Book-It 'o9! Book #47
More of the Fifty Books Challenge! This was a Goodwill find from my father.
Title: The Worst Album Covers Ever! by Nick DiFonzo
Details: Copyright 2004, Barnes & Noble Books
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Over the decades in which vinyl ruled the turntables, there were some fantastic, ground-breaking album cover designs. However, simultaneously there was also a plethora of superlatively bad album titles and designs made by artists and record companies. Some album covers may be doomed to awfulness by the artist's bad hair, others by their terrible dress sense, but many by an incomprehensibly strange choice of props.
The Worst Album Covers Ever takes a satirical look at 80 covers whose sheer bad taste ensures their place in the annals of music history for evermore."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Come on, look at the title and cover! Aren't you a little interested?
How I Liked It: The book opens with a bit of history on the album cover (soaked in a bit too much Boomerist nostalgia) but gets more interesting once DiFonzo starts outlining what makes a bad album cover, genres and marketing, and some "lost art" of the era of the record. He contends that the niche markets that most of these albums fall into (instructional, novelty, Christian music) simply didn't have the "image consultants" (and presumably mirrors) that larger labels and more popular acts boasted. He notes the growth of some markets (Christian pop) and the disappearance (mood music) of others. DiFonzo's commentary isn't as witty as the albums deserve and at times is just superfluous. But this is, of course, primarily a book of pictures and wow, what pictures. Truly squirmifying entries vary from the "mood music" craze:
to what vaguely feels like the exploitation of people with disabilities and handicaps:
Behold Gary Dee Bradford, born with no arms.
to the tasteless:
Behold Millie Jackson (who gets points for appearing twice) whose ESP album stands for "Extra Sexual Persuasion", as the cover helpfully informs us.
to the many, many, MANY varieties of Christian family music from the 1970s:
to unfortunate album titles (specializing in puns and double entendres, both intentional and non):
Songs include: "Get Me to the Church on Time", "This Could Be the Start of Something Big", and "I've Got You Under My Skin". No, seriously.
This one requires a bit of explanation (don't they all, really): Texan Freddie Gage was apparently known as "The Underworld Preacher". A reformed drug addict, in the 1950s he founded the Pulpit in the Shadows ministry committed to "reaching restless youth.. victims of drug abuse, hippies... the rebel motorcycle gangs, and society dropouts".
to fashions that stretched even the acceptability of their respective eras:
Notable: While DiFonzo's book is populated by obscure acts, there is one (relatively) mainstream group that makes an appearance.
And yes, that is indeed New York Representative John Hall (who's made several memorable appearances on The Colbert Report) at the center.
The author has a site with hundreds more horrible album covers you can browse through, handily organized in a variety of ways (simply by name or genre, examples: "Getting Preachy", "Nice Ladies", and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell").
Title: The Worst Album Covers Ever! by Nick DiFonzo
Details: Copyright 2004, Barnes & Noble Books
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Over the decades in which vinyl ruled the turntables, there were some fantastic, ground-breaking album cover designs. However, simultaneously there was also a plethora of superlatively bad album titles and designs made by artists and record companies. Some album covers may be doomed to awfulness by the artist's bad hair, others by their terrible dress sense, but many by an incomprehensibly strange choice of props.
The Worst Album Covers Ever takes a satirical look at 80 covers whose sheer bad taste ensures their place in the annals of music history for evermore."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Come on, look at the title and cover! Aren't you a little interested?
How I Liked It: The book opens with a bit of history on the album cover (soaked in a bit too much Boomerist nostalgia) but gets more interesting once DiFonzo starts outlining what makes a bad album cover, genres and marketing, and some "lost art" of the era of the record. He contends that the niche markets that most of these albums fall into (instructional, novelty, Christian music) simply didn't have the "image consultants" (and presumably mirrors) that larger labels and more popular acts boasted. He notes the growth of some markets (Christian pop) and the disappearance (mood music) of others. DiFonzo's commentary isn't as witty as the albums deserve and at times is just superfluous. But this is, of course, primarily a book of pictures and wow, what pictures. Truly squirmifying entries vary from the "mood music" craze:
to what vaguely feels like the exploitation of people with disabilities and handicaps:
Behold Gary Dee Bradford, born with no arms.
to the tasteless:
Behold Millie Jackson (who gets points for appearing twice) whose ESP album stands for "Extra Sexual Persuasion", as the cover helpfully informs us.
to the many, many, MANY varieties of Christian family music from the 1970s:
to unfortunate album titles (specializing in puns and double entendres, both intentional and non):
Songs include: "Get Me to the Church on Time", "This Could Be the Start of Something Big", and "I've Got You Under My Skin". No, seriously.
This one requires a bit of explanation (don't they all, really): Texan Freddie Gage was apparently known as "The Underworld Preacher". A reformed drug addict, in the 1950s he founded the Pulpit in the Shadows ministry committed to "reaching restless youth.. victims of drug abuse, hippies... the rebel motorcycle gangs, and society dropouts".
to fashions that stretched even the acceptability of their respective eras:
Notable: While DiFonzo's book is populated by obscure acts, there is one (relatively) mainstream group that makes an appearance.
And yes, that is indeed New York Representative John Hall (who's made several memorable appearances on The Colbert Report) at the center.
The author has a site with hundreds more horrible album covers you can browse through, handily organized in a variety of ways (simply by name or genre, examples: "Getting Preachy", "Nice Ladies", and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell").