Album Covers - The Art of the LP
Part of the allure of buying LPs is the added bonus of getting a great looking album cover. Some of the art and design is simply magnificent. Some of it, hmmmm not so much. Here we chat about some of the covers we find most excellent or interesting and some that just make us scratch our heads.
Rick James - Fire It UpWhat's the epitome of cool? I have no idea but Rick James sure made it a point to put it on display whenever he could. The guy who brought some legitimacy back to Motown in the late 70s with hits like Give It To Me and Super Freak had style and flair.
The front cover of his album "Fire It Up", proves this point. James is shown in a "Yes, I'm a bad ass" pose has him tokin' on a fat one. He's outfitted in some kind of flashy cowboy outfit complete with the hat, pistol and bling. Move over John Travolta, here's the Urban Cowboy. You can try to deny it, but you wish you looked this good wearing that outfit. And, if that isn't enough, he reminds you that he plays guitar with the placement of his six-string shotgun at this feet. Flip the cover over and he only gets cooler. Still donning the cowboy outfit, he's now sandwiched between - well, two fine looking cowgirls. Again, striking another "I'm a bad ass" pose, Rick shows how this cowboy rides. I'm not even sure what it in his hair. Could be just the lighting reflecting off of whatever greasy stuff he might have in his hair or perhaps he had his hair sequined for the photo shoot. No matter. He pulls it off. |
Dave Mason - Alone TogetherSo, here's an album that I bought strictly for the cover. In fact, the record is badly warped and cracked. But the cover is friggin cool. It's a vertical tri-fold that opens to the picture on the left.
I'm not really sure the significance in the rocky cliff scene with Big Head Dave peering over the top while miniature Dave stands below unaware but certainly comfortable in his pose. This is just a great example of the flexibility that record companies have with LPs that they don't have with other media. The back of this fold out has another picture of Dave Mason looking more like the Mad Hatter underneath what could be a time-lapsed photo of a moon rise except that it's 6 shots of the same part of a tree & the moon is in the same spot relative to the tree. So, the designers just got lazy & changed the background color. Also, note the pocket that is to hold the LP. Now, what all of this has to do with the album title or concept who knows. But no matter. Still a cool concept |
Neil Diamond - Hot August Night
I’ll be right up front. Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night is one of my favorite albums of all time. The reasons why are for another time. This is about the album cover. Let’s forget the fact that the shot that was used is one with his mouth open. No one ever looks good with their mouth open. Aside from that, just what is it that he’s doing? Clearly it’s a shot from the live show recorded for this record but he can’t be singing. He has no microphone in his hands. Although, one could argue that from the way he is holding his hands he was holding a microphone and the photo editor edited it out. But that doesn’t seem likely. So, let’s just leave it as that he was in the “moment” during an instrumental part. The thing I find most perplexing with this photo is that it really doesn’t even look like him. Again, maybe it’s the mouth being open or that his chin is in his chest. I just don’t know. At the very least you’d want Neil in a recognizable photo. I can attest to the fact that it is him as there is another photo inside that is clearly him wearing the same denim jacket with the ornamental Indian brooch. But you would have a tough time convincing me that this is him if this picture was taken out of context. And why in the hell is he wearing a denim jacket in the first place. After all, it IS a hot August night in Los Angeles. He must be sweating his balls off under the lights in that thing. Check out my review of a show on his 2017 tour |
JOHN WAITE - MASK OF SMILESPrevious cover reviews have focused on…well, the cover. This is a review of the back cover. Not really much to say about the cover, it’s a pretty typical 80s looking cover. John’s painted hands covering his left eye and part of his mouth giving him two different facial expressions. Nothing else to report. But things get interesting\strange on the back. I’m trying to imagine how it came to be….
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Y&T - IN ROCK WE TRUST
I just can’t figure this one out. What were the boys in Y&T going for? Did they tell the artist they wanted the cover to include a knight from the Island of Misfit Toys? Or maybe they had a drawing contest with a class of 4th graders and this was the winning drawing. But if a fourth grader drew it, what’s going on with the purple cod piece? And what’s up with the red and purple phallic symbols that make up the headstock…wait…phallic…headstock…ohhhhhh I get it! Let’s scratch the 4th grader idea. The bottom line is I just don’t understand. I can’t fathom the idea that the “artist” produced this piece of “art” for the cover and the band immediately said “YES! You nailed it! That’s one bad ass knight!! In Rock We Trust!!” |
THE WHO - WHO'S NEXT
This is one of those album covers that when you just glance at it you think it's just another odd photo shoot of a band and they decided to use a random photo for an album cover because they couldn't think of anything better. And maybe that's true but I'll tell you what they are doing here. They've just finished pissing on that concrete thing-a-ma-jig and they are zipping up their flys. WTF?? This is The Who, who at the time were one of the biggest bands in Rock and just coming off the huge hit 'Tommy' and the subsequent 'Live At Leeds' and they decide to take a trip seemingly out to the middle of nowhere for this photo shoot. Maybe they felt they didn't need to impress anyone with some overly produced album cover and just wanted to keep it real. Well, if so, mission accomplished. And just what is that concrete thing they pissed on? It almost looks like some remnant of a larger structure after an apocalyptic event laid waste to everything else around it. |