Mandrill "Just Outside of Town" booklet (LP cover photos-R)

mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
edited September 2012 in Strut Central
This seems up the Strut alley...

I've been working on a series of small stories about LP covers shot in Los Angeles and one of the ones I looked at was Mandrill's "Just Outside of Town."

#1: I didn't realize this was shot in L.A. and I've owned this album for *years*. Then again, the place where they shot it (Century City) doesn't look a damn thing like the cover photo; massively transformed since the '70s.

#2: Until I spoke to Ric WIlson, I didn't realize this LP had a separate, 8 page, full color booklet inside of it, highlighting each member of the group (at the time).

#3: I went to my copy of the LP, which I've owned for probably 10+ years, and looked inside and duh, there it was. Doh.

In case you are like me but don't have a copy of the LP with the booklet, here you go: http://soul-sides.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Just-Outside-of-Town-booklet.zip


Quite a few Strut LPs made my list of albums to investigate: War's "All Day Music," The D.O.C.'s "No One Can Do It Better," and Charles Wright's double LP, "Doing What Comes Naturally." At some point, I'll have to share my obsessive search for the graffiti-lined corner where N.W.A. shot the "Panic Zone"/N.W.A and the Posse cover.

REP YOUR FAVORITE CITY-SPACE LP COVER.
«1345

  Comments


  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    This is kind of relevant. There's a strong NYC/Dylan/Billy Joel bias, but even if you've no interest (or assumed you had none) in where the cover shots for dollar-bin classics like 52nd Street and The Stranger were actually taken, this is still an interesting site from the p/o/v of what it tells you about the way the city has changed. The piece on Pretzel Logic is a testament to some pretty impressive research skills.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    DocMcCoy said:
    This is kind of relevant. There's a strong NYC/Dylan/Billy Joel bias, but even if you've no interest (or assumed you had none) in where the cover shots for dollar-bin classics like 52nd Street and The Stranger were actually taken, this is still an interesting site from the p/o/v of what it tells you about the way the city has changed. The piece on Pretzel Logic is a testament to some pretty impressive research skills.

    Yeah, I had already begun work when I saw NME's story on this site. Really impressive insofar as the number of shots they were able to recreate. That created a false expectation that I could do the same with my LA LPs but in some cases, shit is impossible. That Mandrill cover, for example, isn't physically even possible given the number of new buildings that'd block sight lines (and that hill has long been leveled). Same goes for the NWA cover - the building where they shot the cover has long been torn down.

    That said...


  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    mannybolone said:
    Charles Wright's double LP, "Doing What Comes Naturally."
    The one with Monk Higgins riding Hutch? That's my jernt.

    I like Curtis, down by the lake with the young youths, a bottle of Cutty, and mustard-colored slacks that show you everything but the breakfast. Moose-knuckle on up.

    That, or the cover of the Break Down Academy twelve-inch, which was shot at/around my high school (alma mater of your man Cuba Gooding's onetime Oscar-season meal-ticket, James Robert "Radio" Kennedy). If I'm remembering right, the front cover has them in their Van Grack tracksuits or whatever, while the back cover shows them flossing their ROTC uniforms at the exact same spot right outside the Math building where this sawed-off dude named Calvin called me a racist for wearing Diadoras and then tried to make me kiss his glove. Kinda ill.

  • james said:

    I like Curtis, down by the lake with the young youths, a bottle of Cutty, and mustard-colored slacks that show you everything but the breakfast. Moose-knuckle on up.


    I'd like to know where that was shot. I'm guessing Oak Street beach in Chicago.

    There's a whole series of Chicago covers from the 60s and 70s I've wondered about, including these:





    Two Chicago groups from 1967 on labels distributed by Cameo-Parkway.

    Local collector Bob A. has heard that the Stairsteps cover may have been shot on the South Side's Washington Park.

    NC6 member Ray Graffia has confirmed that Colonization was shot at the North Side's Oak Street beach, although that stone facade had to have been torn down at some point. In recent years, I've seen nothing out that way that looks like it.

  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    I've actually thought about getting a second copy of the LP with the booklet, just so I can cut out the pictures and have them on a wall or something. Love the 70s vibe - their astrological signs, and some deep quotes about the powers of music. Right on right on.


  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    tripledouble said:
    No Tuff Crew?

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    Dallas...




  • I drive by this all the time when I'm digging out on the Island.



  • not an album cover per se but was featured in Too $hort's "In The Trunk" video

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts

  • james said:

    No Tuff Crew?
    technically a back cover


    i recently saw someone post a picture of this nyc club/restaurant but forget exactly what it was


  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    The Clash video for Rock the Casbah, which was shot in and around Austin, ends at the old City Coliseum which was torn down in 2002...










  • dayday 9,611 Posts
    tripledouble said:
    james said:

    No Tuff Crew?
    technically a back cover


    i recently saw someone post a picture of this nyc club/restaurant but forget exactly what it was


    Wait, what? That's a real place, not some kind of set they built for the photo shoot??

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts



  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts
    tripledouble said:
    james said:

    No Tuff Crew?
    technically a back cover


    i recently saw someone post a picture of this nyc club/restaurant but forget exactly what it was


    It was on the blog Flaming Pablum, they do a lot of posts about locations of famous music related photos in NYC

    http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2012/06/walk-into-the-light.html


  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Mind blown re: the Wansel cover location.

  • O - i didn't know you were including hip hop covers! That opens it up to a million joints.. as i mentioned

    110 westbound


    Watts:


    LACMA:


    Eagle Rock:


    Colles:


    Commerce:


    Redondo:


    MOTHERF*** YEAH!:
    110 Southbound (PEDRO!!)

