As a young fan of rock music in the 1970s, I would pore over my father's extensive album collection in the years before I would start buying my own. Some of the packaging was art in its own right, including the working zipper on the front of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers. And many of these albums were chock full of information about the musicians and their music.

I was especially happy when song lyrics were part of it, as I still thought that these people were somehow elevated and had somet...