Thoughts on a Grey Day

[jbrownsjr]

Ok not many Grey days here in Los Angeles so I'll start now cos we have one (and it will burn off soon).

- Bare Trees has an awesome photo of the sunset!



What's your thoughts.....C'mon bring this forum alive!

[chiliD]

The Bare Trees cover is in my top 3 favorite Fleetwood Mac album covers. (behind Time & Kiln House)

[jbrownsjr]

Album Covers

1. Mystery To Me
2. Mirage
3. Kiln House
4. Bare Tress

[Hawkeye]

Bare Trees IS my favorite album cover by far. Nothing touches it.

[dansven]

My favourite is "Then Play On". That rider going from autumn in the laft part of the picture, to spring and summer in the right part.

It is so symbolic, like a change in some way. And the band a big change a within a year with Peter leaving.

[wondergirl9847]

Fave pre-Rumours covers:

Kiln House

I could stare at this for hours!! You can always find some new thing you didn't notice before. Christine did a GREAT job on this album cover.

Bare Trees

Melancholy cover for a melancholy album. Perfect. Bravo John!!


Then Play On

It's very eye catching with the drawing and colors used.

[FuzzyPlum]

Just perusing some old threads...
I do love the Bare Trees cover. I'd list it number 4 of all pre-75 covers;

1) Kiln House
2) Then Play On
3) Mystery To Me
4) Bare Trees
5) PG's Fleetwood Mac
6) Penguin
7) Pious Bird of Good Omen
8) Future Games

=9) English Rose
=9) Mr Wonderful
=9) Heroes Are Hard to Find

Mick really doesn't mind putting himself out there in less than flattering pictures. Those last three covers are seriously disturbing. I wonder whether more people were put off buying those albums due to the strange covers or whether more people bought them out of curiosity.

Was it common place for bands to release such strange covered albums back in those days?

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

=9) English Rose
=9) Mr Wonderful
=9) Heroes Are Hard to Find

Mick really doesn't mind putting himself out there in less than flattering pictures. Those last three covers are seriously disturbing. I wonder whether more people were put off buying those albums due to the strange covers or whether more people bought them out of curiosity.

Was it common place for bands to release such strange covered albums back in those days?

Definitely. Especially from about '67-74 or thereabouts. Covers got a bit tamer after about '75 or '76. Although, there were always the exceptions.

Check out the old King Crimson album covers (especially their first album In The Court Of The Crimson King from 1969) .

Jethro Tull's first few album covers were a bit odd. There were a few bands who used Hieronymous Bosch paintings/drawings on their covers. (Pearls Before Swine, Deep Purple). One of his paintings, "Garden Of Earthly Delights" spawned a couple of album covers...the band using different sections of the very large tryptich.
Plus, some other album covers done by other artists were very much influenced by Bosch (Alan Aldridge's cover for Elton John's Captain Fantastic... album & whoever did the cover for Frank Zappa's Overnight Sensation album. )

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by chiliD

Definitely. Especially from about '67-74 or thereabouts. Covers got a bit tamer after about '75 or '76. Although, there were always the exceptions.

Check out the old King Crimson album covers (especially their first album In The Court Of The Crimson King from 1969) .

Jethro Tull's first few album covers were a bit odd. There were a few bands who used Hieronymous Bosch paintings/drawings on their covers. (Pearls Before Swine, Deep Purple). One of his paintings, "Garden Of Earthly Delights" spawned a couple of album covers...the band using different sections of the very large tryptich.
Plus, some other album covers done by other artists were very much influenced by Bosch (Alan Aldridge's cover for Elton John's Captain Fantastic... album & whoever did the cover for Frank Zappa's Overnight Sensation album. )

Just looked them all up. Though I agree they are all pretty strange, I personally still find the Fleetwood Mac covers more disturbing. I think its because there's an actual person on the cover rather than a painting. I think I find them odd as they don't really do anything- they aren't exactly art. They aren't making a statement. They aren't tremendously provocative. Of all things they could have come up with- they went with those!!!!!

King Crimson- In The Wake of Poseidon Looks equally or more freaky. Would you recommend In The Court of... as an album to listen to?
Frank Zappa- now that you mention FZ I've just remembered I own Trout Mask Replica from that period- that's pretty out there (in all ways).

[wetcamelfood]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

Would you recommend In The Court of... as an album to listen to?

Yes but listen to track 1 last. I think that's their 2nd best album (Red being the best).

I'd like to hear Chili's Zappa recommendations (end of thread hijack).

John

[sorcerer999]

I love EVERYTHING about "Bare Trees". It's actually my all time favorite Fleetwood Mac album! It's beautiful! Just beautiful! So beautiful!

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by wetcamelfood

Yes but listen to track 1 last. I think that's their 2nd best album (Red being the best).

I'd like to hear Chili's Zappa recommendations (end of thread hijack).

My peak era of listening to Zappa was from about '72-75, so the albums that were released during that stretch (and I went backwards a few years, too) are some of my faves:

Probably starting with stuff released around 1969:

Crusin' With Ruben & The Jets
Uncle Meat
Hot Rats
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Chunga's Revenge
Just Another Band From LA
Waka/Jawaka
The Grand Wazoo
Overnite Sensation
Apostrophe
Roxy & Elsewhere

While I thought the Mothers' Live At The Fillmore 1971 was ok, I wasn't that enthralled with it, but when I later discovered that one side of the live material that John & Yoko released on their Sometime In New York City album was the encore from the show that was released by Zappa, it gave it a whole new perspective. Sometimes, Zappa's gross-out humor gets a bit much, the instrumental portions of his albums are what I listen to the most; although I do like a few of his lyrics, too.

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by wetcamelfood

Yes but listen to track 1 last. I think that's their 2nd best album (Red being the best).

I'd like to hear Chili's Zappa recommendations (end of thread hijack).

John

Finally caught up with 'In the Court of the Crimson King' - epic, beautiful music (and very evocative). I see why you said that about track 1- I can miss that altogether. Epitaph is particularly nice, though the title track reprise is my favourite part.
thanks

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

Was it common place for bands to release such strange covered albums back in those days?

It was an "anything goes" approach when it comes to album cover design in the late sixties and throughout the seventies. John Lennon and Yoko appear completely naked on the cover of his early solo albums. They are standing together, letting it all hang out. It was sold with a paper bag covering it. ( I obtained the album, and it still had the paper bag with it).

Consider the tight, restrictive standards still in place in the mid-sixties. The Mamas and Papas released their debut album in 1966. The cover featured all four members (clothed) in a bathtub. To the right of them you see a toilet. Only a few of those made it to the market before the censors deemed it inappropriate, so all future pressings have the "offensive" toilet covered with a listing of some of the songs. (I was able to obtain the toilet cover album, which is quite a rarity).

I wish I could reference my album collection (about 500+) to list some bizarre, as well as creative and beautiful album covers. Alas, they are all in storage on the other side of the country.