What is this symbol on the Cocteau Twins album cover (saw this and feel ancient)

[-]

imalloverthemap@reddit

TIL there’s a shoegaze sub and now I’ll never get off my phone

[-]

PookiPoke@reddit

Symbol?!? I can't stop laughing. 51 here.

[-]

WhiplashMotorbreath@reddit

An adapter for playing 45's "singles" you put it in the 45's hole and left it there. instead of using the turbtable adapter that you'd put on the platter and then slip the 45 on top.

These adapters on the album cover stayed in the 45, you didn't remove them most times, They also allowed you to stack 45's if you had a record player with the automatic drop of another record spindle system.

These had a 6" ish tall center spindle, that you'd stack records on. and at end of the record playing, after the tone arm automaticly retrn to the side, would drop the next record and then drop the needle on the record.

[-]

Ok_Television9820@reddit

FIVE HUNDRED QUATLOOS ON THE NEWCOMERS!

nah, I’m kidding, but it does sort of match.

I still have at least one of these (yellow) but my turntable came with a more solid adapter, much easier to remove between discs.

[-]

elspotto@reddit

Cue brass heavy fight music and someone explain how my shirt always seems to rip when the music kicks in.

[-]

Ok_Television9820@reddit

Rule of Cool, baby!

[-]

correct_use_of_soap@reddit

Drill thrall

[-]

elspotto@reddit

That’s that boomerang thing from Krull, obviously.

[-]

unclefes@reddit

A Kruller!

[-]

Timely-Youth-9074@reddit

It’s a Triskelion.

The three arms represent Earth, Wind and Fire or the Maiden, Mother or Crone. It’s an ancient Celtic symbol dating back to Neolithic Era…

I know it’s a 45 adapter.

[-]

dystopiadattopia@reddit

Time for my Geritol

[-]

LifeAsNix@reddit

Shiiiiiiiiit…Pass me the Metamucil

[-]

Fatgirlfed@reddit

Y’all seen my polident?

[-]

LifeAsNix@reddit

Yup, it’s in the bathroom with your Calgon

[-]

Fearless_Lab@reddit

I woke my dog up with an out loud OOOOF.

[-]

Icy_Independent7944@reddit

Was gonna say; it made me sad this was a question 😢🥺

gif

[-]

RiverJai@reddit

Geritol shots shots shotsshotsshots

[-]

PastIsPrescient@reddit (OP)

😂😂😂

[-]

elsteve-9@reddit

These are the types of posts that instantly make me feel old. I thought Vinyl made a comeback?

[-]

Frobbotzim@reddit

It did, but 45's with the big holes didn't. Spiders were workarounds for a problem that kind of went away with jukeboxes, and it's rare to find a 7" born after 1988 that needs one.

[-]

elsteve-9@reddit

I would have thought kids would have found all the old 45’s in their parents attic /basement and had to use these to play them.

[-]

Senior-Name2536@reddit

I was recently at a hotel in Cork, Ireland that had a record player in the hotel room with two records. One was CCR and the other was Cocteau Twins. While I realize this comment isn’t related to the thread, it is so nice to see the Cocteau Twins pop up twice in three short weeks. Takes me back to a great time in life.

[-]

luckyxina@reddit

Me too! Vivid memories of driving down Sunset Blvd. in a friend’s Ghia blasting Treasure on a Friday night. Life couldn’t have gotten better in those moments.

[-]

Senior-Name2536@reddit

Ha! It was my buddy’s Monte Carlo in Atlanta listening to The Pink Opaque.

[-]

SkinTeeth4800@reddit

How cool that the hotel had a record player in the room, and that it had THOSE two records, especially Cocteau Twins!

I could see another hotel hamfisting the gimmick -- "Check out how hep our hotel is! We have vinyls in the room! Here's a beaten-up thrift-store Vanilla Ice and a Hall & Oates and a Kenny G!"

[-]

Fatgirlfed@reddit

Whoa, hey! Are you saying bad things about Hall & Oats? I can’t go for that!

[-]

Due-Carob6689@reddit

Haha awesome comment !

[-]

Mookie442@reddit

Guy’s a real maneater.

[-]

Senior-Name2536@reddit

No can do

[-]

Senior-Name2536@reddit

[-]

dougmd1974@reddit

Great album. I believe this one was how I first became acquainted with them back in 1990

[-]

Friendly_Ad_2256@reddit

I’m old

[-]

EdwardBliss@reddit

For 45's it was either this or that rectangle thing!

[-]

SummerBirdsong@reddit

We had the rectangle thing.

[-]

MyriVerse2@reddit

My "rectangle thing" was crooked.

[-]

RhoOfFeh@reddit

We had a cylinder with a conical section at the top. Handy for a player that could drop multiple stacked records.

