1000 Record Covers

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Ochs informs us of his initial aim in life, to listen to every rock record ever released and in addition, that this book represents a very small proportion of his 100,000+ collection of albums. Perhaps here some additional text might have been of use, but on the other hand its absence ensures the observer must use his or her wit, perception and knowledge to establish connections and draw conclusions about the Zeitgeist. Would have loved to know a bit more about some of the more famous artworks and their respective designers. He told me a story about how he kept all his records in his basement, and one time it began to flood.

Many are works of art and have become as famous as the music they stand for Andy Warhol's covers, for example, including the banana he designed for The Velvet Underground. Cada portada está acompañada de una breve reseña que proporciona información sobre el álbum, la banda y el artista. I like the pictures a lot--especially the 50s and 60s--but thirst for a sentence on each one, not just an occasional note. The Five Keys cover is rare because the thimb on the far left might have been misunderstood as an exposed penis. Ochs provides interesting bits of information here and there, such as that picture albums were first produced in the 1940s.Here and there appears some that have some kind of 'promo copy' sticker in them, a few have a corner clipped or pierced. True, this hardbound version has fewer than a thousand record covers since it omits the 1950s covers found in the original softcover book, but it's still plenty of fun. Would have been nice to get a short sentence or two about each one, that's my only suggestion, because I'm sure there are interesting stories about each one, even if it's just a factoid or two. This edition of "Record Covers" presents a selection of the best rock album covers of the 60s to 90s from music archivist, disc jockey, journalist, and former record-publicity executive Michael Ochs' enormous private collection.

While us oldies bemoan the shift from vinyl to CD and the fact that it deprived us of one of the greatest pleasures of music ownership - that great 12 inch artwork that was the album sleeve, replaced by a tiddly five inch booklet that you need a magnifying glass to read - spare a thought for this generation with their i-Pods and downloaded mp3s - they get nothing at all to go with the music! Although each section here is divided by decade – Ochs makes some attempt to group album covers together based on similar image or artwork (often very tenuous) with varying degrees of success and to what purpose is unclear? Occasionally similar designs are juxtaposed, but the book is not illuminating and not well organised, be it by date, genre, popularity, significance or whatever.A fascinating survey of cover art (TASCHEN's 25th anniversary special edition) Record covers are a sign of our life and times. The original cover was changed soon after release and a white couple was put on the cover to get the record carried in the South.

To feed his habit, Ochs headed the publicity departments of Columbia, Shelter, and ABC Records in the 60s and 70s. For someone who was in the music and record business from mid-1960s to mid-1980s it was a waltz down memory lane.The contents range from the 1960s to the 1990s and it would make a good gift for the older music lover in your life! I do wish there could've been included some more covers, but I guess they have to stick to that number - and the book *is* pretty thick already. This is not a book that I would have picked up; my son gave it to my husband for Christmas, and I thought that someone should look at it. This is an interesting book but unfortunately this 2005 edition (ISBN: 3-8228-4085-8) is faulty as it omits all the 240 1950s covers included in the original 1996 printing ISBN: 3-8228-8595-9.