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oh
despair...
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Just
as the "songs to kill yourself to" volumes,
I had been itchin' to put the "great love songs"
series on cd. Not only that, it had been about 4 years since
I had made vol. III, (which at the time did not have a cover),
but as time passed I had found new music and great songs and
couldn't resist on adding a volume IV to this great series.
It was during the summer of 2002 that I had selected, burned,
changed my mind, selected again, burned again and then changed
my mind all over again before I got the mix right just this
month, (something about october, I don't know what it is)...
Between trying to keep the original music selection and also
deleting a few titles because of "space", (90 min.
cassettes burned onto an 80 min. capacity cd), a few selections
were removed. Only artwork for volumes I & II were originally
done, and although I wasn't completely happy with them then,
I figured at the point that I had all volumes together I would
redo all of it, that's actually what happened during this past
month.
This section update now features covers for all cds in
their actual layout plus the text description I had placed in
the original section of this site. Enjoy.
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| great
love songs - vol. I |
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Very similar to the "songs to kill yourself to..."
volumes, "great love songs" was kind of the flip
side. Sure, sure, you figure you're going to wind up hearing
a bunch of Barry Manilow and Perry Como and crap. Well,
not really. This 3 volume set contained hits by the Police,
the Ramones, Fishbone, Sinead O'Connor, Peter Gabriel,
Sugarcubes, Madonna, the Cure, Violent Femmes, Tom Waits,
They Might Be Giants and a whole load of others. Volumes
I & II were actually divided with "ironic" side and "mushy"
side for side a & side b. These covers were never completed
to finish. Only volumes I & II actually ever got worked
on and only about halfway. Volume I's cover came from
an original pastel drawing as everything else has. (don't
forget what I said about recycling drawings). You can
just feel the emptiness of that broken heart laying on
the sidewalk. On the cassette insert you can notice how
unfinished this volume was. I guess I was still looking
for some piece of artwork or photograph theme to throw
in to the insert. Once I decided to throw them all on
cds, I figured I was going to be consistent with how all
of them were done, and... that made it easy to do backs
for them. |
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| greater
love songs - vol. II |
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Now let me explain the cover on volume II for you. When
I was in school, independent study, my teacher gave me
for an assignment the theme of "sex". This was one of
the drawings that I did for that class, yes... in pastels.
I guess I decided to use it for the cover to volume II
because I thought of it as ironic for the title "greater
love songs". Also because it seems that you always have
that battle between love & lust and try to find the balance
between them.
For whatever reason that I chose to use this drawing for
a cover, well, I figured I needed an insert with a background
that would be equally as appropriate. So, I found a picture
on one of "those" sites that I thought would add to the
punch. A kind of "seedy" feel for what seemed to be kind
of a kinky cover, (that cover is only visible in the original
cassette layout which was never printed before. NONE of
the "great love songs" volumes were printed
until now). |
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| definitely
the greatest love songs you'll ever hear - vol.
III |
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The cover for volume III I knew what it was going to be
all along. It had turned out that either through interest
or time or other projects, I just sort of digressed and
never completed it. As for the selection of music on it,
at that point it was a pretty smooth selection I think,
including tracks like "punk rock girl", and
music by sting, new order, peter gabriel and even a cover
song by sonic youth. I thought it was all pretty sweet.
I think at the point that I made this mix, there was a
lot I felt I had cut out, left out, forgotten about and
just left aside. I think I had intended to make this a
3 volume set like "songs to kill yourself to",
but I knew I'd run into some great music along the way
that I'd want an excuse to do one of these again, and
then I did. |
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| without
a doubt, THE greatest love songs ever. - vol. IV |
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I had been waiting to put this volume IV together for
a LONG time, perhaps a good 2 years about, and along the
way had listened to a lot of great stuff I wanted to include
on it. Finally this past summer/early fall it all came
together. I'm glad I waited because there were many last
minute decisions I had switched back and forth on, even
from my initial cd burn back 6 months ago.
As for the art, that's another story. I had been looking
for this "image" I've had in my head for the
longest time. It involved open heart surgery. I had been
looking for particularly a photograph through some medical
journal or the internet, of a physician holding up a heart,
like in "praise", but I never seemed to find
exactly what I wanted.
Then came the reason of how any drawing I've used for
covers or recycled into other projects were mostly original
pastel drawings, and despite that I already had a decent
loose "sketch" of what I wanted, I felt compelled
to use it as an excuse to open up my pastel box for the
first time in 9 years. I was much happier with this drawing
though, despite it was done digitally. Perhaps the MOST
powerful drawing I've done in a good while I'd say, I'm
quite happy with it. |
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I
know that there are TONS of songs out there that would of been
great, for volume IV, and there'll always be more songs just
as good if not better. I would of course like to call this the
end to the "great love songs" series, though and just
give it a pleasant farewell...
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