Pavarotti
Posted by phil spector on 7 October 2008 - 7:56pm.
Why is Pavarotti on the new cover of Word?
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Cover subjects
Does make you wonder who the subjects are that would shift copies, and yet haven't been used so far. I don't recall covers on the following, although could well be wrong:
1. David Bowie
2. Mark E Smith (yes he's a goblin, but to me he's also significantly more interesting than Elbow).
3. When was the last Dylan cover?
4. Ray Davies
5. Johnny Marr
6. The Crucial 3 posed together
7. Neil Young
8. Primal Scream?
9. Lou Reed
10. New Order
Lou Reed
He barely sold a record in an entire 40-odd-year career and suddenly you expect him to start shifting magazines?
As for the rest of them, I'd only recognise Bowie and - at a push -Ray Davies, and, judging from recent pics, Neil Young would consign the mag to the top shelf because he'd scare away the children.
I'm still confidently expecting the Prop Joe cover to tie in with the 5-season boxset of The Wire. You know it makes sense!
Prop Joe
Would need an A3 cover though.
Playboy-style gatefold, innit
Neil Young and Johnny Marr
Both done.
Johnny Marr did really well too.
Must have been the quality of the writing hem hem.
Bonnie Prince Billy
if you want to continue the ugly people front covers - Lemmy, John Martyn, Guy Garvey etc. then go with the ugliest of them all.
Uggers
...would then require the Tom Waits scratch-n-sniff cover
Primal Scream?!
I've got a feeling that wouldn't do so well. Maybe if they recorded an album with Dido...?
Wrong
Bowie was on the cover of the first Word I bought (while waiting, fed up, at Newcastle station for a train home having failed to rendezvous with my brother and his mythical stag party in Whitley Bay - but that's another story).
Anyway, it's 'no' to him, Dylan, Neil Young & Lou Reed from your list. All way too predictable. I'd much rather Word featured newer, or at least less obvious, artists on it's cover. I applauded the Franz Ferdinand cover (although I've no particular opinion on them one way or another) for this reason. And the current one's good. Mark E Smith would be perfectly acceptable for these reasons (though not particularly palatable).
Personally I'd like to see Joe Henry or Howe Gelb or The Beastie Boys or Curtis Mayfield or Billy Bragg or Jeff Tweedy. Actually you could have Billy Bragg & Jeff Tweedy interviewed about the Mermaid Ave project and their subsequent fall-out. They could be fighting on the cover. Tell me that wouldn't sell like hot cakes!
What's wrong
With Girls Aloud, Mariah Carey, Kyllie Minogue, Beyonce, Leona Lewis and other talented performers.
Seems to work for Heat.
Alternatively...
Kate Bush, Martha Wainwright, Jenny Lewis, Isobel Campbell...
Why so few women on the Word covers? There's been Joni Mitchell, Amy Winehouse and of course the notorious Dido cover but that's all I can recall at the moment.
Have to say that despite Word being easily the best music mag around, it has far and away the worst-designed cover. It's not just the choice of cover star but the whole look is a mess. It's one area that Mojo beats Word hands-down.
The warts-and-all close-up problem
I often get the impression that the cover shot is a tight crop of a much wider shot, resulting in very poor resolution in such a large format. And judging from the thumbnail over there on the right, this month is no exception (mine hasn't arrived yet). Hell, I've seen sharper shots taken with an Instamatic.
Elbow room
Don't agree about Word cover being worst. Uncut quite bad - ugly blue on latest issue, horrible type face, poor photo of Dylan. Mojo - quite dull, could have found a more exciting image of Clash surely and is as cluttered as any. I generally find The Word superior in fact. I like the glossy finish, generally handsome colours (warm reds harmonising with Garvey's chubby pink flesh and russet hairyness), tasteful fonts - it all screams quality organ to me. And the only one featuring a current, newish act. And I am not even keen on Elbow.
Heavens
If the Word featured those four on the cover - especially a Vanity Fair-style group photo of all of them - I think we could possibly be talking the most cherishable issue of all time.
If you wanted a group of women who represented a real summit of talent combined with image, these are THE right choices, aren't they?
(Mitchell only excluded because of Word cover 'previous'.)
Go for the quintet
with Emmylou.
How right you are
How could I have overlooked Emmylou (especially since I have loads of her records!) ...?
The shame.
Don't think any of those...
...have been on the cover of Heat.
Might have been
Throb or Hiya Cocker. Or whatever this week's new tabloid mag is called.
I think it was (c)Loser
There's a lot of talent in
There's a lot of talent in Girls Aloud...
Neil Tennant or Chris Lowe made an appearance?
Lowe in his full Paninaro garb would be an arresting cover shot!
Pavarotti?
Giant Haystacks, more like...
Guy Garvey may not be conventionally beautiful...
...but he's not ugly either.
He has one of those soulful faces, where you can see years of life experience playing just beneath the surface.
WORD magazine has been taking a few risks with their covers recently. I hope that it's paying off.
It's the most 'current' act cover out there
Uncut: Dylan
(zzzz - I believe they have a quota to fill annually)
Q: AC/DC
(Because they have this new thing of putting increasingly irrelevant bands on the cover - Metallica, Oasis - plus women and any music made using keyboards are now viewed with suspicion)
MOJO: The Clash
(the most overrated band of all time)
Word: Elbow
(actually IN THE CHARTS)
Oh thank God
Clash overrated.
Yes, yes, yes - there are others! Phew.
Lots of others
Indeed, we are legion.
Excuse me, sir
Can I join, please? I've tried to like The Clash but I just can't.