Classic Punk Albums Reimagined with Blue Note Jazz Cover Stylings: A John Yates portfolio

(Many thanks to an old friend, Mr. Burma, Music Librarian / DJ at KALX Radio in Berkeley, for directing attention towards this collection of images!)

The graphic design work of John Yates has been showing up on album covers and in other places since the late 1980s.

His design portfolio site, Stealworks has a section of 'Ideations', that includes this series of "Punk Note" album covers; Taking classic punk rock albums released between 1965-1990, and re-imagining them with design elements drawn from the Blue Note jazz record label.

Some of these imagined covers are 'merely' really fun, or really good. 

Some of them are also transcendently f***ing brilliant. 

That's my take, anyway...

- Click THIS link to plunge into the rabbit hole: a TON of images from John Yates' 'Punk Note' series!

 Click THIS link to plunge into the rabbit hole: a TON of images from John Yates' 'Punk Note' series!

- No, but seriously; Don't just settle for the images shown here!! 
Click THIS link to plunge into the rabbit hole: a TON of images from John Yates' 'Punk Note' series!

See also: 

- A short bio of John Yates, available at the Alternative Tentacles Records website.

- John Yates interviewed about his career in design and this 'Punk Note' series at 

No Echo and at Achilles In The Alleyway.

(recent as of this posting)

What's a few more old dusty Men's magazines between friends? (flickr link)

(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

I've added just a few more old girlie mag cover scans to a big batch that I posted at Flickr almost a year ago...

- Please follow this link to my flickr set:
A 'Cover Gallery' of 1950s and '60s
Men's Magazines!
(50 images)

These late 1950s cover images allow the predominantly late '60s set to skew just a little earlier.

It's fun to see the relatively subtle (and tasteful) designs and color palette in the earlier covers give way to the kooky kraziness of the
High Sixties...

...Enjoy!


































































(click on images to enlarge in a new window)

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Follow this link to my flickr set:
A 'Cover Gallery' of 1950s and '60s Men's Magazines!
(50 images)

Bill O'Malley cartoons from Extension Magazine (1946 - '47)

I found these cartoons in a few old copies of Extension Magazine, 'the Catholic Saturday Evening Post', that I came across recently.

(Click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

Bill O'Malley was a prolific cartoonist, producing a lot of work for many American magazines from the 1940's through the 1960's.

I've seen several of the old paperbacks collecting
Bill O'Malley's 'Two Little Nuns' series of cartoons, but personally I don't recall seeing his more 'secular' work - - or even panels that didn't feature the nuns.

You can learn more and see a few more examples of O'Malley's artwork at Christopher Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery,
and another small example at Mike Gray, Pencil For Hire.




(For the puzzled, I'll venture this 1946 cartoon ▲ refers to leaving behind military service, post WWII)






























































































































- Again, for any who might be puzzled by the reference;
◀'Open the Door, Richard' was a popular R&B song (derived from an old vaudeville routine) first recorded by
Jack McVea in 1947.

Cover versions of the song were subsequently recorded by several other artists that same year, and the title became a popular catch-phrase.

- You can listen to a version of 'Open the Door, Richard' by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five at Rhapsody.Com.
(follow link)
- - And as you might guess from the cartoon, in 1947, Rev. Richard R. St. John was an Associate Editor of
Extension Magazine.

▼ ADDENDA, 4.18.09: Another 'secular' WWII-era O'malley panel found, not in the pages of Extension, but from the Sept. 29, 1945 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

Excerpts from Elson-Gray's Primer & Book One Readers, 1930 editions (flickr link)

Please follow this link to my flickr set:
'Excerpts from Elson-Gray's Primer & Book One Readers, 1930 editions'
(54 images)

I've posted some images from the first set of beginning reader textbooks that introduced the characters 'Dick and Jane', who - - for better or worse
- - would influence a generation.

Basal readers like the Elson-Gray series were considered 'state-of-the-art' educational tools once upon a time, and they received wide use in American schools for several decades.

Eventually their typical neglect of phonics, coupled with an unnatural narrative structure would turn popular opinion, and they were deemed to be an inferior method for teaching reading skills.



Flawed? Perhaps...
...Clichéd over time?
Most definitely - - but nevertheless, the scenario and structure propagated by
William H. Elson and
William S. Gray became an archetype.

There's a dearth of info available about the various illustrators for these 1930 editions.
Anything you can share on that subject is much appreciated. Please leave a comment or drop an e-mail.

Please follow this link to my flickr set:
'Excerpts from Elson-Gray's Primer & Book One Readers, 1930 editions' (54 images)

Cover Gallery: 1950s and '60s Men's Magazines (flickr link)

- Please follow this link to my flickr set:
A 'Cover Gallery' of 1950s and '60s Men's Magazines!
(50 images)

The images there may be considered Not Safe For Work, but they're so very tame as compared with today's standards.

What's not tame are the garish colors, the bold graphic design, the saucy & silly titles and lurid cover blurbs of another era.

- - The cover girls are of another era, too.

Dating from 1957 - 1969, with the bulk of them falling around 1967, the mags in this batch are seldom classy, sometimes seedy, but always an eyeful.
Check 'em out!





































- Please follow this link to my flickr set: A 'Cover Gallery' of 1950s and '60s Men's Magazines!
(50 images)