Record Labels 78: A New Home

There was no "correct" color. As you know, Motown and Motown subsidiary labels were all over the place in terms of quality and hues.

 

I've seen many and none were bright purple so while there isn't an absolutely correct color, there is a range they existed in and the old one fell outside of it. The one posted was bright purple due to incorrect "paint bucket"-ing. Also, like many of the others, it was small and the new one was scanned a higher resolution so it's larger.

Ed

 

Just added a new 20th Century label to replace one that was well-done but significantly smaller.

Ed

 

Well, I have bright purple ones. They were 45s, and were from the late 60s.

 

Do you? I've honestly never in my life seen one that was bright purple. Interesting...

Ed

 

If I get motivated, i'll dig it out and post it for you if I don't find it on CAT45.

 

Thank you for this! I have a lot of your work from when they were posted on Smug Mug and will browse these when I have time. I love record label art.

 

Here's a screenshot of a pinker late 60s Gordy label. The one I have is pinker than this, and is closer to the pink Gordy label that is already in the gallery. Mine was also pressed at probably Monarch in Los Angeles. I also once owned a Martha Reeves & the Vandellas 45 (Honey Child) with a pinkish late 60s Gordy label. The 45s on the pinker labels also had a different font.


Just because you have not seen a label variation doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If I may add this: I am closer to the west coast, and it is likely that Monarch, or other pressing plants that served this region may have had different label stock than what you get on the east coast. I do have a lot of styrene pressings as a result.

 

That is very pink. I sit corrected. I'm human and can't know everything, right? I'll take that on the chin. I'll happily put the other one back up too. Thanks for sharing!

Ed

 

Okay, onto the "J"'s:

Janus - Removed debris from the run-off area. No clue why I didn't do this when I initially uploaded the label.

Jubilee - This was woefully unfinished. I filled in the 45 spindle hole and did all kinds of things to finish the job.

Josie - Removed debris from run-off area.

Jive - Changed background from white to black.

Jive RCA - Nothing.

Jewel labels were all added by me.

Jet LP - I tried to find a bigger one but I couldn't so I went with the one that was already here.

Jet UK LP - Nothing.

Jerden - Nothing.

Janus LP from 1974 looks just awful. Can't include it.

Janus LP - removed debris from run-off area.

Janus red - Nothing.

Janus 45 - This replaces a really bad one in the archive.

Janus 45 white - I added this.

Janus 45 white promo - I added this.

Jamie - New black background and slightly lightened label so it'd stick out from background.

Jamie 45 - Removed debris from run-off area.

JAD - Nothing.

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Ed

 

I don't mean to sound confrontational or anything, I just wanted to prove that there are often many variations among some record labels (not including monitor mis-calibrations or differing Photoshop and browser color profiles) which justified their existence in that gallery.

Another 45 I have that is pinkish is "Ball Of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" by The Temptations from 1970. But, it is on heavy vinyl, and comes from an east coast plant that often did awful pressings for Atlantic Records during this period. If forum member W.B. were on this thread, he could cite which plants did what. One can also find pressing plant info on the 45 Cat website, which features all sorts of label variations, and a great source of info, as a result.

 

Oh, you're totally fine. LOL! I was with you. No worries.

I love that site. I've been looking at it regularly and, along with my own stock, using it when I'm dubious about whether or not someone "revised" a label or not.

Ed

 

I just added another Gordy promo label from my collection.

Ed

 

On to "K":

Kapp 45 black - Removed debris from run-off area.

Kapp silver - Removed debris from run-off area.

Kapp 45 - New black background lightly brightened label to stick out from background.

Kapp 45 '70's - Nothing.

Kapp Columbia - New black background lightly brightened label to stick out from background.

Kapp 60's 45 - Removed debris from run-off area.

Kama Sutra Red Yellow - Made background black.

Kama Sutra 70's - Removed debris from run-off area.

Kama Sutra Yellow Purple 45 - Removed debris from run-off area.

K-Tel Limited Edition - Removed debris from run-off area. Label has been over-sharpened and I can't fix it.

K-Tel Limited Purple - Nothing.

K-Tel 1980 - Nothing.

I added all other K-Tels

Columbia Special Products Limited Edition - I added this.

Kwanza white 45 - I did this.

*I did another Kwanza LP which replaces the one in the archive where the gradient was badly handled and the color is over-saturated. I can't fix either issue convincingly.

Kudu - Paint bucket-ed to make the yellow uniform.

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Ed

 

Onto the letter "L":

Liberty - I added this one

Liberty 2 - Contrast corrected and debris removed from run-off area.

Liberty red - Slightly sharpened and debris removed from run-off area.

Liberty 60's - Slightly brightened and placed on a new black background. Many of these labels use absolutes when it comes to blacks and whites. No labels are absolutely black or white.

Liberty mid '60's - Copyright text sustained a cloning error where parts of another word in the copyright text was copied over the beginning of it. I replaced that text to make it read properly, slightly brightened and placed on a new black background.

Liberty Peuter - Removed debris from run-off area.

Liberty audition - Removed debris from run-off area.

Legrand - New black background.

