Credit to the Credits: 20 Feet From Stardom

I was completely expecting to love “20 Feet From Stardom,” the Oscar-nominated documentary about backup singers. What I was not prepared for, however, was to be bowled over in the first 3 minutes of the film. They had me with the opening credits.

The title sequence takes vintage album covers, publicity shots, and concert stills, and obscures, Baldessari-style, the faces of the “stars,” with a large colored circles. This simple graphic device forces you to see only the backup singers, telegraphing visually, what the film delivers on in depth. And it’s all set to Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side (“and the colored girls sing …”). Very satisfying, indeed.
 
You can view the actual title footage on graphic designer Scott Grossman’s site. You can read more about director Morgan Neville’s homage to Baldessari in this New York Times piece.

The solid silhouetting used here, is another Baldessari device.

July 26: Happy Birthday Mick

I shot these photos in December when the Stones played the Barclay Center. Mick was in motion, nonstop, the entire show.

He worked the "tongue" like nobody's business, and I got to watch it all from the FIFTH ROW!!!

The boys are all getting up there in age--Ronnie is a craggy 66, Keith turns 70 later this year, and Charlie Watts is the elder statesman at 72.

But thanks to Larry King, the guys on stage were not the 

oldest ones there!

"It's just a kiss away ..."

'Gimme Shelter' duet wil Mary J. Blige.

Animation for 'Honky Tonk Women.'

Laps around the apron keep Mick model-thin for L'Wren Scott's custom couture.

Say what you will, it's really not bad for 70!

Signed by Design?

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan, 1962
Here are some particularly well-signed album covers. (Hey, how do you sign a download?) Some even had me wondering, if they weren’t, in fact, designed to be signed?

The Beatles, Help!, 1965


Harry Belafonte, Belafonte, 1956


Fleetwood Mac, Rumors, 1977
Designed to be signed?



Stephen Stills, Stills, 1975


Aerosmith, Draw the Line, 1977


Tony Bennett, I Wanna Be Around, 1963


Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run, 1975


Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, 1973

John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy, 1980

Images are from auction sites and Joe Merchant's flickr site of close to 500 signed LPs.

Happy Cinco

I was delighted to find Magazo on La Paleteria, a site that reposted one of the Soviet space posters I put up the other day. The video was originally posted on Mexicovers.


Here are some of the album covers I found posted
there by Sr. Mexicant.

Audio Cousins: 'The Social Network' & 'In Treatment'

The last Netflix disc I returned was the Gabriel Byrne-as-therapist HBO series, "In Treatment." So the theme was fresh in my ears last night when I heard the Oscar-wining theme for "The Social Network." I know this sounds ridiculously paradoxical, but except for the notes, the two are exactly the same.

Based on superficial Googling, I have not found any over lap for "In Treatment’s" composer, Israeli musician, Avi Belleli, and "The Social Network’s" composers, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Belleli’s music for In Treatment was actually written for Hagai Levi's Israeli series, Bitipul, on which "In Treatment" is based.

Listen to the first 40 seconds of each …



I know, I need to get a life.

Schwann Catalog Covers

In the old days, before the iWhatever told you exactly what music was playing anywhere, there was a music directory known as the Schwann Catalog. In 1949, record-store owner William Schwann created the first list to keep track of new releases. The LP had only recently been introduced and production was increasing rapidly.

This is from his NY Times obit (Schwann died in 1998 at age 85):

''I had to protect myself from my bad memory,'' he said in an interview in later years. So he assembled a list of all available recordings, and typed it up, some 26 pages. ''This gave me the idea of doing the catalogue,'' he said. ''And since I had helped organize a Boston record dealers association during the war, when shellac was unavailable and records scarce, I had an immediate market for my guide.'' At the time, there were 11 record labels with some 600 titles. The first Schwann catalogue, hand-typed and mimeographed, sold 11,000 copies. Within a month it was obsolete. So Mr. Schwann realized that he would have to publish a new issue every month. …When he sold the catalogue in 1976 (although he kept running it until his retirement), it had expanded to over 300 pages with over 40,000 listings.

The covers themselves might not be very deep, but I think they more than compensate with their exuberance, freshness, and fun. I’ve had absolutely no luck in finding their creator. There is a consistent set of initials, on most of them, but as you can see in the combo of initials below, it’s hard to say what the letters are exactly. All I can say for sure, is that whoever CM, GM, GN or LM is, was one lucky artist to have had that cover as a monthly gig.


The catalogs here, are for sale by dealer Harlan Wolf, and range from $3.50 to $6.50. Unfortunately, just about all of them have been mercilessly defaced with the stamp of Bob Duncan’s Camera & Record Shop. The ones here that are stamp-free, are only so due to Photoshop. I just had to satisfy my own curiosity and see what they once looked like.

So if any of you can identify the mystery designer, please let me know, and I will Tweet it throughout the land …