most creative album covers

[Strangeband]

I had a flash about this album cover last night but first a quick story. In the fall of 1972, I got the keys to the radio station at Emory and Henry College. The station had not been on the air for a year and was stacked with records. I had to organize the mess and saw a classical album covered with magic marker. I filled it away but late one night thought I should take a second look.

Then I realized what I had: Another Monty Python Record! I wonder if they fooled anyone else. . .

 

[mhardy6647]

We have that Monty Python! I picked it up somewhere because the cover was so funny.

 

[tankdonovan]

How about The Beatles "Sgt Peppers" or "Revolver" or "Abby Road"?

 

[Tubejunke]

I was gettin ready to say I can't believe nobody mentioned The Beatles-Sgt.Pepper cover. Finally Tankdonovan spoke up. That cover really started it all. I think it was the first gate fold.

The Stones answer to Sgt Pepper came in the form of Thier Satanic Majesties Request. Another VERY interesting gatefold, especially if you have the 3-D version.

I also like the cover of The Moody Blues-In Search Of The Lost Chord a lot...

 

[soundtravels]

Big Brother & the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills! Classic R. Crumb art and the official approval by Hells Angels. Some of the best Janis ever. Sorry for not having a pic, bought my last lp without a cover and the cd I have just isn't the same.

 

[john_w]

Speaking of Moody Blues cover art...

Interesting info on "A Question of Balance" from http://www.toadmail.com/~notten/FAQ-4-06.htm.

Apparently, the original version of that cover might be a collector's item...

Cover artist Phil Travers originally included a small painting of a man named Blashford Snell within the collage of A Question of Balance (AqoB). Snell was a well-known British explorer and children's advocate, and the painting on AQoB was inspired by a photograph, which appeared in National Geographic. The original album image was of Snell wearing a pith helmet, holding a pistol and pointing it at an elephant. After the album was released, Snell sued Decca Records and the Moodies over the image, which he said was "a source of constant embarrassment over being on the cover." Travers, with the direction of Decca, changed the image of Snell to that of a man without a pith helmet holding the pistol (although some altered versions have a black box over the eyes). Unfortunately, Decca only printed up new covers within England and not abroad. So Snell filed suit again against Decca and the Moodies. All future copies of A Question of Balance (vinyl, cassette and CD) are supposed to be printed with the altered version. Though, when Mobile Fidelity released their version of AQoB, it had the original version of the cover. When asked about it, they said since the Threshold CD remastered version had the original cover, they [Mobile Fidelity] felt it was OK to do the same.

I don't see what he's talking about on either version on the copy I just posted - too small I guess. But I do remember seeing a big game hunter aiming at an elephant on an actual cover.


Also interesting info about the cover of "The Present" from the same site:

The front cover is an adaptation of Maxfield Parrish's 1922 work "Daybreak," which also incorporates some elements of Parrish's "The Garden of Allah." The differences are that in the Moody version, the standing figure is wearing clothing and is giving a "present" of an "X" (since it's the Moodies' 10th studio album) to the reclining figure. The urns and some background differences are adapted from "The Garden of Allah." Also, in Parrish's art nouveau version, there was no spaceship just around the corner as there is on the back cover of The Present.

I've always thought that the "X" he was offering the woman was a chromosome - a discrete sex reference by way of genetics . But in that case, shouldn't he be handing her a "Y"? She's already got 2 of what he's offering!

(I always really liked that album - not just for any particular songs, but just for the general sound and production of the album as a whole.)

 

[john_w]

More Favorite Moodies!

Another interesting one - To Our Children's Children's Children...

(Notice anything out-of-place?)

On Long Distance Voyager, it's hard to see in this copy - just a blue smudge in the sky - but there's something that looks like a space probe hanging in the sky.

Finally, the previously mentioned "In Search of the Lost Chord":

From previously noted web-site:

Jimmy Durante recorded a song called "The Guy Who Found the Lost Chord," which recounts an old English legend about, in the words of Mike Pinder, "an organist who, while practicing one day, hit a particular chord which elevated his consciousness and he experienced what might be called nirvana or a glimpse of heaven -- perhaps a trance of sorts. However, as with all forms of stimulants, it was short lived and he moved one hand and could not find that special chord again. He spent the rest of his life searching for it."

Ever have that feeling, when the harmonics on a certain chord, 4-part vocal harmony, measure in a symphony, etc. just kind of send you someplace else?

Or was it something I ate/drank/smoked?

 

[john_w]

Sort of off-topic, but here is the whole Moodies FAQ page where I got the quotes from.

 

[clint e.]

Another Great Covers IV

Clint. :thmbsp:

 

[clint e.]

Another Great Covers part V

clint. :thmbsp:

 

[clint e.]

Another great covers part VI

clint :thmbsp:

 

[clint e.]

Stones Bootleg Covers

clint.

 

[crooner]

I nominate Vytas Brenner's La Ofrenda

Gotta dig that awesome cover and record label.

This is 1973 progressive rock from Venezuela

 

[modge]

Family bandstand, Allso Selling England By The pound, Genesis. They should be hanging in a art museum. Fantastic.

 

[tcdriver]

Leigh Stephens "Red Weather"

 

[john_w]

Of course we can't forget the famous Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" with the real working zipper on the cover. Yes it's a marketing gimick, but a funny one!

 

[clint e.]

Some Erotic Covers.

clint.

 

[thedelihaus]

I really dug the Stones' Sticky Fingers with the working zipper, and the Velvet Underground Peel Slowly And See banana album cover.

 

[Strangeband]

Another Bandstand Fan

Family bandstand, Allso Selling England By The pound, Genesis. They should be hanging in a art museum. Fantastic.

I love that classic TV screen design for Bandstand and had nominated Fearless earlier.

Cheers.

 

[gearhead]

The cover was better than the music, IMHO.
One of Ronnie Montrose's more disappointing projects.