Thrust, the following year, nailed the funk to the floor. It didn't have the impact of Headhunters - how could it? The sense of it being a follow-up was unavoidable, but it was damn fine, in every way Headhunters' equal, compositionally perhaps superior, and the cover - painted by Robert Springett, who did the less polished Crossings and Sextant covers and Van Morrison's bonkers Hard Nose The Highway - was cosmically delicious - if less iconic. Hancock seems to have a hands-off [clueless? - Ed.] approach to the way his music is packaged, resulting in as many misses as hits. The third in his Headhunters trilogy, '75's Man-Child boasts possibly the worst cover art of his discography [below - Ed.] - and there's some stiff competition. Think it doesn't matter?
Hancock's decision to augment the core band was the right one, giving the album a greater tonal variety. Sales were good, but not spectacular, starting a slide in popularity ended by the genre-bending Future Shock almost a decade later. Man-Child is an addictive, timeless, absurdly enjoyable album. Sugar-rush popping bubblegum funk, with some juicy chromatic harmonica from Stevie Wonder. If it's your first time - hard to believe, but stranger things have happened - snap on your ear goggles, inflate the bass, and parrr-tay!
To qualify for this Festival O' Funk, simply list your top two album covers of all time what you must see before you die ever!
ReplyDeleteHats, by The Blue Nile, and Here Lies Man
ReplyDeleteHere Lies Which Man?
DeleteGD Aoxomoxoa, Santana 1rst
ReplyDeleteOn the Beach and Sticky Fingers
ReplyDeleteWimp from Belgium
Older readers will remember the "From Belgium ... It's The Wimp Show!" radio show that helped to keep up the spirits of the allied forces during WW2.
DeleteI admit that never heard of that one. But I am excused: a) I am too young and b) I am "only" a German that lkife has brought to Belgium two decades ago...
ReplyDeleteThe Hissing of Summer Lawns - Joni
ReplyDeletePampered Menial - Pavlov's Dug
"A Wizard, A True Star" - Todd Rundgren
ReplyDelete"Overnite Sensation" - Frank Zappa
Play these and think of me.
Do we have to?
DeleteThe top two you say.
ReplyDelete1- King Crimson - In the court of the crimson king
2- Pink Fairies - What a bunch of Sweeties
3- Gentle Giant - Octopus (or any other Roger Dean LP cover, see Osibisa/Yes/Motown Chartbusters vol 6)
4- Roxy Music - Stranded (as a 12 year old boy it gave me a 'funny' feeling.
Note: all album covers should be gatefold in my opinion.
I'm sorry, Bambi, but the adjudicators have refused your submission, on account you can't count.
DeleteOK, fair enough, my re-submission better get me access to the stealth link.
Delete1- NOFX - Heavy Petting Zoo
2- The Faith Tones - Jesus Use Me
yeah as to the Roger Dean for sure ans also the Vertigo covers photographed by Keef
Deletethe greatest album cover of all time is unquestionably the original 1957 columbia vinyl album cover of THE PIANO ARTISTRY OF JONATHAN EDWARDS period
ReplyDeleteYou are a man of exquisite taste. You luxuriate in the tactile caress of your Neoprene© thong. You savor the finest generic soda that money can buy. Your scalp is anointed daily with Wild Root™ Cream Oil. And your cigarettes are hand-rolled by a homeless bum.
Deletethat goes without saying.
DeleteWhich is why I didn't say it.
Delete
ReplyDeleteOboy! This sure is swell! (Stealth Link© embedded for your idle amusement)
'
The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
ReplyDeleteRain Parade - Beyond The Sunset
As Noel Coward,(favourite album cover " Another Time, Another Place" by Bryan Ferry), famously remarked, " Old boy, where the fuck is the Stealth Link?"
ReplyDeleteStealth Link© as advertised, in comment June 29, 2021 at 7:08 PM
DeleteNoel again, (second favourite album cover, "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" by Joe Cocker) admits, " I can't figure this fucker out."
ReplyDeleteIt's the crux of the biscuit (')
DeleteMy gal & i were killing time in Boulder the afternoon before the Headhunters show and managed to get our asses into front row of the club to hear-see a soundcheck; she had her summertime bare feet propped up on the stage and one of the band was trying to get by and she wasnt moving so he gently grabbed her tootsie and moved it, and I rose and delivered him a roundhouse punch to the temple and all hell broke loose....well actually I just shrugged and congratulated him silently on his chess move
ReplyDeleteThis shore is fonky! Thanks nice recommend, and great new artwork too.
