Dexter Gordon's Album Covers

On the web site Music-Graffiti is now available a selection of album covers sleeves of the most important albums of the great american musician and saxophone player. All the images are originals and they are taken from the original LP or CD.

Return to Vinyl

Is the old vinyl coming back? Wit ill be the classic black disc, the microgroove, the long-playing, the LP, that was declared obsolete already in the 80s, the legendary "successor of the CD", the magic object that music industry has not yet found to overcome the long period of decline in the market of music on physical media? It's unlikely that this will be a mass phenomenon, but vinyl and turntables are back in the shops, and that this is a good way to listen good music.

A new dedicated page of our site Music-Graffiti, the English version of the well known Italian website Musica & Memoria, is dedicated to some suggestions on products that can be a starting point (or even an end point) in the analog music world. Including these ones.

Pro-Ject RPM-9

Michell Gyro SE

Top-5 LP cover art

One of the reasons that convinced the boys in the 70s to buy a vinyl LP was represented by its cover. Originally it was only a protection for the vinyl record inside. But in the '60s, first in jazz and then, even more, in the rock, the cover has become a specific form of art. Reaching the maximum with the great gatefold covers, that led to a unique conclusion: you could not miss to buy that LP. It's very difficult to choose the most beautiful, those with the greatest impact. But in Music-Graffiti website we try to list our personal Top-5 that can be read in this new page (with all the cover art selected in full format).

Top-5 Italian Songs Translated in English

Five wonderful Italian songs to be discovered on YouTube or iTunes. The Top-5 of the last decades in the opinion of Music-Graffiti website, and almost unknown outside Italy.
Translation and comments on Music-Graffiti. The list:

1. La cura - Franco Battiato (Battiato, M. Sgalambro, 1996)
2. Se telefonando - Mina (E. Morricone, M. Costanzo, 1966)
3. Quello che le donne non dicono - Fiorella Mannoia (M. Ruggeri, 1987)
4. Pescatore - Pierangelo Bertoli & Fiorella Mannoia (P. Bertoli, 1980)
5. Samarcanda - Roberto Vecchioni (R. Vecchioni, 1977)

Fiorella Mannoia

Fiorella Mannoia

Samarcanda: Introduction

Mina Mazzini

High Fidelity

From the novel by Nick Hornby the film by Stephen Frears, starring John Cusack and Iben Hjejle (nothing so exotic, she's a Danish actress) plus Lisa Bonet , Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jack Black as other main characters (Marie, Charlie and Barry). The love for music is one of the main themes of this movie, accordingly with the novel. And the other main theme is the desire to remain "forever young". Not unusual themes, but the structure of the film (and of the novel) is original, all around the obsession to make a "best of ..." about everything.

On Music-Graffiti website you can read the comments, the soundtracks listing of the film and also the "soundtrack" of the original novel of Nick Hornby (61 songs, plus many images taken directly by the film.

High Fidelity - Stephen Frears (2000).

From the top: Jack Black, Todd Louiso, John Cusack, Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Iben Hjejle, Joan Cusack

2001 A Space Odyssey

A well-known science fiction movies, very important and formerly known and seen by almost everyone, even many times. Now, not so much partially because a real big screen is needed to appreciate it and because a focused and comprehensive vision is needed to capture images, sounds and sensations, rather than understand completely the story.
The film had also a great importance in the evolution of musical taste, raising the focus on classical music that became almost a mass phenomenon during the seventies. For this we want to comment on the famous soundtrack.
But what have been the topics of this famous film? We try to do a summary on Music-Graffiti website.

Blues Brothers 2000

Director John Landis after some weak successes and his accomplice Dan Aykroyd (coauthor also in the previous movie) decided to give a following, 20 years after, to their first memorable chapter of Blues Brothers saga, despite the premature death of the main engine of the film, obviously, John Belushi. A double risk, then. Watching this film, actually, it seems that their first intent was the willing to live again the fun and to recreate the magic atmosphere of 1980, even if they were conscious that it would have been a very difficult task.

