Not sure if short lived subsidiary "American International Records" is the same as the "A.I.R." from the late 60's, but it's very likely.  The studio 54 comp had this custom jobber and the final image is a great example of the classic early Casablanca blue label design...



When studying the classic desert scene design, one will begin to notice many variations. Here's an interesting trio...A later period label, with mention of Polygram at the bottom.  Middle label bears the Fauves-Puma Records imprint, a pairing that was reported to have moved some 15 million units on this Santa Esmeralda hit!! Finally, the classic desert scene from the Village People's heyday, before "Can't Stop the Music" nearly did...

1980 saw the Casablanca release of Tony Joe White's The Real Thang album, which contained the amazing track "I Get Off On It", in which he discusses various individuals and their predilections--  junk food, trannys, trenchcoat flashers, bondage. Combine with a couple of other album highlights "Disco Blues" & the disco-ized version of "Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll", add copious amounts of cocaine and you've pretty much 'crystallized' the Casablanca Records story. 1980 was also the year that Polygram final squeezed Casablanca's founder out of the picture.  Neil Bogart went on to put together Boardwalk Entertainment, signing Joan Jett.  He also signed Get Wet -- if anyone out there knows what the Lou Reed connection is with them, please chime in. Anyhow, Mr. Bogart's body gave out on him 2 years later. 

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The early days of MTV were spent pushing bands and recording artists, as it was Music Television.  Here's some fine evidence of that time period and of the power of the M in 80's advertising...


The "Hip Clip" phenom of the mid 80's, precursor 90's and the "alternative" and "buzz" words...



 

Glad to see Ms. Cotillard get the serious nod; Esther and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance...In celebration of the award show buzz, here's a small gallery of award stickers...none of which are Oscar related...

Guitar heroes are a dime a dozen...what about synth heroes?  There are many examples. Keith Emerson threw knives and carried his own antibiotic kit to deal with some of the gifts bestowed upon him by groupies. Ray Manzarek rocked the perverted professor persona pre-synthesizers and then sort of recast himself as a late night sleaze demon in the 70's.  Robert Mason had a very interesting take on his Stardrive records, head cocked back with a can of beer in hand.  Here's a gallery of men who dared to forge their version of "Synth Hero," see if you can match the picture to the name & band lists...

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