ReplyDeleteHold on a minute here -- didn't we do this already?! I think I mentioned MC5's "Kick out the Jams" which captures that album's acid soaked live music perfectly and Hawkwind's full fold-out "Space Ritual" cover which, like the recently FoamFeatured Glastonbury pyramid project, stands as a shining example of full-blown early 70s paranormal cryptomysticism™ (the inner sleeve is chock full of cosmological wisdom like "Everything exists for itself, yet everything is part of something else. The One and the many contain in themselves the principles of time and space. The way up and the way down are one and the same.". It's amazing what humankind was able to accomplish before the internet soaked up every waking moment.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of 70s "High Weirdness" (to borrow from recent book title on the subject), here is a copy of Timothy Leary's "Neurocomics" I've had sitting on my hard drive which is another pinnacle of psychospiritual metaphysical cryptomysticism™ (we were so close to evolving to Quantum Consciousness -- what happened?!): https://workupload.com/file/8yS7PjhyBbH
Great cover update btw! Love your brutal takedown of the original cheap ass artwork.
ReplyDeleteBlink 182 Enema of the State
ReplyDeleteBack in 2015, I digitized Hancock's "Budweiser Concert" - a syndicated radio show by Westwood One. It's still up over at the Voodoo Wagon: https://voodoowagon.blogspot.com/search?q=herbie+hancock+budweiser
ReplyDeleteSubscribers should be aware that this link will take them to a Naked Lady place.
DeleteYes. I don't post those pictures, but some of the other authors do. It's pretty soft-core, though. As a matter of Internet Etiquette, should I add a warning if I post other links in the future?
Deletethem's the best kind!!
DeleteWarning? I'd of thought incentive was more the word. Why, we're not exactly babe-shy here on th' IoF©!
DeleteThis is the Internet. It's difficult to know what is acceptable. I was recently censored by FB for expressing the opinion that the leadership of the Confederate States should have been t***d by a cour* of la*. FB informed me that such an opinion "created risk". As everyone in the CSA government has been dead for at least 100 years, it's difficult to know what they mean. I thought that in the Future, I would take a vacation on Saturn's Rings and have an Atomic Powered Vacuum cleaner running on a fusion pile the size of a Fig Newton. Instead, I am having to carefully couch my opinions about m*n who have been dead for 150 years. ANYWAY...YEAH...some of the other authors over at the Voodoo Wagon post some astonishingly beautiful pictures of attractive women in states of undress. CONSIDER THIS A WARNING!
DeleteWhat I don't like to see in the comments:
Delete- Deliberate (and tiresome) "provocation" - testing the limits of what is acceptable. One commenter did this regularly. Start with a reasonable comment, gradually amp up the "edginess" until deleted, then whne about censorship
- "It's All About Me" - turning the discussion to personal issues (such as health - I guess most of us have health issues. This isn't the place to fish for sympathy)
- Pointless scattershot comments to every piece, just to hear the sound of your own typing
- Commenting under different aliases (often to add fake support for yourself)
I've only had to "ban" two commenters. There really aren't that many people who come here, and far fewer who comment, and that works for everyone. Unlike many other blogs, I really don't care much about page views or downloads. I'm in this for shared amusement, contributions, a sense of being less cut off and alone than I get elsewhere on the internet. I don't do social media of any kind. Very happy to have th' 4/5G© here.
We have authors who complain about that lack of "thanks". I get it, but don't care. I digitize a record because I wanted it in FLAC format, and figure if I've done that work, there might be someone else who cares. But I don't care if you don't comment (although I enjoy the banter when someone does comment). Edgy...jeez, what a topic. I can talk rationally about anything, but on the Internet, I ask myself, "where is the upside? Do I have any chance of changing an opinion for the better?" As the answer is usually "no," I keep my tone "light." Why should I poke at your boundaries? Music by itself can be incredibly contentious, much to my amazement. Hey, maybe the Monkees WERE a better band than the Beatles (or the Sex Pistols...). Let's discuss. :)
DeleteI've never maintained the Monkees were a better band than the Beatles. My position is that Monkees records are as good as/better than records by (say) the Beatles. I use the term "records" because that was what it was always about - the recording of some musicians in a studio playing a composition, and that recording getting pressed up as a record, and money changing hands, and the song becoming in some sense your property. That model is no longer true, but that's the basis of the argument, that the good is in the groove, and independent of the back story that we tend to confuse with it.