The joy to play and show the blues involved more or less of the world of the blues, so the most noticeable thing of this sequel is the large number of appearances, including Eric Clapton and BB. King

Stevie Winwood and Dr. John

Koko Taylor and Erikah Badou

And many many others.

You can read the summary, the soundtrack listing, the complete list of characters and interpreters and see many images from the movie Blues Brothers 2000 on Music-Graffiti website.

Blues Brothers 1980

A road movie, a modern musical, a prototype for many others movies, the film of John Landis is completely full of pure blues spirit, together with his derivatives genres rhythm & blues, rock and soul, including even a short and funny excursion into the country & western genre. The plot is a sort of pretext, it's quite a joke, as in the previous movie of Landis, Animal House, where the energy and the transgression of the great John Belushi were presented for the first time. A straight man for Belushi was necessary this time, and the choice made by John Landis would have been the best one possible. Dan Aykroad was at that time a young and versatile actor, but he added to the film his still unknown talent in dance and interpretation and his particular absolutely emotionless approach. Apart that, Dan Aykroyd was also co-author of the screenplay. The third ingredient was the look, an immediate recognition for the two "brothers", very simple and a little bit unusual on 1980: black suit, black tie, white shirt, black hat, Ray-Ban black eye-glasses, the Blues Brothers had arrived and they would never leave us.

Plot summary, characters, cast, commented soundtrack and many images taken directly from the movie can be read and viewed on Music-Graffiti website, in the page dedicated to the mythical film of John Landis, The Blues Brothers (1980).

Animal House Soundtrack

A cult movie, a prototype for the "college" genre and the first appearance of a nonconformist and brutal character, the student (?) John "Bluto" Blutarsky, interpreted by John Belushi, soon after again with director John Landis in Blues Brothers, with the very similar character Jakie Blues. The movie starts as a parody of the well known fictions and films about the 50s and 60s years, seen as the "age of innocence" before the 1968 (or the 1963, the year of JFK assassination), as Happy Days or American Graffiti, the George Lucas movie of 1973.

The story is quite simple and it's based around two "fresher", Pinto (Tom Hulce) and Flounder (the nickname decided by Bluto (Stephen Furst). They have to choice the club, and they started from the good boys' one, Omega it's the name. They are gently invited to remain apart with other unlucky members, and they decided so to try another club, the rival of Omega, the Delta club. A total chaos, strange guys (as Bluto), they are aware that they are going probably to meet several troubles, but it's too much funny, and so they join the Delta.

The remaining of the story is based on the rivality of the two clubs and the actions they invent to defy the "enemy". In this way the other characters are presented: the conscious epicurean Otter (Tim Matheson), the girl of the Delta Katy (Karen Allen) and her boy-friend Boon (Peter Reiter), room mate and accomplice of Otter, the mad biker D-Day (Bruce McGill), Hoover, the president of the Delta Club, the teacher Jennings, interpreted by Donald Sutherland, marijuana smoker and very much interested to Katy, and the rivals, the perfect american boys Neidermeyer and Marmalard and their girls Mandy and Babs, very much appreciated by Bluto and by the other Delta guys.

Delta boys' jokes and transgressions can be read as a reaction to the fifties habits or, more simply, as the consciousness to be the new generation, with new habits and no respect for the old ones. And the perfect representation of the new era is the famous Toga party, no limits, no respect, zero tolerance for the high-minded feelings.

The parade in the town nearby the college is the final apotheosis of the movie, a real battle between the two clubs involving all the population, with Bluto dressed as the pirates and that howls "no prisoners!" and moreover the maximum offense to the spirit of the early sixties, racial integration and other high ideals, the black and white hands separating together (more realistically).

The best gags are the final ones, as in American Graffiti the spectators are informed about the adult life of all these boys and girls, and we learn so how much the real life is full of surprises.

