Original Bona Drag Artwork?

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Anonymous

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I was looking around the internet to see how much work had gone into the original 'Bona Drag' (the proposed album of new material planned as a follow-up to Viva Hate), and found an article that said "Morrissey had a sleeve design for it, which was subsequently adapted for Live In Dallas".
Does anyone know if this is true? Or if the Live In Dallas image as intended for the front of Bona Drag exists?

Here's the site that says it: http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~moz/lyrics/bonadrag/bonainde.htm

Thanks in advance!
 
Morrissey's original design mock up for 'Bona Drag' was printed on page 101 of Jo See's 'Peepholism' book.
If you don't have that book, it's the same photo used on 'Live in Dallas', but reversed and on the right of the LP sleeve. Black background, with 'MORRISSEY - "BONA DRAG" - COMPLILATION' written on the left.
So, the fact that it has 'compilation' written on the cover, means this was the first intention for the album as it appeared. Whether the same photo was intended for the initial studio album version of 'Bona Drag' is unknown, so I suspect that website has got its facts confused.

Personally I'm glad he didn't use it - as it looks hella gay. :)
 
Morrissey's original design mock up for 'Bona Drag' was printed on page 101 of Jo See's 'Peepholism' book.
If you don't have that book, it's the same photo used on 'Live in Dallas', but reversed and on the right of the LP sleeve. Black background, with 'MORRISSEY - "BONA DRAG" - COMPLILATION' written on the left.
So, the fact that it has 'compilation' written on the cover, means this was the first intention for the album as it appeared. Whether the same photo was intended for the initial studio album version of 'Bona Drag' is unknown, so I suspect that website has got its facts confused.

I am not sure why you assume that because the image in question was scrapped and resurrected for Live In Dallas, that means that when he put together the Bona Drag mock-up with the word "compilation" on it it was therefore always intended as a compilation.

As far as I can tell, all this simply implies is that he had already decided to scrap the studio album idea, retained the title for the comp, and then sometime later scrapped the original cover image as well.

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Personally I'm glad he didn't use it - as it looks hella gay. :)

...a rare aspect of his aesthetic in those days. :rolleyes:
 
Thanks a lot for your help, great to see a picture of the original design
 
I am not sure why you assume that because the image in question was scrapped and resurrected for Live In Dallas, that means that when he put together the Bona Drag mock-up with the word "compilation" on it it was therefore always intended as a compilation.

I think you are misinterpreting what I wrote.

The Peepholism photo is clear evidence that the 'Live in Dallas' photo was the original design for the compilation version of 'Bona Drag'. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that the original '100% new studio album' version of 'Bona Drag' was ever intended to have the same cover design, or if it even got as far as having ANY cover design, before Moz changed his mind and scrapped the project. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't - there's no evidence for it, either way. So when that website says "Bona Drag was originally intended to be a new album (indeed Morrissey had a sleeve design for it, which was subsequently adapted for "Live In Dallas")" it is clearly factually incorrect, if it's just going by a misreading of the Peepholism article.

If there is any evidence the earlier studio album version was also going to use the same image, I'd love someone to point out where that info comes from, and I'll happily be corrected. :)
 
I think you are misinterpreting what I wrote.

Not surprising. But instead of telling someone directly that it is their fault for misunderstanding you it is much better to say that you are sorry you didn't make your meaning more clear for them. This way the emphasis is on your message, not what they made of it, and they think you're apologizing for writing or speaking poorly, and everyone else will understand the original meaning and the meaning of 'Sorry I didn't make that more clear for you'.
 
Morrissey always seems to use older second-hand artwork for compilations. I can see the sense in it. Bona Drag had a still from a video, Suedehead had a picture from Q Magazine, My Early Burglary Years had the picture from a Gay Times cover, Greatest Hits had an old photo from a magazine article. Usually his studio albums have new photos. I think the Your Arsenal cover shot had not yet been published in Linder Shot. I hope I am right.
 
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