The Easybeats were one of those bands that came and went, there were probably the youngest Aussie band to get out and start touring from what was an age when most kids these days are locked into studying for their GCSE's. They, unsurprisingly were too young to handle all the fame, but they held it together long enough to travel to the U.K., write some truly amazing songs and record their biggest ever hit with famed producer Shel Talmy under the memorable title. "Friday On My Mind"Here they are in action:
and here they are again with a song where in addition to their amazing frontman Stevie Wright (sadly one of the main casualties from the band's split in 1970) you can also here the vocal talents of Steve Marriott of The Small Faces fame:
And now that we've got a good Friday vibe going here's a Friday cover by sluggings and slayings maestro Denis McLoughlin (OK so you might have seen these before but we've got a theme going see?).
Plus some more McLoughlin art that may well be new to you.
At least I hope it is...
For a British artist Mcloughlin had an amazing feel for American popular culture. In that he was remarkably similar to Alfred Hitchcock, whose films are strongly evoked by many of these images (particularly the cover to 'The Band Played Murder')...which is doubly appropriate as Friday the Thirteenth of last month would have been Hitch's 110th birthday! :-)
ReplyDeleteI was just looking at these covers again Phil and thinking of a discussion I had with David Roach, apropos of who is the better of the two illustrators vis a vis Reginald Heade and Denis McLoughlin. David's firmly in the Heade camp and I can see where he's coming from in terms of draftsmanship and painting technique.
ReplyDeleteBut for me McLoughlin is the greater of the two, it's his sheer inventiveness and use of design and lighting which brings a truly timeless quality to his work, whereas in comparison Heade's work whilst great, is very much of it's time.