I’m currently going through iTunes and attaching album covers to all of the full albums that are on my computer. That is, if I have all fifteen tracks of Gang of Four’s Entertainment!, then I add the album cover. Conversely, since I only have Rock & Roll off of the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, I don’t add the cover. It saves a lot of time.
This painstaking exercise is reminding me of some of my favorite album covers of all time. Sitting comfortably atop the heap has to be The Clash’s London Calling , simply for the everlasting image of Paul Simonon smashing his bass onstage. The homage to Elvis Presley doesn’t hurt, either.
The Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime is definitely near the top, with Mike Watt’s smirking eyes in the rearview mirror, probably laughing at the small jab at Sammy Hagar’s I Can’t Drive 55. It’s like they’re saying, "You’re so rebellious that you can’t drive the speed limit? Well, we must be really lame because we drive 55 (double nickels) on the dime. :rolleyes: " It should be noted that the speedometer in the album’s picture is on 55 mph. You can’t really make that out at the link I provided.
note: I had to link to Amazon for London Calling because the URL at allmusic had a consecutive : and o in it, which, when put together, make :o. Is there any way to get those two characters to display right next to each other without apparently embarrassing myself?
Wow! I had no idea about that. Ya learn somethin’ new every day on the SDMB.
Anyway, some particular favorite covers of mine:
Thirty Seconds Over Winterland - Jefferson Airplane (this image ‘inspired’ the famous screensaver that appeared about 20 years later).
the B-52’s - I have no idea why I get such a kick out of this cover. Perhaps it’s Kate Pierson posing with her hand, as if she’s shooting laser beams like some superhero character. I also find it very amusing that they bothered to give credit to their hairstylist on the back cover ('Hairdos by - LaVerne.")
Fripp and Eno: No Pussyfooting (To get the full effect, you need the original 12" gatefold sleeve with the variations of the image on each of the four panels. To this day, I trim my beard like Robert Fripp in this picture.)
Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland (The American version–much as I love pictures of nude ladies, this cover is far more striking than the naughty European one.)
King Crimson: Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (A girlfriend who was tattooed once suggested I should get one too. Now, I have no particular desire to decorate my skin, but if I were to do so, I think would ask for this image.)
Most of the Hypgnosis covers for Pink Floyd are great, but I’ll give the edge to Ummagumma (link goes to the US version). It subtle, but amazing.
The cover for Flash in the Pan was also quite good (I think that may be by Hypgnosis, too). But it was topped by their second album Lights in the Night. No picture can do it justice (and I can’t seem to find one): I looks like it’s completely black except for some scratches here and there. But if you looked at it closely, you’d see the cover from their first album beneath the black, as though they painted over it.
Who’s Next is pretty funny when you realize what it’s portraying. (Hint: check out the stains on the monolith.)
For pure sex, there’s the original cover to Supertramp’s Indelibly Stamped. I won’t link to it, but the odd thing is that all the images on the Internet are black and white: the original was in glorious color.
For even grosser sex, there’s the infamous Mom’s Apple Pie cover. Not a favorite of mine, but a legend.
The cover to Thick as a Brick was great – not much to look out, but originally it folded up into newspaper size, with a newspaper inside.
“When you realize”? How can you not get it at first glance? Three of them are still in the process of zipping up! It’s the fact that the concrete plinth is supposed to be a reference to the monolith from 2001 that I didn’t catch.
I recently noticed how much I like the artwork on Gomez’s In Our Gun album. So much so, I’m seriously considering purchasing artwork by the painter Jonathan Purday Team of Scientists, you may not notice the art link sources, but I strongly recommend Rate Your Music as the only source CD cover artwork (unless you scan them yourself). Their image quality far exceeds anything you’ll find on Google images and their content, ratings and user lists are all quite good.
The Durutti Column’s Sandpaper sleeve designed to destroy the sleeves of your other albums. PiL’s Metal Box released as 3 12" 45s in a silver film canister with logo was pretty cool too.
Sorry I missed your thread. I definitely would have mentioned Devendra Banhart’s Cripple Crow as paying homage to obvious influences. It’s always a shame when such an interesting OP slips through the front pages.
