Marred for Life!: Defaced Record Covers from the Collection of Greg Wooten

Found art in the form of record covers, lovingly and mischievously vandalized by anonymous music lovers

Marred for Life! presents over 250 record covers, lovingly and mischievously vandalized by anonymous music lovers. The LP covers were selected from the collection of Greg Wooten, a Los Angeles–based collector, musician and design purveyor. Wooten and his community of record-collector friends have discovered these in used record bins over the course of several years. Sometimes over-the-top and other times subtle―and often, really funny―the objects become a kind of found folk art.

Bloodshot eyes, blackened teeth, moustaches, tattoos, reviews, love letters, collage and psychedelic and pornographic embellishings of record covers by Elvis, 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, Neil Young and more can be found here. The book is edited by Jason Fulford, in a way that highlights connections and humor between the covers.

Wooten’s new art book, Marred for Life!, is a curated slice of his massive collection of defaced records, featuring covers with additions and alterations ranging from blacked-out eyeballs to commentary like “sexist cover” (Quinn Moreland Pitchfork)