Album cover art

A small sliver of something bigger

Posted on by brucehhackett

If you were an album buyer in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, I’d be willing to bet there were times you bought, or were very tempted to buy, a new record based almost solely on the captivating cover art.

In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, album cover art — be it arresting portrait photography, surreal landscape drawings, erotic paintings or highly stylized logos, to name a few — was an integral, vital component of each new release.  In some cases, the art was so striking that it became almost as important as the music on the album within.

There have been so many great album covers displaying fantastic works of art over the years.  Trying to list the best of them is a fool’s errand.  It’s like trying to list the proverbial “Best 50 Albums of All Time.”  Very subjective, and very limiting.  It would be easier to list the best photo album covers, the best art covers, the best illustration covers, and so on.

Some album covers from the classic rock era are so recognizable, I think, that many folks will be able to identify them even if they see only a small cropped section of the full cover. Below are “puzzle pieces” that give you just a small glimpse of the complete artwork from 25 well-known albums. How many can you identify in this Album Art Quiz #2?

As you scan down to learn the answers, you’ll also get some details about who created the covers and what went into their design. There’s also a Spotify playlist at the end with one song pulled from each of the 25 albums. 

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ANSWERS:

#1

“Tug of War,” Paul McCartney, 1982

Famed British painter and architectural artist Brian Clarke, known for his large-scale stained glass and mosaic projects, conceived of and executed the pointillism-inspired painting of a photograph of McCartney under the headphones, taken by his wife Linda. The deep blues and reds made the cover of 1982’s “Tug of War” eye-catching in the record stores, which served to complement the ear-catching sounds he came up with for this, his most consistent LP since 1973’s “Band on the Run.”

#2

“Mystery to Me,” Fleetwood Mac, 1973

If you’re looking for a definitive explanation of the strange artwork that graces the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s eight LP, 1973’s “Mystery to Me,” you won’t find it here. Credited to an artist who went by the moniker Modula, it depicts an animal that appears to be part mandrill, part gorilla, crying as he eats both a cake and a book. The back cover (which is part of the same artwork) shows a guru-type wise man apparently trying to impart wisdom to the ape. No one from the band has ever commented on the meaning behind it, so it’s still, um, a mystery to me…and to all of you as well.

#3

“Year of the Cat,” Al Stewart, 1976

The cover is another in the impressive portfolio of designs by the British design studio known as Hipgnosis, known for their work with Pink Floyd, Genesis, Peter Gabriel and Led Zeppelin. Illustrator Colin Elgie took the theme of Stewart’s title track and made it the dominant motif, depicting a woman seen in the mirror dressing up as a cat, perhaps for a costume party, while the array of items on her dresser all have feline elements.

#4

“The Yes Album,” Yes, 1971

Even though the members of Yes had been in an auto accident where keyboardist Tony Kaye had broken his leg, the album cover photo shoot scheduled for the next day went ahead as planned. Photographer Phil Franks wasn’t satisfied with what he shot in the studio, so he took the band to his flat, grabbed a mannequin head and a 1,000-watt bulb, and improvised the setting in his kitchen. Art director Jon Goodchild made the shot look like a piece of 8mm film, with Kaye’s foot in freshly wrapped plaster in the foreground. It became the cover of 1971’s “The Yes Album,” their last before fantasist Roger Dean took over as the band’s graphic artist.

#5

“Eye in the Sky,” Alan Parsons Project, 1982

It’s ironic that the album and song that served as the commercial peak of the Alan Parsons Project (reaching #3 on US charts in 1982) was never one of Parsons’s favorites. The concept behind it had to do with the universal idea that someone is looking down on us all, either spiritually or in terms of governmental surveillance. Eric Woolfson, who co-wrote and sang many of the group’s tunes, allegedly dashed off the line art that became the cover artwork.

#6

“Pretzel Logic,” Steely Dan, 1974

Photographer Raeanne Rubinstein took the cover photo for this album one chilly day in January 1974 in Manhattan. The pretzel vendor had been working the corner of 79th Street and Central Park for more than 30 years. As for the Steely Dan title song, it’s a wonderfully juicy Fagen/Becker blues shuffle about time travel, but it seems to have little to do with the phrase “pretzel logic” (which means illogical thinking that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny).

#7

“Woodstock,” various artists, 1970

Former Life Magazine staff photographer Burk Uzzle attended the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair as a music fan. While other photographers there on assignment focused on the performers, Uzzle was more intrigued with what was going on among the half-million concertgoers. As Jefferson Airplane was bringing up the dawn, Bobbi Kelly and Nick Ercoline, both just 20, suddenly stood up, wrapped in a blanket, and Uzzle captured their hug in the midst of “that sea of humanity.” It became his most famous photo, adorning the cover of the “Woodstock” triple-LP soundtrack.

#8

“Chicago X,” Chicago, 1976

Once the band originally known as Chicago Transit Authority were forced by the actual Chicago metro transit system to shorten their name to just Chicago, they chose to use their stylized logo (inspired by the Coca-Cola logo) on every album in their catalog. It appeared in many formats — a flag, a wood carving, embossed leather, a map, a skyscraper, even an unfinished billboard. For the group’s 10th LP, art director John Berg turned it into a partially unwrapped chocolate candy bar and ended up winning the “Best Album Cover” Grammy award in 1976. 

#9

“The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get,” Joe Walsh, 1973

Jimmy Wachtel, older brother of famed LA session guitarist Waddy Wachtel, designed dozens of album covers in the ’70s and ’80s for some of rock’s biggest names, including Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills and Nash. In 1973, he handled the art design for Walsh’s solo debut, which shows a British Sopwith fighter bi-plane evidently flying upside down (blue sky at the bottom).

#10

“Wheels of Fire,” Cream, 1968

Martin Sharp, Australian artist/cartoonist/filmmaker, was considered his country’s foremost pop artist in the ’60s and ’70s. He came to the attention of Jack Bruce, bassist for Cream, who suggested Sharp be hired to provide artwork for the band’s 1967 LP “Disraeli Gears.” Its psychedelic montage not only won awards, it led to the equally mind-boggling cover for Cream’s 1968 double album, “Wheels of Fire,” which topped the US album charts that summer. The cover of the original LP featured silver foil paper.

#11

“Candy-O,” The Cars, 1979

David Robinson, drummer for The Cars, was a collector of pin-ups, especially the work of Peruvian painter Alberto Vargas, who was known for his paintings that appeared in Playboy and Esquire in the ’50s and ’60s. Vargas was 83 and retired by 1979, but his niece, a fan of The Cars, persuaded him to take on the assignment to do the cover for the group’s second album, “Candy-O,” featuring a curvy model stretched out on the hood of a sports car.

#12

“Poco,” Poco, 1970

For Poco’s strong second LP, art director Gary Burden took a bucolic drawing of farmland and mountains by Morris Ovsey and superimposed a photo of the band taken by the legendary Henry Diltz. The group, led by Richie Furay and Jim Messina, didn’t really meet chart expectations in the country rock genre, although critics and a rabid fan base felt Poco was the cream of the crop. Following personnel changes, they came up with a few Top 20 successes years later.

#13

“Days of Future Passed,” The Moody Blues, 1967

After early success, The Moody Blues were struggling in 1967 when Decca Records asked them to record an adaptation of a Dvorak symphony for their classical subsidiary label. That instead evolved into “Days of Future Passed,” a suite of songs that pioneered the merging of psychedelic rock and classical forms. It exceeded all expectations and spawned the new “progressive rock” genre. David Anstey, a staff visual artist and designer with Decca in London, created the imaginative painting that depicted the various stages of a typical day (morning, afternoon, evening and night).

