Record Covers

Here's a great gift for your favorite Crumb . . . it's the latest anthology of record cover artwork by cartoonist R. Crumb!

Crumb, R. R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection.
New York, N.Y: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc, 2011. Print.

And speaking of record covers . . . have you seen Alfra Martini's reproductions of iconic album covers? The series is called The Kitten Covers. Take a look!

Simon, Paul, and Art Garfunkel. Bridge Over Troubled Water.
New York: Columbia, 1970. Sound recording.

U2.War. New York: Island, 1991. Sound recording.

Clash: London Calling. 1979. Sound recording.

Beatles. Let it Be. London: Apple, 1970. Sound recording.

Morrison, Van. Moondance. Burbank, Calif: Warner Bros, 1970. Sound recording.

Belinda Carlisle

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Carlisle, Belinda. Lips Unsealed: A Memoir. New York: Crown, 2010.

Like many teenage girls in the early 80's, I adored The Go-Go's and tried to dress like them. As they were the first all-female band to top the Billboard charts and earn a double-platinum album, they were certainly worthy of our admiration. The Go-Go's played their own instruments, wrote their own songs, and had a female manager.



Back then, there weren't all that many female musicians to look up to. I didn't like Pat Benatar's songs or her style. I hadn't yet developed a taste for Kate Bush's operatic voice, and I didn't like Stevie Nicks because I thought her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie* was more deserving of stardom. I tried to sing like Chrissie Hynde, but I didn't have the figure to dress like her. I loved Blondie and Bow Wow Wow's music, but their female lead singers were a bit too beautiful.


The Go-Go's were just right. Even a chubby girl like me could dress like a Go-Go!




Belinda Carlisle's memoir Lips Unsealed is titled after the Go-Go's hit song Our Lips Are Sealed. The first half of the book is lots of fun. She writes about touring with Madness, kissing Jim Hutchence, partying with John Belushi, and getting drunk with Tim Finn from Split Enz.

Like her solo career, the second half of Belinda Carlisle's memoir isn't very exciting at all. It's mostly a confessional about her escalating addiction to cocaine. She is so brutally honest, that she comes across as being unlikeable. She admits to feeling undeserving of her fame, and in doing so, she makes the reader agree with her.

*Christine McVie takes the lead in this Fleetwood Mac performance:

Moments of Pleasure

Kate Bush's Moments of Pleasure is one of my very favorite songs. It's from her 1993 album, The Red Shoes.

Bush, Kate. The Red Shoes. New York: Columbia, 1993.

I think these lines are especially beautiful:

On a balcony in New York
It's just started to snow
He meets us at the lift
Like Douglas Fairbanks
Waving his walking stick
But he isn't well at all
The buildings of New York
Look just like mountains through the snow

Here's the video:




Kate Bush is a very intriguing character. She was discovered by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour when she was only sixteen. She is probably most famous for her 1978 hit single, Wuthering Heights.

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1846.

To learn more about Kate Bush's career, I recommend reading this article by Holly Kruse. This bio from the official Kate Bush website is also very good.

Here is a review of Bush's latest album, Aerial: rollingstone.com. I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't listened to it yet. For the time being, I am quite content just to play Moments of Pleasure over and over and over again.

Top 5 Albums

Top 5 Albums is one of my favorite Myspace pages. It's an interactive site where viewers can list their top 5 albums. It's interesting to see how many people have the exact same taste.

Here are my picks: