[psmith2.0]

Okay, not "best"...

Enjoy, won't you?

A few of these had me laughing out loud (while cringing, of course).

[turtle]

Dear God some of those should have never been made!

[Foj]

I've found a few more "great" album covers.

[psmith2.0]

I dig the ABBA one there.

The two women are still hot, however (in that feathered, 70's way that I've come to appreciate as I get older).

But that IS a terrifying album cover. That one guy, sporting the tucked-into-his-boots look...

[ironlung]

hey pscates.. how did you end up at this website anyway?

[NosferaDrew]

I've always like this one:



Always good for certain threads that I see on TotalFark.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by ironlung hey pscates.. how did you end up at this website anyway?

I saw it mentioned at a guitar forum where I sometimes visit.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 I saw it mentioned at a guitar forum where I sometimes visit.

A likely story!

[Messiahtosh]

I've seen that before, somewhere...

But I think the best album cover ever is...Pearl Jam's Yield.



Ahh, then you open the flap on the cover and the Yield sign is in the middle of the ocean...nice.

[Chinney]

A *serious* favourite of mine has always been the cover of London Calling by the Clash. Captures the mood and the momen. I can't find an image that permits linking, but here is a link to a site that has the cover, which most or all of us know anyway.

http://www.popartuk.com/music/london...920-poster.asp

[Moogs]

God save me now... my eyes have been polluted by the Unholy Terrors of Tino the Molested, and Dave The Turntable Slave.

[MagSafe]

Gotta be the above , The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

[Moogs]

PS - That Yield album (aside from cool cover), gets damn high marks at Amazon. I wasn't even aware of it. I have Ten of course, and bits and pieces from Vs. and Vitology, which are OK. I've heard the new one is good, but I maybe I should take a look at Yield also. Thoughts?

BTW - All of your Album Covers are Belong to Pink Floyd.

[SKMDC]

Originally Posted by Chinney A *serious* favourite of mine has always been the cover of London Calling by the Clash. Captures the mood and the momen. I can't find an image that permits linking, but here is a link to a site that has the cover, which most or all of us know anyway. http://www.popartuk.com/music/london...920-poster.asp

London Calling was an homage to this

[ironlung]

I agree with you messiatosh.. yield's cover is pretty damn good. Has any one seen the album cover for pulse (pink floyd) with the blinking light?

[psmith2.0]

I've seen both those Elvis and Clash covers a gazillion times in my life and never put that together.

Probably just never saw them side-by-side...

Cool. The lettering and everything!

[BarracksSi]

Look at almost any album cover from Blue Note Records. I think they even put out a picture book collection of covers. Really, really nice-looking stuff.

My favorite -- EVER -- is Spinal Tap's album. In one black monolith it spoofed every rock album cover ever conceived.

And, the ones in the first link are terrible. Wow.

[Moogs]

Originally Posted by ironlung I agree with you messiatosh.. yield's cover is pretty damn good. Has any one seen the album cover for pulse (pink floyd) with the blinking light?

My ex bought me a copy of that one when it came out. The little battery crapped out pretty quick but it was a neat gimmick. Cover art was cool enough that it didn't need it though. Always been a fan of Floyd's inside covers too. The inside cover for Division Bell was very cool.

[Robo]

"Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd" comes (or came, at some point in time) with a book of art by the guy who does all their album art (pity I can't remember his name).

It's nice to see people like that get recognition. I've done art direction for a few local bands, and it's something I'd persue in the future if there weren't a million things I'd rather do first (I don't mean that in a bad way).

It's kinda surprising, but I would love to direct music videos. I love building a story off of a song, and tying visuals to music. Music plays a big part in my scripts - two of my scipts are named after songs, one band's songs are featured in each of my scripts, and two of my scripts are musicals - one actually based off of an album. People always joke about Hollywood hiring lousy directors whose only prior experience is directing music videos, but I would love to get my start that way. Heck - they're the only kind of short films that many people watch.

[Moogs]

There was actually like a 200 page hard cover book of Pink Floyd album art (artists concept drawings, etc) at Amazon. I had it carted for the longest time then it went out of print. Pissed me off.

[Ah, new edition out... still hard to find... Amazon.ca style!

[Messiahtosh]

I am always mesmerized by Nirvana's In Utero. Nevermind was just...I understand the concept...but really, come on.

[wecallitfall]

for me....


EDIT:i just noticed this must be the American version because the UK version had the date "AUGUST 21 THURSDAY" on the calendar thing, which was the day it was released - which coincidentally was an odd day to release an album as they're normally released on Mondays to get the most run-up to get the #1 spot, but Be Here Now still managed to get #1 despite being released on a Thursday

[SKMDC]

The company that did all the Floyd covers is called Hipgnosis, the 3 guys names are Aubry Powell, Peter Christopherson & Storm Thorgerson.
Not only did they do all the Floyds, but all the 10cc, UFO, Al Stewart covers. As well as the first Yes album without a Roger Dean cover (going for the one) McCartney's Venus & Mars & Wings over America albums. Led Zeppelin's Prescence.

I have a Book called "Walk Away Rene" which seems to be out of print but can be had here, rather inexpensively, and if you're into graphic design it's a bargain.
They tell many of the stories about the covers, (most famously, How the pig on the Animals cover got away) and since most of the covers aren't faked, details about how they did them.

As to the Elvis/Clash homage, there are dozens of other instances, I have a series of books all called Album Cover Art vol.1, 2, 3 etc. and they put many together that like 'scates you've seen individually but when put together blows your mind.

Blue Note's owner was a photographer and personally did all the covers in the 50's and 60's. I have a couple of his books as well (I have a cover art fetish) and in one they have a few pages of homages of pop/rock groups who've paid tribute to their cover art as well. The Blue Note books are still in print.

The CD pretty much killed album cover art, and I suppose the ease of digital downloads buries it even further, so it looks to be the relic of a time gone by. Pity, that.

[Chinney]

Thanks SKMDC for your comments on the links between the cover art. Fascinating.

On with the covers...although not in the spirit of 'Scates original post...a couple of Roxy Music covers I've always liked:

Country Life:



and Viva!

[SKMDC]

This Roxy cover was Bryan Ferry's girlfriend at the time, later to be Mrs. Jagger, Jerry Hall.

Country Life (the one with the two girls, also my favorite Roxy cover and album) at the time of it's release was quite scandalous and came wrapped in dark green cellophane.

[Engine Joe]

Originally Posted by SKMDC Country Life (the one with the two girls, also my favorite Roxy cover and album) at the time of it's release was quite scandalous and came wrapped in dark green cellophane.

Ironically, the image of the cover was plastered onto the sleeve of a number of OTHER records as a "here's our label's catalog" kind of thing. So as a 6 year old, I managed to see my first traces of female pubic hair when I took out a new vinyl copy of... actually, I can't recall the record, but it was vaguely kid-oriented.

I was stunned, amazed, and strangely compelled.

The rest of the good news is that the album itself is fantastic.

[Moogs]

Dirty little cover urchins. They all need a spanking, that's what I think.

[alcimedes]

Pink Floyd always wins.

[709]

Feh. Besides being one of the albums everyone should have in their top albums of all time collection...Chocolate and Cheese has a front & back cover that rock:





And yes, the music is just as good.

[Engine Joe]

Ween rocks.

Chocolate & Cheese is great, though I tend to favor the later stuff even more - The Mollusk, White Pepper (a Beatles reference if I ever heard one), and Quebec. Actually, there are plenty of gems on Shinola, Vol. 1, too.