55. AC/DC - Back in Black

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Every year, this gets harder to explain. AC/DC's Back in Black is a preposterous, drongoid record. It's built on casual sexism, eye-rolling double entendres, a highly questionable 

attitude to sexual consent, a penchant for firearms, and a crass celebration of the unthinking macho hedonism that killed the band's original singer. The guitarist, Angus Young,

still dresses like a 50s schoolboy, underlining the inveterate puerility of AC/DC's oeuvre. The guitar solos are like endless streams of ejaculate; the vocals suggest a man whose 

piles are exploding. It really is appalling.

And it was a fairly calculated release at the time, too. There can be few rock fans who need ask for whom the bell tolls at the start of AC/DC's seventh album, released in July 

1980. It rings for their former singer Bon Scott, who drank himself to death in February earlier that year; the cover is black in his memory. More

On this work, I've delivered the album cover art design brand new, still wrapped in plastic, and, since the title says "back", it means it's been somewhere before, and most probably

from white, which is also a colour for mourning. Oh no, it's been 35 years. Let's stop it now!

Here's your traditional Halloween Black.

No. 13, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time; No. 42, Entertainment Weekly, 100 Greatest Albums Ever;

No. 54, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 77, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time;

No. 107, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.


Cover art design by Bob Defrin. Album produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Albert, Atlantic, 1980.


Michael Durant was an American pilot whose helicopter was downed by rebels in the US military's 1993 attempt to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in Mogadishu.
He was held captive and was rescued after 11 days. Brian Johnson, who replaced singer Bon Scott in the album says:

“He was shoved in prison.” “His back was broken. They were kicking him, shooting bullets into him and he was terrified. His pals knew that AC/DC was his favourite band so
they hooked up a speaker to the skid of one of the choppers and they were playing "Hells Bells" over the rooftops. He took his shirt off and — because his legs were broken —
he crawled up to the windows and waved his shirt. That’s how they got him out.” More

This event is chronicled in the 1993 film Black Hawk Down.


(A) Hells Bells - Shoot to Thrill - What Do You Do for Money Honey - Given the Dog a Bone - Let Me Put My Love into You

(B) Back in Black - You Shook Me All Night Long - Have a Drink on Me - Shake a Leg - Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
  

"Back in Black" live from acdcVEVO on YouTube.

            

  

www.acdc.com

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50. Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim - West Side Story

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This work is based on the sleeve design of the original soundtrack album from the 1961 film West Side Story. The album sleeve design was in turn based on the movie poster art design created by Saul Bass.


I could say that the movie poster art is one of the most iconic of its kind. It portrays the basic setting of the story - the West Side neighbourhood in Manhattan where two groups of migrant youths
struggle to take control. Tony and Maria are amongst them, they fall in love, and the gangs rumble. The story's ending is a tragedy in the style of Romeo and Juliet, although one of the lovers survive. 

The centrepiece of the icon is the staircase, depicting the living conditions of the neighbourhood in a city that was teeming with migrants, for centuries, and right after the Second World War.
In my favourite scene from the movie, Tony and Maria are locked in an embrace where they promise each other:

"There's a time for us, a time and place for us. . . peace and quiet and open air, wait for us somewhere."

Now, take that staircase away.

Or take Tony away. 


The staircase returns to memory.



No. 210, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.


Cover art design derived from the movie poster art by Saul Bass. Album produced by Didier Deutsch. Columbia Masterworks 1961.


Released on October 18, 1961 through United Artists, the film West Side Story received high praise from critics and the public, and became
the second highest grossing film of the year in the United States. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including
Best Picture, becoming the record holder for the most wins for a movie musical.

West Side Story holds a 94% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviews for an average rating of 8.3; the consensus states:
"Buoyed by Robert Wise's dazzling direction, Leonard Bernstein's score, and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics, West Side Story remains perhaps
the most iconic of all the Shakespeare adaptations to visit the big screen."

The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry in 1997. Its ten Academy Awards make it the musical film with the most Academy wins, including Best Picture.
Three other films (Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) won 11 Oscars, but none was a musical.
Full article


(A) Prologue - Jet Song - Something's Coming - Dance at the Gym - Maria - America - Tonight

(B) Gee, Officer Krupke - I Feel Pretty - One Hand, One Heart - Quintet - The Rumble - Cool - A Boy Like That/I Have a Love - Somewhere

"Somewhere", a clip from the movie from movieclips on YouTube.

