A (0:00)

Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing history of new music, early and ad free on Amazon Music included with Prime. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Feeling lost? Stressed out? Anxious? Welcome to the club. The 24 hour news cycle and doom scrolling and the constant bombardment of information from all directions affect all of us. Yet we're expected to hold it all together. Something that's easier said than done. Men have this thing too, that we're supposed to be strong and steady performers and providers. And you know what? A lot of us do. We just push it down into that black ball inside of us because, well, that's what guys do. We're tough, right? But that leads to depression and burnout and other, shall we say, unhealthy activities as we try to cope. Here's the truth. It's okay to admit that you're struggling and that you need someone to talk to. Doing something about your mental health takes strength. And once you begin to open up and admit all the burdens that you're carrying around, you can work on being the best you can be for yourself, your loved ones, and everyone around you. Now trust me on this. Once you start talking about the things stuffed into your black ball, the whole universe begins to open up. BetterHelp is there for you. With more than 35,000 therapists available, BetterHelp is the largest online therapy platform. It has an App store rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on 1.7 million reviews from clients all over the world. It's so easy and convenient, too. An online session starts with the click of a button at any time of day or night so you can fit therapy into your busy schedule. Learn how to set boundaries, deal with anxiety, and learn positive coping skills. And you can switch therapists anytime. There should never be any stigma around mental health. You take care of your physical health, right? So why should your mental health be any different? As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of experience. Guys, talk it out with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com ongoing today and get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com ongoing.

B (2:12)

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

A (2:35)

