R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection

I'm a huge fan of R. Crumb, and I truly enjoyed every page. There's more here than his album and CD covers. There are also portraits of musicians he drew for the New Yorker, promotional pieces, flyers, logos, and record labels. They all display Crumb's mastery of style, lettering, and design that is inspired by 1920s and '30s art and advertising. And there's his profound love for pre-mass culture music, which radiates from every drawing. There is so much richness in the art that I will likely revisit this book often. Plus, there are a lot of artists depicted here, historical and contemporary, I've never heard of that I want to explore. A great addition to my Crumb collection!

The book itself is a relatively small (10"x10" approximately) coffee table-style book, with 267 images by R. Crumb. The book slips inside a fairly thick cardboard slipcase, which is covered in Robert Crumb's graphics in an overall tan color. Tying in with the album cover theme, there's a record label sized hole punched through the back and front covers, which show more color graphics (the front is a portrait of Crumb's group/the back is from the album "Harmonica Blues" on Yazoo Records) from Crumb-a nice touch. The book itself is a substantial hardcover, the paper is a slick almost matte surface-perfect for reproducing Crumb's artwork. On the endpapers are reproductions (from a European set), in color, of trading cards Crumb produced-more about those later.For music/album cover fans (like me) this is one of Robert Crumb's finest books. There are a so many examples of his style that picking favorites is very hard. The graphics are a mixture of color, b&w, and mono color-a number of them are reproduced almost full page. Included are most of Crumb's album covers, stand alone portraits (Frank Zappa, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Gus Cannon, George Jones, Woody Guthrie, etc), posters, calling cards, record labels, CD artwork, and advertisements. There's also several pieces of Crumb's work that were never used-hence unseen by most people. It's difficult to say with any real accuracy if this book collects all his work in this area-probably not. Somewhere, stashed away and forgotten, are other examples of Crumb's work in the music field. But that's okay, because what's here is worth pouring over and enjoyed many times. The bigger the Crumb fan you are the more you'll like what you see in this collection.If you like books devoted to album covers and/or record labels (and related work), this fine book can sit alongside other collections of similar artwork. I still own (and cherish) the albums with Robert Crumb artwork. There's nothing like seeing his work on a full sized album cover, but this great book will give you a good look at his wonderful, quirky, reverential take on music and musical artists. If you're a Robert Crumb fan-purchase this now or in the near future. Also check out his book "Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country", for more fine portraits of many musicians in those genres.And if you happen to run across Crumb's trading card sets, purchase it (them) immediately. The three most well known are-"Pioneers of Country Music" (difficult/impossible to find), "Early Jazz Greats", and "Heroes of the Blues" (which has two different box tops-one in color (the earliest), one in black/red/white. These, too, are portraits of musical greats-some well known some not. There are several plates (#101, #88, #74) included in the book devoted to these sets. There's also another set of cards-this time featuring characters from Crumb's various publications-released in 2010. If you like posters, check out the three available on Amazon-they're 2' X 3' (1 poster is 24" X 30"), and they're Crumb in full glorious color. And there's also a soundtrack from "Crumb", a film by Terry Zwigoff-it's pretty cool too if you like recreations (except for 2 original Geechie Wiley tracks) of old 78 RPM tunes. And finally, check out Crumb's book on the blues-with biographies of some well known bluesmen and other pieces. It's Crumb's idiosyncratic look at the music and artists. For some unknown reason, looking at this book reminded me of the book "Dead Letters", a collection of envelopes with some fine to crazed artwork, sent in by fans, hoping to get noticed in order to get tickets ("a miracle" in the Dead world) to upcoming concerts. Check it out-in it's own way it's pretty cool too.

Lots of really wonderful work by my favorite comic artist of all time that hadn’t seen before. Beautifully presented; a real treasure! Totally love!

It's a must have for any Crumb enthusiast. The title is deceptive. It's much more than simply record covers. It includes, trading cards, stories, one sketch art all related to music and particularly the music Crumb adored. Highly recommended... and the binding/packaging is a stroke of genius.

Love Crumb, love records. A match made in heaven ( or the publishing house [for those whom I might have offended]). A very neat package of all Mr Crumb's art work as it relates to record sleeves. Some are very familiar, others a bit obscure, but all there in their colorful and unique genius. Fits very nicely in my record shelf right next to that Robert Johnson 10" picture disc in the French styled sleeve he did a while back. Love owning this book as I do all the Robert Crumb books accrued over the years. This one won't blow you away as it is more of a compilation volume but it is nice to have all the album covers bound together in one book fitted in a slip cover. Props

Great art work

A very provocative artist and an equally provocative (definitely 18 years and over) book cover. But if you know Crumb and his work, and you can get past the (understandable) controversy surrounding his depictions of women and African Americans, I do think there are some very redeeming aspects of his appreciation for music and the blues in particular. I'm not saying that excuses the controversial element, but there is quite a bit to consider here.

This is an interesting book for anyone interested in the complete art works of Robert Crumb. It wasn't what I expected it to be but none the less it was a quick short read and a welcome addition to my music book library. The color is wonderful.See ya,"Electric" Mike Langford

Its Crumb. Nuff said

Delivered quickly and exactly as described

Tras una bonita presentación, que incluye una funda marrón con un orificio central a semejanza de los antiguos discos de 78 RPM y libro con portada y contraportada negra como uno de aquellos viejos shellacs de comienzos del siglo pasado, nos encontramos con una recopilación de casi 100 páginas donde no sólo aparecen las portadas que Crumb creó para diferentes discos (propios como con su banda "Cheap Suit Serenaders" o ajenos como los trabajos para el "Cheap Thrills" de Big Brother & The Holding Company con Janis Joplin, Charlie Patton, Roy Smeck o la Memphis Jug Band entre muchos otros, así como múltiples recopilatorios) sino que también aparecen octavillas, contraportadas, insertos, litografías de músicos (algunas no publicadas como la de B.B. King), logotipos, tarjetas, las galletas de diferentes vinilos, pósters de conciertos y otras muchas portadas no para discos sino para catálogos o libros, siempre relacionado con la música.Todo esto complementado con diversas ilustraciones de grupos y músicos en solitario que hacen de este libro un recopilatorio perfecto sobre el talento visual de Robert Crumb aplicado a la música.

An alle Crumb-Verehrer: zupacken!Ein Zeitzeugnis welches auch die grosse Liebe Crumb's zur Musik dokumentiert.Ein wunderschön aufgemachtes Werk, vielleicht ein Geschenk?

A comprehensive collection of drawings by Crumb for the covers of records,nice, but quite repetitive. The style is still the same, and there are few rare or unrecognized ever seen.