Double LPs were simply di-vinyl

CDs don't match the glory and kitch by The Boston Globe, January 17, 2006

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The U.K. cover of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland" double was a crowd of nude, smiling women that cemented the guitarist's superstud rep and scandalized record store owners (the work was changed to a simple head for the American release). The entire wing of prog-rock -- Yes, Pink Floyd, ELP -- would not conceptually exist without the gatefold.

The Allman Brothers' "Eat a Peach" (1972) opened up to a bucolic fantasy landscape, as though glimpsing the heaven recently deceased Duane Allman had flown to. The Ohio Players' single-album "Greatest Hits" (1975) used the form to mess with our heads: You don't see the noose around the beautiful African-American model's neck until you open the cover up.

Then thee were the format's sundry utilitarian functions, notably the ergonomically perfect setup for cleaning illegal herbal substances.

Enoch Light, the post-World War II British musician, producer and stereophonic sound guru, is credited with inventing the format in the late 1950's, but Elvis Presley may have beat him to the punch with "Elvis' Christmas Album" in 1957.

As for the first double LP (and first live double), Dave Brubeck usually gets the nod for 1963's "At Carnegie Hall," but Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" (1966) was the double studio album that ushered in rock's glories ("The White Album," the Who's "Tommy") and excesses ("Tales of Topographic Oceans").

Just as often, though, the live double was an excuse for the kind of self-indulgence punk rock was invented to kill off.

Fittingly, what Dylan began in 1966 he brought screeching to a close with "At Budokan" in 1979.