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The design element (there is only one) that John Bayley uses combines all of the most incoherent elements of late-60s album design, hoping it will amount to something, for this 1976 album, “Minstrel of the Morning”.
Lessee … what do they throw in? A clay tiger, a kid in a lotus position (who will surely become warped when he gets older), a nearly comatose woman in a flowing dress (the feeding tube was temporarily disconnected for the photo shoot), a sitar, a mandolin, John Bayley channeling Mr. T, and a Wal-Mart circular rug, curtains, a painted over Roman blind, and some artificial plants. A copy of this was sold on E-Bay last year for $75.00 |
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The closest explanation for this disaster of an album cover is … okay, some guy goes to the Harlem branch of the Salvation Army store in New York City, buys a random mixture of men’s, boy’s and lady’s clothing, then goes to the neighbouring soup kitchen at the Habour Light, and tells four jobless hoboes that he is willing to pay them two cases of beer each if they will dress up in these clothes for an album cover. At this point the hoboes still hadn’t bargained for mascara being part of the deal. But hey, there’s two cases of beer on the line. Each! That wasn’t so bad, but then the photographer told them they had to bathe first.
One of the hoboes angrily responded “What’s wrong with our personal hygeine? We take a bath every February 10th whether we need it or not!” That was almost the last straw, and after nearly an hour of thinking about it, they realised that they won’t be able to afford that much beer for a very long time, so they grudgingly obeyed. This is why “They have got to rock and roll.” |
It has been said that “happiness writes white”. The phrase comes from the idea that writing in a compelling, engaging way about matters of love, happiness and satisfaction, and thinking it would sell is much more difficult than writing about unhappiness, conflict, hardship, and so on. For many of us, happiness is the part of life we take for granted. Happiness is the part of life that for many of us, merely demarcates the times between crises, which many of us use to define ourselves.
There was a period in my life where perhaps enough crises happened during a similar period that it became easier to define myself in terms of my problems. I noticed then that is how many people talk about themselves in conversation. And once I defeined myself in those terms it became difficult to see myself in any other terms.
Whever possible, it is always better to define yourself the other way around: in terms of good times puncutated by the odd hardship. When I think about my life and look at it very closely, the best times I have had — the loves, the friendships, the victories — are the ones I take for granted. There is a lot that I have taken for granted, and it is about time I took notice. And I think it’s true generally.
There was an article by Joshua Shenk in The Atlantic Monthly this past month that cites a longitudinal study regarding what makes us happy. It is unusual in that it investigates people who were perceived at the time of the start of the study to be normal. This longitudinal study followed its subjects over a period of 72 years since their freshman days at Harvard University in the late 1920s. They had followed 268 men since the late 1930s through graduation, marriage, divorce, parenthood and ultimately old age.
It appears as though the elements for “happiness” are elusive, although everyone seems to agree that material happiness beyond affording basic security does not seem to be a factor in any way. People who had satisfying relationships earlier in their lives tended to live longer and beocome happier in their old age. People who have “survived” major crises in a positive way have stayed happy by becoming more altrusitic. You keep it by giving it away. You tend to live longer if you forgive your detractors, or to ask for forgiveness.
This study differs from most other studies in that , rather than look at what makes a person unwell, it is looking at the things that make people happy and contented. These days, “Positive Psychology” is a growing field.
You have to not blame the dealers. They are small operations, usually operating out of their homes, on a shoestring budget. I can’t guess that Tomos is treating them the best. I would have expected that this time of dollar-a-litre fuel that we are experiencing should cause moped sales to skyrocket. But that doesn’t seem to be happening, at least not very quickly. You would think that any vehicle that gets 150 km per 3.2 litre tank (about 2.13L/100km) couldn’t fail to sell like hotcakes.
And whenever there are people about, and I am parked, there is clearly no shortage of people who show a keen interest in mopeds, and show clear evidence of having given the matter of buying one some thought. We invariably strike up a conversation about mopeds, and clearly they are enthusiastic and interested in mopeds. They ask a lot of questions, and I try my best to answer them. With all the interest being shown, I wonder why there are not more mopeds on the road.
I seem to be the only one I know driving a moped, although I am beginning to see more and more scooters. They are almost as fuel-efficient (one blogger reports around 2.22L/100km), can go faster, but lack maneuverability, mostly due to small wheels and a high center of gravity. When I had to do an obstacle course as part of my road test for my licensing, a person driving a scooter was also being tested, and she found it difficult to make it around the pylons. The small wheels affected her turning radius, forcing her to only make gradual turns. It was clearly not due to her driving ability. With my moped, I had larger wheels and a generally compact size of a vehicle, I was able to make it around the pylons quickly and gracefully.
Of course, the other advantage of a moped is that when you have a breakdown or are out of gas, you can still pedal it. You can’t do that with a scooter.
I am unsure as to why Tomos is not selling more agressively in Canada. They really need to come off of this mentality that vendors operating out of their garages is the way to go in Canada. Most people will instead tend to see it for what it appears: a Mickey Mouse operation. If you are going to spend $2500 on a moped, you clearly would like some assurance that these people will still be around to repair your vehicle, and that they are well-established. I would not call people operating out of their home garages to be “established”. The person who sold me the moped, “established” by Tomos standards, used to operate out of his garage, but was later given space in a motorcycle shop. Then he left, owing the shop owner rent money. The motorcycle shop wanted nothing more to do with mopeds, and sent any further business to a nearby motorcycle shop, who also didn’t seem to appreciate the business.
Most moped business operators in Canada are small-timers who if they are very lucky can afford a bit of garage space in a rental unit. One operator ran his business from a U-Haul garage. I don’t get the impression that they are up to any kind of professional standard, nor do they have training in sales, or even how to do ordinary customer service. With one operator I spoke to over the phone, it didn’t seem to occur to him that with the questions I was asking that he could be making a sale. I ran the whole conversation and asked all the questions. He offered no information unless I asked for it. I felt like I was cross-examining him. This was a person who was one of the more professional operators, by Tomos standards. He ran a well-stocked shop and didn’t operate out of his house.
In the moped world, my understanding is that Tomos is the only manufacturer remaining in a field once populated by mopeds by Peugeot, Sears, Piaggio, Kromag, Motobecane and countless others. Tomos head office is in Slovenia, in what was formerly Yugoslavia.
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This is the kind of thing that gives the LGBT community a bad name. Don’t know the artist, album or anything else about this disaster of an album design.
This is worse than an album cover, because it is a picture disc. Notice the hole punched in the center, near the price tag? Yeah, you take this, put it on your turntable, and watch this guy/girl/whtever rotate as he/she/it sings you some tunes. Don’t picture this as a rotating CD, because CDs rotate too fast. You need to imagine this rotating at 33 1/3 rpm, where you could still make out some of the details as it spins. I am usually a curious hound for finding out about most CAC’s but the blog I got this from also didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. |
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This appears to be by a member of the profession that is responsible for disasters like the one above.
With this album design, I would say that John Butterworth should stick to medicine. |
