The Medusa Fora

The banned sleeve the band wanted




The new UK sleeve, not banned




Lee Templeton:

"The critically acclaimed album Trouble Pilgrim -- the first Radiators from Space album in many a year (See the great review by Boz of Steampig) -- is due for an upcoming UK release. But it won't be featuring the album artwork that the band wanted it to have.

The controversial cover provides a glimpse into one of those mid-century American moments of synchronicity that Don Delillo would savor: James Dean and Ronald Reagan co-starring in some forgotten TV drama of dubious artistic quality.

According to my pop-culture sources:

It's from a 1952 TV playhouse thing in which Dean is rather good as a drunken beatnick and Reagan is, well, Reagan as a Doctor who has been held hostage by Dean until he can fix up his friend who is badly wounded - they can't go to a hospital because the wounds occurred in the course of a robbery or whatever. It's called "The Dark Dark Hours" and is mostly rubbish, Dean's fascinating hep-talking beatnik excepted.

Classic network cheese. A black/white simplistic moral situation, decent society vs degenerate 'other' and then everyone's perennial favorite: guns. It wouldn't be more than a footnote in either actor's history, except that one of them became the President of the United States at the time when the national Chevrolet was taking a hard turn to the right.

And the other become the international icon of that streak of raw American rebellion that's always there and ready and doesn't even need to wait for a cause.

So for some reason, England doesn't want its own record-buying public to see this. Instead, the more topical images will be on the CD. Powerful, yes, but it isn't what the artists wanted.

And who knows why? Could it really be that after all these years, Albion still thinks of Reagan as playing Heathcliff to Margaret Thatcher's Cathy?

I am releasing these images without authorization and encouraging you to pass them on because I think they deserve to be seen. People should know about the forces that are mediating our culture and our freedom of expression. People should start talking about it."

Thanks Zuzana, that's very interesting.

Not sure about "banned" being the right interpretation of the industry's motives though, if that implies political censorship along the lines of "Birmingham Six". I think it's more a question of current politics getting more attention than an old clapped-out actor. I very much like the juxtaposition in the Reagan / Dean picture, but I can't imagine it attracting too much controversy over here right now. At any rate not enough to warrant censorship. I take it the people deciding on art work, if they are not the band themselves, are mainly motivated by getting sales up, and a younger music-buying audience will instantly recognise the newer pictures.

Good to hear about the imminent UK release though.

Wow. I don't think there'd be a problem releasing the band's preferred cover here in the States -- nobody would understand it. But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

territa wrote:Wow. I don't think there'd be a problem releasing the band's preferred cover here in the States -- nobody would understand it. But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Yeah I personally think the second would be more offensive than the first

I would say releasing both on vinyl and make lots of money of it..

what a shame. it was a great artwork, more!

territa wrote:Wow. I don't think there'd be a problem releasing the band's preferred cover here in the States -- nobody would understand it. But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Basically, I got so fuzzed off about them not letting us use the Dean/Reagan image that I made them promise they would accept the final alternative. If they did not like it, they had to accept the Dean/Reagan. They've been wearing cheesy grins ever since. In fairness, their reasons were always more legal than political, though I never accepted the legal advice they got was strong enough. They should have been prepared to go to bat for the freedom to publish under "fair comment" arrangements.

Any American or Canadian record company of reasonable size and resources interested in releasing the album in those territories with the Dean/Reagan sleeve, please get in touch by PM or otherwise.

philipchevron wrote:

territa wrote:Wow. I don't think there'd be a problem releasing the band's preferred cover here in the States -- nobody would understand it. But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Basically, I got so fuzzed off about them not letting us use the Dean/Reagan image that I made them promise they would accept the final alternative. If they did not like it, they had to accept the Dean/Reagan. They've been wearing cheesy grins ever since. In fairness, their reasons were always more legal than political, though I never accepted the legal advice they got was strong enough. They should have been prepared to go to bat for the freedom to publish under "fair comment" arrangements.

