Art and Photography

Music

[Ed Ruscha]
Warner Bros., 1968.

LP; sleeve lightly rubbed but still very good.

First pressing. Ruscha designed the cover art for a 1968 Mason Williams album with the plainspoken title Music. Ruscha and Williams were close friends from childhood in Oklahoma City and this utterly generic-looking cover was typical of the sense of humor Ruscha and Williams shared. Both went to Chouinard Art Institute, which later became CalArts. Williams became a comedy writer and musician but would also figure prominently in several of Ruscha’s later book projects—he appears in Royal Road Test and wrote the short story that was the textual inspiration for Crackers. On this LP Ruscha’s design credit reads, “Sorry, cover by Ed Ruscha,” but it seems no one at Warner Bros. was amused and few copies reached stores without the addition of a clear sticker reading “by Mason Williams” that was hurriedly put together after the fact and all later pressings also had this text.

$Sold