Learn more@WhatsApp.com In 1938, a 23 year old graphic designer named Alex Steinweiss was hired as the first ever art director for Columbia Records in New York. He was assigned a project to help promote a new release by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. They were famous for not only writing more than 500 songs since 1919, but also wrote 28 stage musicals for Broadway audiences and beyond. In those days, all music came on 10 inch 78 RPM discs, one song per side. If you have a collection like the one Alex was assigned, those perhaps dozen of those individual discs were packaged together in what looked like a bound book with paperboard covers. Inside were sleeves for each of the records, kind of like what you'd have for a phonograph album for individual pictures. But this wasn't obviously a phonograph album. It was an album for records. And this is where the term phonograph album or record album came from. The first company to create such bundles of records was Odeon and a German company in 1909. And for the next 30 years, all records were sold in pretty plain paper sleeves, maybe a little bit of text on it, and that was it. Phonograph albums were pretty anonymous, you know, just these plain paperboard binding things. Anyway, back to Alex, the art director. The label needed this phonograph album to be a hit with consumers. How can we get people to pay attention to this release and sell as many copies as possible? Alex was hit by inspiration. He and a photographer went down to the Imperial Theater in the theater district of New York City and convinced the owner to let them play with the marquee on the street. He changed the sign to read Columbia Records Imperial Orchestra under Richard Rogers Smash Song Hits by Rogers and Hart. The sign was lit up and they took a picture. That photo was used for the COVID of this new phonograph album. This was the first ever album cover artwork. And because it helped the album sell extremely well, other labels started adorning their albums and even individual records with photos and other art. A whole new industry was created. And not that long ago, there were design studios around the world dedicated to creating album artwork. The profession took a hit when the 12x12 palette of the album shrunk down to the 6x6 or 5x5 space of a CD. And then it even took more hits as we moved to digital files and streaming. But now that vinyl is back so is the interest in album artwork. With that in mind, this is part two of a show that looks at some of the most iconic looking albums in history, along with some of the secret stories they contain. This is the ongoing history of New Music podcast with Alan Cross. Hi again, I'm Alan Cross. And this is the second half at a look at stories behind some of the most iconic album covers of all time. In part one, we looked at the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Depeche Mode, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, all in chronological order, and we ended up in 1993. Now we're gonna pick things up in 1994 and the first album I wanna talk about is the debut from Oasis. Definitely. Maybe. There is a lot happening here. Stay with me and try and visualize what this album looks like. Artwork was important to Oasis from the very beginning and frankly, I could do two or three shows just deconstructing the artwork that we see on every Oasis album and every Oasis single. Maybe we'll do that sometime in the future, but right now let's concentrate on that carefully composed photo on the front of the first album. If you have a copy nearby or if you can call it up on your computer, great, that'll help. If not, again, try and visualize. We see five guys in a front room of a house in May 1994. There's a couch, a comfy chair, a TV and a fireplace. Members of the band are scattered about doing different things. The photographer was Michael Spencer Jones, someone who was just getting started in the world of big time photography. Brian Cannon designed the artwork. He'd met Noel about a year earlier and they bonded over some Adidas running shoe designs. Noel liked what Brian had done with the Verve around that time, telling Brian, when we get signed, I want you to do our artwork. The setting was the front room of the home of rhythm guitarist Paul Bonehead Arthurs. This was in the Didsbury area of Manchester. The inspiration was another album, specifically the back cover of a 1966 Beatles compilation entitled A Collection of Beatles Oldies. This was a compromise with Noel, who had seen a shot of the Beatles in Japan where all the members were sitting around a table. That didn't seem very interesting. So Spencer looked for another approach. He took a visit to the Manchester Science Museum, where there was an Egyptology collection on display. If you want to know why, Liam is lying on the floor in the position of an Egyptian mummy, that's why. Another reason was that Bonehead had just stripped the floors of its old finish and they were looking pretty rough, so Liam helped cover all that up. The decision was made to shoot from the back of Bonehead's living room towards the bay window on the street. The room is a lot smaller than it appears. It's very narrow. Spencer had to use a wide angle lens to get everybody in the shot. At first, there were cans of empty red striped beer all over the place. Well, that wouldn't do. So they were replaced by glasses of wine. Except that what we see is not wine. It's a British soft drink called Robina that was diluted just enough to look like red wine. Because if you photograph real wine, it tends to look black in the photographs. Spencer asked everyone to bring personal objects with them, things that meant something to them. The pink flamingo belongs to Bonehead. That's his guitar. An epiphone Riviera propped up against the wall. There's also a pack of Benson and Hedges cigarettes. Liam, Noel and Giggsy the bass player were all massive Manchester City fans. So they put a portrait of Rodney Marsh, a big star for the team in the early 1970s, above the fireplace. But Marsh isn't the only footballer in the photo. Look at the window and you'll see a picture of George Best, the famous Manchester United player. He was Bonehead's favorite. Towards the front, on the left side is a picture of American songwriter Burt Bacharach. Noel loved Bacharach, so that was his contribution. On the other side, the TV is playing the Good, the Bad and The Ugly, a 1966 spaghetti Western starring Clint Eastwood. Although we see co stars Eli Wallach and Antonio Casale in the shot that's