Photos from my current exhibit at Wild Goose Creative: Long Hair Music, Classical Music’s Response to the Counter-Culture. The exhibit showcases classical lp covers from the late '60s and early '70s designed to appeal to the burgeoning youth market, with an emphasis on the covers designed by Peter and Christopher Whorf for the Westminster Gold label.The Columbus Dispatch recently published an article about the show:
Long Hair Music: Classical Music's Response to the Counter-Culture continues through March 28 at Wild Goose Creative, 2491 Summit St., Columbus, Ohio. Hours: 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and most evenings. For times, call 614-859-9453.
Wild Goose Creative is a non-profit, multi-discipinary arts company which exists to support, encourage, and promote all forms of art and artists in Columbus, Ohio.
Here are my program notes for the show, printed as a free vistor booklet:
In 1984, I took a bus to the corner of Main St. and Hamilton Rd. and traded in my last S&H Green Stamp books at Harts' Department store (now an abandoned building). In return for the stamps I chose Prince's Purple Rain soundtrack and a classical recording on the Westminster Gold label: Prokofiev's opera, Story of a Real Man (an excellent recording, by the way).
This visit to Harts' was the end of an era in several ways: it was the last time I would trade in Green Stamps for merchandise, the last Westminster Gold record I would buy new off the shelf and, coincidentally, Story of a Real Man was the last cover designed by the Whorf brothers which Westminster Gold released.
From 1970 to 1975, Peter and Christopher Whorf designed over 200 covers for the Westminster Gold line of classical music. You'll see a fourth of those covers in this show. The covers they designed are audacious, funny, compelling, controversial, clever, conceptual and, sometimes, inscrutable.
The Whorf brothers came to ABC, the then-owner of the Westminster label, from the world of pop music. Peter Whorf had designed the famous Whipped Cream and Other Delights cover by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Christopher Whorf would team with Warner Bros. art director Ed Thrasher to design a Grammy-winning album for rock group Mason Proffit (Christopher also art directed the John Lennon/Yoko Ono Double Fantasy album and designed Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul cover).
For ABC's Westminster Gold line, the Whorf brothers joined the list of other labels attempting to cater to the counter culture and youth market. The Whorf brothers' beat the others at their own game, though; they designed eye-catching and provocative covers with visual puns, a small dose of nudity (particularly for Wagner covers) and a cohesive, stark, "art-happening" visual aesthetic that made the Westminster line unique on the record stands.
These covers were ubiquitous at one time. They retailed for a cheaper price than better quality classical recordings, but they seem to have sold well for many years, even after the line was discontinued. These covers have not been reissued and can only be found in used record stores, thrift shops and garage sales (i.e. where the good stuff is).
Exhibited alongside the Whorf brother's covers are ten examples of other label's attempts at capturing the youth market for their classical music. Of particular interest is the Orphic Egg series produced by London records.The liner notes for Orphic Egg records were written by current rock critics and the Mahler's Head cover displayed is a Westminster Gold knock-off, from the beige/gray background to the odd (creepy) sculpture.
Another cover displayed that is delightfully of its era is the gatefold Mahler Symphony #1. With its foggy atmosphere and heavily painted hippy/gypsies, it recalls the cover of Black Sabbath's first album - probably not what was in Erich Leinsdorf's mind when he conducted this piece!
The marketing behind these covers was calculated and cynical, to be sure, but many of the art directors, and the Whorf brothers in particular, took the task as a challenge and created covers that can still surprise and entertain nearly 40 years later.
- Michael Neno, February, 2010
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