Haha, no that Zep 1 artwork stayed on the jacket until I outgrew it. Back then we were kind of cult like followers of certain bands. I was Zep, I had friends that were all about The Stones, Floyd etc.
Regarding album artwork, I have a little story.
Last month I went to visit my Dad for his 85th birthday. We were sitting there chatting, and he says to me:Tony do you have a bucket list?
No I said, he goes well I do…he sticks his arm forward displaying a tattoo of Abbey road’s album cover on his forearm.
It is his first tattoo at 85, you know the one of them crossing the road, hilarious.
I couldn’t afford albums until I left school (the only one I bought was Caravan/Caravan) but the middle class kids could (parents I presume) and one or two of those definitely walked around with them under their arms. In The Court of the Crimson King, Disraeli Gears, Electric Ladyland and Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter were definitely paraded
I was on the verge of abandoning physical formats, and started buying downloads. But I missed the CD covers with the details of who is playing, and maybe some explanatory sleeve notes.
I have gone back to buying CD’s, unless it is impossible to find in Europe.
I suspect that you were like the majority of us when much younger. With limited funds, album purchases were very carefully considered & each one was played to death until enough funds had been saved for a new purchase.
As we have aged funds, for the majority, aren’t so tight so less thought goes into purchases & multiple buys are harder to memorise in the same, or less, time than albums bought years ago.
It’s also possible, of course, that the newer music you are buying is simply not as memorable as that bought in the past!
Same but the fad was to paint the album cover (or whatever else) onto your haversack cover/flap.
Changed 2/3 times a year, my favourite being solid back with a large ‘Aladdin Sane lightening bolt’. After a couple of years the flap must’ve been 1/2cm thick and solid
A picture from the web for those outside the UK to get an idea what I’m rambling on about!
Whilst when at school I had pocket money from parents, it wasn’t enough to buy records - however from age of 13 (I think) I did paper rounds, first just one, but by 14 or so I had morning and evening and occasionally covered my brother’s as well. That paid for the occasional album… as well as enabled saving to build my first hifi system! But as I said, swapping with others at school was the way to hear more (and display while carrying!)
Streaming came around at a good time for me. I have way too many albums and I’m quite happy not buying more at my age. There is so much great music to discover each day that sounds wonderful on my setup.
Many moons ago, I would buy one or two albums a month. It was always the most recently purchased albums that were played perhaps 90% of the time. Anything over 6 months old may have had an occasional look in, but many well deserving albums were just left on the shelf. As one album gets a look in, others are unintentionally overlooked. I now stream with Tidal, and for me this has two big advantages. 1. I can try music that I would never purchase on LP (after all it costs nothing but time) and I have found a massive amount of stuff that I truly love this way. 2. I have created a carefully curated playlist that presently contains over 2,500 tracks and is still growing. This has become the main listening choice. I always play it in shuffle mode so I never know which track comes next. Each track is a welcome surprise, some instantly recognised from the opening notes, others I may not recognise at all. But those rare ones that do not ring the bell of recognition are nearly always met with my thoughts of “wow, I am glad I added that one”.
I think my statistics are similar. A new album gets played a lot, and then gradually gets played less as new albums join my collection. I often have an afternoon of old favourites.
I have ripped most of my CD’s to a tiny hard disc. I like the way I have a catalogue of artists and albums. I am much more likely to play old albums as I browse.
