shy of a few 'older albums' done in the 'older' styles. I guess I need to go to Amazon and see if I can find these treasure troves.......
Uh whun annna tooo annna three....
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by zippydw
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Thank you!
As a Yank, I remember those albums.
David Curry's My Ireland and Copley 78s were what was played when we performed Irish Step Dancing in Connecticut in the 1960s.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Threewood
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Well, they're all a damned sight better than this one - http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/458/astack.jpg - which I recently received for review. I can't even make out its title.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by MacCruiskeen
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Its funny that even growing up Polish (though our neighborhood was very ecumenical- several very Irish kids in my grammar school who learned to speak pigin Polish from the Holy nuns) I remember seing several of those albums.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by zippydw
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Yes, album designs may be "gloriously hideous," but our own, deeply personal musical Odysseys were often guided by purchases we made based solely on the album cover.
My musical journey began at age eleven with this fortuitous buy, there under dim, greenish fluorescent lights in an F.W. Woolworth's:
http://www.splicetoday.com/vault/posts/0000/5697/MinistersTouch_large.jpg
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Musical journey, or romantic? A 'touchy' subject, I'm sure.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The spin on Ireland...
SWFL—That album, for me, was only about the glorious music. It was this one that launched me on life's romantic journey:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18025993@N00/235602517/
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Has anyone ever seen the cover of Tom McHale's "Pure Traditional Tin Whistle Music"? I can't find an image online. Great album. The cover image, inside clip-art Celtic knotwork, is a photo of a handful of brand-new brass tin whistles thrown, for God-knows-what-reason, on top of a stack of turf.
I don't know if the turf is supposed to be symbolic of Ireland, or whether they wanted to set fire to the whistles.
Also, they mis-spelled Tom's name. Classy, eh?
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Hammurabi Breathnach
Re: The spin on Ireland...
That's not the cover of the original lp Mr Walsh, although the original also had the misspelling and the image of a ten-holed whistle.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Pure Drop: [shudder]
Interesting link though. Found this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18025993@N00/667369821/
I've seen him show up at a session before, music stand and all. The outfit is one thing, the instrument another, but the music stand? No way.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Thanks kilfarboy, the version I saw was a CD re-release. It's a great recording though, especially because every track starts with Tom announcing, in a dead-pan voice, the names of the tunes he's about to play. All studio albums should have that. I listen to music while washing the dishes and I can't check the track list to find out the name of a tune because I'll only get suds all over the cover.
# Posted on March 6th 2009 by Hammurabi Breathnach
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Floss, I agree your album label is unintellidgable, but surely there are some sleeve notes ? Something on the insert if it's a cd ?
As to the general argument of this posting, it's all shorthand to sell easily, although some of the non-irish bad album covers are also unintentionally hilarious.
And who were all these ladies who bared their bosoms for the cameras, and what do they think of their exploits now, all these years later ?
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Has anyone seen that busker on Grafton Street, the one with the Leprechaun's hat and ginger beard, playing a single chord again and again . . .
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Sugarfoot Jack
Re: The spin on Ireland...
No way, Sugarfoot! We have a busker like that here in Victoria, BC; dresses in a Darth Vader costume and plays the same two chords over and over, every day of tourist season (known locally as "fiddling Vader.") I didn't know there were others like him!
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Glass of Beer
Re: The spin on Ireland...
Pete,
No, there are no liner notes and the track listing is barely legible (and the man actually employed a graphic designer!).
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by MacCruiskeen
Re: The spin on Ireland...
# Posted on March 7th 2009 by Guernsey Pete:
And who were all these ladies who bared their bosoms for the cameras, and what do they think of their exploits now, all these years later ?
Not that I've ever done such a thing, but my guess is years later the ladies might think "Damn I wish they still looked like that"
-signed mom of 5
# Posted on March 9th 2009 by tracywag
Don't forget Mulligan & O'Hare
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f223/purdie007/8b9e0bb4.jpg
# Posted on March 9th 2009 by Krick Stahlschwanz