Polydor Records

[JSngry]

You gotta let go of the notion that there was a straight line between Freedom and Black Lion. It's not that simple or linear.

What it is is convoluted. This Alan Bates guy seemed to have more than one ball in the air at any given time.

And some of the Arista/Freedom covers were based on the Freedom covers, but some weren't. Again, it seems to be related to the recency of the recording.

I would wonder if Bates worked with Arista to get the covers synced at some point. Arista had money, Real money. Clive Davis money LOL.

The people who cared were bummed when the series was discontinued, but Arista and Arista Novus did right for a little bit after that. Michael was in all of this. God only knows what that dance looked like ..

[Holy Ghost]

8 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

yeah, that's all pretty accurate.

The Hemphill LP cover looks like this:

I assume Cuscuna licensed this, Dogon A.D., the Lakes, and the HAE LPs from their prospective owners. Both HAE records came out on Universal Justice originally, while Dogon was on Hemphill's Mbari imprint.

I will admit it's all very murky.

This sleeve is badder-asser than the one I have. Murky it may be, but I love detective stories, and this one is a goodin'. 

3 minutes ago, JSngry said:

You gotta let go of the notion that there was a straight line between Freedom and Black Lion. It's not that simple or linear.

What it is is convoluted. This Alan Bates guy seemed to have more than one ball in the air at any given time.

And some of the Arista/Freedom covers were based on the Freedom covers, but some weren't. Again, it seems to be related to the recency of the recording.

I would wonder if Bates worked with Arista to get the covers synced at some point. Arista had money, Real money. Clive Davis money LOL.

The people who cared were bummed when the series was discontinued, but Arista and Arista Novus did right for a little bit after that. Michael was in all of this. God only knows what that dance looked like ..

Arista Novus? Wasn't that part of RCA or did Arista own RCA by then?

[JSngry]

13 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

yeah, that's all pretty accurate.

The Hemphill LP cover looks like this:

I assume Cuscuna licensed this, Dogon A.D., the Lakes, and the HAE LPs from their prospective owners. Both HAE records came out on Universal Justice originally, while Dogon was on Hemphill's Mbari imprint.

I will admit it's all very murky.

That's gotta be it. Another case in point:

becoming

[Holy Ghost]

1 minute ago, JSngry said:

That's gotta be it. Another case in point:

becoming

That first sleeve is sick! Are those all people in that photo? Is that the orignal Freedom jacket?

[JSngry]

At most of this time Arista was owned by Columbia Pictures (the original owners). They never owned RCA, although BMG later came to own both of them. And Sony came to own them!

That's the only Freedom cover of Indent, which was originally on Cecil's own label. Unit Core.

Can't tell of what that picture is, sorry. Clifford might know.

[Holy Ghost]

10 minutes ago, JSngry said:

At most of this time Arista was owned by Columbia Pictures (the original owners). They never owned RCA, although BMG later came to own both of them. And Sony came to own them!

That's the only Freedom cover of Indent, which was originally on Cecil's own label. Unit Core.

Can't tell of what that picture is, sorry. Clifford might know.

Makes sense. Columbia Pictures makes sense as Clive Davis was an excutive at CBS at the time (I don't know about the movies) and get the Columbia connection, but Novus I thought was RCA's 'advant garde' wing, kinda like 'Virgin Venture' was Virgin's. 

Nice insight, this is a interesting story, thank you all for your imput.

 

[JSngry]

Columbia Pictures was never related to Columbia Records.

Columbia Pictures had Colpix (Nina Simone, Woody Allen, Dick Gregory, so), which then became Colgems (The Monkees).

After Clive Davis got fired from Columbia Records, he was hired on at Columbia Pictures (as a consultant) and then to Bell Records (as president). Columbia Picture had recently bought Bell.

Davis was looking to get this beast all under his control, and the Bell name was changed to Arista.

Barry Manilow began on Bell, but soon was on Arista. Same with Melissa Manchester. 

Alas, The Fifth Dimension did not make the transition. They had good hits on Bell, though!

And yes, this was the same Bell that had The Box Tops. The label was around long before that, too!

[JSngry]

Arista Novus:

https://www.discogs.com/label/56111-Arista-Novus

Steve Backer probably took the Novus name to RCA after Arista dropped it.

 

[clifford_thornton]

To be honest, I completely spaced that there was an Arista reissue, as I’ve only ever owned the Unit Core pressing.

The artist on the original Indent cover was a student of Taylor’s at Antioch:

https://www.royalfh.com/obituary/mr-doyle-roberson-7497857/print