I’m not sure if this will work as I know some people have difficulties posting photos but the talk of triple LPs and gatefold sleeves reminded me of one of my favourites. The inside of Ry Cooder’s Into the Purple Valley..
Anymore suggestions welcome, if you have difficulty posting I can always do it. Just a reminder that Imgur doesn’t work anymore in the UK.
Is that the inner gatefold of “Into the Purple Valley”? It’s rather lovely.
I’ve never seen that before, as I only have a later, cheapo reissue of the LP in a single sleeve. Boo!
I love “F.D.R. in Trinidad”.
It is and I think it’s rather wonderful.
1941 Buick convertible.
Not sure about UK pressing but I reckon the Us gatefold is close to best. in my collection. Thick sturdy and wonderful colour reproduction.
so many great gatefolds, this was a favourite but I always loved those early Roxy and Bowie ones
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55322199854_c57fb17ba2_b.jpg
Guy Peellaert did some striking work.
No discussion of gatefolds and their contained wonders can possibly exclude the origamic Welsh wizardry of the Man boys:
And then, not to be outdone – at least for scale, if not for artistry – there’s the blurry 3×2 stoned image from the Pilton hippies:
Shirley Bassey’s Something Else.
https://i.discogs.com/_OGpr0Kj1RfiBtmAufDTHD07HHqTTySruyfhiRrTr9M/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:278/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0NzY4/ODMtMTMwMDU5Nzcw/Ni5qcGVn.jpeg
Was Beatles for Sale the first? (at least for a single album)
https://www.discogs.com/release/10210431-The-Beatles-Beatles-For-Sale
early Fabian and Frankie Avalon albums were released in g/f sleeves in 1959
Ah ok
Don’t be looking inside The Doobie Brothers’ Toulouse Street. Not on a school night.
See also Fanfare by Jonathan Wilson, one of my favourite albums – for musical reasons, obvs.
For the curious:
https://i.discogs.com/dK1RB4csL1gY89QiMPno3WQkHjpAZuq4Uatc4hSNrDs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:296/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI0MDY3/OTEtMTQ1ODY1MDIx/MC02OTgwLmpwZWc.jpeg
That inner sleeve of ITPV is wonderful, I’d never seen it before.
In New Zealand we never got the full gatefold sleeves, not even Sgt Pepper. And the covers we did get were el cheapo plastic-y things that didn’t last. We got them with double albums of course. I think my first actual gatefold single album was Music From Big Pink, and it was a Canadian import. God knows how it ended up in NZ.
Australian copies of Sgt Peppers had the gatefold sleeves imported from the UK, as at the time no local printing places had the equipment (and presumably know-how) to manufacture them. Thus, they were late to be released after the cargo ship containing them was caught in the Suez Canal after it had been closed up during the Six Day War. This enabled local band The Twilights to get a copy from a friend flying home from the UK, begin practising at copying it, and by time the LP was finally released they were playing it live note for note.
(That’s the story I heard, anyway)