DeleteProbably, the Beatles are culturally more important than the Monkees, but who's listening to the cultural importance of a record? The worth of a record lies in the material, and how its performed. Who wrote it, who played on it, these are interesting subjects but have little or no relevance. We are moved (or not) by these two factors - the quality of the song, and the quality of the performance. Monkees records are generally made by great songwriters and great musicians. It doesn't matter a damn if the four actors who played the roles of the Monkees don't play on the sessions or compose the material. What matters is the record, and we know if it's a good one by listening, not by studying the small print. So - f'rinstance - on that basis, I'm A Believer is as good/better than Can't Buy Me Love.
But Beatles fans can't separate the phenomenon of the group, its historical significance, from the sound in the groove. They *know* the Monkees were a fake group. Effectively, they've lost the use of their ears.
I fall on your side of the argument. It's what's "in the grooves" that counts. I've long argued that Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones is one of the GREAT RECORDS of the 1960s. It's as good as the Beatles, it's better than anything contemporaneous by the Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead. And "bands..." well, if the "band" is the people listed as being in the group, then the Beatles win, but if the "band" is the Wrecking Crew or the Funk Brothers, or the band at Hi Records, or Stax-Volt, then the Beatles come in further down the list. Culturally, they win, though. In retrospect, it's astonishing that the best "bands" of the era were not "groups" but anonymous studio musicians.
DeleteI think girls got it right. Back in the 'sixties, they liked singles, not albums, and they didn't care or know who made them. Yes, they had crushes on groups, but that had little to do with the music. Boys bought albums, and were into bands. With the luxury of hindsight, I appreciate and share both responses. I enjoy The Mamas And The Papas as much as Soft Machine, Miles Davis as much as The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. And I still listen to new stuff - maybe every day - but nearly everything seems less than its influences.
DeleteTalking of influences, The Beatles were perhaps the most important motivators in the history of pop. The Monkees probably inspired nobody to start a band, or even a TV show. But I'll takes Pisces Aquarius, or Head, or Headquarters, over pretty much any Beatles album.
Initially the funkyness of this album, got me grooving, but last night as the sun set, after a glass or 2 of red wine, I really got sucked into tracks two and four, the slower tracks. Wonderful album, thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome - it's a knockout, isn't it? If you want the other Herbiehunters, just ax!
DeleteSince we're talking (also) about inappropriate or plain sucky artwork - hoo boy, did I stumble upon a humdigger in that department.
ReplyDeleteI just picked up a copy of The Only Ones' second album (as in, yes, a physical record. For a buck! It's all in the name!). The liner notes discreetly note that the record company saddled them with "one of the worst album covers ever made" and, oh yeah, they are not kidding.
Look at this:
https://www.discogs.com/The-Only-Ones-Even-Serpents-Shine/master/27730
What.The.Fuck?
It's "credited" to a Michael Beal, who has some form:
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/Eddie-The-Hot-Rods-Teenage-Depression/master/123280
These people get paid for this stuff. Not much - I hope - but it's the principle that's fucked - Beal should have paid, a lot, for this. He should have bought every copy of the album and given them away so noone else had to pay to see his visual vomit.
And this - UNSEEEEEE! -
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/The-Count-Bishops-Speedball-Plus-11/release/1740291
I like both of those covers. E&theHRs was one of the first "punk" records I bought on import, also the Count Bishops record...over at Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley. Now I understand that they were not actually punk but "pub rock" but in 1976-77...there wasn't a lot going on in the Bay Area that was this fast, this exciting, and with that subcultural attitude. I've oft wondered where that Hot Rods picture came from; I've always assumed it was some serial killer or outlaw but I've never tracked down the original image.
DeletePerhaps Mr.Bambi (I assume he`s male due to his musical tastes, apologies for stereotyping) can be consoled by this quote from Van Dyke Parks; There are 3 types of people, those who can count & those who can`t. The Rev.Dr.Baz
ReplyDeleteThe Count Bishops cover is a picture of the NME's office outing circa 1973.
ReplyDelete'73 was a good year for the NME. A good year. Two years away from my first marriage. Tripping out on the Yorkshire Moors, hair down to my waist, base finance unit = 1 album. And laughing most of the time, in retrospect.
Delete