[HN Gopher] The History of Album Art
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       The History of Album Art
        
       Author : tobr
       Score  : 56 points
       Date   : 2025-05-02 17:30 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (matthewstrom.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (matthewstrom.com)
        
       | MassPikeMike wrote:
       | This is great and has a lot of early historical perspective that
       | I had never seen chronicled before.
       | 
       | But it is necessarily limited in the amount of album covers it
       | can feature from what many would consider to be their heyday, the
       | 1950s through the 1970s.
       | 
       | If you just want to feast your eyes on a lot of great album
       | covers from that period, pick up a copy of the "Album Cover
       | Album" [1] or one of its six (!) follow-ups. Designers Storm
       | Thorgerson (who worked with Pink Floyd) and Roger Dean (who
       | worked with Yes) created these incredibly lush books, with album
       | covers printed nice and large in vivid color, organized in a
       | really insightfully thematic way. A bit more speedy than your
       | average used book, but not by much. Highly recommended, good for
       | hours of reverie.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5304267-album-cover-
       | albu...
        
         | ryandrake wrote:
         | Gotta admit: Yes's wild album covers drew me in so that their
         | sound could get me hooked on Prog Rock so long ago. Creative
         | album covers seem to be one of the many victims of today's
         | single-focused and streaming-focused music landscape.
        
       | creeble wrote:
       | There's also a full documentary movie "The Cover Story" by Eric
       | Christensen that is pretty interesting, if long and redundant in
       | parts.
        
       | gwbas1c wrote:
       | > In the early 1900s, ... Early vinyl records
       | 
       | Vinyl didn't come out until much later. In the early 1900s
       | records were made from acetate, and could _shatter_.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Friend of mine is a retired, high-level music exec.
       | 
       | He has a story about the cover art for _Their Greatest Hits_
       | (Eagles)[0].
       | 
       | The bird skull is sitting in what looks like "snow."
       | 
       | Apparently, that's what it was. After the shoot, they snorted it
       | all.
       | 
       | [0]
       | https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0566/5105/5295/files/eagle...
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Some time ago, someone here posted this:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40795227
       | 
       | It was a "TIL" day, for me.
        
       | ForOldHack wrote:
       | Here is a book on the history of the best, curated by Roger Dean:
       | ( There are 3 volumes.. )
       | 
       | https://www.amazon.com/Album-Cover-Roger-Dean/dp/0061626953
        
       | yubblegum wrote:
       | Factory Records not even mentioned? Their cover art certainly
       | charted a new aesthetic.
        
       | etothet wrote:
       | From the article, in regards to Blakey, Monk, Bird, Dizzy, and
       | Trane: "...because of their drinking, drug use, and frenetic
       | schedules, labels wouldn't work with them."
       | 
       | Is this claim documented somewhere? (All but one of the footnote
       | links are dead for me)
        
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       (page generated 2025-05-02 23:00 UTC)