#14

“Dixie Chicken,” Little Feat, 1973

Comic artist Martin Muller, known professionally as Neon Park, was responsible for the arresting cover artwork on virtually every album in Little Feat’s catalog, including this curious piece for “Dixie Chicken” that places an elegant woman against a padded wall with a wrap-around accordion. Park’s surreal images also graced the covers for albums by Frank Zappa, Dr. John, David Bowie, and The Beach Boys.

#15

“Duke,” Genesis, 1980

Having survived the departure of lead singer Peter Gabriel and then guitarist Steve Hackett, Genesis in 1980 was a trio in the process of evolving from art rock to a more commercial pop sound. For their next LP “Duke,” they brought in French illustrator Lionel Koechlin, whose children’s book, “L’Alphabet d’Albert,” they admired. Rather than produce something original for the cover, he suggested they use a panel from the book, which seemed to complement some of the storybook lyrics from the songs.

#16

“Quadrophenia,” The Who, 1973

London designer/photographer Graham Hughes, a big fan of The Who, immersed himself in the songs and the melancholy storyline of “Quadrophenia” before coming up with the darkly introspective imagery that became the cover of the 1973 rock opera. Lead character “Mod” Jimmy is pictured on his all-important scooter idling in the London fog, with photos of the four members of The Who dropped into the bike’s side-view mirrors.

#17

“Blow By Blow,” Jeff Beck, 1975

Painter John Collier, no relation to the famed 19th Century portrait painter of the same name, worked in collaboration with seasoned album cover designer John Berg to fashion a soft-edged facsimile of Beck offering a trademark guitar riff for the cover of one of his most acclaimed works, the 1975 instrumental LP “Blow By Blow.” The chalk drawing symbolizes Beck’s transition from harder-edged blues to a more jazz-inflected style on this album.

#18

“The Unforgettable Fire,” U2, 1984

For their 1984 LP “The Unforgettable Fire,” the members of U2 drove around Ireland for a few days with photographer Anton Corbijn looking for “something that symbolized ambiguous mysticism,” as Bono put it. They settled on the ruins of Moydrum Castle, dramatically photographed in black-and-white with the band members standing out front. It turned out to be virtually identical to a photo on the cover of the Simon Marsden book “In Ruins: The Once Great Houses of Ireland,” which required a settlement for copyright infringement.

#19

“Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon,” James Taylor, 1971

Ethan Russell is a widely admired rock music photographer who worked with The Beatles, the Stones and The Who, among many others in the classic rock arena. His work graces the famous covers of “Let It Be,” “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” and “Who’s Next,” and he also conducted dozens of photo shoots of the likes of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and James Taylor, for whom he captured the image for his “Mud Slide Slim” LP cover. He also worked on films and videos for Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Rickie Lee Jones and Emmylou Harris.

#20

“Are You Experienced?” The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967

First released in the UK with different cover art, “Are You Experienced” was re-shot for the US release by American designer Karl Ferris at Hendrix’s behest. Ferris found the music “otherworldly” and, imagining the trio traveling through space in a biosphere, used a fisheye lens to photograph the group wearing the latest mod threads from London clothing boutiques. Hendrix was pictured wearing a psychedelic jacket with a large pair of eyes staring back at the viewer.

#21

“Simple Dreams,” Linda Ronstadt, 1977

The British-born artist who went by his last name — Kosh — was a highly regarded member of the London Design & Art Directors Club before relocating to California in the mid-’70s. He earned numerous accolades for his album designs for such major artists as Jimmy Buffett, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Dan Fogelberg, Randy Newman, Carole King and others. The cover for Ronstadt’s “Simple Dreams,” a multi-platinum hit LP in 1977, won Kosh one of his three Grammy awards for cover design.

#22

“Breakfast in America,” Supertramp, 1979

British designers Mike Doud and Mick Haggerty came up with the imaginative cover for Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America” LP, showing an artist’s rendering of an aerial view of the Lower Manhattan skyline. They used cutlery, salt shakers, coffee mugs, egg crates and other props spray-painted white to depict the buildings and wharfs, and dressed comedienne Kate Murtagh as a waitress in a stance resembling the Statue of Liberty but holding a glass of orange juice and a menu. It won the Best Recording Package Grammy that year.

