My thread about the “good old days” got two interesting responses for me
Since I didn’t come of age in they vinyl era, what other vinyl albums had “goodies” in them. Any unusual things?
Most of this was before the Arab oil embargo, which drove the material cost of the disc up. But Cheech & Chong gave a giant sheet of cigarette paper. Alice Cooper had a panty in one album (Killer?) and a fold-out calendar in Muscle of Love.
Posters were common. Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends, Santana’s Abraxas, Ten Years After’s Watt, and most of Chicago’s early albums were among those that included posters. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon contained two posters, plus a couple of stickers.
The Alice Cooper album with the panties over the disc was School’s Out. Killer was, I believe, the one with the calendar.
The first pressing of Plastic Ono Band’s Live Peace in Toronto included a John & Yoko calendar. The second pressing had a coupon you could send in to get the calendar.
All sort of things. The champ was the original version of the Who’s Live at Leeds, which had:
A poster of the group
A copy of their contract at Woodstock*
A letter from EMI records, rejecting them as a recording act.
Typewritten lyrics to “My Generation,” with handwritten notes.
A sheet showing the income and expenses for an early tour.
A letter telling them a gig was being cancelled because they weren’t the type of act the venue wanted.
A list of gigs on a tour, with what they were being paid for each.
A delivery slip for fireworks
An early photo of the group
A picture of Townsend jumping up and down with his guitar at Woodstock.
Plus a few other items that I can’t remember.
The first two Bonzo Dog Band Albums had booklets just a little smaller than the record sleeve with information and photos of the band.
*This showed up on Pawn Stars; they bought one thinking it was genuine.
Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” came with a many-paged newspaper insert. Their “Stand Up” had a pop-up of the band in the middle.
Queen’s “Jazz”, which included the song “Fat Bottomed Girls”, came with a poster of a girls’ nude bicycle race (I still have that!).
The Clash’s first album briefly came with a lyric sheet (unusual for punk), which was then replaced with a 45rpm single (I have both of those).
The Who’s “Quadrophenia” came with a massive foldout book (still have that too!).
Lots of posters as well.
The inner sleeve of Led Zeppelin’s “In Through the Out Door” had a b&w photo of a man sitting at a bar. The careful application of a damp cloth caused some parts of the picture to become colorful (e.g. a dollar bill turned green).
I’m not sure if this counts, but Split Enz’s “True Colours” was laser-etched so that spinning the album - particularly in sunlight - caused a freaky light show. It was really cool at first, but eventually became annoying.
Todd Rundgren’s albums have featured a number of extras A Wizard/A True Star featured a postcard that purchasers could send in to get their names on the next album, and a printed image of a Band-Aid with a poem by Patti Smith. Todd had that poster, 10,000 names laboriously typed in by hand (this was in 1974) and screened to duplicate the cover image in shades of gray. His album Healing was a themed song suite, and the record company complained that it had no potential hit single. Todd recorded a single Time Heals and a b-side Tiny Demons that was included as a 33 1/3 RPM 7" single with the LP. The length of the single is 3:33, an ironic jab at the record companies search for singles.
“Dark Side of the Moon” had posters and stickers.
Oh yeah, one of Black Oak Arkansas’ albums had a deed for a square inch of land in Black Oak, Arkansas.
Jefferson Airplane’s Volunteers album had a one-page “newspaper” insert.
Not exactly extras, but the covers for the first five or six Hawkwind albums would fold out to form bigger pieces of artwork.
“In Search of Space” folded out into a cross with more artwork, photos, and lyrics. This release also included a booklet with illustrations, lyrics, and fiction.
“The Space Ritual” cover unfolded into a bigger 3 panel by 2 panel size.
“Warrior at the Edge of Time” unfolded into a shield with the symbol for “Chaos” emblazoned on it.
To EMI’s credit, the CD reissues they put out in the late 90’s used paper digipaks and tried to incorporate some of the same fold-outs.
Most (all?) of these covers were designed by the late great British graphic artist Barney Bubbles. He also designed a massive fold-out cover for Elvis Costello. I can’t remember the name of the album off the top of my head, but there was a whole lot of artwork that went into that album.
John and Yoko’s The Wedding Album also have a variety of items, including photos, drawings, a copy of their wedding license, a picture of a piece of cake, and news clippings.
More posters:
Ten Years After–Cricklewood Green came with a poster of Alvin Lee, Watt came with a psychedelic poster of the band.
Nilsson Schmilsson had a poster of Harry in vampire mode.
Donvan’s Cosmic Wheels had a poster of him against a starfield.
Pete’s Who Came First had a poster of ocean waves (I think designed by Mike McInnerney).
Odds and Sodds came with a poster of The Who in concert.
The cover of Man’s Be Good To Yourself At Least Once a Day unfolded into a 2’x 2’ wonderful color “Man’s Map Of Wales”.
Manfred Mann’s The Good Earth came with a certificate good for 1 square foot of Llanerchyrfa in Wales.
What!? I just checked and neither of mine had posters, dammit. I did find a couple of Who bootlegs I’d forgotten about…I really need to do something about converting those.
Brian Eno’s Before And After Science had 4 11"x6" offset prints by artist Peter Schmidt.
Sometimes the album itself was a goodie. Dave Mason’s Alone Together was originally pressed on multicolored vinyl. It also had a fold out cover. Here’s the reverse side.
Jethro Tull’s Stand up featured apopup.
In a slightly different vein, Cheech and Chong’s comedy album Big Bamboo had a giant rolling paper. It took a couple of ounce of homegrown leaf to fill.
There are some things unique to vinyl that can’t be duplicated on CDs:
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One of the Beatles albums had an infinite run out groove. In other words, an album side ended in an audio loop that would play forever.
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Mastering engineers would sometimes hand carve a few words of commentary onto the record.
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One issue of Mad Magazine had a flexi-disc that told a funny story with a few minor variations. The needle would jump at certain points and take one of two possible paths.
I still have the blue pyramid poster on the wall of a disused bedroom. Might have been there for 20 years, possibly longer.