Is that your vinyl answer?
QUESTION Jethro Tull’s 1972 album Thick As A Brick had a cover incorporating a spoof newspaper — The St Cleve Chronicle. It contained a disparaging review of the album. Has any other band had such a complicated cover and made fun of themselves within it?
PerhaPs the most cryptic album of recent times was Blackstar, David Bowie’s final release before his death. The cover is full of hidden messages.
For instance, fragmented stars at the bottom of the cover spell out ‘Bowie’.
The vinyl album cover is said to glow blue under ultraviolet light, and stars appear if you leave the sleeve in direct sunlight that, when connected, create a constellation resembling a star man.
artist Derek riggs concocted the artwork for the heavy metal band Iron Maiden, including their grotesque mascot eddie. For 1988’s somewhere In Time, the cover art included references to science fiction, Iron Maiden history and earlier Maiden sleeves.
a prostitute in a red room is a reference to Charlotte The harlot. a digital clock reads 23:58 i.e. Two Minutes To Midnight. There is a fantasy football score line reading West ham 7 arsenal 3, reflecting the band’s support for the hammers. There’s even a hidden sign that reads: ‘This is a very boring painting.’
There are more than 50 messages in all, including a reference to The ruskin arms, an east end pub where Maiden cut their teeth.
On the cover of sgt Pepper’s Lonely hearts Club Band, photographer Michael Cooper namechecked the band’s rivals, with a doll wearing a sweatshirt that said ‘Welcome The rolling stones’. Later in 1967, Cooper shot the cover for the stones’ album Their satanic Majesties request and The Beatles’ faces are hidden in the flowers surrounding the band.
harry nilsson’s album Pussy Cats was produced by John Lennon and was named ironically as the pair had been in various scrapes following drink and drug abuse. The cover features the singers dressed as dolls. Cheekily, at the foot of the table there are children’s letter blocks ‘D’ and ‘s’ on either side of a ‘rug’.
Tom Williams, Bath, Somerset.
Singer-songwriter andrew gold’s 1976 album, What’s Wrong With This Picture?, features a cover photo of him relaxing in his home. all looks normal but on closer inspection, certain things are obviously wrong, e.g. a shoe laced up incorrectly, curtains blowing by a shut window, etc.
On the CD re-issue, andrew reveals all the deceptions and tells how fans had boasted of the number they’d spotted.
Tom Baker, London, SE9.
QUESTION What is the origin of corned beef? How is it made?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, I served with the royal highland Fusiliers as part of the ANZUK Force (australia, new Zealand and UK) in singapore from 1971 to 1973. On a training exercise in the Malaysian jungle, all I had left of my ration1s was a tin of corned beef. The first spoonful was hard to swallow, but the second stopped me. Looking at me was a cow’s eyelid, with lashes!
I assume the processing of corned beef has improved since. I swapped the can with a mate for some noodles. he wasn’t impressed when I presented the eyelid — after he’d finished the can. Jim Burns, Glasgow.
QUESTION A Mail report stated that Devon maund-making was in danger of dying out. What is a ‘maund’ and how is it made?
The word ‘maund’ appears in documents dating from the 1500s and was a word for an agricultural basket, traditionally used in the fields to take feed to cattle and collect potatoes and apples after harvesting.
These baskets were made of wooden splints on a wooden base, traditionally of elm. They came in five sizes and were held together by nails and ash bands, with the end staves forming the handles.
Making them was winter work for some farmworkers. The last recorded agricultural worker to make them was Jack rowsell, who died in 1997.
The university of reading’s Museum of english rural Life has details on making them if anyone wishes to revive the craft.
Alison Briggs, Reading, Berks.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2 6DB. You can also fax them to 0141 331 4739 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.