Any American or Canadian record company of reasonable size and resources interested in releasing the album in those territories with the Dean/Reagan sleeve, please get in touch by PM or otherwise.

I like the original best, but they are both good designs anyway....were they your ideas Philip?

jennylois wrote:

philipchevron wrote:

territa wrote:Wow. I don't think there'd be a problem releasing the band's preferred cover here in the States -- nobody would understand it. But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Basically, I got so fuzzed off about them not letting us use the Dean/Reagan image that I made them promise they would accept the final alternative. If they did not like it, they had to accept the Dean/Reagan. They've been wearing cheesy grins ever since. In fairness, their reasons were always more legal than political, though I never accepted the legal advice they got was strong enough. They should have been prepared to go to bat for the freedom to publish under "fair comment" arrangements.

Any American or Canadian record company of reasonable size and resources interested in releasing the album in those territories with the Dean/Reagan sleeve, please get in touch by PM or otherwise.

I like the original best, but they are both good designs anyway....were they your ideas Philip?

Well, I've wanted to find the right context for the Dean/Reagan since I first saw it about 10 years ago and was lucky enough to finally track down a shady copy of the kinetescope (sp?) transferred to DVD. The reason it's the best sleeve is it will still carry meaning in 20 years time, even if both Reagan and Dean are both forgotten. It IMPLIES weight, even if that then becomes a puzzle you have to figure out.

The Abu Ghraib/Liberty image is entirely Steve Rapid's work. I like it - it covers a lot of ground without being too cluttered. But my fear for it is that American "full spectrum dominance" will have advanced so far in 20 years that it will already look like the cover of a junior school textbook.

I am now hoping that for the US release, a company will come along who'd rather go to bat on the legal complexities of the Dean/Reagan image than suffer the retail consequences of what the UK sleeve implies.

Incidentally, rights are still available for other territories, including Japan. And I think I'd like to do a good vinyl edition also. We're not covered for that anywhere in Europe or North America.

philipchevron wrote:I am now hoping that for the US release, a company will come along who'd rather go to bat on the legal complexities of the Dean/Reagan image than suffer the retail consequences of what the UK sleeve implies.

I expect Ghraib/Liberty cover will be more offensive to many today but will lose relavance over time. The Dean/Reagan cover is classic and timeless.

territa wrote: But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Oh, get out. Its just a cd cover. Do they ban them? Like Sniff the Glove?

Eric V wrote:

territa wrote: But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Oh, get out. Its just a cd cover. Do they ban them? Like Sniff the Glove?

You live in DC. Try living in Texas.

Eric V wrote:

territa wrote: But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Oh, get out. Its just a cd cover. Do they ban them? Like Sniff the Glove?

Of COURSE they ban them. Here's how it's done "No thank you, we have plenty of copies of that left to sell already".

My estimate is, it waill sell a Badilion copies and you will become richer than Bono.

philipchevron wrote:

Eric V wrote:

territa wrote: But the version that WILL appear, I think that would be banned here. Go figure.

Oh, get out. Its just a cd cover. Do they ban them? Like Sniff the Glove?

Of COURSE they ban them. Here's how it's done "No thank you, we have plenty of copies of that left to sell already".

Isn't it about the music though? I can respect the artwork (though I honestly don't like it for reasons that have more to do with my opinion of the actual situation at Abu Grab at the time of the pics than my opinion of the war in general. In short, except for the pure pop media propaganda effect, it has no legs....people will associate it with a private who was kicked out of the Army carrying the baby of a dirtbag-of-a-Sergeant, and their dirty mischief) on its own right, even linked to the music/band, as you obviously must, but in the end, for you, was it not about getting the music out for people to hear -- or was it the whole "scene? (i.e., the combination of the music, the attitude, the dress, the style, the controversy, etc...)"
...and I'll have you know I had to go back and correct every single the from the teh I typed. I must be semi-dyslexic or weak-fingered, or somethin'.