You can read the complete soundtrack, a summary of the plot, a selection of images captured by the movie, the characters, the interpreters, on Music-Graffiti website.

Rolling Stones: The Sixty Years

All the covers of the 45 rpm singles released by the band during the sixties are now available on the site www.music-graffiti.com , together with the release dates.
Covers and B-side were different in different countries, the covers that are displayed come from Italy (mostly, as those included below), UK, US and Germany.
See the complete covers' collection at this page.

136 new covers

Many new covers (136+) from the Italian Beat Era 45rpm singles are now available on www.music-graffiti.com, the website dedicated to the music of the sixties in Italy

(to be continued ...)

Simply click here.

I Satelliti (The Satellites)

A group created in Livorno (North Tuscany) by five friends in the year 1964, their first name was The Criker's. As many other groups the first activity of I Satelliti was in the dance halls, mainly in Tuscany. During a concert in Certaldo (a small town near Florence) they had the opportunity to perform their set soon after Ricky Gianco, one of the first Italian rockers, and at that time still famous (he will became during the sixties and afterwards also an appreciated songs' author). Gianco had been positively impressed by the five boys and had decided to propose them a contract as his group.
Included in the agreement the change of the name, from Crikets' to an Italian one: I Satelliti (The Satellites) and the opportunity to publish a single. Their choice was an Italian version of a well known song, For Your Love by The Yardbirds. In Italian the title was Finirà (it will end up) and the performance of the Italian boys was not so far from that of the famous UK group of Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.The disc was their key access to the Piper Club, the famous dance hall in Rome, in which the five Satellites have performed their songs and many covers for almost a month.
The following year they had the opportunity to sign a contract with the most important Italian label of that period, Dischi Ricordi, and to publish another 45 rpm single with other Italian versions (covers) of You Didn’t Have to be So Nice” by The Lovin’ Spoonful, in Italian “Perché non scegli me” (Why you don't prefer me?), and “Catch the wind” by Donovan, in Italian “La vita è come un giorno” (Life is as a day). Their greater successes will arrive in the following two years, with other covers, Ba-ba-ba-ba (from With A Girl Like You by The Troggs) and "Loro sanno dove" (they know where) from Holiday by The Bee Gees.
This disc was a good success but it was also the last recording from the group of Livorno, as many others Italian's "complessi" they disbanded at the end of the decade.

Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe - 2000)

The soundtrack of Almost Famous, the excellent film about rock music in the seventies directed by Cameron Crow in 2000, was organized by the rock composer Nancy Wilson, previously leader of the femal rock group Heart. Of course the soundtrack is mainly based on musical pieces of the seventies. More than 50 songs and musics were utilized in the film. Of course, only a selection of this list is included in the CD issued with the movie's soundtrack.


The selection includes many rock champions of the seventies, of course the Led Zeppelin, their forerunners, the Deep Purple and the Who, together with Simon & Garfunkel and Neil Young, up to Jimi Hendrix and the heavy metal first popular band the Black Sabbath, but even a progressive band as the Yes is present.

The southern rock is widely mentioned, with the Allman Brothers, the Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Little Feat, together with alternative and soul champions as Joni Mitchell or Stevie Wonder. In evidence the pop star Elton John: two famous songs of the British composer are used in two key moments of the film (Tiny Dancer and Mona Lisa).

To be mentioned also a not so widely known song of the British group Thunderclap Newman, an almost revolutionary piece called Something In The Air (something that is ... the revolution) from the album Hollywood Dream (1969, produced by Pete Townshend of the Who) covered many times and used also in other movies, as for example The Strawberry Statement of Stuart Hagman (1970), to give the flavor of the era.

For the imaginary band, The Stillwater, were instead composed new pieces, but perfectly aligned to the seventies style, between them the main theme of the movie, Fever Dog.

(...)

You can read the complete soundtrack, the CD soundtrack, a summary of the plot, a selection of images captured by the movie, the characters, the interpreters, the original screenplay on Music-Graffiti website.