Coolest album cover gimmicks! List a few!

**Progbear** · 03-13-2016

Originally Posted by TheH

I think that was The Durutti Column a Punk band from Manchester...

It was Zoviet France, who also had album covers made of burlap, sheet metal, aluminum foil, vellum and Masonite™.

Originally Posted by rcarlberg

Supersister "Pudding & Gisteren" had an entire comic printed INSIDE the cover. You'd never see it unless you cut the thing apart.

The first Earth & Fire album (UK pressing on Nepentha, with cover by Roger Dean) was like this, with additional artwork hidden between the two layers of cardboard.

Originally Posted by Lopez

I've never seen a first pressing, but I've heard the initial printing of the first Anexis Quam album folded into a pyramid.

So did Ambrosia’s Somewhere I’ve Never Travelled

Originally Posted by Trane

A lot of Vertigo label albums had gimmick covers.

There were a few with covers that folded out into huge posters (like Pathfinder by Beggars Opera or Space Hymns by Ramases). Dr. Z’s Three Parts to My Soul had hinged doors that folded outward like BSS.

Lots of Krautrock stuff had unusual cover art. Amon Düül II’s Pyragony X had a big die-cut circle in the middle through which the inner sleeve art showed. 2375004 by Ihre Kinder came in a cover made from blue denim fabric. The original release of Ausschuß by Eulenspygel came in corrugated cardboard with a fake fried egg affixed to the front.

In Search of Space by Hawkwind came in an outrageous unfolding cover with a zigzag fold-together bit in the center. Good luck in finding a copy that’s not all bashed up from being slid in and out of record stacks!

Some early Banco (del Mutuo Soccorso) albums had gimmick album covers. The first release of the debut came in a cover made to look like a bank statement book. Io sono nato libero was both die-cut and had center-opening doors (with several pages of liner notes, no less) like the Dr. Z album and BSS.

Some of Family’s albums were gimmick covers as well. Anyway originally came in a textured, translucent outer sleeve. Fearless came with scrollwork, die-cut pages that opened like a book. Bandstand had both a die-cut outer pattern and windows.

The U.S. release of Earth & Fire’s debut LP (on Redbullet) and the first Tempest album (with Allan Holdsworth) had flip-top covers.

The Probe (U.S.) release of the first Soft Machine LP had a die-cut with a rotating insert like LZ3.

Yatha Sidhra’s A Meditation Mass had the band’s name die cut, showing the underlying innersleeve art. The original CD release on The Laser’s Edge had a booklet that reproduced this art (and that’s the version I have!).

Horslips’ Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part was a hexagonal die-cut made to look like a concertina.

**Nijinsky Hind** · 03-13-2016

image.jpg

Andromeda Strain soundtrack LP.

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**Progbear** · 03-13-2016

Good one! The Andromeda Strain soundtrack was a 10" disc. Woe be unto he or she who tries to use an automatic record changer on it!

**Ten Thumbs** · 03-13-2016

Traffic - Low Spark... had the top right and bottom left corners of the sleeve cut off to look like a 3d square.
Family - Bandstand was cut shaped like an old television set
Horselips- Happy To Meet... was both octagonal shape and with die cuts to replicate a concertina
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues had a clear hard plastic (like the clam shell food packs) with picture disc inside
10cc - The Bends had a wavy surface to the front cover
Barclay James Harvest - Octoberon had a textured relief surface to replicate the soldering of the mother of pearl pieces that created the character on the sleeve
Grin - All Out had a toothy smile front flap that folded up to reveal a toothless mouth
Neil Young - Tonight's the Night had a blotter paper like sleeve that had a different textural feel than other sleeves
The Who - Live at Leeds (British import) was like a brown file folder and held lp, a poster, photos, tour itinerary etc

**frinspar** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by Nijinsky Hind

Billion Dollar babies with the billion dollar bill... LolAttachment 7107

Dang, this should've been one of the first 5.

**Nijinsky Hind** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by frinspar

Dang, this should've been one of the first 5.

Yeah... If you were even alive in the 70s you probably have or know someone who has
this album.

**Trane** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by Nijinsky Hind

One of my favorite gimmicks...Attachment 7109
Attachment 7110

Some of the girls are a little scary looking.

Where is the gimmick?? Just a normal double plain sleeve, IMHO

Originally Posted by mogrooves

Soft Machine - s/t

...as did the second Mick Abrahams solo LP.

Actually , I never saw the SM1 gimmick...

Didn't Grand Funk and PiL also have round cases?(silver in both cases)

======================

That hexagonal or octogonal disc must've been tricky to play.... Not every tt could, especially with the lid back down in position.

**rojon** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by Adrian

"Wish You Were Here," wrapped in the plain black plastic sleeve.