Noel's favorite movie. The mirror that we see came from Brian Cannon's apartment. And that blurry spinning thing is a blow up globe. Mark Coyle, the sound guy for Oasis, and a roadie named Phil Smith found it and brought it along to signal that the band was bound for world domination. If you want to get really technical, Cannon drew inspiration from a 15th century painting by Jan Van Eck called the Arnolfini Portrait because of its use of visual metaphors. And notice the lettering of Definitely maybe on the COVID That's not a special font or anything. That's Brian Cannon's actual handwriting. Rock and roll star from Definitely maybe. Brian Cannon would go on to design Oasis artwork for the next four years. Around the same time that album came out, Korn released their debut let's Dissect that artwork. It features a little girl dressed in a school uniform on A swing in a playground with an unseen figure casting a menacing shadow with lobster like claws. Are those some kind of blades? What's going on here? The girl is squinting against the sun to make out who's staring at her. The little girl's name is Justine Ferrara. She's the niece of Paul Pontius, who worked at Immortal Records, Korn's label at the time. And she was just 8 years old in 1994. She was paid $300 for her time. The guy casting the shadow was Dante Arreola, who was the co art director on the shoot. Little Justine wasn't shown the picture until she was in the eighth grade and simply because it's so creepy and sinister. And Paul's family was not at all pleased with the results. Because if you flip the album cover over, you'll see the same playground, except that the little girl is missing. Never find a way to reach mine. You know, some of us stay in the local. I think from that Corn album, let's move on to something a little more wholesome. The first and second records from the Cranberries, along with a 2017 live unplugged album. What do they all have in common? A couch. For the first album, everybody else is doing it, so why can't we? In 1993, an art director called Cali was hired. The decision was made to rent a couch and have the members sit on it. They settled on a shot by photographer Andy earle that featured three members on the couch and one on the floor in front. For the second album, no need to Argue. In 1994, Callie called up Earl and had him find that very same couch. And for that album it was hauled around Dublin, where many pictures were taken. The COVID shot was done in a studio in a white room specially constructed to get a stark look. Everyone is in suits because Blur had just recently posed for a photo the same way. Meanwhile, the other shots were used for covers of singles from the album. The couch disappeared from the cranberries world until 2017, when it appeared on the COVID of the Unplugged album. Where it had been in the intervening years, no one really knows. Although it did appear in the video for the Supergrass song all right in 1996. Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to? Moving from the softness of the Cranberries, we have a chunk of Rage from Rage against the Machine, their Evil empire album from 1996. First, the title. It comes from a Ronald Reagan speech where he called the Soviet Union just that, the Evil Empire. But given Rage's politics. They meant for it to apply to the United States. The boy on the front is an altered version of a painting from the 1940s and 50s. There was a comic book hero called Crime Buster. The original had a C on the boy's chest, but that was changed to an E for the album. The original was also captioned with Crime Buster, but that was turned into Evil Empire. Is that boy real? Yes. His name is Ari Mezl, who would later become an author and businessman. He was 11 years old when that painting was completed by artist Mel Ramos, who went on to fame in the art world. Some of his works sold for well over a million dollars. Ari's father was a friend of Ramos because he was an art dealer. The painting was a birthday present. Later, Rage found it in a book of Ramos work. And what does Rage think about the expression on the boy's face? Zach de La Roca says it's all about the power structure in the United States. He's smiling because he wants to project that he's in control. But if you look deeper, you'll see that he's actually very, very afraid. With a pocket full of shells. Ray, rally round the family With a pocket full of Shel. There are four album covers explained, but there's plenty more to come. Stand by. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Feeling lost? Stressed out? Anxious? Welcome to the club. The 24 hour news cycle and doom scrolling and the constant bombardment of information from all directions affect all of us. Yet we're expected to hold it all together. Something that's easier said than done. Men have this thing too, that we're supposed to be strong and steady performers and providers. And you know what a lot of us do? We just push it down into that black ball inside of us because, well, that's what guys do. We're tough, right? But that leads to depression and burnout and other, shall we say, unhealthy activities as we try to cope. Here's the truth. It's okay to admit that you're struggling and that you need someone to talk to. Doing something about your mental health takes strength. And once you begin to open up and admit all the burdens that you're carrying around, you can work on being the best you can be for yourself, your loved ones, and everyone around you. Now trust me on this. Once you start talking about the things stuffed into your black ball, the whole universe begins to open up. BetterHelp is there for you. With more than 35,000 therapists available, BetterHelp is the largest online therapy platform it has an App store rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on 1.7 million reviews from clients all over the world. It's so easy and convenient too. An online session starts with the click of a button at any time of day or night so you can fit therapy into your busy schedule, learn how to set boundaries, deal with anxiety, and learn positive coping skills. And you can switch therapists anytime. There should never be any stigma around mental health. You take care of your physical health, right? So why should your mental health be any different? As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of experience. Guys, talk it out with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com ongoingtoday and get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P.com ongoing Tito's Handmade Vodka.