Album Cover Fails from Budget Labels

[Teasing the Korean]

[jazzcorner]

22 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

 

 

Same music also here

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by jazzcorner
space

[felser]

Any number of jazz covers from Trip in the 70's.  

[HutchFan]

Many Argo/Cadet reissues in the 70s featured black-and-white versions of covers that were originally issued in color.  They look uber-cheap, as if the covers were made with badly out-of-adjustment Xerox machines.

A couple examples:

 

 

and

 

 

There's nothing inherently wrong with b&w design, of course.  But these just don't work at all, since their original conceptions involved color.

That said, I have a few of these LPs.  And I'm happy to have the music in some form, even if it's less appealing than the original release.  

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by HutchFan

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Nothing like making the price part of the artwork... and listing it in the largest font on the cover.

Great record BTW.

[jazzcorner]

 

 

My own copy

 

[jazzcorner]

 

My copy 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by jazzcorner
scan added

[felser]

Those horrid Applause covers to go along with their horrid pressings of various Blue Note albums.

[Bluesnik]

1 hour ago, bresna said:

Nothing like making the price part of the artwork... and listing it in the largest font on the cover.

[mikeweil]

Later they changed this cover:

[Teasing the Korean]

4 hours ago, felser said:

Those horrid Applause covers to go along with their horrid pressings of various Blue Note albums.

Yeah, I have a few of those that I blocked from my memory...

[jazzcorner]

11 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Yeah, I have a few of those that I blocked from my memory...

 

15 hours ago, felser said:

Those horrid Applause covers to go along with their horrid pressings of various Blue Note albums.

Checking the covers at Discogs

Applause Records Label | Veröffentlichungen | Discogs

 

I cannot say that the coverart shown there is that bad

[Kevin Bresnahan]

1 hour ago, jazzcorner said:

Checking the covers at Discogs

Applause Records Label | Veröffentlichungen | Discogs

I cannot say that the coverart shown there is that bad

We'll have to agree to disagree.

[felser]

If you compare them to the original BN covers, they are grossly inferior.

[JSngry]

The pisser about the Applause covers is that they are cheap, pared-down versions of the original covers. It was an insult, it cheapened both memories and realities.

Maybe you had to be there to realize just how disrespectful, cheap, and esthetically genocidal the whole Applause thing was. But as somebody who was there, yes, if there was a Nuremberg trial for crimes against music packaging, these would be the number one defendant, and they would be sentenced to the fullest extent of the law.

Even the label name - Applause - was an act of attempted brainwashing, like ok, here is a plate of shit, only be happy you're getting fed anything, BE HAPPY FOR THIS PLATE OF SHIT.

These kids today, they just don't know...

[sidewinder]

 

Still got my Cdn $0.50 shopping mall copy of the Applause ‘Am I Blue’. It doesn’t get a lot of play.

Never realised it was also out on cassette !

Edited November 16, 2021 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

This one comes to mind from UK budget label DJM. Title as unfortunate as the cover.

Another ‘gem’ from DJM..

[jazzcorner]

On 16.11.2021 at 3:15 PM, felser said:

If you compare them to the original BN covers, they are grossly inferior.

Yes agreed. But IMO  this is not the question.

Well tastes are different., But I am certain that Blue Note never allowed to another company to use the original Blue Notes Fotos (creator Al. Lion). They try to sell those fotos for real good money.

So other reissue companies  had to create their own and here is a wide room how much to invest for a reissue. Similar problem is   that MOSAIC could not use the original cover art for their boxes compiled from other originals.  They had no copyrights or license as Scott once wrote me on that question. The costs for copyrights would have made the  price for the box considerably higher.

Different situation is when the original producing company changes  their  own reissues with a budget coverart. Pl. see ARGO/CADET above

Edited November 17, 2021 by jazzcorner
more text

[Eric]

I owned this beauty for years - heavy rotation back in the day (early 80s).  I had seen some of the crappy vinyl covers posted above.  Those and the darlings from Trip.  I just figured this was how it was.  Ebay top dollar was not front of mind   And the music on this one was so deliciously raucous I could not have cared less.  Hell, it was my first Art Blakey (circa Blue Note era)!

I also had Stick Up - and was damn glad to own it.  And the Dexter Gordon, which did a better job with the original cover.  Same for the Grant Green, I Am Blue.  Sucked then too 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Eric

[JSngry]

14 hours ago, jazzcorner said:

Yes agreed. But IMO  this is not the question.

Well tastes are different., But I am certain that Blue Note never allowed to another company to use the original Blue Notes Fotos (creator Al. Lion). They try to sell those fotos for real good money.

So other reissue companies  had to create their own and here is a wide room how much to invest for a reissue. Similar problem is   that MOSAIC could not use the original cover art for their boxes compiled from other originals.  They had no copyrights or license as Scott once wrote me on that question. The costs for copyrights would have made the  price for the box considerably higher.

Different situation is when the original producing company changes  their  own reissues with a budget coverart. Pl. see ARGO/CADET above

Applause was a subsidiary of Liberty/Capitol, the company that then owned Blue Note.

Down there in the lowest right, really fine print.

[Rooster_Ties]

What about those all those Japanese(!) Blue Note cheapos with the generic blue and white covers (maybe a little black in there too). I want to say they all said “Best Selection” or something similar — but the weren’t compilations, but rather full albums, in GREAT sound quality too (iirc) — or at least LIGHT YEARS better than the Applause CD issues of similar Blue Note stuff.

I had an Ornette one (maybe one or both of the Golden Circles?), and Jackie McClean too (maybe one of the pianoless titles with Grachan Moncur and Bobby Hutcherson?).  Maybe a couple more, I can’t remember.  Circa early 90’s, iirc. I only ever saw them at Euclid Records and/or Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis.

