Deviations from Select Albums 3: rock n' roll

Thursday, June 30, 2016

94. Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions

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This is one of my first works and it was because when I started, I chose the cover designs based on the 500 Greatest of All Time listed by Rolling Stone Magazine. And then I realized there were lots of

interesting album covers that were not included in the list but I chose this one because I am a fan of Elvis. He was 20 years old when I was born halfway across the globe from where, in 1955, he was

becoming popular. We were both born on January 8.

I could not find the proper credits for the photo although I found that this album has other cover designs too. I chose to work on this one because it is the King in action in his early days. The image of a

record on top of a turntable disc with the tone arm on it and the album sleeve leaning on the upright turntable cover - which I gazed as I listened to the music - this is exactly what I was doing at home.

On this work the original image is at right. There are seven images in each of the four columns at left, but only one image in each column is a whole. The reproductions of the upper and lower halves of

the image above and below the whole are meant to give the impression of several Elvises dancing in sync, and perhaps deceive the looker that one of the pairs of legs out there is out of sync.

The Pelvis alone is in sync with Elvis.

No. 11, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 15, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Art direction by Ria Lewerke, design by Pietro Alfieri, hand tinting by Theresa Alfieri-Weinberg.

Album produced by Sam Phillips from recordings at the Sun Studios, 1954-55. RCA 1976. albumlinernotes.com

The album features most of the tracks recorded at Sun studio by Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Studios. Phillips signed Presley
after hearing a song that he had recorded for his mother on his birthday. It includes "That's All Right" one of the few recordings
regarded as "the first rock and roll record." wikipedia

Many believe rock & roll was born on July 5th, 1954, at Sun Studio in Memphis. Elvis Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist
Bill Black were horsing around with "That's All Right, Mama," a tune by bluesman Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, when producer Sam
Phillips stopped them and asked, "What are you doing?" "We don't know," they said. Phillips told them to "back up and do it again."

The A side of Presley's first single (backed with a version of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky"), "That's All Right" was issued by
Sun on July 19th. It may or may not be the first rock & roll record. But the man who would be King was officially on wax. Bridging
black and white, country and blues, his sound was playful and revolutionary, charged by a spontaneity and freedom that changed
the world. "It's the blues," critic Greil Marcus wrote in his classic book Mystery Train. "But free of all worry, all sin; a simple joy
with no price to pay." Rolling Stone

(A) That's All Right (Mama) - Blue Moon of Kentucky - I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine - Good Rockin' Tonight - Milkcow Blues Boggie -
You're a Heartbreaker - I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone - Baby, Let's Play House

(B) Mystery Train - I Forgot to Remember to Forget - I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') - I Love You Because (First Version) -
Tryin' to Get to You - Blue Moon - Just Because - I Love You Because (Second Version)

"I Love You Because" music video from Frances (kindhearted) on YouTube

www.elvis.com

Previous: The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land

Next: Billy Joel - The Stranger

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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

70. Little Richard - Here's Little Richard

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People called him the architect of rock and roll. He claimed that as a child he felt feminine and played with girls. In 1984 he told Charles White that he was "omnisexual." In 1995, he told
Penthouse that he always knew he was gay. In 2007, Mojo magazine described him as a "bisexual alien". Source

Little Richard's (Richard Wayne Penniman, b. 5 December 1932) most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for
rock and roll. His music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. Little Richard influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical
genres from rock to hip-hop; his music impacted the rhythm and blues era for future generations to come, and his performances and headline-making thrust his career right into the mix of
American popular music. Wikipedia

"I came from a family where my people didn't like rhythm and blues," Little Richard told Rolling Stone in 1970. "Bing Crosby, 'Pennies From Heaven,' Ella Fitzgerald was all I heard. And I knew
there was something that could be louder than that, but didn't know where to find it. And I found it was me." Richard's raucous debut collected singles such as "Good Golly, Miss Molly," in which
his rollicking boogie-woogie piano and falsetto scream ignited the unfettered possibilities of rock & roll. "Tutti Frutti" still contains what has to be considered the most inspired rock lyric on
record: "A wop bop alu bop, a wop bam boom!" Rolling Stone

No. 50, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 525, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.

Information wanted for original album art design concept and photo.

Album produced by Bumps Blackwell. Specialty 1957.

Little Richard had been making records for four years before he rolled into Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans and cut the epochal "Tutti Frutti" in the fall of 1955, but everything

else he'd done faded into insignificance when Richard wailed "A wop bop a loo mop a lomp bomp bomp" and kicked off one of the first great wailers in rock history. In retrospect, Little

Richard's style doesn't seem so strikingly innovative as captured in 1956's Here's Little Richard - his boogie-woogie piano stylings weren't all that different from what Fats Domino

had been laying down since 1949, and his band pumped out the New Orleans backbeat that would define the Crescent City's R&B for the next two decades, albeit with precision

and plenty of groove.

But what set Richard apart was his willingness to ramp up the tempos and turn the outrage meter up to ten; "Tutti Frutti," "Rip It Up," and "Jenny Jenny" still sound outrageous a half-

century after they were waxed, and it's difficult but intriguing to imagine how people must have reacted to Little Richard at a time when African-American performers were

expected to be polite, and the notion of a gay man venturing out of the closet simply didn't exist. Mark Deming in AllMusic

(A) Tutti Frutti - True, Fine Mama - Can't Believe You Wanna Leave - Ready Teddy - Baby - Slippin' and Slidin'

(B) Long Tall Sally - Miss Ann - Oh Why? - Rip It Up - Jenny Jenny - She's Got It