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Is this the worst cover art ever for a rerelease of a classic album?

  • March 13, 2014
Jean-Frederic VachonBy Jean-Frederic Vachon 11 years ago
2 Less than a minute

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I found this abomination at a local HMV store. Apart from the fact that 5 bucks is a sweet deal for one of the best rock albums of all time, is there any redeeming quality to this release? Who’s the marketing genius at the record company that thought that cutting off two thirds of the cover art was a good idea? And what’s the deal with Side 1 and Side 2? Will I have to flip my CD over? Was the track list really vital to the front cover? We have to assume that The Who’s target audience has bought a copy or three of Who’s Next  over the last 42 years. Is that cover really going to get new people to buy this? Will anyone pick this over, well, anything?

And if anyone reading this has never heard Who’s Next, do yourself a favour. Find a copy of the album with the full cover, buy it, play it loud, and marvel at one of the crowning achievements of 70’s rock. If Won’t Get Fooled Again doesn’t get you doing windmills on your air guitar, rock is probably not your thing.

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2 Comments

  • monthofsundays94 , March 13, 2014 @ 4:32 pm

    Yeah, that CD does kind of ruin one of the most iconic album covers in rock history. But sometimes you see covers of classic albums changed when the original cover isn’t that great, for example with Kraftwerk’s discography or The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds”. But I don’t think that’s the case here, because the cover of “Who’s Next” is pretty awesome. Interestingly enough, there was an article in Freshly Pressed about how we change book covers but not album covers, even though that’s not true.

  • jfvachon , March 13, 2014 @ 9:32 pm

    It’s true that we accept changed covers on books much more readily. I also find that rock fans are quite fixated on “authenticity”, and will not accept any changes, be it covers, remixes, etc. Even if sometimes, it could be for the better. Thank you for the comment!

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