I just discovered why the cover to Hank Mobley's "Far Away Lands" has bothered me for 25 years.

[Rooster_Ties]

Hank Mobley: Far Away Lands (recorded May 26, 1967 -- first released in 1984, and this is the original cover).

This cover has bothered me for nigh on 25 years, give or take.  And just today I figured out WHY.  Let's see if any of you can guess!!

So, what are all the things that are wrong with this cover being for this Blue Note album?

(And I mean besides the cut-rate Reid Miles knockoff titling/lettering thing, which has always bugged me too. But to be clear, I'm NOT talking about the wonky lettering, or questionable color choices (or color combination), or the logo, or the logo-placement, or the font size of the album title, or placement of said title -- NONE OF THAT.  What ELSE is wrong?  And, no, it's NOT the cigarette in his hand either.)

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[Kevin Bresnahan]

While there are other pictures of Mobley with that striped shirt, there aren't many pictures of him with glasses. Except...

[Rooster_Ties]

Just now, bresna said:

While there are other pictures of Mobley with that striped shirt, there aren't many pictures of him with glasses. Except...

Excellent guess, but it's NOT the glasses.  (But, again, an excellent guess.)

[John Tapscott]

It's not Hank? Just kidding. The shadows look kind of strange, now that I look at it more closely. It's a great album BTW, one of my favorite Mobleys (and I either own or have heard all of them, as far as I know). 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

If you're curious, here's an un-cropped photo.

[Rooster_Ties]

5 minutes ago, John Tapscott said:

The shadows look kind of strange, now that I look at it more closely.

I'd say that's semi-related to one of the wrong things (but only semi-related).  (In other words, yes, the shadows are strange -- but why are they strange?)

More to the point, the other things that are wrong (edit: probably) explain the shadows, but the shadows alone don't necessarily indicate anything is 'wrong' per se.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[Kevin Bresnahan]

It was likely taken at a 1957 session?

[John Tapscott]

4 minutes ago, bresna said:

It was likely taken at a 1957 session?

I was thinking about that, too. It doesn't look like the interior of Rudy's newer studio. In fact, it doesn't even look  like Rudy's living room studio. Maybe it comes from a Prestige date. 

Edited December 7, 2023 by John Tapscott

[Rooster_Ties]

5 minutes ago, bresna said:

It was likely taken at a 1957 session?

OK, that's one of the things (since Far Away Lands was a session recorded in 1967).  And how about 1956?

The Jazz Messengers - The Jazz Messengers | Releases | Discogs

Edited December 7, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[Chuck Nessa]

Columbia Messengers record.

[Rooster_Ties]

3 minutes ago, John Tapscott said:

I was thinking about that, too. It doesn't look like the interior of Rudy's newer studio. 

And that's the other thing.  The Jazz Messengers date (or at least album cover) wasn't on Blue Note.

[Rooster_Ties]

So to recap…

Why did they use a picture from about 1956? — a good 10+ years before the 1967 Far Away Lands session.  (Laziness and/or ignorance, I guess.)

And how/why did a photo from a Columbia album cover (and it’s the exact same photo) end up on a Blue Note cover in 1984?

And yes, the lighting’s weird (or maybe especially for Blue Note). Or as my buddy put it in his txt-msg replies to me this morning…

I'm fascinated by the merciless bright lighting in recording-studio photos from the big labels in '50s and '60s. So different from RVG's place.

Strange to imagine how much good music was actually recorded in those interrogation-room lighting conditions.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The designer of the cover of the original LP, Richard Mantel, clearly didn't honor Don Hunstein's copyright on that photo, as he didn't even give him credit in the liner notes. Of course, he made sure he got design credit.

[Teasing the Korean]

I hate that cover because it doesn't say "Retouched cover to come."  I buy Hank Mobley albums only if they say that on the cover. 

[Rooster_Ties]

By the way, Pandora served me up a track from that Jazz Messengers album this morning on my way to work — and I did a complete double take when I saw the cover and noticed the pic of Hank.  I thought maybe it was was the same photo-shoot, but then it turned out to be the exact same photo, I let out an audible of some sort (on the subway, no less).

That Far Away Lands cover doesn’t bother me any less now — and maybe even more, come to think of it — but at least I know why.

[Rabshakeh]

I don't understand why the label was so consistently bad at faking Reid Miles covers for archival releases, at a time when any random jazz rap group with three fans seemed to be able to pull it off perfectly.

[Dan Gould]

22 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I don't understand why the label was so consistently bad at faking Reid Miles covers for archival releases, at a time when any random jazz rap group with three fans seemed to be able to pull it off perfectly.

I don't know that the label was even trying for Reid Miles on this cover, not really but this one is not emblematic because I don't think they were ever "consistently bad" at it. Plenty of them were perfectly fine.

 

Has it occurred to y'all that maybe Michael liked the time warp photo use, because the album was covering out so long after the actual recording in the first place? So, yeah, go ahead and go backwards in time.

[Rooster_Ties]

13 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I hate that cover because it doesn't say "Retouched cover to come."  I buy Hank Mobley albums only if they say that on the cover. 

I feel like I vaguely remember this reference, but only just barely.

Care to remind me of the details?

[Teasing the Korean]

55 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I feel like I vaguely remember this reference, but only just barely.

Care to remind me of the details?

The CD of Workout had this sentence displayed in a prominent font on the cover, at least on some issues.  Either the graphics department goofed, or the powers that be said, "Meh, good enough..."

BTW, I love that photo of Hank, and at least with the Blue Note album, we got to see the uncropped image.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[soulpope]

Fun thread .... thnx for the "detective work"👍....

[JSngry]

That whole first wave of restarted BN vault issues had lame covers. Not coherent concept or defining style. 

[Rooster_Ties]

5 minutes ago, JSngry said:

That whole first wave of restarted BN vault issues had lame covers. Not coherent concept or defining style. 

Which others come to mind?  (But, yeah, I’m remember that too.)

NOT the Japanese ones, which were mostly great!! — but the US ones were nearly all(?) pretty lame, iirc.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[JSngry]

The Rajah

Tipping The Scales

That George Braith one

What else? 

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

The Rajah

Tipping The Scales

That George Braith one

What else? 

What’s the George Braith one?  Googled, and I’m coming up empty.

Definitely, those other two were awful — but the original Japanese cover of Tippin’ the Scales (the red one) was great!! 👍

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[JSngry]

Sorry, I was thinking of the John Patton record the had George Braith on it. It was originally skated for release and had the cover printed but never came out. What they used on the eventual release was some horribly bad pisspoor degraded photocopy of the photo and some color from God knows what palate. 

Here: