Dr. Maya Angelou, a.k.a. Miss Calypso

Some of you will think this is a reach, but I’m seeing a definite, and quite amazing (to my eyes) visual resonance between Maya Angelou’s “Miss Calypso“ album cover of 1957 and the original 1969 cover for “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” (The album’s “winged” red figure on a black ground with a fire becomes a winged black figure on a red ground and a sun on the book.) Always rising, always on fire. 

By now you’ve read that the phenomenal Dr. Angelou was a dancer and a calypso singer in the 1950s. If you haven’t yet seen the interview with Oprah where she watches a clip of herself in the film, “Calypso Heat Wave,” you should. There are more photos of her performing here. I also recommend NY Times columnist, Charles Blow’s Maya & Me & Maya. It’s a very personal articulation of loss and a powerful tribute.

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.

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.