Monday 16 November 2009

Carole King sells out (sort of)


Life's rich tapestry
Originally uploaded by bltphoto

Our Favourite Shop?
In the process of tiding up recently, I was as is usual sidetracked and ended up re-reading back issues of The Word. One piece I hit upon was a Paul Du Noyer review of a re-release of “Tapestry” by Carole King.

Having myself only recently bought a vinyl copy of King’s masterpiece I was pleased to see Du Noyer and I had both come to a similar conclusion. This idea being that the great music aside Tapestry’s appeal partly lies in the cover picture showing its audience a lifestyle they either already enjoyed or more importantly aspired to.

The whole Bo-ho, natural woman, cats and cushions vibe (none of which are inherently bad things); you can almost smell the camomile tea brewing! With the passage of 40 years however sadly this lifestyle has largely become diluted and appropriated by everybody’s favourite meatball selling Allen key losing comedy sketch show staple big blue and yellow sofa shed dwellers.

During these musings a potentially amusing visual collision sprung to mind and I got busy with the verdana and the umlauts (with apologies to any Scandinavian readers) and produced a catalogue of “rock star Lifestyle ideas™ you too can buy into!” There are a few more on my flickr stream.

All this clipart and modern day Letraset fun does raise two questions:
Firstly are there any more suitable lifestyle candidates to include in the next edition of the catalogue?
And more broadly which LP sleeve have you ever wished you could step into and walk around in?

11 comments:

davyh said...

Genius! I rather fancy this - which was evidently 'inspired' by this.

BLTP said...

genius Mr H the Morcheeba ones good but do think Ikea do a charles eames knock off reclininer might need to be retro edish! Love the original too.

al_uk said...

I assume we are not allowed to suggest Roxy Music albums on the grounds that we are middle aged men who ought to know better. Also not sure which dark dystopian Grand Designs Magazine might be insipired by Physical graffiti? Nor am I sure how the staff at Ikea would have gone about making this over http://www.amiright.com/album-covers/images/album-Thelonious-Monk-Underground.jpg
This isn't bad http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/610mHj-Hg5L._SS500_.jpg (sorry I couldn't be bothered to be skilled like Dave H and put it in html, I can't remember how to do it.

al_uk said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
al_uk said...

I remember now This would give Ikea an nightmare - though I think as a student I would have liked thisthis

It's The Gardening Lady said...

As said before - genius!
And one of those bizarre but meaningless coincidences: I was at a wildlife trust staff meeting today, a chap gave a presentation about woodland management, someone asked what a faggot was (in context you understand) and he said "You know Led Zeppelin 4? Well the bundle of wood on the old guy's back - that's a faggot" (I have edited out the laughter). I'd never even heard of the album, being a bit of a musical philistine...

Cocktails said...

What a great concept! You should copyright the idea before IKEA nick it for a campaign.

It is boring, but I rather like the Go-Betweens Tallulah house - (http://vox2.cdn.amiestreet.com/album-art/Tallulah-by-The-Go-Betweens_lIdhsgbSO-4x_full.jpg)

I also love the cover of You Can't Hide Your Love Forever. If I was er... a dolphin I would love to dive into that one. I think its the perfectly blue sky.

BLTP said...

Thanks everyone:
Al I looked at the oasiss cover but painting out the logo looked too tricky on paint and I'm not sure anyone would aspire to live like bonehead.
CoV. You'll have hear led zep four it's got hairway to steven on it.
CM I like the go-betweens sleeve it has potential I only have compilations of theirs.

al_uk said...

How about eric's first solo album

ally. said...

thankyou for these you clever clever thing. we've been giggling stupid all morning. you're a flipping genius and no mistake.

minnie ripperton clearly modeled the front of adventures in paradise after nipping round our bona lattie
minnie

and more specials is begging for the treatment
specials

x

BLTP said...

ally, I might get to work on the specials this very afternoon. Having spent far too long looking at sleeves the last 2 days the perfect domestic scene is hard to find these muscian types insist on posing with geetars and trumpets.