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Album cover purchase?


odysseus

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Did you ever buy an album purely on the strength of the album cover?

The only time I can remember doing that was for the Scorpions' Worldwide Live album.  I was 15 years old and into all things metal, and the rawk poses struck by the 'Teutonic Terrors', as Kerrang! later referred to them, was enough to get me to part with my hard-earned Spar Shop employee wonga.

Bloody glad I did. I loved it and still do!

WorldWideLive.jpg

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More than once. The one which sticks out as the earliest was Watchtower - Control and Resistance. I love that artwork and it was on Noise records, where a lot of bands I liked at the time were based, so I reckoned it was worth a punt - at a time and age where disposable income was still a fantasy. 
 

It's still one of my favourite albums of all time.

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A schoolmate of mine was an obsessed metalhead, always on the lookout for something new as long as it was heavier than lead. He bought this Molly Hatchet album unheard, based entirely on the look of the sleeve, somehow convinced it was going to make Motorhead sound like Peters & Lee. Imagine his disappointment when it turned out to be Southern not-remotely-metal boogie rock. Oh, how the rest of us laughed. A lot.

Molly Hatchet - Flirtin' with Disaster.jpg

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A school friend brought this into class in December 1976, and the minute I saw it, I knew I had to have it. I thought it was the most beautiful looking album I had ever seen - even the label of the record had the Queen crest on! My thinking was that even if the album sounded terrible (apart from Bo Rap, which I liked) it was worth having, just for the cover. I begged for it as a Christmas present and when I heard the whole album, I was put on a path I'm still stumbling on as a 57 year old. 

Album covers are important.

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As I said in the live album thread when you only had enough money for an album a month at the most, the design of the cover and any extras (double album/gatefold sleeve/printed inner sleeve etc.) went a long way to deciding what to buy when spending Saturday afternoon browsing at castle Records in Loughborough.

However this was bought entirely because I thought the cover was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. 

Luckily the music didn't disappoint.

 

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43 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Did your copy come with the booklet as well?

Alas no - most of my LP's were acquired second hand.   I still have this one, and a few others of reasonable interest I've hung onto:   Cream - "Disraeli gears" on the Reaction label (early release),   Penetration - "Moving targets" on luminous glow-in-the-dark vinyl, The Fool - "The Fool", and a load of early punk stuff.

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