I was browsing a weird album cover website and came across this one:
This is no disrespect to Mr. Tharpe who, I understand, was a monster player (I haven't heard him play). But it is pretty funny, you have to admit.
Anybody have any other weird steel guitar album covers to share? I know we've covered general album covers in the Music section, but it would be fun to look at specifically steel guitar albums. The 70s was a special time for album art.
Just pulled out my copy from years ago that I hadn't heard for a while... there is some great playing for sure, which IS what really matters, isn't it?
And Smiley Roberts is credited with the photography (though not the cover design I'm sure!).
The photo is fine......having it super-imposed on a painting of a jet (along with some psychedelic clouds and swirls) is out to lunch. I'm sure the playing is great, but what would possess someone to make such an album cover??
Hey, it was the '70's.
My fave is the Doug Jernigan's "Uptown To Country" that has the two babes in bathing suits hanging out in the pool with a p/p between them.
I don't have a pic...but someone on the Forum uses it in his avatar.
Skip Edwards wrote:Hey, it was the '70's.
My fave is the Doug Jernigan's "Uptown To Country" that has the two babes in bathing suits hanging out in the pool with a p/p between them.
I don't have a pic...but someone on the Forum uses it in his avatar.
The Julian Tharpe cover,w/ its "air-age"-flavored
artwork reminds me of the Myrick album sporting
Weldon in Superman outfit,I love that retro type,
poster/cartoon,old school thing...McUtsi
Ah, yes, the 727 - what an aeroplane it was. Triple-slotted flaps, a wing with a coe-efficient of lift approaching 4 when fully "dirtied-up" (flaps and slats fully extended), an approach speed slower than the Lockheed Electra, and enough fuel to do 2 or 3 legs without refuelling. It knocked the British competitor (the Trident, aka "the ground-gripper") into a cocked-hat!
One minor detail; the smoke trails should be black, not white! The JT8D low-bypass turbofan engines in the 727s (and the DC9s) were notoriously smoky. To find a 727 in flight you didn't need radar...just follow the smoke-trails! About the only smokier engine was the mighty J75 fitted to the legendary F4 Phantom. Happy days!
The steel guitar is a hard mistress. She will obsess you, bemuse and bewitch you. She will dash your hopes on what seems to be whim, only to tease you into renewing the relationship once more so she can do it to you all over again...and yet, if you somehow manage to touch her in that certain magic way, she will yield up a sound which has so much soul, raw emotion and heartfelt depth to it that she will pierce you to the very core of your being.
Tommy White wrote:I'm not sure what year that recording was released, however, I remember playing the very guitar on the album cover during a discjockey convention in or around 1971 at a jam session in a huge garage behind Sho-Bud's store at 416 Broadway. Julian was so nice to give me a 2 hour tutorial on chord theory the day before on that guitar. I also met "The world's foremost steel guitarist" Buddy Emmons during that time. Buddy was of course the classy, soft spoken gentleman, sharing his kindness and knowledge with this then 11 year old kid. I'll never forget that week in Nashville. That time period was the defining time for what would become my love and cause for a successful pedal steel playing career.
Yes,Julian's album cover is oddly cartoonish but, it was cool at the time to me.
Tommy, these are the kinds of stories I just LOVE to hear. An 11 yr old kid who didn't know it then that someday he would be among the elite. It is fascinating in every way to get to know some steel guitar history like this. There are many holes to fill in though..like..how long had you been playing pedal steel prior to that jam? What made you interested? What drove you? ..you get the idea..Like an autobiography. Stories like this never cease to amaze me. If you have the time I would love to see you write some more.
Johan Jansen wrote:I remember an albumcover from a steelcd, that had a girl on it, with her legs on the steel, seen from above.... Who knows this one?
Johan
Johan,
You mean, "Totally Hot Nashville Steel Guitar" As Jerry Clower used to say, Haaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww!!!! that girls got some legs!
I remember Guys like Mike Freid, "Chicken Hawk", Marty Rifkin, Kayton Roberts, Robbie Turner and I forget who all else.
A great listen! I don't know what happened to my copy, must have loaned it out.
Weird or just plain bad. Or so-bad-it's-good? It can be a fine line.
Why'd they put Shirley on the hill?
Why'd they put Jerry's car on the hill?
Why'd they put they whole band on the hill??
And especially for Skip, I finally found a better picture of Uptown to Country (available on eBay right now chaps). At last we can all get a really decent look at that Emmons.
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