Inner Sleeve: Terre Thaemlitz

STYX – Pieces of Eight (A&M Records, 1978)
Designed by Hypgnosis

As many have done before in this column, I feel obligated to bemoan the decline of vinyl and reassert the impact record sleeves hold over CDs. I also have to excuse my final selection by acknowledging all of the better choices I couldashoulda-woulda made... Kraftwerk’s glow-in-thedark 12” of “Neon Lights”, Laibach’s vinyl edition of “Baptism”, Devo’s poster monstrosity from New Traditionalists, the hand-print cover to After Dinner’s self-titled debut, or the laser-etched grooves on the B side of Styx’s Paradise Theater (Fucking cool! Find it in a discount-bin!)... Which brings us to my final selection, the gatefold from Styx’s Pieces Of Eight. A few years ago when writing the Epiphanies column, I asked you to remind me to tell the story of when I was beaten up by a gang of rockers because I owned a copy of this record before they did, apparently defaming Styx’s image because I was such a terminal nerd. Little did those thugs know I bought it by mistake... I really wanted The Grand Illusion for that
amazing synth solo on “Come Fly Away”. Suckers! Even as a child the Easter Island motif struck me as a bit lame (along with that “Lords Of The Ring” song — dumb). But before you stand my sexual downfalls — older women and girly-boys (Tommy Shaw was such a fox) — I can’t say whether this jacket inspired my object choices, or if its appeal was symptomatic of then-burgeoning tendencies... but I still think this cover is sexy, inside and out.