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Author Topic: Landlocked Art Origin?  (Read 3562 times)
Bardley
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« on: June 15, 2019, 04:42:03 PM »

Last year, I purchased a Landlocked transparency from Rockaway Records in Los Angeles. It is about the size of an album cover, but slightly taller. I have included a scanned image of the piece; it was larger than my scanner, so I had to merge two images together to show the whole thing.



The item’s listing said that it was original test artwork for an album cover created in 1970. I’ve only been a Beach Boys fan for a few years now, but I am somewhat familiar with the story of Landlocked: a working title for Surf’s Up/a collection of potential tracks for a follow-up album to Sunflower. From what I’ve gathered, Landlocked was never intended as an album. The listing specified that the song titles on the bottom right were only intended to show where the final track listing would appear on the cover, having been pulled from The Best of Michael Parks album from 1971, not which songs would actually appear on the album. I’m unsure of the significance of the asterisks next to the song titles.

I’ve seen this cover on multiple fan albums/mixes, but I have been unable to figure out exactly where it came from or who created it. I’ve read that the art might be from a hoax perpetuated to show off a “lost” Beach Boys album. I’d really appreciate some expert insight: is this test artwork or a fan fabrication? If it was a working title for Surf’s Up, was it considered long enough for test cover art to be created? Either way, I’ve always been fond of the stark design of the cover and have it hanging up on my wall; it’s a nice piece of Beach Boys history, though I’m not sure what type of history that might be.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2019, 05:12:45 PM by Bardley » Logged
Bardley
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« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2019, 06:23:37 PM »

When examining the transparency from the back, I noticed reddish-brown marks across the letters. I'm not totally sure what these might be. Some adhesive for the letters? Someone's child getting a hold of it for an art project? A code to be deciphered?  Cheesy These marks are barely visible from the front with the help of some light and can be viewed in the attached image in my first post. I have included a mirrored image of the back below. I apologize if the images haven't turned out very clear; I am not very familiar with posting images on message boards.

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Emdeeh
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« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2019, 08:25:48 PM »

The reddish brown stuff is blockout paint, to fill in pinholes and lines/scratches in the film. Your transparency may have been a production negative meant to be used to make a printing plate.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2019, 01:06:17 PM by Emdeeh » Logged
CenturyDeprived
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« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2019, 12:38:50 PM »

It almost seems too cool and interestingly-designed to be something fan-made. I kinda think it might have been actual test art for a legit BBs project.
Just a guess though. Either way, super cool and unique item to have!
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HeyJude
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« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2019, 01:10:16 PM »

It looks more like something that would have been a trade ad than actual album cover art.

It's vaguely reminiscent of trade ads of that era that appeared in Billboard, etc.
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Emdeeh
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« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2019, 01:24:49 PM »

It's using the professional graphic production techniques of the era (when I was starting out in graphic design -- I still remember using those materials), so I'd say it could be something meant for legitimate use or at least a mock-up, but hoax / gag artwork can't be ruled out. Whatever its final intention, that piece of film is an intermediate step in production. If someone was goofing around, they put a lot of work into it.
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William Bowe
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« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2019, 12:43:32 AM »

This cover (non-negatived) is featured is David Leaf's old book, of which I have the 1985 edition. It is noted in the book that the track listing, which is too small to see in the images above, consists entirely of songs unknown to Beach Boys lore. As explained in the link below, this was because they were lifted from The Best Of Michael Parks, presumably in anticipation of being substituted when the real track listing was determined.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180807021829/http://esquar.verio.com/bellagio/unreleased.html
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« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2019, 03:54:59 PM »

Can anybody tell what's "transparency" in this case? Don't quite catch it.
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Emdeeh
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« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2019, 06:12:26 PM »

It's a sheet of film.
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Bardley
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« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2019, 06:58:15 PM »

Thank you everyone for the insight! I've included a closeup of the track listing, which is hopefully a bit more legible. I noticed that it matches the total number of songs which were eventually included on Surf's Up.  Is that a coincidence, or could that just be the number they were shooting for? The asterisks confuse me a little. Would the three songs with two asterisks possibly indicate where potential singles might be placed? With the final track listing, this coincides with Long Promised Road, Student Demonstration Time, and Surf's Up.



Emdeeh, so this transparency is possibly an intermediary between, say, a production drawing and the end result (whether a trade ad or album cover)? The dimensions are 12"x15". Would that size have any bearing on the finished product, whether trade ad or album cover?
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Emdeeh
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« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2019, 09:00:37 PM »

Emdeeh, so this transparency is possibly an intermediary between, say, a production drawing and the end result (whether a trade ad or album cover)? The dimensions are 12"x15". Would that size have any bearing on the finished product, whether trade ad or album cover?

It would be an intermediary step, probably to the main product, most likely a mock-up (based on the song titles being from another artist's album). The process would start with a concept sketch. Then they'd set the type -- I'd say this one was most likely done on a Typositor (which used letters on a film negative that was set to a paper positive), given the large size of the text. A very time-consuming process, but quite effective for the design at hand. There was also press-type (using pressure transfer material) and some other processes for the titles. They may have photographed the titles directly from the Michael Parks album art, for example.

Then they'd put together a paste-up of all the graphic elements, literally pasting or taping those items to a paper board. The next process is to make a negative photo of the paste-up and then clean up all the lines, pinholes, etc. (This may require a couple of steps, positive to negative and back, etc., and also another step for the white type on black background.) Then make the final production art or printing plate from the negative.

Your film is the negative. The size sounds to me to be for album art. 12x15 seems mighty large for a trade publication ad. The final production art could be shot at 50% for an ad, tho.

OK, that's all probably TMI...
« Last Edit: June 28, 2019, 09:06:27 PM by Emdeeh » Logged
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