Laurie - Nothing.

Laurie LP - Nothing.

L&R 45 - I finished the job as best I could - filling in the spindle hole.

L&M - This label is very small but it's all I could find. I put it on a new background and finished the job.

London 45 - Nothing. Can't finish this one off.

London Purple - Removed debris from label and from run-off area.

London Blue - Cropped away black area and cleaned debris from run-off area.

London mid 63 - There were two of these. One looked really nice and the other was small and awful. I took the nice one and put it on a new black background.

London Maroon - New black background.

London International - Removed debris from run-off area.

London FFRR - Removed debris from run-off area.

London FFRR Treasury - Removed debris from run-off area.

London FFRR Black - Removed debris from label and run-off area.

London Digital - Nothing.

London Polygram - Nothing.

London 70's - New black background.

London Rust - Removed debris from label and run-off area.

Little David - New black background.

Linco - This one doesn't look good but it's all we've got.

Lifesong - Changed white background to black.

Lifesong CBS - Slightly brightened label and changed background to black.

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Ed

 

Heh! Either you aren't devoting much time to your new labels, or you are finding out that they are much harder to do than you thought!

 

What do you mean?

Ed

 

Some of those new labels you submitted need some work.

 

The one K-tel 45 I did was incredibly hard. I'd been submitting labels to the Mug for about a year but this was the hardest. I drew the "K" as best I could.

What else is bad? I'll take a look and do them again.

Ed

 

I'll list them later, but, we sometimes took days or even weeks to clean the text off and refurbish just one label! What I want to do is remove the concentric line from that 20th century label you did. Once that's done, it will look fabulous.

 

I can't speak to how long it took people to do things (though I know the ABC labels rainbows must have taken forever). By and large, I thought I'd done pretty well with the things I'd added. Again, I was adding things for a solid year when we were at SmugMug and no one said a word. That one K-tel I just did isn't perfect but I can't do any better. I can say that, based on the errors I've corrected (which are listed), many weren't refurbished perfectly at all. Most of what's in the archive has required cleanup - sometimes considerable - and other things to properly finish. If you are finding mistakes from the labels I've done, please list them. I'm happy to fix as I want the gallery to be as right as I can make it.

BTW, I didn't add a concentric circle to the 20th Century label.

Ed

 

Onto the "M's:

*There are two Mayfield labels - one is incredibly blurry, the other very tiny (230 x 228) so neither are used.

Maverick - Removed "side 1".

Marlin - Replaced white background with black and removed "not".

Manhattan DMM - Fixed this is in various ways as it wasn't really ready for prime time as it was. Tricks included contrast fixes, brightness fixes, and sharpening.

Manhattan 87 - Removed date-specific copyright information. Not sure why it was left.

Mango - Perfection! Nothing done.

Mango Purple - New black background due to debris in run-off area. Also, sharpened label slightly to make copyright text readable.

MAM blue - Label is over sharpened and I can't fix it. It got a new black background to remove debris in run-off area.

MAM black - Nothing.

Malaco LP - New black background to remove debris in run-off area.

Mainstream - New black background and lightened slightly to make black stick out from background.

Mainstream blue/black - Nothing.

Magnum - Nothing.

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Ed

 

More...

MCA Rainbow Black - Many issues. Darkened label as it grey, not black. The "paint bucket"-ing is obvious so I tried to make it less so. I put it on a new black background to remove debris from run-off area. Also, cleaned debris from label itself.

MCA Rainbow Black again - Many issues again. Color saturation intensified as it's too dull. I can't get rid of the moire'ing as it happened at the scanning stage. New black background to remove debris from run-off area. Debris from label itself removed.

*MCA Rainbow 45 is a scratchy, over sharpened mess so I can't include it.

MCA Special Markets - Slightly sharpened.

MCA Special Markets Light Blue - Nothing.

MCA Brown Gradient - This looks incredibly artificial but it's so well-done. Placed on new black background and removed "not".

MCA Brown Rim - Removed "not".

MCA Coral - Removed debris from run-off area.

MCA Rainbow without logo - Why? I left it but...why? LOL! Removed debris from run-off area.

MCA Rainbow cloud - Removed debris from run-off area.

*There are two others that are clearly fakes associated with the one above. The logo is re-colored and moved around to two other places and the labels themselves are exactly the same down the imperfections in the rainbow. Not included.

MCA Brown Rim 2 - Nothing.

MCA Black - Replaces an artificial one in the archives. I did this. BTW, yes, the label really is this shade. It's really more a charcoal than anything else.

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Ed

 

No, you didn't remove it. That was one of the old debates some of us had about the concentric lines back in the day. One former member named Jeff from Hollywood used to like them left in for authenticity's sake. I liked them removed, but it isn't always so easy to do that.

With my monitor, I can see the splotches from the use of the stamp tool. I try to smooth that out as best as possible because that shows up on your resulting CD-R label.

Truth be known, since some of us had administrative access to the old Smugmug site, I did do a few remasterings and slipped them in. I guess no one noticed, or noticed your work because no one was looking at the site!

 

I think someone (not me) uploaded a work part LOL!