A customized van full of happiness!
At a Philadelphia area printing company, in a dusty, unused darkroom, I uncovered three large cardboard boxes filled with vintage vinyl records. Apparently the guys in the print shop would listen to them in the the days before digital music. Radio was doubtlessly a listening option, but I’m guessing that the incessant chatter of the deejays and the blaring annoyance of the advertisements drove these printers towards thirty-three and a third revolutions per minute of musical melodies. They had a turntable spinning as they busily stripped negatives, burned printing plates and finished the prints fresh from the press.
As I sifted through the records I noticed an inordinate amount of show tunes and Streisand for blue collar guys in a printing plant. Makes you wonder.
A number of these LP’s still had the wrapper along with price tags or those arcane price codes like EE that the department stores once used. Turns out the guys were regulars at the remainder bins. Stuff that they may not have bought for home would be scooped up on sale for the fellows at work. How could you go wrong for 39¢?
With SAVE YOUR KISSES FOR ME by Brotherhood of Man pictured above I wonder why the art director at the record company made the choices he or she did. Why did they go with an illustration rather than a photograph? Couldn’t get the band together for the photo session? Why the horrendous typeface choices?
