Marred for Life!: Unique Defaced Record Covers

About seven or eight years ago, renowned designer, collector and musician Gregory Wooten stopped in at Blue Arrow Records to peruse the Collinwood record store’s terrific vinyl collection. A former Clevelander, Wooten was visiting his parents and decided to take a day to dig for albums. At the time, he had built up what he calls a “crazy collection” of defaced album covers and was about to publish the book Marred for Life!: Defaced Record Covers from the Collection of Gregory Wooten. He was looking to add to it and asked Blue Arrow owner Pete Gulyas if he had anything “squirreled away.”

“I was in there digging for records and snooping around for anything defaced. He had a box in the back, and it completely blew my mind,” says Wooten via phone from his Pasadena home. “I had been in Blue Arrow before on trips back to Cleveland. Wherever I go, I try to hit the best shops. Pete was there. I didn’t know him at the time. I got a couple of jazz records. I asked if he had anything that was altered with mustaches or goatees. His eyes lit up. He said he had a box in the back. He told me they were not for sale. I know the etiquette. I didn’t want to be that pushy guy. I wanted to have a look.”

Gulyas brought out the box, and Wooten was enamored by the small collection.

“There were incredible ones in there,” he says. “I have a good poker face for when I’m around great things I wanted to acquire. I was probably shaking a little. At some point, I got the courage up. I told him that I had a proposal. I was doing the book, and I asked him if he would consider letting me buy just one from the box for $100. I usually pay 50 cents or maybe five bucks. With Pete, I thought I had a rare opportunity. I thought, ‘I will step up and make a strong offer.’ He said, ‘Deal, except I’m not taking your 100.’”

Wooten selected a defaced copy of King Crimson’s Court of the King Crimson and became fast friends with Gulyas, and they’ve collaborated on an upcoming exhibit featuring more than 250 items from Wooten’s collection. It will open later this month at Sixty Bowls Gallery. The exhibit will feature embellished covers by the likes of Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Yoko Ono, Nina Simone, Led Zeppelin, Sparks, LL Cool J, David Bowie, the Velvet Underground, Mose Allison, Prince, Tim Buckley and Neil Young. An opening reception and book signing takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22.

“[Gulyas] told me to bring the King Crimson record that I got from him for the exhibit,” says Wooten. “I now have like 5,000 albums. I’ve been curating a nice group for the show, and I want to cover all the bases. I kept thinking, ‘Find that record.’ It took me a minute, but I finally found it.”

Prior to the opening event, Blue Arrow Records is sponsoring an Album Cover Defacement Contest. The contest will conclude the night of the opening. Participants should creatively deface an album cover of their choosing. They can either pick up a cover from Blue Arrow or submit one that they’ve defaced to Blue Arrow during the store’s regular open hours of operation (from noon to 4 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays). Entries must be submitted by 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 21. All entrant pieces will be presented at the opening where the attending public can vote on their favorite piece.

The winning entrant will receive a $50 gift certificate from Blue Arrow Records and will also have a donation for $50 made to Waterloo Alley Cat Project in their name.

“I think it’s a super-fun layering,” Wooten says when asked about the contest. “It was Pete’s idea. We are giving away a gift certificate and donation. I don’t know how many people will do it, but I’m super excited to see what comes in. When I first started, I was such a purist. The record had to be organically found. I had to find it in the bins. I couldn’t know the artist. Through the years it would soften and I would get turned on to an artist, who had done something on a cover. I expanded the vision to any cover that had been altered. So I think this contest will be fun. It’s the first time the exhibit has been interactive.”