Sticky Fingers had a zipper on the cover which scratched anything next to it, and warped the vinyl. That was a marketing disaster.
Sticky Fingers had a zipper on the cover which scratched anything next to it, and warped the vinyl. That was a marketing disaster.
Last edited by rcarlberg; 12-10-2014 at 10:24 PM.
Brian Eno -Before and After Science- had a folder with prints of the back sleeve drawings
One of the mid 1970s Alice Cooper albums had paper panties as the album sleeve; I recall some ad or review saying it was the best dressed album of the year.
PF's original Pulse set had a battery powered blinking red light on the side.
My copy of Live at Leeds was a manilla folder that contained copies of hand written set lists and tour info flyers.
Wakeman did some of that too on a few of his solo albums.
Billion Dollar Babies has a giant billion dollar bill inside with a baby face in the center.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Alice Cooper's Killer album came with a 1971 calendar with a garish picture of Alice hanging,.
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
not to mention a panty on a later album... Cut outs on BDBOriginally Posted by nosebone
and speaking of cut-outs , Jefferson Airplane's Long John Silver transforming in a cigar-box secret stash for dope
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
They did that on the vinyl too?
No, sorry. That was a digital box set. There are some cool "extras" on a few digital releases that can compete with those vinyl extras, like the Pulse set, or the 3D glasses built into the cover of Tool's 10,000 Days. But typically those marketing tricks were provided on vinyl.
Here's another recent one I just though of:
Pat Metheny's recent vinyl KIN release had a card inside with the cover artwork on it.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Who could forget Cheech & Chong's "Big Bamboo," with the giant rolling paper?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Mine had a CD in it (in a cardboard sleeve). You may want to check this "card" again...
Ambrosia_Album.jpg
Didn't an early Ash Ra Tempel album fold into some shape too?
Burning Red Ivanhoe: M144 (1969)
Released in a gimmix gatefold cover. When opening, a stage pops up in the middle (a puppet theater). A dotted line indicates the location to make a small cut. An extra cardboard medieval knight can be inserted in the slit.
Supersister - Pudding & Gisteren, gatefold cover. The left half that does not contain the LP can be cut open, revealing a comic printed inside. Many buyers never discovered this.
I think what BobM probably means is the limited edition "print" of the cover that came free when you ordered from the site. The CD in the little card was also included in it.
We are the grandchildren of apes, not angels
But only we are gifted with the eyes to see
On days without FEAR, when our heads are clear
That angels, we could be
(Marillion 2016)
- Banco del Mutuo Soccorso: 1st (original cover is shaped like a bank book)
- Banco del Mutuo Soccorso: Io sono nato libero (a die-cut curved, “arched” top, “doors” fold open at the front)
- Barclay James Harvest: Octoberon (the cover figure is textured)
- Bee Gees: Odessa (original double LP release comes in a gatefold cover of red velvet with the band name and title in gold leaf)
- Blocco Mentale: Πόα (a window on the single-panel gatefold reveals a daisy)
- David Bowie: The Man Who Sold the World (the German Mercury issue with the hideous Bowie/hand/bird creature on the cover came in the most outlandish round cover that folded out into a large poster)
- Captain Beyond: 1st (lenticular “3D” cover)
- Eulenspygel: Ausschuß (vinyl comes between two sheets of corrugated cardboard with a fake fried egg affixed to the front)
- Faces: Oh La La (you could manipulate the cover by using the sliding gatefold insert to make the man’s face on the front change. Kind of creepy, actually!)
- Family: Anyway (original packaging came in a translucent plastic sleeve)
- Family: Fearless (the front consisted of five die-cut “pages”)
- Faust: 1st album (vinyl, cover and lyric sheet are all transparent!)
