Sketch of a custom Valentino Haute Couture dress by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli. The dress is a tulle gown with butterfly wing inserts on the bodice and flying butterflies on the skirt. The cape is embroidered with nacre micro sequins and lined with a multicolor organza butterfly.
Perry performing during the acoustic section of the tour (including By the Grace of God, a mash-up of “The One That Got Away” and Thinking of You, and Unconditionally). Newark, New Jersey in July 2014.
The Prismatic World Tour is the third concert tour by American singer Katy Perry, in support of her fourth studio album, Prism (2013). The tour began on May 7, 2014 in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the Odyssey Arena.
A portion of the money generated from tickets for the second leg of the tour were donated to UNICEF, Autism Speaks, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Perry first teased the tour during her We Can Survive event at the Hollywood Bowl on October 23, 2013, where she encouraged fans to see her on her 2014 tour, stating that it would be “magical”.
Prism (2003) is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Katy Perry. The promotional photographs and album cover were shot by Ryan McGinley.
After ending her California Dreams Tour, Perry stated that she intended to “live a little” before recording any new material that was “worth listening to”. When ex-husband Russell Brand left her on December 30, 2011, she felt devastated and contemplated suicide. Perry revealed to Vogue in June 2012 that she planned to record a “darker” album than her previous records. She stated: “It was inevitable, after what I went through. If I had a time machine and could go back in time, I would. But I can’t, so, you’ll discover another part of me.” To Interview, she admitted she aspired to include a more acoustic vibe to the record.
The development of Prism started when Perry was embarking on the California Dreams Tour. She began with a process she deemed “slow cooking”, which consisted of recording random “fragments of ideas” into her mobile phone’s dictaphone application. A member of Direct Management Group, Ngoc Hoang, then transcribed the audio files, which he inserted into what Perry described as a “treasure chest”; such object was consulted by Perry later on during the album’s recording sessions. While Perry started recording the album officially in November 2012, accompanied by Greg Wells and Greg Kurstin, she noted she was still in a “dark place”, and that she had not “let the light in”. The sessions began again in March 2013, following a trip to Africa which Perry credited as having “put [her] priorities in perspective”, thus leading her to “do more work on [her]self”. Perry also viewed a video made by Eckhart Tolle, which discusses loss. She commented: “When you lose something, all your foundations crumble—but that also leaves a big hole that’s open for something great to come through.”
Based on a German drinking song, Must Be Santa is structured as a call and response, with the lead singer posing the question of who has a certain feature, with a chorus responding that Santa Claus has said feature. After every other verse, the list of features mentioned up to that point is reiterated, followed by the chorus of “must be Santa” repeated three times and ending with “Santa Claus.”
In November 2009, Bob Dylan covered Brave Combo‘s version of the song in a polka style for his Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart. The New York Daily News described Dylan’s version as such: “It’s sort of unclear if Dylan (…) was aiming to celebrate the holiday, or gently poke fun at the music’s Norman Rockwell-esque simplicity.”
Get a Grip (1993). Art direction: Michael Golob. Cover design: Hugh Syme. Photography: Edward Colver, William Hames. An animal rights group objected to the cover of a cow’s pierced udder, but it was confirmed by Aerosmith to have been computer-generated.
Alternative design cover
Get a Grip is the 11th studio album by American rock band Aerosmith. It was the band’s last studio album to be released by Geffen before they returned to Columbia Records. Get a Grip became Aerosmith’s best-selling studio album worldwide, achieving sales of over 20 million copies, and is tied with Pump for their second best-selling album in the United States, selling over 7 million copies as of 1995. This also made it their third consecutive album with US sales of at least five million. Two songs from the album won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, in 1993 and 1994. The album was voted Album of the Year by Metal Edge readers in the magazine’s 1993 Readers’ Choice Awards, while Livin’ on the Edge was voted Best Video.
Get a Grip featured guests including Don Henley (a founding member of The Eagles), who sang backup on Amazing, and Lenny Kravitz, who offered backup vocals and collaboration to Line Up.
Mark Coleman, for his Rolling Stone magazine review of Get a Grip, said he liked the title track and he compared the album’s introduction, titled Intro, to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry‘s collaboration with Run–D.M.C. on Walk This Way, but feels that most of the album lacks “adventure” and is too “somber”. In his interview he compared Livin’ on the Edge to a Bon Jovi song and feels that a problem with the album comes from the outside songwriters/collaborators.
Regarding songs that reflect on the band’s history with drug abuse such as Get a Grip and Amazing, Steven Tyler declared: “We were saying you can point it back to some of those old beliefs about the crossroads and signing up with the devil, that you can look at the drugs as that: It can be fun in the beginning but then it comes time to pay your debt, and if you’re not sharp enough to see that it’s taking you down, then it really will get you.”
Image from Rush’s Counterparts (1993) album design, also by Hugh Syme
Seeing is believe. Another computer-generated ilustration by Hugh Syme for an ad campaign, made almost fifteen years after Get a Grip was released.
Milk Cow Blues is a blues song written and originally recorded by Kokomo Arnold. Elvis Presley, accompanied by Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass, recorded a rockabilly version retitled Milk Cow Blues Boogie at Sun Records in November or December 1954.
Sketch of a custom Valentino Haute Couture dress by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli. The dress is a tulle gown with butterfly wing inserts on the bodice and flying butterflies on the skirt. The cape is embroidered with nacre micro sequins and lined with a multicolor organza butterfly.
Perry performing during the acoustic section of the tour (including By the Grace of God, a mash-up of “The One That Got Away” and Thinking of You, and Unconditionally). Newark, New Jersey in July 2014.
The Genealogy of Style 