|
|
Post by bobdylan on May 11, 2020 2:30:50 GMT
I am very curious of everyone's favorite Who album covers.
This is for Studio album covers only.
I am not sure if this thread has been done before.
Please list in order.
Here are mine:
1. Who's Next
2. Who Are You
3. Face Dances
4. By Numbers
5. My Generation (UK)
|
|
|
|
Post by theawesomesound on May 11, 2020 4:35:49 GMT
05. Who Are You
04. The Who Sell Out
03. The Who (Italy '66 album, same Ralph Steadman caricature as Happy Jack single picture sleeve.)
02. Tommy
01. A Quick One
|
|
|
|
Post by whoireland on May 11, 2020 7:42:49 GMT
1. Who’s Next
2. WHO
3. Who Are You
4. Live at Leeds
5. Sell out
|
|
|
|
Post by Nnic on May 11, 2020 8:18:03 GMT
1. Tommy
2. Who's Next
3. WHO
4. Quadrophenia
5. A Quick One
|
|
|
|
Post by ronmanager on May 11, 2020 8:35:41 GMT
1. Who's Next
2. The Who Sell Out
3. Quadrophenia
4. Tommy
5. The Who By Numbers
|
|
|
|
Post by Ineedanewname on May 11, 2020 13:27:46 GMT
1. My Generation (UK). It's a cover which in one image manages to sum up not only what the band are about but how the music will sound. A classic. I do like the US alternative, but it just doesn't have the resonance of the UK original.
2. Quadrophenia. With the LP, not CD, an epic piece of artwork. Containing a thick 12" booklet telling the story in pictures, the gritty monochrome really helps give a taste of the environment in which the story is situated. Strange as this may seem, because of the cover I always think of Quadrophenia having a "grey" sound.
3. A Quick One. To quote an old song; nice legs, shame about the face. Or rather, it's a pity the music inside didn't live up to the explosively sixties grooviness of the cover art.
4. Sell Out. Much as with My Generation, one glance at this and you're clued up as to the probable nature of the content. Before even hearing the album you know it's gonna have elements of fun and quirkiness, be something a bit different, nothing too heavy.
5. Tommy. As with Quadrophenia, thinking of this from the vinyl LP and not the CD, it's a quite an impressive beast, opening out in 3 folds. Nice.
And of course no question of this nature can be answered without at least giving honourable mention to Live At Leeds (again, LP not CD). Designed outwardly to replicate a bootleg album, which at that point were commonly found in quite rudimentary sleeves, inwardly you were handed a veritable cornucopia of Who ephemera; a poster, photographs and a sheaf of replica paperwork. A real treat for the unsuspecting fan...all too sadly now reduced to a page or two within a CD booklet....
|
|
|
|
Post by theawesomesound on May 11, 2020 15:02:55 GMT
I thought about putting Live at Leeds in my list. I would probably put it at the sixth spot in a top ten of Who album art. I got rid of most of my records but I've held on to my copy of Live at Leeds cause the reduced artwork on my 80's German CD copy doesn't have the same impact and my digital versions don't have much album art at all. I give the US vinyl version the edge cause the outer cover is sturdier.
I'd also put Quadrophenia and The Kids Are Alright soundtrack in my top ten mainly for the booklets they included and give the other two spots to The Who By Numbers and the pressings of Face Dances that had a poster. I always wish they threw in a photo booklet with the Tommy movie soundtrack. I ended up getting a used copy of the Story of Tommy book to fill that void.
|
|
|
|
Post by whoireland on May 11, 2020 15:11:48 GMT
If we’re counting overall packaging , the list could change...!
I was basing on the cover artwork/logo.
I never liked Tommy cover , but the package is very nice.
Similarly for Quadrophenia. Superb booklet with the vinyl and with it being a double, it feels like something special. The cover pic has become iconic, but I always thought there were better options for it.
Even the bands faces aren’t clear enough
|
|
|
|
Post by Ineedanewname on May 11, 2020 17:28:27 GMT
I'd also put Quadrophenia and The Kids Are Alright soundtrack in my top ten mainly for the booklets they included Actually I'd forgotten about The Kids Are Alright, which has some really good artwork. I remember the inner sleeve for each LP was an embossed film cannister. And the book was excellent wasn't it? A quality job. I thought about putting Live at Leeds in my list. I would probably put it at the sixth spot in a top ten of Who album art. I got rid of most of my records but I've held on to my copy of Live at Leeds cause the reduced artwork on my 80's German CD copy doesn't have the same impact I have one of those. And the cover is a fold-out poster. Which I always thought was bloody stupid with CDs. Even moreso in this case because when you fold it out the top corner of the poster is the front cover of the CD!  Similarly for Quadrophenia. The cover pic has become iconic, but I always thought there were better options for it. Even the bands faces aren’t clear enough I have to agree. There are out-takes from the session which I'd argue were more impressive than the final image. Never thought the band's faces worked well either. Looked too much as if they'd been stuck on those mirrors as an afterthought. |
|
|
|
Post by Nnic on May 11, 2020 21:02:08 GMT
I thought OP were only asking about studio albums but if not then I would put Odds & Sods, Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy and Story of The Who in the top 5, probably.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ineedanewname on May 11, 2020 22:38:43 GMT
I do love the gatefold image of Meaty, Beaty. The pub covered in old posters. Very evocative. (Another thing lost with the advent of the CD!)