            

  

www.westsidestory.com

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41. The Beatles - White Album

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This work is derived from the cover of one of the greatest albums of all time. It's amazing how such a minimalist design could be rated among the best album covers and it comes from a time when
album cover designs were pretty much part of the listening experience. The cover of the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band underscored the significance of the cover art design
and the musicologist Ian Inglis once said that "after it's release, album covers were no longer 'a superfluous thing to be discarded during the act of listening, but an integral component
of the listening that expanded the musical experience'".

The White Album's sleeve was designed by pop artist Richard Hamilton, in collaboration with McCartney. Hamilton's design was in stark contrast to Peter Blake's vivid cover art for Sergeant Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, and consisted of a plain white sleeve. The band's name was discreetly embossed slightly below the middle of the album's right side, and the cover also featured a
unique stamped serial number, "to create," in Hamilton's words, "the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies." In 2008, an original pressing of the
album with serial number 0000005 sold for £19,201 on eBay. More


Now, for my part, my tweaks are intended for use as wallpapers. I use an 18 x 10 canvass. That's how far I've stretched the original cover art and the result is not quite like an album cover but
the plain white front of a letter envelope. There could be no question about the message inside it. So I finished the work in a minimalist way like Richard Hamilton did, by pasting a 
stamp with The Beatles' image on it, and stamping it like it has been posted. "Well you know," is from the song "Revolution".


Here's the original album cover art design.  

No. 5, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000; No. 10, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 12, Entertainment Weekly, The 100 Greatest Albums Ever;
No. 13, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 73, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time.

No. 3, Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Album Covers; No. 7, Music Radar, The 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time.


Art Design by Richard Hamilton. Album produced by George Martin and Chris Thomas. Apple 1968.


Having dazzled record-buyers with the Peter Blake-designed cover for Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles had to carefully consider their next move.
They enlisted notable pop artist Richard Hamilton, who designed a plain white sleeve with the group's name lightly embossed on the right-hand side. Art dealer
and gallery owner Robert Fraser arranged for Hamilton to meet Paul McCartney at the Apple offices in Savile Row. On the day, however, McCartney was
so late arriving that the artist nearly walked out.

Paul McCartney: "I tried to get him interested in the whole thing. I laid out what it was we'd got. We'd got an album coming out,
we hadn't really got a title for it. 'I'd like you to work on the cover. We've done Sergeant Pepper. We've worked with a fine artist
before and I just had a feeling you might be right.'"

In addition to suggesting the minimalist approach, Hamilton also had the idea of consecutive numbered sleeves, which was a feature of early copies. In Michael Cooper's 
book Blinds and Shutters, Hamilton described the meeting:

"Since Sergeant Pepper was so over the top, I explained, 'I would be inclined to do a very prissy thing, almost like a limited edition.'
He didn't discourage me so I went on to propose a plain white album; if that were too clean and empty, then maybe we could print
a ring of brown stain to look as if a coffee cup had been left on it - but that was thought a bit too flippant. I also suggested that they
might number each copy, to create the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies. This was agreed,
but then I began to feel a bit guilty at putting their double album under plain wrappers; even the lettering is casual, almost invisible,
a blind stamping. I suggested it could be jazzed up with a large edition print, an insert that would be even more glamorous than a
normal sleeve." Full article


(A) Back in the USSR - Dear Prudence - Glass Onion - Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, Wild Honey Pie - The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill - While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Happiness is a Warm Gun

(B) Martha My Dear - I'm So Tired - Blackbird - Piggies - Rocky Raccoon - Don't Pass Me By - Why Don't We Do It on the Road? - I Will - Julia

(C) Birthday - Yer Blues - Mother Nature's Son - Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - Sexy Sadie - Helter Skelter - Long, Long, Long

(D) Revolution 1 - Honey Pie - Savoy Truffle - Cry, Baby, Cry - Revolution 9 - Good Night



"Revolution" live from albumania on YouTube.

            

  

www.thebeatles.com

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