- Faust: So Far (original German Polydor issue, and the Recommended reissue, came with a wallet of artwork prints, each inspired by one of the tracks from the album)
- Gentle Giant: In a Glass House (cover houses a transparent window with band member images silk-screened onto it. More band member images appear on the white insert, meaning you have two layers of pictures showing through the window)
- Grand Funk: Shinin’ On (red-blue 3D cover with provided star-shaped 3D glasses incorporated into the packaging)
- Hawkwind: In Search of Space (came in the most outlandish fold-out cover with a zig-zag pattern. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a copy that wasn’t completely battered)
- Horslips: Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part (hexagonal cover made to look like a concertina)
- Ihre Kinder: 2375004 (cover is made of blue denim fabric)
- Led Zeppelin: III (the cover has a bunch of little windows and a rotating disc)
- Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (again with the little windows, made to look like an apartment building. You could stick the inserts in different ways to make different images appear through the windows)
- Mama Lion: Preserve Wildlife (single-layer gatefold with barred window covering the “naughty” parts of the image below)
- Herbie Mann: Push Push (the title appears in die-cut form in the single-panel outer gatefold. Underneath the cutout is an orange felt bas-relief of a naked couple making love)
- Gil Mellé: The Andromeda Strain (10" hexagonal disc fits into a hexagonal insert contained within a 12" record sleeve. The hexagonal housing unfolds like flower petals, revealing the liner notes to the album)
- Monty Python: Instant Record Collection (folds out into a cube with 50 or so fake record spines printed on it, making it look like a stack of albums)
- Nine Days Wonder: 1st (original German release came in a cover layered with green foam rubber)
- Patto: Hold Your Fire (you could play mix and match with the three cover figures by opening the three top-to-bottom panels of the single-layer gatefold)
- Public Image LTD.: Metal Box (3 × 45 RPM discs in a 16mm film canister)
- PYG!: Original First Album (makes oinking sound when you press the pig’s nose)
- Raspberries: 3rd Side (die cut shaped like a bowl of raspberries)
- The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (lenticular 3D cover)
- The Rolling Stones: Some Girls (die-cut window cover made to look like a wig advertisement, with faces of band members and various female celebrities showing through the windows. Later withdrawn and altered after some of the public figures—Lucille Ball, Brigitte Bardot and Raquel Welch among them—complained about the use of their likenesses without their consent)
- Todd Rundgren: A Wizard/A True Star (elaborate die-cut gatefold which originally came with a lyric insert, a postcard and a Band-Aid. Good luck in finding an original pressing with all of these items intact, the postcard was inevitably sent in to Bearsville so the sender could have his or her name appear on a poster that came with his next solo LP, Todd)
- Uriah Heep: Look at Yourself (original pressing had a die-cut window at the front with a mirrored insert, so the listener could actually look at him- or herself!)
Not to mention the various original Vertigo releases with elaborate fold-out poster covers (I have the second, German issue of Beggars Opera’s Pathfinder, which does not have the poster cover, but does have a poster insert replica of the original cover!), or bands like Caroliner or Zoviet France with ridiculously elaborate packaging in unlikely materials.
Apparently the UK (Nepentha) issue of the first Earth & Fire album (with the Roger Dean cover art) had “hidden” artwork like this, too. I understand there was something like this on the Eloiteron album, where if you peeled off the top layer it would reveal different artwork underneath (which I suppose would explain why I have seen two vastly different covers to this album). The US and Dutch issues of the first Earth & Fire had a flip-top cover, revealing “match heads” underneath. Tempest’s first album (the one with Allan Holdsworth) also had a flip-top cover.
Last edited by Progbear; 12-14-2014 at 04:10 AM.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
The Beatles did something like that
Led Zeppelin- In Through the Out Door -The original album featured an unusual gimmick: the album had an outer sleeve which was made to look like a plain brown paper bag (reminiscent of similarly packaged bootleg album sleeves with the title rubber stamped on it), and the inner sleeve featured black and white line artwork which, if washed with water, would become permanently fully coloured.
There were also six different sleeves featuring a different pair of photos (one on each side), and the external brown paper sleeve meant that it was impossible for record buyers to tell which sleeve they were getting (Wikipedia)
King Biscuit Boy - Gooduns- sleeve was wrapped in a white burlap sack
Talking Heads -Speaking in Tongues limited edition- the lp is a picture disc and the sleeve was clear plastic (similar to the plastic of those firm plastic food packs for salads or baked goods)
Grin (Nils Lofgren) - All Out- the front cover has a graphic of a toothy grin covering about half of the cover which flips up to reveal the same lips but without teeth and showing the gums and tongue along with the words All Out.
Faust-Faust- The original LP record was on clear vinyl in a clear cover with an X-ray of a human fist silkscreened on the outer sleeve. It also included a transparent plastic sheet with the lyrics and credits printed in red.(Wikipedia)
Not even a new idea. Jefferson Airplane's album 'Bark' was packaged in a plain brown paper bag, eight years earlier. I still have both these records in their original packaging. The Airplane bag has a fold in it, like a real shopping bag. The record, in its cardboard cover, can be slid into the bag past the fold. The Zep bag is merely a paper sleeve over the cardboard record cover.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Makes me think of the original Partridge Family albums. Shopping Bag came with...a shopping bag! Up to Date came with a calendar. Christmas Card came with...well, you get the idea.
Original releases of Ohr label releases came with balloons with the Ohr logo printed on them. Good luck in finding a copy with those still intact!
My vinyl copy of Area’s Crac! came with “Crac!” stickers!
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
The Eloiteron album was on purpose, not their record company panicking due to record store complaints.The Beatles did something like that
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
The Who, Odds and Sods. Didn't you have to slit it open or something? Zep III, the wheel thing.
The older I get, the better I was.
Not forgetting the infamous sandpaper cover sleeve of "The Return of the Durutti Column" album.
What made it infamous? I'm not familiar with that one.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
The cover is made of coarse sandpaper, now just imagine what happens to the LPs left and right of it if
you pull it out or put it back in your storage.
Yeah, that's what I initially thought, but thought there was more to it. Thanks.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
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