A present for music icon fans has one obvious trap: the person you are buying for already owns everything. My Music Icons Tube Map Art Prints collection features twenty-one discography maps, each drawn as a tube map in which every studio album is a station and every credited musician is a line.
Here is what convinced me these maps belong in one collection rather than filed separately. John Lennon is credited as a musician on David Bowie's Young Americans in 1975, so he is a single line on one map here and the entire subject of another.
That did not come from a press release. It came out of the credit sheets while I was drawing lines, and it is why this guide is about choosing between the maps rather than listing them for you.
David Bowie Discography Tube Map Art Print
Twenty-six studio albums from 1967 to Blackstar, and the map most people in this collection reach for first.
Explore This Art PrintCarlos Alomar Runs Twenty-Eight Years, and Mike Garson Vanishes for Twelve
The Bowie map is the one where the lines behave least like you expect. Carlos Alomar arrives on Young Americans in 1975 and is still there on Reality in 2003, eleven albums and twenty-eight years apart.
Mike Garson also lands on eleven albums, but his line breaks. He plays on Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups, Diamond Dogs and Young Americans, then disappears for twelve years before turning up again on Never Let Me Down in 1987.
Earl Slick does something stranger still. Two albums in 1975 and 1976, then nothing at all until Heathen in 2002, which is a gap of twenty-six years drawn as a single line across the print.
The album that swells is Black Tie White Noise in 1993, with twenty-four credited musicians. The 1967 debut has five, and Blackstar has eleven.
Buy this one for the fan who thinks they already know the Bowie story. My Bowie map guide goes deeper into why the print works on a wall.
The Kick Inside Credits Andrew Powell With Beer Bottles, So He Gets a Line
People ask me why a famous producer is missing from a print. My rule is simple: a producer only earns a musician line if the sleeve also credits them for playing something.
Andrew Powell produced Kate Bush's first two albums, and he is on the Kate Bush map because the credits list him for keyboards, piano, Fender Rhodes, celeste, and, on track twelve of The Kick Inside, beer bottles. Beer bottles count. Production alone does not.
The same test puts Phil Spector on two maps in this collection, which I will come back to, and keeps a good many other well-known names off all of them.
The Red Shoes Puts Prince, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Lenny Henry on One Station
The Red Shoes in 1993 is the busiest single station on the Kate Bush map. Prince is credited with keyboards, guitar, bass, vocals and co-arrangement on track eleven, and Lenny Henry sings on the same track.
Eric Clapton plays guitar on track two, and Jeff Beck plays guitar on track twelve. Gary Brooker of Procol Harum is on the Hammond organ.
Two albums later, on 50 Words for Snow, Elton John takes a featured vocal on track five, and Stephen Fry appears as Professor Joseph Yupik on track six. Those are the credits that stop people mid-sentence in front of the print.
The steadiest line on that map belongs to her brother. Paddy Bush is on nine of the ten albums, credited with mandolin, sitar, koto, musical saw, didgeridoo, bullroarer and a strumento de porco, and he is absent only from 50 Words for Snow.
Del Palmer covers eight of the ten, missing the 1978 debut and Director's Cut. This is the map for someone who reads sleeve notes for pleasure, and my Kate Bush guide covers the rest.
Jennifer Warnes Arrives in 1979 and Is Still Singing on the 2019 Album
The Leonard Cohen map covers fifteen studio albums from 1967 to 2019, and one line runs almost the whole width of the latter half.
Jennifer Warnes first appears on Recent Songs in 1979 and is credited again on Various Positions, I'm Your Man, The Future, Dear Heather and finally Thanks for the Dance in 2019. Six albums across forty years, with gaps in between that you can see at a glance.
Thanks for the Dance is the poignant one, because Cohen died in 2016, and the record came out three years later. His son Adam Cohen is credited on classical guitar, Beck on Jew's harp and acoustic guitar, Damien Rice on vocals and Daniel Lanois on piano.
Death of a Ladies' Man in 1977 is the odd one out. Phil Spector produced it and is credited with playing guitar and keyboards, Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg sing background vocals, and Hal Blaine, Jim Keltner and Jesse Ed Davis all turn up in the same room.
John Bilezikjian's oud threads through Recent Songs, I'm Your Man and Dear Heather, twenty-five years apart at either end. There is more in my Leonard Cohen guide.
Some Time in New York City Credits Keith Moon as Kief Spoon
The John Lennon map plots twelve records: five solo, six with Yoko Ono, and one released after his death. One station on it caused me more transcription trouble than any other print I have drawn.
On Some Time in New York City in 1972, the sleeve credits are all pseudonyms. Eric Clapton is Derek Claptoe, Keith Moon is Kief Spoon, Klaus Voormann is Raus Doorman, Nicky Hopkins is Sticky Topkins, and George Harrison is George Harrisong.
Jim Gordon is Jim Bordom, Alan White is Dallas White, Bobby Keys is Robbie Knees, and Billy Preston is Billy Presstud. Every one of those had to be traced back to a real person before it could become a line.