[-]

Ok_Television9820@reddit

Technics turntables (at least the SL1200 series) come with a round adapter. Just a quite thick disc. Better for scratching and mixing than the triskelion.

[-]

s-h-a-n-k-f-o-o@reddit

[-]

CreatrixAnima@reddit

Sigh. We are dinosaurs.

[-]

centralreservation04@reddit

I worked in an independent record store during high school that catered to DJs and had pretty much every 45 anyone could reasonably ask for.

My favorite job…

What did people do before the internet and Shazam? They came into the store and hummed a few bars of the song they heard on the radio to the kid behind the counter.

“It’s The Temptations… or The Four Tops. Probably The Temptations”…

[-]

SadCranberry8838@reddit

Shee-yit. My FP phono had a brown plastic retractable 45 adapter. Years ahead of its time.

[-]

gtmc5@reddit

My favorite neck tie is just a ton of those in red on a blue background, it always gets smiles from those who recognize on the odd occasion I ever have to wear a tie.

[-]

Alovingcynic@reddit

*Reaches for a Werther's.* I played this album all the time when I was a new mother living in Brooklyn. That baby is now 31.

[-]

Unlucky_Profit_776@reddit

Ooh I have a relevant story! I was at the grocery and a random human stopped me and said "excuse me, is the king of the moon tattooed on you?" and I said yes and we both shared our love for Baron Munchausen and then I noticed he had the 45 tab tattooed on him. Then we both talked about how old and nerdh we are

[-]

Atticus-XI@reddit

I thought I was the only one who had this album. Side note - their appearance on Letterman (or Leno, can't quite recall) was a train wreck. Instead of performing Bluebeard well, they decided to arthouse their performance and Elizabeth Fraser did this bizarre, terrible vibrato that came off clumsy, shrill, and just ... wrong. But, that was probably their point. Usenet was not kind...

[-]

Frobbotzim@reddit

It was an era of poor decisions. Like the one where someone put the Cocteaus on stage in Kansas City after Soundgarden, just before Metallica was set to play, a couple of years after that Leno appearance. A clump of muddy moshpit hit Liz and that was that. Probably still a part of the reason that we can't have nice things here.

[-]

Useful-Badger-4062@reddit

I’m actually in the middle of painting a large one as an outdoor sign for my house.

[-]

Rigel66@reddit

love this particular nostalgia

[-]

dougmd1974@reddit

I loved them for many years. I met Liz Frasier back in the very early 90s in DC. Saw them in concert a couple times as well.

[-]

mourningsunrises@reddit

Found one of those in my basement just the other day. I had a 15 minute nostalgia break.

[-]

charliefoxtrot9@reddit

Awesome band

[-]

Greasystools@reddit

It’s likely for devil worship

[-]

elspotto@reddit

No, I don’t think so. And would know as I was an avid D&D player when it was revealed that would have been accepted as evidence at the Salem witch trials.

[-]

Wild-Guest-535@reddit

Who are the Coteau Twins? Conjoined twins at their cox?

[-]

Mookie442@reddit

This made me feel so fucking old.

[-]

PastIsPrescient@reddit (OP)

I know. Me too!

[-]

YetagainJosie@reddit

It's a 45 adapter. Artistically I think it's called a 'triskelle'.

[-]

turlian@reddit

Cue me aging that that dude at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

[-]

zoot_boy@reddit

Ok, so SHOEGAZE is a young pup. No need to do anything but let them know.

/seriously, we’re explaining what a 45 clip is??

[-]

myopicpickle@reddit

It's either the adapter for 45 singles on a record player, or the little thing they used to use to keep a pair of socks together in the washer.

[-]

Saint909@reddit

Great album.

[-]

seabass4507@reddit

Saw a band in 95 or so, called The Gain play at a small venue in the San Fernando valley. They brought a box of those things out and everyone started whipping them around the room like little frisbees.

I don’t recall much about the music, but the image of hundreds of tiny frisbees flying around has stuck with me.

[-]

saint_ryan@reddit

Most record players came with a large, round plastic one that always got lost. So unless you had a spare pop out one (like in the above pic) you just had to try to place the 45 dead center on the spindle. FYI - it rarely got on there perfect and so the record warbled and went in and out of tune.

[-]

elijuicyjones@reddit

Oh gosh does this question make me feel old. I never thought I’d have to explain that doohickey.

[-]

rastagrrl@reddit

Good lord. 🙄Youngins today don’t know nuthing!

gif

[-]

Zestyclose_Wing_1898@reddit

I must be old ass Gen-X , ibought lots of these for my 45 rpms….

[-]

Revolutionary_Gap150@reddit

TIL my 38 year old wife had no idea what this was. Im questioning everything now.