Hmmmm, I think mine was purple. But the cool effect of this was that you assumed it was a featureless solid colored album wrapped in that typical clear plastic, but when you tore that off, it surprisingly revealed the actual Hipgnosis album art.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-...bay-big-bucks/

**Halmyre** · 03-14-2016

One Derek & Clive album came with a bag of vomit IIRC.

Elvis Costello's Armed Forces had a fold-out cover that was nigh impossible to put back correctly.

Wild Willy Barrett had a limited edition LP in a hand-made wooden cover. Probably best not to file it next to The Durutti Column sandpaper sleeve.

**Scrotum Scissor** · 03-14-2016

Man - Be Good to Yourself at Least Once a Day has a rather unremarkable front cover with the group playing live on stage (although it's a studio album), With the fold-out opening a pop-up of a mock map of Wales.

Faust - So Far, their second album, counteracted to the all-transparent cover/vinyl of the debut by being all-black and featuring separate inlays with elaborate illustrations for each piece on the record.

Bodkin - Bodkin (Scottish proto-prog/hard rock) folds out into a giant cross.

Cervello - Melos allows for the pictured tin can on the cover to "open" and exposes the band members wrapped in cellophane.

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Io Sono Nato Libero has the whole cover being a book of lyrics, pics and drawings, top rounded off so that the plastic bag should be folded into the pocket.

**walt** · 03-14-2016

Michael Gordon-Timber.CD housed in a big beautiful wooden box.Very impressive.
Timber-cover2.jpg

**at least 100 dead** · 03-14-2016

Taking commercialism to its logical conclusion, Trio (of “Da, Da, Da” notoriety) sold out the LP cover of their second album as ad space. The first edition was essentially blank, but subsequent pressings filled up with ads. A neat idea…could and should be applied to tanks, machine guns and drones as well.

**Rarebird** · 03-14-2016

Novalis - Augenblicke had holes at the eyes of the cat, staring forward, and if you pulled out the record, the color of the eyes changed

**Nijinsky Hind** · 03-14-2016

Stevie Wonders "where I'm comin from" LP had punch out letters with instructions on how to make a hanging wonder-mobile out of them.

The Doors "Full Circle" LP had a punch out carousel of sorts with instructions to place it on the LP as it spins on your turntable.

Frankie Vallee had a later album on Private stock records that had a spinning wheel similar to Led Zep III cover. Nowhere near as cool tho.

And yes Trane, grand funks "e pluribus funk" cover was a huge silver coin. And I thought 20 naked girls on the hendrix LP, while not too gimmicky was about as interesting a cover as any. Lol.

**Halmyre** · 03-14-2016

The Tom Robinson Band "Power in the Darkness" album came with a free stencil of the band's logo; IIRC it had to be withdrawn following complaints that it could encourage graffiti.

**Nijinsky Hind** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by Halmyre

The Tom Robinson Band "Power in the Darkness" album came with a free stencil of the band's logo; IIRC it had to be withdrawn following complaints that it could encourage graffiti.

One day we should do a thread on withdrawn albums and covers... There are many.

**mogrooves** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by Ten Thumbs

Family - Bandstand was cut shaped like an old television set

....and Anyway came in a textured, clear plastic sleeve.

**Lopez** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by Nijinsky Hind

Stevie Wonders "where I'm comin from" LP had punch out letters with instructions on how to make a hanging wonder-mobile out of them.

Speaking o' Stevie Wonder, the early pressings of his Talking Book LP had all the front cover type translated in Braille. Later pressings are flat without the raised code.

**Nijinsky Hind** · 03-14-2016

Yes, i remember that... I cannot remember which Paul McCartney album had braille on it as well... Maybe someone else does.

**Sturgeon's Lawyer** · 03-14-2016

H'mm. Amazing nobody's mentioned Chicago's Carnegie Hall yet - the box (first of its type for a rock album) contained not only the four LPs, but a HUGE poster, two books, and a reminder that "the establishment made a big mistake and gave young people the vote - go out and vote!"

**Nijinsky Hind** · 03-14-2016

Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer

H'mm. Amazing nobody's mentioned Chicago's Carnegie Hall yet - the box (first of its type for a rock album) contained not only the four LPs, but a HUGE poster, two books, and a reminder that "the establishment made a big mistake and gave young people the vote - go out and vote!"

Did Chicago have a 10 lp box at one point? I may be mistaken.

**Dave (in MA)** · 03-14-2016

There was the notorious Bill Evans box from Verve Records, that was housed in a rusty metal case that some people claimed could injure its owner's hands if they weren't careful, and would leave rust on your hands or whatever surface it touched.

Can't get much cooler than that.