Two other credits are worth standing close for. Elton John plays piano and sings harmony on "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" on Walls and Bridges, and on the same album, Julian Lennon plays drums on "Ya Ya".
Then there is the jazz corner: Ornette Coleman on trumpet, Charlie Haden and David Izenzon on double bass and Ed Blackwell on drums, all on "AOS" from 1970. My John Lennon guide works properly through the solo run.
Nebraska Is the Station Where Every Other Line Stops
The Bruce Springsteen map covers twenty-one studio albums from 1973 to 2022, and it has one moment that reads from across a room.
Nebraska, in 1982, features no credited musicians other than Springsteen himself. Every line on the print stops dead at that station, then starts again on "Born in the U.S.A."
Clarence Clemons dates from the 1973 debut, and his credit still appears on High Hopes in 2014, three years after his death. Patti Scialfa arrived on Tunnel of Love in 1987 and is still there on Letter to You in 2020.
This is the map I would buy for someone with a proper E Street opinion, and my Springsteen guide covers the band line-up properly.
Twelve Names That Appear on Two Different Maps in This Collection
These all came from the credit sheets, not from anybody's biography. Each one is a person who quietly links two prints that look unrelated on the shelf.
| Name | One map | And also on | What the credits say |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Lennon | John Lennon | David Bowie | Credited on Young Americans, 1975, so the subject of one map is a single station on another |
| Roy Bittan | Bruce Springsteen | David Bowie | On the Springsteen albums from Born to Run onwards, and on Station to Station in 1976 and Scary Monsters in 1980 |
| David Sanborn | David Bowie | Bruce Springsteen | Saxophone on Young Americans and saxophone on Born to Run, both released in 1975 |
| Carlos Alomar | David Bowie | John Lennon | Eleven Bowie albums, and backing vocals on Milk and Honey in 1984 |
| Earl Slick | David Bowie | John Lennon | Five Bowie albums across thirty-eight years, and lead guitar on Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey |
| Andy Newmark | David Bowie | John Lennon | Drums on Young Americans, then drums on Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey |
| Elton John | John Lennon | Kate Bush | Piano and harmony vocals on Walls and Bridges, and a featured vocal on 50 Words for Snow |
| Phil Spector | John Lennon | Leonard Cohen | Piano on Plastic Ono Band and harmony vocal on Imagine, then guitar and keyboards on Death of a Ladies' Man |
| Jim Keltner | John Lennon | Leonard Cohen | Drums on four Lennon records, and drums on Death of a Ladies' Man |
| Hal Blaine | John Lennon | Leonard Cohen | Drums on Rock 'n' Roll, and drums on Death of a Ladies' Man |
| Jesse Ed Davis | John Lennon | Leonard Cohen | Guitar on Walls and Bridges and Rock 'n' Roll, and guitar on Death of a Ladies' Man |
| Michael Brecker | John Lennon | Bruce Springsteen | Saxophone on Mind Games, and saxophone on Born to Run |
If you are buying for two people who like different artists, that's an argument for a pair of prints rather than one.
Choosing the Right Present for the Music Icon Fan You Actually Know
Every map here is a Giclée art print in A2 (420 x 594mm) and A1 (594 x 841mm), from £42, with an optional black wood frame. The difference between the two sizes is not really size; it is reading distance.
A2 works above a desk or on a landing, where the album titles carry and the guest credits stay as texture. A1 is for the person who will stand a foot away and hunt for Kief Spoon.
For the fan who thinks they know everything, take the Bowie map, because the Garson and Slick gaps are new information even to people who own the box sets. For the reader who loves a lyric, take Cohen.
For someone who follows the strange instruments, take Kate Bush and the didgeridoo and the musical saw. For the Beatles obsessive who has run out of Beatles things, the Lennon map gives them a whole second discography.
For a sixtieth or a retirement, I would go A1 and framed in black wood, whichever artist you land on.
What People Ask Me Before They Buy One of These
Is Bowie the safe choice? Usually, yes, but only if they actually like the later records. Somebody who stops at Ziggy will get less from a print that runs to Blackstar than they would from a single-era map.
Do you include the albums made with other people? Yes, where the artist is credited. That is why the Lennon map carries the records made with Yoko Ono, and why Milk and Honey, released after his death, is still a station.
My person is a Beatles fan rather than a Lennon fan. Is there something closer? There is. The Beatles collection guide compares the band map with the McCartney, Lennon and Harrison ones side by side.
Why is a famous producer missing from the print? Because they only produced. Andrew Powell is on the Kate Bush map for playing beer bottles, and plenty of bigger names are absent for playing nothing.
Can I buy two and hang them together? That is what the table above is for. A Bowie and a Lennon print share Alomar, Slick and Newmark, so the pair reads as one system rather than two posters.
I genuinely cannot choose. There is an art print gift card in this collection, and I would rather they picked their own than politely open the wrong one.
Where I Would Start
Browse the full Music Icons Tube Map Art Prints collection, or widen it out across every era and genre in the Music Wall Art Prints collection.
If you are stuck between two of them, tell me who it is for and one album they have played to death. I have the credit sheets open most days, and I would rather check than let you guess.
