ain’t life strange?

by Art Chantry

this is another one of my all time favorite record covers – definitley in my top ten. i’ve had this sitting around for 25 years. when i sold my record collection to a dealer, i kept this one – because i love it so much. it’s perfect.

everything about this design is flawless. the b&w, the typography, the layout and design, the image quality, even the minimal use of color – is absolute perfection itself. if i live to be a hundred, i’ll probably never get to do a record cover this beautiful. clients wouldn’t let me, actually.

—artchantry.com—

i have no idea who designed this cover. back during this period, i believe the art director at columbia was S. Neil Fujita. so, it may have been his work (he credited his imagery, but not his design). this sort of LOOKS like his austere but playful style. however it could have been any of a number of people in the art department staff back then. the photgraph is credited to erwin blumenfield.

french singer extraordinaire (and french resistance fighter), juliette greco, was the original bohemian “beatnik chick”. her straight black hair, squared bangs and slim figure dressed in tight black clothing became the model for the stereotype of the beatnick chick appearance the world over. (there were two beatnick chick stereotypes, actually. the other was writer diane di prima. he collegiate plaid skirt and leotard with black beret is the other cliche style of the beatnick chick – and of course, the required long dark hair and sunglasses after dark). but, it was the greco bohemian ‘arteest’ chanteusse that became the cliched skinny long straight haired ‘goth’ in a long tight black dress. it was a uniform look borrowed from the martha graham dance company (tres chic). so, so cool.

greco’s look became the model of fashionable “outsider intellectualism”. her look so influenced a generation of young intelligent independant women in the 1950’s (such a dramatic contrast to the mrs. cleaver/marilyn monroe accepted dichotomy of femininity – the madonna/whore complex) that it became the standard for a generation of free thinking young women. it was the initial look of female liberation.

it also heavily influenced the girlfriend of a young charles addams. she sported this look in spades, as well. she (in turn) became the model for charles addams’ cartoon charatcter named ‘morticia”. the morticia character in the new yorker cartoons eventually became the model for a young hollywood starlett when she got the role of playing a tv horror movie hostess in los angeles. maila nurmi died her blonde hair black. tied up her 17″ waist into a black drape sleeve of a dress and became the world’s very FIRST midnight horror movie host. her schtick – all invented entirely on her own – became the standard corny-joked, snide, snarky bonehead comedy we all excpet from our late night horror movie hosts ever since.

so, in a strange way, greco begat morticia who begat vampira who begat the modern world as we know it.

ain’t life strange?

h="480" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

This entry was posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Music/Composition/Performance and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to ain’t life strange?

  1. Alberto says:

    A cover absolutely fantastic. I’d be curious to know the other 9 of your top ten!
    thank you very much.
    Alberto
    Italy

    • Dave says:

      Alberto,
      this was written by Art Chantry who for budgetary reasons is not contributing to the blog at this time. He has a Facebook page and that would be the best place to reach him. If that doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll send his e-mail to you.Best,
      Dave

  2. Alberto says:

    Ciao,
    there are many “art chandler” on facebook. Please write me his e-mail or write directly you.
    Many thanks
    Alberto

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>