Saturate Before Using

[snopes]

Comment: I was just reading your articles on how the Byrds and ELO each
had albums given odd titles due to mistakes by their record companies, and
it brought to mind something I heard years ago that I've always accepted
as fact, but now I wonder. Jackson Browne had an album called "Saturate
Before Using" (one of my favorites of all time) that was supposed to be a
self-titled album, but the artwork had the words "saturate before using"
printed on it, and that stuck as the album's title. Any truth to this?

[RealityChuck]

Yes. Here is the cover

I noticed the "Saturate Before Using" when I played the albums for my college radio station back when it first came out. The album title was clearly supposed to be "Jackson Browne" -- all the promo material said so, and the name on the spine was "Jackson Browne" -- and the "Saturate before Using" was part of the album design. I believe that background of the image as some photographic equipment and the warning was standard.

The title "Saturate Before Using" was never official. The All Music Guide lists the album name as just "Jackson Browne."

It was fans who thought the words were the title.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

That's rather similar to Led Zeppelin IV (official title, I believe). The odd runelike symbols on the front looked like they spelt ZOSO (especially in the state most fans were when looking at it), so that became the common name.

[RealityChuck]

Actually, the official title is just "Led Zeppelin." But it was called Zoso by fans.

Hot Tuna's first album was usually called "Electric Hot Tuna Recorded Live" since that was the name on the cover. However, the name on the spine was "First Pull Up, Then Pull Down," which seems to be the official name. The cover no longer has "Electric Hot Tuna Recorded Live" on it.

[Ramblin' Dave]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

Actually, the official title is just "Led Zeppelin." But it was called Zoso by fans.

Most sources I've seen say either that album has no title, or that the four symbols are the title. The latter is my theory, since they appear on the record label where you'd expect the album title to be.

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by Ramblin' Dave

Most sources I've seen say either that album has no title, or that the four symbols are the title. The latter is my theory, since they appear on the record label where you'd expect the album title to be.

Which makes the album title "Led Zeppelin" since each of the four symbols represent a band member (devised by Jimmy Page through his fascination with the occult)

Reminds me of an incident with Blink-182 and their self titled album (by the way its awesome that they're back).

The self titled album was a totally mature and pretty experimental album for the guys, but that didn't mean that in interviews they wouldn't joke around anymore, quite the contrary, they were still the same immature boys they always had been, outside of their new music.

Anyway, in an interview, the guitarist, Tom joked about how the album had two connected songs that they were tentatively titling "Use Your Erection 1&2" a clear play on the Guns and Roses album titles "Use Your Illusion" and "Use Your Illusion 2." (The two songs in question are titled Easy Target and All Of This.)
Fans quickly read through the interview, and in their haste, reported all across the internet, that the new album would be titled Use Your Erection 1&2. The false news spread quickly. So fast in fact, Amazon picked up the info and believed it to be the title, because it was being reported so all across the internet. So they put up a listing on Amazon 2 or 3 months prior to the release of the album, allowing customers to reserve their copy. When word came out that the album was to be self titled, Amazon was potentially in trouble, customer's could demand that they got the album Use Your Erection 1&2, not the album Blink-182, in theory, they could have been sued. So Amazon pulled some strings, and arranged somehow for the Japanese pressing (with one live bonus track) of the album to be titled Use Your Erection. So all over the world the album is titled Blink-182, except in Japan.