  • DJBombjackDJBombjack Miami 1,665 Posts
    Great thread. Keep 'em coming

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Like People was Eagle Rock? Shit, I'd totally add that for the next round. I figured it was more like Ladera Heights/Culver City.

    What block did you and DK shoot the OST cover on?

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    BTW, re: rap covers: I only did NWA and DOC. Thought about Warren G - I know the corner - but decided to wait until a future round. Found the photographer and if I could get Warren on the horn, it'd be a definite wrap. I really want to do Cube's "AmeriKKKas Most": I know the corner but can't find the photographer and i dont think Cube would be easy to get a quote from.

    I'm trying to find any Pasadena or SGV locales outside of East LA. I heard there was a Jackson Browne cover from South Pasadena but it was actually Hancock Park.

  • mannybolone said:
    At some point, I'll have to share my obsessive search for the graffiti-lined corner where N.W.A. shot the "Panic Zone"/N.W.A and the Posse cover.

    this location was talked about at length in the LA Weekly article - should be easy to find.

    OST:
    Corner of Cambridge and Oxford streets of western and venice, BLQ or Harvard heights depending on who you ask.
    2228 Cambridge was where I lived for 9 years and where we recorded and mixed 4 of our albums.
    http://goo.gl/maps/hWEoj



    which is in the street in front of this:

  • dayday 9,611 Posts
    mannybolone said:
    Mind blown re: the Wansel cover location.

    Completely! I would have never guessed that was an actual place (in the Financial District no less).

    Great thread. Keep em comin'.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    4YearGraduate said:
    mannybolone said:
    At some point, I'll have to share my obsessive search for the graffiti-lined corner where N.W.A. shot the "Panic Zone"/N.W.A and the Posse cover.

    this location was talked about at length in the LA Weekly article - should be easy to find.

    Actually, it's not mentioned once. For real, go back and look: there's nothing there. I thought that kind of strange but I did try to write Martin Cizmar and haven't heard back from him. Let me be clear: I thought Cizmar's article was really great - must have taken a lot of footwork to track down some of the more obscure members of the photo. But I was surprised that 1) it wasn't mentioned that this cover first appeared on "Panic Zone" and only later was re-used for the "NWA and the Posse" comp and I'm also surprised there was nothing in there about the photographer or the location. By the time I went to read the piece, I had already tracked down photographer Phil Bedel (using the white pages, no less) and he couldn't have been more gracious and generous with his time. He actually knew about the Weekly story before I mentioned it but I don't know if that's because Cizmar had spoken to him or if he had come across the story on his own (he does still live in So Cal).

    In any case, I have the right lot in Hollywood. The question is *where* on the lot is the actual location. I think I finally narrowed it down, with the help of Arabian Prince, Bedel, and Rex Harte, whose dad, Roy Harte, used to run Drum City on Santa Monica. That store's back door is where the shot was supposedly taken, according to Rex and more or less supported by Roth's memories.



    I'm guessing the location was where "1" is. However, I did find a brick wall that matches the right style and height that you see on the cover at "3". That could be a leftover wall from the missing building but that the actual wall you see is now gone. What makes this harder is that the loading dock-like platform Posse members were standing on isn't there anymore. So save the brick wall, there's absolutely no visual cues I could draw on. I wrote Rex Harte again this morning to see if he could lend final confirmation and Bedel said this story has him curious himself so he's going to head back down to Hollywood in a few weeks and look around to see if any of it jogs his memory.

    What an insane block that was though: Gold Star Studios (long gone) was on the corner, Macola across the street, and Drum City in the middle of the block. Tabb Rex used to run his company on the same block as well and might have shared building space with Drum City at some point (though the only address I could find for him put him at the El Centro corner.

  • And actually the missing one huge element, maybe the most important, was Richard Simpson was right up the street.

    I could have swore they talked about that but alas, i might have added that bit of information in my private press mind garden.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    4YearGraduate said:
    And actually the missing one huge element, maybe the most important, was Richard Simpson was right up the street..

    On the 6200 block? G&M used to be at 6211, which would have been the Macola side of the block. Was that his operation?

  • mannybolone said:
    4YearGraduate said:
    And actually the missing one huge element, maybe the most important, was Richard Simpson was right up the street..

    On the 6200 block? G&M used to be at 6211, which would have been the Macola side of the block. Was that his operation?

    No, but very importantly, G&M printing was where everyone made their center labels. Rosa is the front desk lady there, they have moved now over by the scientology center but i still use them and they still use the same press all those labels were done on. Richard was across Vine. Coast Recording was next to G&M where we all got our tape reels, but the owner was a racist dick.

    Richard cut all of the records for Macola, cut everyone's show dub plates, etc etc. He is one THE most important persons in the history of LA hip hop who is never ever mentioned.

  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    day said:
    mannybolone said:
    Mind blown re: the Wansel cover location.

    Completely! I would have never guessed that was an actual place (in the Financial District no less).
    I'm pretty sure this is the spot that's in The System's "You Are In My System" video, as well as some Lisa Lisa thing, the name of which is escaping me right now.

  • asstro said:
    tripledouble said:
    james said:

    No Tuff Crew?
    technically a back cover


    i recently saw someone post a picture of this nyc club/restaurant but forget exactly what it was


    It was on the blog Flaming Pablum, they do a lot of posts about locations of famous music related photos in NYC

    http://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2012/06/walk-into-the-light.html


    There is an amazing Hall and Oates inner that, I'm pretty sure, was shot at the same location. I don't have access to it right now??? but if you have this record (the album with "Sara Smile") you know what I'm talking about

  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts
    This cover photo was shot a block away from my place here in Seattle Chinatown 1986....

Sign In or Register to comment.