Thursday, May 31, 2007
While some audiophiles argue vinyl grooves better than a CD, designer and painter Jay Michael’s objections are on pure artistic grounds. He’s in it for the cover art. “I can taste this one!” he says as his eyes dart across the turquoise and strawberry-colored fields of the Steve Miller Band’s Children of the Future LP. Michael’s collection of nearly 10,000 records encases his entire home office in vintage vinyl, including one section he enthusiastically terms his “wall of
sound.”
He finds most of them for cheap at flea markets and garage sales and organizes his collection like any library would, with a detailed card catalogue system.
“Yeah, CDs are easier to carry, but record covers are a piece of art,” he says. “A chunk of history you walk away with.”
A word from Michael about his most artistic album covers:
1. Axis: Bold As Love (1968). Jimi Hendrix Experience. This one features Jimi in his full psychedelic divinity. Groovy!
2. Infinity (1978). Journey. Otherworldlyness from a band whose name says it all.
3. Book of Dreams (1977). Steve Miller Band. A glorious Pegasus taking flight. Being that I am from flyrightstudios.com, it just sits right in my head.
4. Down on the Farm (1979). Little Feat. Sunbathing female duck hottie painting her fingernails poolside along with a tiger drinking wine. Whoa yeah!
5. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). The Beatles. Classic psychedelic magic! So many faces plus hidden messages for you to unravel.
Comments
Posted by jbeary on June 8, 2007 at 3:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Michael,
You must be more of a record accumulator rather than a record collector. How else could you have excluded; David Stone Martin, Jim Flora, or even JD King? Drop the bong and walk away from your so called "Wall of Sound" you bonehead.
Yours,
Jeffrey_Beary@yahoo.com
Posted by flyright on June 8, 2007 at 8:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you for the mention of those wonderful artists, though I do not understand why you must insult. I do not believe I have ever met you.....I can assure you neither Jeff Rodel nor I were hitting a bong (or anything else) and I thought Jeff did a great job of tying in my art stylings with a story about MY record collection. We had a great time looking through jazz, rock, soul etc. We talked about Roger Dean/Yes, Stanley Mouse and the Grammy winning album cover, Book of Dreams. We also talked about my Atlantic jazz collection. I pulled out old covers from the 20's. Those are some of the coolest covers ever. I was not offended that every morsel that I spoke was not recorded and put in the article. Again, I was very pleased with Jeff Rodel and the article. I am a much wider person than you have perceived. I enjoy many styles of art and music.
You should not be so confident with such a nasty disposition.
You can learn from your mistake or you can keep on being nasty...your choice! Either way I don't care cause I don't know you.
Jay Michael
Fly Right Studios
www.flyrightstudios.com
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