Nick Caruso, Honorary LCSoL Artist

The package sells the product.

If the product is good music,
it should sell itself.

Extremely rare is the case
where  packaged music
is less remembered
than the cover
album art.

But the good news
for the artist is
that it may
lead to
more
work.




For example, the  MUDDY WATERS  album from
the  Chess Blues Masters double-album series.

Four more of the album covers are featured below.

In 1975, Nick Caruso was commissioned
by Chess Records to conceive and
illustrate what you see here.

He was chosen by the fabled Chicago Blues
recording company because of his previous
cover album art for an unknown band
called Mom's Apple Pie.


I can tell you with certainty that for every person
who remembers that band's music, ten people
remember that band's album cover.





Better minds  than mine will tell you that the band inspired one of the most
controversial album covers in the history of recorded music.


In 1973, New York DAILY NEWS columnist  Kay Gardella  suggested
awarding Nick Caruso a Grammy Award for album cover art.

.

However, there was no such award, at that time.
But you will see the controversial
album cover in a minute.








Nick Caruso's studio was above a storefront on Northern Boulevard in Little Neck.


For those of us who know Long Island geography–and  F. Scott Fitzgerald–
Nicky lived about one mile away from the fictional location
of  DOCTOR ECKLEBERG'S EYES:  the intersection
of Northern Boulevard & the Cross Island Parkway.



Little Neck was adjacent to Great Neck.

Manhasset Neck came next.

Little Neck was adjacent to the two "Necks"
that were the inspiration for 
East Egg and West Egg,
the  waterfront towns 
featured in Fitzgerald's
THE GREAT GATSBY.

I was quite familiar with Nick Caruso's studio
because I was a friend of the artist.



I was most welcome in that studio when I had either
a six-pack of beer or some good reefer.

But this page is not about me.

Neither is it about Gatsby nor Long Island geography.

This page is about a 1973 art controversy  
inspired by a vinyl record album cover.


The vertex of an angle is where the Mom's Apple Pie
album cover controversy began.
Look closely and you can see
for yourself.

It is a vagina.

Blogger's Notes
Where the hell are you, Nicky? I miss you. Jack McCarthy misses you.
Paul Gretschel misses you...Carole Lombardi definitely misses you,
if only I could find her. If anyone could locate you
(Gretschel notwithstanding), it would be "BK."

I apologize for all the names on this page
that should have had hyperlinks
but you know how to start
your search engines.