[-]

Fancy-Breadfruit-776@reddit

A spindle adapter. I almost got a tattoo of a spindle adapter. Thank god I didn't.

[-]

la_pan_ther_rose@reddit

It’s an ancient portal to the unknown!

[-]

hamma1776@reddit

44 or 75

[-]

Name_Redacted_369@reddit

It’s a triskele.

[-]

bakedquestbar@reddit

God I feel so old.

[-]

wormee@reddit

Grandpa needs a nap.

[-]

nickcliff@reddit

It’s a devil worship symbol. For young devil worshipers who worship the devil. Don’t let your parents see it.

[-]

dr_learnalot@reddit

Thanks. Now I feel ancient too.

[-]

tsekistan@reddit

I loved those guns. Far better than the cap guns. Aaaaaaaaaand, fell for my first love with the Cocteau Twins playing in the background. (Thank all of the gods of India that it didn't work out.)

[-]

CynfullyDelicious@reddit

Elizabeth Fraser is a gift from the Goddesses.

[-]

Joe_Early_MD@reddit

That’s a record adapter. Dang….maybe I should sign up like aarp keeps asking me to.

[-]

Bloody_Mabel@reddit

Officially, that is a 45 RPM Spindle Adapter. Unofficially, it was called a spider.

[-]

Resident-Fox6758@reddit

This is a joke , right?

[-]

PastIsPrescient@reddit (OP)

It has to be😂

[-]

jb4647@reddit

I bought that CD 30 years ago and have never noticed this until just now.

[-]

B4USLIPN2@reddit

Shirley, you must be choking.

[-]

breddy@reddit

I’m not choking. And don’t call me Shirley.

[-]

u2sarajevo@reddit

Your question was answered, but your post made me remember in the early nineties there was a small coffee shop in Oregon near Portland. The barista in the mornings almost always(the few times I went there) had Cocteau Twins playing.

After this album came out the next time I was up there, I went and guess how many calendars she had hanging on the walls? I almost expected it. I definitely giggled.

Anyway, thanks for digging that memory up. Time to visit either Heaven or Las Vegas.....

[-]

Mr_Horrible@reddit

I have a tattoo of that adapter on my elbow and have had someone recently ask "is that symbol from Star Wars?"

[-]

analogpursuits@reddit

Also known as a spider.

[-]

americruiser@reddit

what is this symbol at the end of SPIN Magazine articles?

[-]

sloppyredditor@reddit

Ah shit that reminds me I'm due for an oil change

[-]

NeauxDoubt@reddit

We had to work if we wanted to hear a single any time we wanted

[-]

Hopblooded@reddit

3 snakes, 1 charm

[-]

Ariusrevenge@reddit

Really love that album

[-]

minnesotawristwatch@reddit

That, young person, is a hot hose water chiller & filter.

[-]

DuranDourand@reddit

Hello fellow old who likes shoegaze.

[-]

Oldman_Dick@reddit

THE DEVIL

[-]

Away-Equipment4869@reddit

For the smaller records!

[-]

nrith@reddit

If only there were a word for those “smaller records.”

[-]

Ok_Television9820@reddit

Akshully for the records with the bigger holes, which are almost always the smaller records…. But lots of 7” and 10” records have the small hole! Especially indie pressings from the late 80’s and 90’s.

[-]

PastIsPrescient@reddit (OP)

Oh, I know 😂

[-]

EfficientFish_14@reddit

I have a box of those somewhere.

[-]

RhoOfFeh@reddit

We need to make up something good, and just plausible enough to get people spreading it.

Maybe something related to Dune/ecology. Those could be breaching sandworms around the outside if you squint.

[-]

Login8@reddit

It is a symbol for those that prefer to speed up the revolution instead of slowing it down.

[-]

wanderinronin@reddit

...it's a toilet paper roll insert for those stupid plastic holders that used a metal dowel...yeah that's the ticket.

[-]

PastIsPrescient@reddit (OP)

Love it!

[-]

jennc1979@reddit

Helped convert “singles” on a small 45 with a large hole in the center. I had two like that as a kid that needed that adapter; one was the “Rocking Robin” by the Jackson 5 and the other was “Pepino, the Italian Mouse” by Lou Monte. The 45 singles had large donut hole size holes in the center and need that adapter the larger EP albums on vinyl had the small hole punch size hole in the middle and didn’t need to.

[-]

PastIsPrescient@reddit (OP)

Now that’s the right answer 😂

[-]

NetworkingForFun@reddit

It is an adapter for the small 45 records with the big hole in the center.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/45_rpm_adapter

[-]

Stardustquarks@reddit

lol - I thought it was those plastic discs you could shoot from a toy gun!

[-]

cinciTOSU@reddit

Loved playing with those!