I’ve yet to hear this new record by indie supergroup Sweet Apple (two members of Cobra Verde, J. Mascis, and one of Mascis’ bandmates in Witch), but I appreciated the tribute-style album cover the first time I saw it. I’m a Cobra Verde fan, so I’ll be picking up this album for more than one obvious reason.
However, soon after appreciating this album cover and determining that the women were lacking some of the charms of the models on Roxy Music‘s Country Life, I began to wonder whether I should don the patented RTH Pince Nez and critique all the details missed from the original album cover. Then, even sooner thereafter, I thought I should invite my fellow Townspeople to join in this critique. So put down your latest issue of Cat Fancy, blow your nose, pick up your monacle, and see if you can help me identify the key missing details that separates the women from the girls, in this case, when it comes to paying tribute to one of rock’s all-time greatest album covers.
I look forward to your respectful, family friendly analysis.
Those women are way too skinny for starters.
Too many ribs!
Wrinkly panties!
Muscles!
No pubes!
The girl on the left should be wearing a bra. The girl on the right should be covering her breasts with both hands.
Thank you, Oats. That detail is what made me pull out my Pince Nez in the first place. Hrrundi, you very respectfully pointed out some other missing details. jeangray, thanks for being the first to reach for your specs. Keep ’em coming, Townspeople, and keep clicking on the links within this post for added context. There are probably more details to be uncovered in the name of rock.
The brunette needs to be on the left, the blond on the right
The brunette needs to be wearing white undergarments – not black and the blond needs to be wearing black.
The blond needs to look at the camera
Both of these girls are wearing bracelets etc. while the originals are not.
(The young lady on the left here is holding her arms back almost making me think someone else is covering her breasts?)
Did you guys see this?
http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/b-side-stories/ann-magnuson-kicked-off-facebo/
Apparently Ann Magnuson modeled for a parody of this RM cover and when she discovered that this Cobra Verde thing was happening, she thought she should get her photo out there first. She made it her Facebook profile photo and for this, she was banned from Facebook.
Very observant, mrclean! You must have been great at solving those picture puzzles in that magazine they used to have in pediatricians’ offices, Highlights.
Yes, I did see that, cher. When I posted the image of this album cover with our link to this piece on our RTH Facebook page I worried that we might get banned ourselves. But this is a real album that’s being sold, not something we posed for. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Good call on the ‘whose hands are those on my boobs’ look on the blonde’s face.
In the original Roxy photo I always thought the model on the right was supposed to be a trannie. Look at that jaw line and the big hands and shoulders.
And the see-through bra and panties was essential to the whole hidden-in-plain-sight concept.
I don’t think original Girl on Right was a tranny. It was the sister of one of the guys from Can, right? One Roxy bio I read once mentioned Ferry and someone in his entourage (maybe Dr. Simon Puxley) being entranced by her in all her Amazon-ness.
I’d also like to point out that these news girls are clearly in a forest. On the original, it’s supposed to look like a lawn on an estate, the kind you’d see in the magazine Country Life. The original cover (and album) is a commentary on sordid happenings in upper class settings.
No stains on the cover.
The plant life is all wrong and why didn’t they use the same typeface? Magnusen did a much better job of nailing it in her tribute. Still pretty cool, tho!
the original was shot using headlights from a car for light. not pro studio strobes.
shawnkilroy currently holds the title of most probing use of the Pince Nez. BRAVO!!!
So the girl on the left is Love, and the one on the right is Desperation?
Having the album title on the cover at all is wrong, irrespective of the typeface. Roxy didn’t do that on its early albums, just the name of the group.
BTW, you can stream this album here. http://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/1
I think these usually stay up on Spinner.com all week.
To clear up what Oats and shonuff have been driving towards: the decision to shoot this homage in front of a deciduous background rather than the coniferous trees used on Country Life changes the meaning of the album cover in ways I’m not sure Sweet Apple has even begun to consider.
I wish I’d known about the stream before I paid for a download. But now I know another difference. The Country Life cover contains a great album.
And this one probably won’t get banned in the U.S. like the original Roxy Music cover.
By the way, Ann got her fb account back w/in about 48 hours of it being taken down…and her’s is definitely the better “homage”. Facebook’s workings can be very arbitrary, but I doubt you’ve got much to worry about as far as your posting of this cover goes, Moddy. Her removal was most likely due to complaints from certain factions in her home state who decided to use her photo posting against her as a way to mess with her because they don’t like her stated political views. So, while anyone can lodge complaints against anyone on fb, I doubt it’ll happen with your post….I hope.
That LA Weekly article reminded me that there was an alternate, non-naughty cover back in the day:
http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/roxy-music-country-life-2.jpg
Just coniferosity and dirt. When I bought the LP, it had the real cover, but it was obscured by opaque green shrink wrap.