Space: The Vinyl Frontier
This is the second voyage of the starship Vinyl Connection, its mission to collect space-themed album covers for your extra-terrestrial enjoyment. (The first voyage was here)
Most of these are curated. That is, I’ve used the Connection tractor-beam to draw in covers to make a (hopefully) pleasing and aesthetically interesting constellation of covers.
The final album was difficult to choose. It was a tight finish between Utopia’s Adventures in Utopia and the one below. In the end, I just thought it was unconscionable to have space-themed album covers and omit Sun Ra. Apologies to Todd Rundgren fans throughout the galaxy.
If soundtrack albums were mined more heavily, a third voyage would be feasible, but I think it wiser to park our space-station here for a while.
Final words of encouragement from the spiritual leaders of this quest, Hawkwind:
«TECHNICIÄNS ÖF SPÅCE SHIP EÅRTH
THIS IS YÖÜR CÄPTÅIN SPEÄKING
YOUR ØÅPTÅIN IS DEÄD»
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THE ALBUMS
Boston – Corporate America [2002]
ELO – Mr Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra [2012]
Lawnmower Deth – Ooh Crickey It’s… Lawnmower Deth [1990]
Motown Sounds – Space Dance [1978]
Adelbert von Deyen – Planetary [1982]
Chick Corea & Steve Kujala – Voyage [1985]
Russ Garcia – Fantastica: Music from Outer Space [1958]
Walter Carlos – Switched On Bach II [1973]
Johnny Guitar Watson – Giant [1978]
Sun Ra – Cosmos [1976]
Feature Image:
Col. Frank Erhardt & Cast – Adventures In Sound And Space [1958]
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THANKS TO GROUND CONTROL
Michael ‘aussiebyrdbrother’ PH for the reminder about Adelbert von Deyen
Matt P for another Johnny Guitar Watson cover of exceptional silliness (movingtheriver)
Pirate Horizon for Boston (Rhapsodically Yours)
JDB for inviting ELO to the space party (Augenblick)
Joe for demanding Lawnmower Deth and for the post sub-title (1537)
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Who has a favourite in this lot?
vinylconnection.com.au 
The Motown Sounds is my vote because I recall my roommate having it in college. We laughed HARD after he bought it. It’s a long, lost memory. Thanks for including it. 🙂
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It’s amazing how these memories pop up, isn’t it? Glad you enjoyed the neural poke!
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Nice
Sent from my iPad
>
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Cheers Bruce – I love the Johnny Guitar Watson cover, that’s wonderful.
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It’s gloriously potty, isn’t it?
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Its one of the best album covers I’ve ever seen, really
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Yeah, the “Space Dance” one is the coolest but I also like the “Switched-on Bach II” for the nostagia (it’s also Robert Moog’s birthday, RIP). Boston’s “Corporate America” was good for an eye roll.
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Never space-walk without your Moog, that’s what I say!
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Bwahaha, always happy to see some love for Adelbert von Deyen!
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I can just hear that evil Dr Synth laughing…
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motown sounds – i like the idea of a space dance
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and a fine solar boogie pirate I bet you are 😉
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“all I am is energy, and now I’m in this form, I came shooting down the universe at birth.” (steve forbert)
and you , mate? are you from earth? 🙂
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“We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
back to the garden”
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Thanks, and love the Walter Carlos!
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It’s terrific isn’t it. And four silly covers out of 10 is an excellent hit rate, don’t you think?
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It’s official: I simply HAVE to own that ‘Lawnmower Deth’ album. I don’t care if it’s out-of-tune garage K-pop; that cover is beautiful.
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Believe it or not, Lawnmower Deth are a British Trash Metal Parody Band (there’ll be a huge bulging section at your local shop).
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Of course I love the ELO cover (thanks for the shout out!), but I think my favorite is the Sun Ra. Eerily beautiful artwork (and font, too). It’s interesting: perhaps it makes sense since ‘Sun’ is part of his name, but Sun Ra has several ‘spacey’ album titles: On Jupiter, Calling Planet Earth, Space Is The Place. (Of course I’m sure none of this is news to you). Cracked a big smile on seeing the Switched-On Bach II, which my mother had when I was a kid. She’s a pianist, and has always gotten a kick of our ‘alternative’ classical music.
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Could we call the Sun Ra style ‘futuristic pointillism’? His catalogue is labyrinthine (and somewhat uneven) but the man from space was a truly individual voice.
Glad you enjoyed the cathode-ray classics of M. Carlos.
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My favourite here without a doubt is Johnny Guitar Watson. That takes the space-themed-shenanigans-o-meter off the scale. Truly marvellous.
After that I’m thinking Adelbert Von Deyen. That’s a good yin, also. Looks like Indiana Jones goes to space. Or something.
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J Guitar W seems to be polling well. It is wonderful, isn’t it? There was a second von Deyen cover in contention, but Planetary won, possibly because Harrison Ford voted for it.
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All stellar choices: Some beautiful, some silly/ funny and some enticing…and some Sun Ra.
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Was confident you’d approve, DD.
And this Friday, some more jazz…
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Let’s put in a word for that Fantastica cover, the sort of sleeve you dream of finding amongst the usual dross in a charity shop! I’m sure I’ve seen that kinetic wave design on a BBC Dialect sleeve later on…
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[…] If you enjoyed the quiz, it reminded me of Bruce’s thematic album cover posts – check out https://vinylconnection.com.au/2016/05/24/10-spacier-album-covers/ […]
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Love any and all ELO. Would of also liked to have seen ZZ Top’s Afterburner feature here
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‘Afterburner’ is a good one. It featured in a post entitled “10 Awesome Auto Album Covers”.
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Ah yes, but that’s a spaceship on Afterburner
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[…] But we did space a while back, twice in fact. […]
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