The digitisation of music has a lot to answer for. On the plus side, music is far more accessible, opening a never-ending vortex of discovery where you can uncover obscure psychedelic blues rock gems from the 1970s from artists who deserve greater recognition such as Ten Years After and Rory Gallagher. Compiling playlists now takes minutes compared to spending hours preparing mix tapes recorded off vinyl or cassette.
On the negative side, prior to the digital age albums used to be no more than 45 minutes in duration – the perfect length. This minimised the amount of filler a less-talented artist could put on an album. Fillers are the songs the artists would never play live because they are obviously sub-standard. You know, like Coldplay’s entire catalogue. Skip through to today and digital albums have no time limit. What happened to ‘less is more’?
Another negative side-effect of the move of music to streaming is the lost art of the album cover. Album covers are no longer a focal point of an artist’s release, instead displayed side by side as thumbnails, with most of the finer details getting lost.
One of the great albums — and album covers — is Let It Bleed, released by the Rolling Stones in 1969. However, the final design almost didn’t eventuate. Lead singer and cricket tragic, (now Sir) Mick Jagger wrote a letter to Dutch graphic artist, M.C. Escher, inviting him to provide artwork for the cover of their new album. However, Escher was less than impressed by the approach, replying in writing to the Rolling Stones’ manager:
“Dear Sir,
Some days ago, I received a letter from Mr. Jagger asking me to design a picture or to place at his disposal unpublished work to reproduce on the cover-sleeve for an LP record. My answer to both questions must be no, as I want to devote all my time and attention to the many commitments made; I cannot possibly accept any further assignments or spend any time on publicity.
By the way, please tell Mr. Jagger I am not Maurits to him, but
Very sincerely,
M.C. Escher”
The album cover was then designed by Robert Brownjohn, best known for designing the title sequences for two James Bond films, and the rest is history. Meanwhile over in Baarn, Escher’s artworks were not lost to rock music, as later that same year he gave permission for a colorized reproduction of his lithograph “Reptiles” to appear on Mott the Hoople’s self-titled debut album. Clearly Mott did not open their letter with “Dear Maurits”.
Escher has been described as a “mathemagician” as he created physically impossible works that combined art and mathematics. And like many great artists, he was driven by a sense of wonder, “I don’t grow up. In me is the small child of my early days” and “’He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonderful.”
Which led to me to wonder about one hit wonders, and I wa-wa-wa-wa-wonder why why why why why why some artists have only hit song in them that resonates with the punters? Like British rock band, Sniff ‘n’ the Tears, who had only one hit with Driver’s Seat in 1978. Perhaps their lack of on-going success was related to their terrible band name?
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