|
|
|
|
Post by ronmanager on May 12, 2020 12:29:34 GMT
3. A Quick One. To quote an old song; nice legs, shame about the face. Or rather, it's a pity the music inside didn't live up to the explosively sixties grooviness of the cover art. Digressing a bit, but I liked how you formulated this. I always wondered how flat and underwhelming for example AQOWHA sounds on the record, compared to the the explosiveness of the versions on Live At Leeds and Rock and Roll Circus. |
|
|
|
Post by Ineedanewname on May 12, 2020 16:46:56 GMT
That was also my first impression of the studio take. I'd previously only heard the live Rock and Roll Circus recording from the soundtrack album of The Kids Are Alright. So I was really excited when I finally got my hands on the Quick One album, expecting the title track to be an even greater powerhouse. Was I in for a surprise....!
|
|
|
|
Post by bobdylan on May 14, 2020 23:50:14 GMT
3. A Quick One. To quote an old song; nice legs, shame about the face. Or rather, it's a pity the music inside didn't live up to the explosively sixties grooviness of the cover art. Digressing a bit, but I liked how you formulated this. I always wondered how flat and underwhelming for example AQOWHA sounds on the record, compared to the the explosiveness of the versions on Live At Leeds and Rock and Roll Circus. Just noticed the other day that the Cover art of A Quick One is similar to the Peter Max Yellow Submarine style. |
|
|
|
Post by Ineedanewname on May 15, 2020 0:37:28 GMT
I see where you're coming from. Bear in mind though Aldridge designed the Quick One cover in 1966, whilst Max's Yellow Submarine artwork came two years later. And if you look at Max's work from 1966 he hasn't yet got into that "submariney" style, although you can see distinct hints of it emerging in some of his work from 1967. Coincidentally, Alan Aldridge also did a lot of work for The Beatles. Here's another bit of album art trivia; Art Kane, photographer for The Kids Are Alright, has said the image of the band on that album's front cover was inspired by a 1937 photo of a man asleep (or a vagrant or drunk, depending on your source) in Trafalgar Square during the coronation of King George. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/mar/08/the-big-picture-henri-cartier-bresson-coronation-king-george-vi-1937-sleeping-man |
|
|
|
Post by whoireland on May 15, 2020 9:41:25 GMT
That was also my first impression of the studio take. I'd previously only heard the live Rock and Roll Circus recording from the soundtrack album of The Kids Are Alright. So I was really excited when I finally got my hands on the Quick One album, expecting the title track to be an even greater powerhouse. Was I in for a surprise....! At the risk of going well of track here..... I had same experience. And also made me think of how Tommy morphed from a largely acoustic affair to an all out heavy rock experience. I knew the studio Amazing Journey for a long time before I heard the likes of Leeds version- it was pretty mind blowing difference So if they did it with Tommy and had done it with a quick one while he’s away, and summertime blues (different trajectory there given studio version came later) why did they not favour recording heavy versions in the first place ..? |
|
|
|
Post by Ineedanewname on May 16, 2020 23:16:24 GMT
I've always thought Tommy would have been a far more powerful album had they just gone into the studio and banged it out fully electric, stage-set style. We've heard all the stories of how the tracks were recorded between gigs and suchlike due to time/financial constraints, so I would have thought from a purely pragmatic perspective stripping things back to basics for the sessions would have been the obvious way to go.
Interestingly, in Townshend's autobiography he claims the electric guitar on Tommy sounds "poor" because it was basically a guide track which "I planned to replace with a killer combination of full-bodied acoustic guitar and driving electric rhythm guitar".....although he doesn't explain why that never happened.
|
|
|
|
Post by bobdylan on May 17, 2020 22:28:59 GMT
I've always thought Tommy would have been a far more powerful album had they just gone into the studio and banged it out fully electric, stage-set style. We've heard all the stories of how the tracks were recorded between gigs and suchlike due to time/financial constraints, so I would have thought from a purely pragmatic perspective stripping things back to basics for the sessions would have been the obvious way to go. Interestingly, in Townshend's autobiography he claims the electric guitar on Tommy sounds "poor" because it was basically a guide track which "I planned to replace with a killer combination of full-bodied acoustic guitar and driving electric rhythm guitar".....although he doesn't explain why that never happened. Part of me agrees with you, but, I love the Tommy album as it is. Getting back to album covers, The Tommy cover is cool. A giant blue Death Star. Who the hell thinks of making an album cover like that? And on top of it, it is spread out over three full album covers. What? It is huge! I guess it is supposed to be that Tommy's world is like a jail cell. Anyway, how many times can you put four pictures of the band members on the cover of an album? I guess every album except Tommy and Quadrophenia. I still love them. |
|
|
|
Post by Ineedanewname on May 17, 2020 22:42:49 GMT
Part of me agrees with you, but, I love the Tommy album as it is. Getting back to album covers, The Tommy cover is cool. A giant blue Death Star. Who the hell thinks of making an album cover like that? And on top of it, it is spread out over three full album covers. What? It is huge! I guess it is supposed to be that Tommy's world is like a jail cell. Anyway, how many times can you put four pictures of the band members on the cover of an album? I guess every album except Tommy and Quadrophenia. I still love them. Unlike my opinion of Quadrophenia, the face placements work well with Tommy. It's interesting you use the jail cell analogy as the band "reaching out" from their sections suggests an attempt to escape the void in which they're held. Then again, maybe it's an attempt to pull the listener in to that void...hmmm. |
|
