 Recently, the Detroit band Chain Reaction reminded me of the importance of album art with their latest release, Electric Playground. The cover art (at left) was designed by New York artist Richard Klemann. It's just the kind of album cover I would have loved as a kid - so many details to peruse.
That was my favorite pastime growing up in the 70's; whiling away the hours listening to music, locked in my room with a pair of headphones while I poured over every detail of the cover art. I consumed everything on the inner sleeve and all the credits as well. It was an essential part of the listening experience for me.
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Rock music just wouldn't have been the same without the colorful spacescapes of Roger Dean, the gothic-mechanical inventions of H.R. Geiger and the commercial ad-winks of Andy Warhol (Sticky Fingers) or Peter Corriston (Some Girls, Physical Graffiti) and all the great artists and photographers who contributed to Hipgnosis at one time or another. They fed my imagination and enriched my life.
While the advent of cassette tapes and boom boxes made music more portable, allowing me and my teenage friends to terrorize the neighborhood with Nugent and Zeppelin, I didn't realize at the time how it changed my relationship to the music. A cassette cover became just a package, something to toss out of the way to get to the music. Reading the credits became a challenge in visual acuity and hardly worth the bother. For the first time, music became the background soundtrack to the events in my life instead of an event in itself.
It wasn't until CD's came out that I realized how much I missed those hours of free-reigning imagination that bonded me to the music via the artwork. CD cover art was better than casettes, but nothing in comparison to a 12x12 album cover (perhaps partly explaining the resurgence of popularity of vinyl with today's teens). Sure, some artists folded up 16-paneled posters into the little jewel case, but it wasn't the same; too much bother, like having to re-fold a road map. I toyed with the idea of inventing some sort of stereoscope to view CD covers, but never got around to bothering with it. Soon, music went digital and so did the artwork.
Now I look at a tiny digital album cover on my video iPod, mostly just as a reference point to what I'm listening to. But I don't get detailed visuals, or exhaustive credits, or water-color insleeves (e.g. Led Zeppelin's "In Through The Outdoor") or any of the things that might strengthen my bonds to the record. Perhaps soon, some enterprising techie out there will find a way to bring the art and credits back to us in ways we never imagined before. I can only hope he or she remembers the seventies. - Mitch
Check out Richard Klemann's art @ MySpace
Check out Chain Reaction's music on MySpace
Check out Rick Nease's art & music on YouTube
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