{"id":1362,"date":"2008-04-13T22:18:24","date_gmt":"2008-04-14T02:18:24","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-17T21:59:34","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T21:59:34","slug":"albums-that-were-adversely-affected-by-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/albums-that-were-adversely-affected-by-r\/","title":{"rendered":"Albums That Were Adversely Affected by Reduced Graphics in Reissue and\/or Digital Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATED WITH FULL GATEFOLD IMAGE<\/ins><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Next to the music itself on The Stooges’ Funhouse<\/em>, the most influential thing about that album is the shot of the band sprawled out on that Afghan rug<\/strong> when you open the gatefold sleeve<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Full image after the fold.<\/strong><\/ins>
\n<\/p>\n

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Image appears courtesy of The Back Office’ private collection.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Oh – you only know the album from a single-sleeve vinyl reissue<\/strong> or CD reissue? Or you’ve only downloaded the tracks and have no album art whatsoever? You don’t know what image I’m talking about? My child, then you know only part of the greatness of Funhouse<\/em>. <\/p>\n

What band whose members owned the gatefold vinyl version has not sprawled out on the nearest Afghan rug? The band I’m in recorded its first EP in an old TSOP-related studio, which still had tube equipment with big black knobs<\/strong>. The coolest thing about this place, however, was the big Afghan rug in the middle of the floor. We spread out on that thing as soon as we got done with introductions to the engineer and he got on with the business of plugging in mic cables. The thought that we were tapping into the powers of the Funhouse<\/em> rug went a long way toward making our first commerically available release. It provided a great deal of focus – and I’m pretty sure it helped our sound.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly – or maybe not so surprisingly, in this age that has grown up without gatefold sleeve – an exhaustive, 5-minute Google search did not turn up a shot of that gatefold sleeve, but I did find the image on the following permutation<\/strong> of Funhouse<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

I have never heard this 8-track<\/strong> release of Funhouse<\/em>, but even lacking the front cover graphics, I am confident that it’s better than any version of Funhouse<\/em> lacking that image as part of the packaging. <\/p>\n

Labels can cut corners with reissues, but there is a price to pay when the graphic impact of the original release is compromised. Along with gatefold releases cut back to single-sleeve releases, there are other repackagings that adversely affect the overall impact, including the sound<\/em>, of an album. For instance, any original album with a textured sleeve<\/strong>, such as a ’70s Neil Young<\/strong> album or The Undertones<\/strong>‘ Positive Touch<\/em>, that is repackaged with 2-dimensional graphics is inferior. Trust me, it even sounds worse. Any album that has been censored<\/strong> in reissue form, such as Roxy Music<\/strong>‘s Country Life<\/em>, is adversely affected. Recently Townsman HVB<\/strong>, I believe, characterized Led Zeppelin III<\/em> as a “failure.” Only one who owns a version of the album that eliminates the die-cut<\/strong> wheel would think such a thing!<\/p>\n

Do your fellow Townspeople a favor: share with us your experiences with albums that were adversely affected by reduced graphics in reissue and\/or digital release<\/em>. Isn’t it time we hear music the way it was meant to be packaged?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED WITH FULL GATEFOLD IMAGE Next to the music itself on The Stooges’ Funhouse, the most influential thing about that album is the shot of the band sprawled out on that Afghan rug when you open the gatefold sleeve. Full image after the fold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[110,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}