The Fixity Of Record Covers

there's also a number of reissues with very different sleeves to the original pressings (e.g. Durutti Column CD reissues, although they vaguely incorporate the original art so this may not count)

Same album.

2. Banned or withdrawn sleeves: "The Man Who Sold The World" by wotsisname has two iconic covers, I think.

3. Different territories: I was thinking "Wilder" but you lot can probably name Beatles or Kraftwerk records which are better examples.

4. Aesthetic / commercial reasons: One of those LPs by the Motors ("Approved By The Motors"?) had its sleeve changed when the record company decided that the Motors' ugly mugs on the cover were putting off potential customers. ALso cf "Kilimanjaro".

5. Reggae.

http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/dre300/e307/e30792bv73v.jpg http://punkandoi.free.fr/clashlp2.jpg http://timebombzine.metropoliglobal.com/discos/portadas/give.jpg

Same sleeve, 3 different (all pretty much equally vile imo) type faces.

The band logo / script is usually seen as pretty darned important too - anyone know the story behind this one?

Ditto Sly's There's A Riot Goin' On.

Reading is a private thing, once the book is written, the author ceases to have any part in the reading process. What is important is what's between the covers, whereas the cover merely facilitates the advertisement of the author's name.

geek love also came in a rubbish sleeve to start with (a 12" inner sleeve with an a4 photocopy glued to it, probably only available in certain record shops in gloucestershire) but got a proper sleeve they got picked up by a label and could afford one.

(and, being cynical, i think the only reason book covers change so frequently is so that they can increase the price printed on the back)

(an interesting secondary question, probably off topic here, is books whose covers *haven't* changed over the years)

andy

in the vinyl era many covers had different versions in different countries. this changed with cd cos cds are more permanent-ish or something.

when old records are put on cd the cover is of course subtly changed - cropping, bordering, etc. and of course jazz reissues were always subject to change because the covers were usually so dated looking [a cool looking abstract art thelonious monk cover in the 50s looked pretty dumb in the pop art 60s]

when books go through x printings they sometimes get revised by the author or editor and that's a good time to give it a new cover. but of course whenever a musician touches up an old recording, their ans cry foul [zappa, ozzy, etc.]

Yeah, those The The reissues all had different covers ...terrible, almost as bad as the originals. Johnson's brother's artwork makes me sick (not in the goodway).

well, but that wasn't because people didn't think the pre 60s singers were hot. their images certainly were used to sell the records; there are tons of cases where good looking people are on the cover who have no relation to the music inside.

back to the book thing first - what sort of books are sold by cover? pulp. this is why classical records have boring covers - they are highbrow, like classy lit. you shop for books by looking at a bunch of titles, and pull one out and read the first line; if all record stores had turntables i bet the cover would be less important. this is probably happening right now as listening stations become the norm.

i'm surprised no-one's mentioned the beatles yet, cos they were the first pop stars [of course] to take an interest in their lp covers [or who could waste effort on it] - they wanted some sort of plastic soul type drawing for rubber soul, i think, that was 1965. then next came zappa's kooky cover. i wonder what the first rock lp without a picture of the singer was - the yardbirds?

as for pre 60s covers - only 7"s sold in the millions in those days. the great lps of the 50s were constantly repackaged to add the latest hit single from the star. so it's an apples and oranges thing.

There's at least three different covers to White Light/White Heat by the Velvet Underground. The first one with the arm tattoo, a reissue from the early 1970s that is a grey picture of toy soldiers and the version from the early 1980s that just had a solid black cover with the band name/title at the top.