Anybody else remember these??  Not that the cover art was ‘bad’ — it was just generic, and all the same for every album — except the text. Might not have even had tray-card inserts, iirc. But the sound quality was damn good, pretty similar to full-blown TOCJ’s, iirc.

Anybody?  Were these legit?  I know the Applause were supposedly legit, at least on LP and cassettes (then subject to a later lawsuit in the CD era, which BN somehow won and got Applause shut down from issuing more CD’s) — iirc.

But no idea about the origin and legal status of the Japanese “Best Selection” BN titles. Always wondered about them, especially given the sound quality.

Was this one of them??

https://www.amazon.com/Ornette-Coleman-Trio-Best-Selection/dp/B000OV33CW

Edit: I seem to remember one of the other titles I had in this cheap series was a Blue Mitchel BN (maybe the one (or one of the ones?) with Joe Henderson?)

Forgot to mention I rarely paid more than $7-$8 for them back then, iirc.

 

Here’s Joe Henderson’s Our Thing…

https://m.bonanza.com/listings/our-thing-best-selection-by-joe-henderson-cd-jazz-master-series/1163446999?goog_pla=1&gpid=293946777986&keyword=&goog_pla=1&pos=&ad_type=pla&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4peOq4ai9AIVGPrICh2_HgqqEAQYASABEgJEKfD_BwE

or here too..

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203295065228#vi__app-cvip-panel
 

Duke Pearson…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164907796743

Edited November 18, 2021 by Rooster_Ties

[Dan Gould]

57 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

What about those all those Japanese(!) Blue Note cheapos with the generic blue and white covers (maybe a little black in there too). I want to say they all said “Best Selection” or something similar — but the weren’t compilations, but rather full albums, in GREAT sound quality too (iirc) — or at least LIGHT YEARS better than the Applause CD issues of similar Blue Note stuff.

I had an Ornette one (maybe one or both of the Golden Circles?), and Jackie McClean too (maybe one of the pianoless titles with Grachan Moncur and Bobby Hutcherson?).  Maybe a couple more, I can’t remember.  Circa early 90’s, iirc. I only ever saw them at Euclid Records and/or Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis.

Anybody else remember these??  Not that the cover art was ‘bad’ — it was just generic, and all the same for every album — except the text. Might not have even had tray-card inserts, iirc. But the sound quality was damn good, pretty similar to full-blown TOCJ’s, iirc.

Anybody?  Were these legit?  I know the Applause were supposedly legit, at least on LP and cassettes (then subject to a later lawsuit in the CD era, which BN somehow won and got Applause shut down from issuing more CD’s) — iirc.

But no idea about the origin and legal status of the Japanese “Best Selection” BN titles. Always wondered about them, especially given the sound quality.

Was this one of them??

https://www.amazon.com/Ornette-Coleman-Trio-Best-Selection/dp/B000OV33CW

Edit: I seem to remember one of the other titles I had in this cheap series was a Blue Mitchel BN (maybe the one (or one of the ones?) with Joe Henderson?)

Forgot to mention I rarely paid more than $7-$8 for them back then, iirc.

 

Here’s Joe Henderson’s Our Thing…

https://m.bonanza.com/listings/our-thing-best-selection-by-joe-henderson-cd-jazz-master-series/1163446999?goog_pla=1&gpid=293946777986&keyword=&goog_pla=1&pos=&ad_type=pla&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4peOq4ai9AIVGPrICh2_HgqqEAQYASABEgJEKfD_BwE

or here too..

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203295065228#vi__app-cvip-panel
 

Duke Pearson…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164907796743

I'd never been aware of such a series until now, but that Licensed from United Artists and the date of 1975 tells us it was probably another poorly worded contract (like the story about Applause reissues) that would allow a company to continue to reissue on a new format 20+ years later.

And how did they get the alternates which certainly didn't exist "out in the wild" in 1975 or were provided under the license agreement. Sounds like the company took CD issues and tried to market them under a very old contract.

[Rooster_Ties]

29 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

I'd never been aware of such a series until now…

Now I’m vaguely remembering a Three Sounds title too, iirc. I only saw about 6-8 unique titles over the few years they were ‘available’ — maybe 10 tops.

About half of them had already had legit US reissues here, McMasters — half of them were the first time I’d ever seen those particular titles here in the US anyway. At the time, the only place I ever saw any Japanese BN imports in any actual brick ‘n’ mortars was at Jazz Record Mart, which I only got to about once a year. Oh, and maybe Tower Records (or was it still Rose Records?) also in Chicago, around the same time (and just yearly).

The thing was, they all sounded great! Better than the legit US issues. But I never A/B’ed any of the same title in both releases.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Rooster_Ties

[Dan Gould]

11 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Now I’m vaguely remembering a Three Sounds title too, iirc. I only saw about 6-8 unique titles over the few years they were ‘available’ — maybe 10 tops.

About half of them had already had legit US reissues here, McMasters — half of them were the first time I’d ever seen those particular titles here in the US anyway. At the time, the only place I ever saw any Japanese BN imports in any actual brick ‘n’ mortars was at Jazz Record Mart, which I only got to about once a year. Oh, and maybe Tower Records (or was it still Rose Records?) also in Chicago, around the same time (and just yearly).

The thing was, they all sounded great! Better than the legit US issues. But I never A/B’ed any of the same title in both releases.

Yet it seems like these must have vinyl counterparts (maybe rarer still) given the license date of 1975. Where are  those?

[Teasing the Korean]

13 hours ago, Eric said:

I owned this beauty for years - heavy rotation back in the day (early 80s)...

My Dad had a bunch of those Applause cassettes that he bought for very cheap just so he could play them in the car.  I remember riding with him in that giant boat of an Oldsmobile, blasting "Society Red."