So I clicked over to Pharyngula to see whether PZ had blown his top about the Fish thing (see previous post). Yes! In a manner of speaking.
I feel the need to cheer poor PZ up. So: the coolest thing on Flickr is this set of scans from a 1972 biology textbook that so desperately wanted to be a prog rock concept album. You should also read the tart commentary by the guy who posted it.
I thought about posting a few of the images here but I think, for full effect, you just need to view the whole set. (Just like you can’t really explain to someone why a particular Yes album is great by playing only 10 seconds of it.)
{ 18 comments }
belle le triste 05.05.09 at 2:21 pm
sorry, but “prog album cover” is i think imprecise — the ambience here is groovy psychedelia, which predates prog art by a couple of years: alan aldridge and george “yellow submarine” dunning are its avatars
belle le triste 05.05.09 at 3:22 pm
moderation queue query: is the word “amb!3nc3” one of the Forbidden Terms?
John Holbo 05.05.09 at 3:28 pm
You’re right. It’s more straight-up psychedelic. As to moderation queue: there are hardly any moderate words that could be used to describe this particular set of images. So I suppose some people may have to wait a while.
norbizness 05.05.09 at 3:37 pm
It’s more Yellow Submarine than Tales From Topographic Oceans or In The Wake of Poseidon. But textbook art is always a lagging indicator, so we’d just have to see what grooviness awaited us in 1977.
Preachy Preach 05.05.09 at 3:41 pm
The edition of Hecht’s Optics I used at college had a surprisingly eccentric choice of images for an otherwise staid textbook on, well, the most mind-numbingly dull area of physics.
notsneaky 05.05.09 at 9:21 pm
“The autonomic nervous system with its sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions.”, and “The spinal cord.”, and “Lateral view of the human brain in cross section.” – Prog rock. All the way.
“Behavioral States” – Psychadelic
“Human Origins” – early Metal with some psychadelia in it, i.e. “Troll Music”
“Buffon’s ‘centers of creation.'”” – later Sabbath
“Population Interactions and Communities” – Prog rock but probably modern Screamo (favorite #1)
“Plant Hormones” – early Prog rock with some Psychadelia in it, i.e. “Hobbit Music”(favorite #2)
“Nerve net system of the fresh-water coelenterate Hydra. ” – Prog rock.
“Composite schematic diagram of the human spermatozoan greatly enlarged.” – Early butt metal
“The Cover” – hippy shit
notsneaky 05.05.09 at 9:25 pm
oh and “A “contributing consultant”” – folk, the album right before switched to electric
notsneaky 05.05.09 at 9:26 pm
And The Contributing Consultants would be an awesome name for a band.
belle le triste 05.05.09 at 9:36 pm
butt rock cannot be “early” or “late”, for it transcends your puny concepts of time in its awesomeness
Salient 05.06.09 at 1:52 pm
So, we can pretty much take for granted that potential psychedelic prog-rock revivalists are just delaying the release of their masterworks until this thing hits the public domain. I have a new reason to look forward to the year 2067, now.
George W 05.07.09 at 12:52 am
Can an example of “butt rock” please be provided.
Salient 05.07.09 at 1:03 am
Can an example of “butt rock†please be provided.
Twisted Sister, I Wana Rock
Quiet Riot, Cum on Feel the Noise
Korn, Freak on a Leash
Motley Crue, [the entire canon]
Further entertainment, if you can call it that, to be found here and here.
George W 05.07.09 at 1:17 am
Okay thanks. Strangely, this set (aside from Korn) was more or less the soundtrack to my pre-adolescence, yet I have never heard the term “butt rock.”
Righteous Bubba 05.07.09 at 1:35 am
It’s hard to imagine Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Korn, and Motley Crue all taking themselves and their music seriously.
Butt rock’s gotta be a way to slice pop metal off heavy metal.
Salient 05.07.09 at 1:38 am
Condition 3: music must take itself seriously (especially its own testosterone).
This was a really unfortunate condition for that individual to list, on par with identifying the characteristics of Romantic opera as (1) nationalistic, (2) character-driven, (3) whimsical and superficial.
Righteous Bubba 05.07.09 at 1:44 am
Maybe (3) should be “singable at high volume when drunk” or “possible to invoke with loud DA DA DAs.”
Salient 05.07.09 at 1:54 am
Maybe (3) should be “singable at high volume when drunk†or “possible to invoke with loud DA DA DAs.â€
Sounds about right. I was thinking “(3) the lyrics make sense in direct proportion to the volume at which you announce them.”
Lee A. Arnold 05.07.09 at 3:34 am
John, do you know the very first Yes album? One track on it is really great — an astounding cover of Lennon/McCartney’s “Every Little Thing.”
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