Mar 05
Sally B. Comments: I can’t figure out what’s happening with his girlfriend. Is her left arm exploding? Is he sitting on her right foot?
Published 1981
Sally B. Comments: I can’t figure out what’s happening with his girlfriend. Is her left arm exploding? Is he sitting on her right foot?
Published 1981
March 5th, 2020 at 9:21 am
Ah, another “Middle School Watercolorist” sort of cover.
The woman’s posture is…odd. She seems to have an arm around Silver Dude – presumably concealed by the guitar – but her legs look as if she’s trying to push him off that pot or planter or whatever he’s sitting on. [1] I suppose she’s supposed to be sitting, too, but on what? Her posterior is well clear of the stairs, and there doesn’t seem to be enough room on the pot for two. Perhaps the Silver Metal Lover comes with built-in seating he can extrude from his hips?
The buildings in the background look vague and of dubious construction (check that building on the right somehow imitating a tornado funnel, or the transparent dome on the left filled most with stairs and gummy bear people) and indeed the background as a whole is a sparkly suggestion of a world with little substance.
[1] Not very comfortable, I’d think, but a Silver Metal Butt presumably is resilient.
March 5th, 2020 at 9:56 am
“Tell me about the time you met Donovan…”
March 5th, 2020 at 11:31 am
An the award for egregious colour-coding goes to. . .
March 5th, 2020 at 11:32 am
It’s like Woodstock with the good acid.
March 5th, 2020 at 2:26 pm
Where on the heavy metal spectrum is Silver Metal? I’m thinking somewhere near avant-garde and progressive metal. With a touch of Donovan.
March 5th, 2020 at 2:38 pm
‘Do you know anything by Dee D. Jackson?’
March 5th, 2020 at 4:35 pm
The Silver Metal in the title is actually referring to the composition of the most excellent Stool / Bongo Drum.
Everyone on the world LOVES to sit upon the unique Silver Metal Stool / Bongo Drum, and this scene depicts a wandering space minstrel and onesie enthusiast, who arose early to get there first this morning, being edged off his perch by the local owner of a New Age Crystal and Healing Herb shop.
Less athletic admirers sit and have breakfast and watch the combat over coffee in The Blob, the local circular / globular building across the way.
March 5th, 2020 at 5:44 pm
“It’s the year 2300 AD, a dark future where cosmic radiation has destroyed good taste…”
March 5th, 2020 at 5:45 pm
And why isn’t the guitar bright orange or neon green?
March 5th, 2020 at 6:08 pm
Didn’t need to see the tags — or even the whole cover — to know it’s SFBC.
I think she may be unconscious. Perhaps the Silver Metal Lullaby has put her to sleep. Or she took something to put her out so she didn’t have to hear his tunes.
I also think the tornado is hoovering up her the shoulder of her dress. Or perhaps providing enough lift to keep her hovering in that position, since Mr. Silver there isn’t sharing the… flower pot… traffic bollard… conga drum?
In further ridiculous romance cover news, I bring you this.
https://smile.amazon.com/Dark-Lover-Black-Dagger-Brotherhood-ebook/dp/B000PDYVU2
The gent’s name is “Wrath”.
His friends hight “Phury” and “Rhage”.
There are 17 more of these.
March 5th, 2020 at 8:53 pm
She’s definitely not The Heavy Metal Lover
March 5th, 2020 at 10:18 pm
He just has to be singing ‘Starman’ – while they both wait for the future barbecue on the left to be ready.
March 6th, 2020 at 4:45 am
Of course, there are worse options than the “fuzzy pot smoke” look:
https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1230177970l/1319403.jpg
March 6th, 2020 at 11:06 am
@Bruce
Kudos for finding a link to that one. I think the ghost of Tanith Lee is systematically erasing it from the internet.
March 6th, 2020 at 2:08 pm
The cooler Mork & Mindy. “I’ve found a silver machine.”
March 11th, 2020 at 8:17 am
What, no one’s said yet how wonky his left foot, and both her feet, look?
March 11th, 2020 at 10:37 am
@Tracy: I guess we’re all becoming quite jaded about bad feet. We should give the artist some props for owning their incompetence and not covering up the feet with random rocks or ground mist.
March 11th, 2020 at 11:13 pm
@Bruce: It’s conceivable that his feet or his boots are shaped weird, so really her feet are the only dodgy ones. And not so badly done as to scare one at a first, quick glance.
Art schools obviously need to double their coursework on feet.
August 21st, 2021 at 5:56 pm
The gleaming city of the future was awakened by the android’s guitar and voice…
“SMOOOKE ON THE WAAATER, fire in the sky…!”
August 21st, 2021 at 6:43 pm
Janis Joplin and Tom Jones done wore themselves out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZmiefQ5y4U
August 22nd, 2021 at 1:37 am
@fred: GSS! Great find!
I was just wondering if the woman was inflatable or a floppy mannequin or something. It would explain her position and her ability to perch on the tiniest part of the… let’s go with seat. Maybe he’s a ventriloquist?
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:11 am
She’s a figment of his musical imagination.
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:17 pm
@fred: they’re both figments of some woman by the name of Tanith. (Is that a _real_ name?) Or maybe some dude called “Rob.”
August 22nd, 2021 at 8:22 pm
I thought that Tanith Lee is what you use to revive The Mummy.
April 29th, 2022 at 1:15 am
I can’t parse the title: does it mean “the lover of the silver metal” or “the lover who was made out of silver metal”?
April 29th, 2022 at 7:46 am
@JJ: I had to read this for a college course. It’s the latter, I’m afraid.
April 29th, 2022 at 9:18 pm
@FGK: long time no see!
April 29th, 2022 at 9:18 pm
@FGK: long time no see!
(really hoping your college course was on sci-fi, not Old English or something)
April 30th, 2022 at 1:06 am
@FGK. – i was afraid that might be the correct answer. Then again, at last the title is a little less redundant. I look forward the Concrete Cement Sidewalk.
May 2nd, 2022 at 8:15 am
@GSS: Yes, it was a sci-fi course. It was that kind of college.