Vol.07 Led Zeppelin / In Through The Out Door (1979)
Hello, my name is Takumi Yumikiri.
The most important design group that cannot be avoided when discussing record jackets is Hypnosis.
From Pink Floyd to Yumi Matsutoya, he has created artwork to the stars and is a pioneer in bringing artistry and meaning to record jackets. This time, I would like to read about Led Zeppelin albums that have particularly influenced me.
Led Zeppelin / In Through The Out Door
In Through The Out Door" is known as one of the worst Zeppelin albums. I loved this album, which contains "All My Love," when I was in junior high school and high school at the time.
This album, produced mainly by bassist John Paul Jones, was a keyboard-oriented album using a Yamaha GX-1 and Fairlight, and was a total disappointment to Zeppelin fans at the time. . But, putting the sound aside, let's take a look at the artwork.
What a surprise, this album, in addition to six different designs, has numerous tricks up its sleeve.
First, at the time of purchase. When on display, as you can see in the photo above, they were sealed in brown kraft paper bags and sold without the contents being visible. Storm Torgerson of Hypnosis said the idea came from Peter Grant, Zeppelin's manager, who told him, "If you're Zeppelin, you can sell it in a brown paper bag.
. Left is the jacket in its normal state. When wetted with water, it changes color as shown on the right.
The inner bag has a special black-and-white printing, and when wetted with water, the color will change. It cost a lot of money.
All six types of jackets .
Each of the six jacket designs has a sepia-toned print on the front and back of the cover showing a mysterious man in a white suit sitting at a bar counter, burning white paper with a Zippo lighter. Only on the front side, only the area around the man is bright and clear, as if soot had been removed.
Now let's check out the seven characters reflected in the six different jackets.
The surface of the jacket ①.
Reverse side of jacket (1).
First, the surface of jacket (1). A small, fat, detective-like man holding a suit on the far left, a mysterious man in a white suit sitting at the center counter, a blonde woman standing under a lamp light behind the counter, and a huge barman wearing a white T with cut-off sleeves inside the counter.
On the reverse side of jacket 1), a black singer smiling with a glass in his hand and a white-haired piano player looking back at the piano. This makes six.
Jacket (2) Surface
Jacket (2) Reverse side
. And finally, the woman on the reverse side of the jacket (2), a prostitute-like woman with a sober face, is leaning against a jukebox. These are all the characters in the film. And here's a trick. Please observe the jacket image carefully.
Jacket 3) Surface.
Jacket 3) Reverse side.
Jacket (4) Surface.
Jacket 4) Reverse side.
Jacket ⑤Surface.
Jacket 5) Reverse side.
Jacket ⑥Surface.
Jacket ⑥reverse side.
Can you see what I mean? The gaze of the person on the front of the jacket is the back of the jacket, and the gaze of the person on the back of the jacket is the front of the jacket. . So the picture is taken as the gaze of the characters. However, only the gaze of the man in the middle is not shown in the picture, but rather, it is the "gaze of the six people looking at him. You can tell that there is a passage of time on the front and back of the jacket, when he is holding the paper and when he is burning the paper.
So, where is this set? Reading from the photo, we can see that it is not in England, but in the U.S.A. .
First, if you look closely at the photo on the front of the jacket (iii), the whiskey the mystery man is drinking is "Kentucky Gentleman". . The cigarette is "Lucky Strike. Furthermore, "Wrigley Gum" is shown on the surface of jacket ③④.
On the surface of jacket 1), you can see a "Louisiana" plaque on the wall, and on the surface of jacket 2), you can see "Heineken $1.50" on the price list behind the barman, which conclusively shows that this is the United States.
The setting is a bar in the countryside of the U.S.A. Facts that could not be seen in a single photograph came to light one after another.
. a single picture is only a fragment of a fact. But the situation is this one BAR. And although the six people seem to be looking at the same thing, in fact, they each see it differently. The film takes a jeunet technique of depicting the same event from multiple viewpoints, like Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "Yabu no naka" ("In the Yabu").
If one sees a fact in one way, it is of little concern, but by having six different ways of seeing it, a mysterious story is created, which leads to a variety of interpretations and deductions. Stimulating the viewer's imagination is what Zeppelin and Hypnosis intended.
. I feel that this jacket conveys the message that when we look at a photograph or think about something, it is only a fragment of many ways of looking at it, and that it is important to realize this.
We always choose where we stand and look at things from a single point of view. Therefore, it is important to be aware of where you are standing and what you are looking at.
Hypnosis to put so much thought into the design....wonderful.
PROFILE
Born in Tokyo in 1974, he dropped out of Kuwasawa Design School in 1996 and started a custom-made shirt brand while working on costumes for theater companies and entertainers. 2000 AW he started his fashion brand "Yuge". In June 2018, he opened "Adult Oriented Records" in Yoyogi Uehara, and is currently presenting "modern AOR". AOR" in the modern age.