#23

“Eldorado,” Electric Light Orchestra, 1974

Jeff Lynne envisioned the concept and storyline for ELO’s 1974 LP “Eldorado” before he’d written any of the music. Its plot followed a daydreamer character who journeys into fantasy worlds to escape the disillusionment of his mundane reality.  Designer John Kehe selected an image from one of cinema’s most famous escapist fantasies, “The Wizard of Oz,” showing Dorothy’s ruby slippers protecting her from the clutches of the Wicked Witch of the West.

#24

“Wish You Were Here,” Pink Floyd, 1975

Dutch designer Storm Thorgerson, inspired by the idea that people tend to conceal their true feelings for fear of “getting burned,” came up with the image of two businessmen shaking hands, with one man on fire. “Getting burned” was also a common phrase among musicians who were denied royalty payments, including the members of Pink Floyd. Despite precautionary measures, unpredictable winds during the shoot in Burbank caused one stuntman to suffer minor facial burns. The image was initially concealed in a black shrink-wrap adorned with a sticker of two machines shaking hands.

#25

“Arc of a Diver,” Steve Winwood, 1980

British graphic designer Tony Wright, who created notable album covers for Bob Marley, The B-52’s, The Ramones, The Meters and Bob Dylan in the ’70s and ’80s, was responsible for the trendsetting cover of Traffic’s “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” album in 1971. A decade later, he was also the artist behind ex-Traffic leader Steve Winwood’s popular solo record, “Arc of a Diver.” Both were named among Rolling Stone‘s list of “100 Greatest Album Covers.”

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A small piece of the bigger picture

Posted on by brucehhackett

Because I’m always researching musical artists, albums, songs and lyrics, my social media feed often sends me things related to these topics. I saw something pretty cool the other day that I thought would make a great idea for a quiz on Hack’s Back Pages.

In the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, when we bought a new album, we held it in our hands and studied the album cover. The artful depictions were alternately fascinating, enigmatic, shocking, busy, sublime, even boring sometimes, but we looked at them so often, they became deeply ingrained images that still register today. Or do they?

What if you were to see only a small fraction of a classic album cover? Could you still recognize it?

I perused several dozen well-known album covers from the classic rock era, saved the images, then cropped way in so that only about 10% of the cover is visible. Below you’ll find 25 album covers you would likely recognize if you saw the entire images, but can you identify them from the small sections I’ve captured?

Study the partial images, jot down your guesses, and then scroll down to see how well you did, and learn some background on how the covers were created. There’s a Spotify playlist at the end to enjoy later.

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ANSWERS:

#1

This fanciful cover is the work of Ian Beck, a British illustrator and author of children’s books. He dabbled in album cover illustrations for a short while in the 1970s, turning in an amazing image for Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the 1973 double LP of 20 John/Taupin songs that pay tribute to the movie business.

#2

Frank Stefanko, a photographer inspired by film noir movies and reality photographer Diane Arbus, developed a long-time relationship with Bruce Springsteen, conducting many photo shoots with him since the 1970s. He captured the stark image of the star in a small New Jersey house that graces the cover of 1978’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town.”

#3

The artwork for Stevie Wonder‘s landmark 1976 double album “Songs in the Key of Life” is credited vaguely to “Motown Graphics Department.” The story goes that it was designed as a double-edged metaphor — Wonder looking inward for personal visions and outward to the cosmos for divine inspiration.

#4

After watching a TV show on water births, Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain wanted something similar for their second LP cover. Photographer Kirk Weddle shot photos of 4-month-old Spencer Elden, the son of a friend, at a neighborhood pool, using a dollar bill dangling on a fishhook to symbolize our lifelong pursuit of wealth. The cover of the 1991 album “Nevermind” is one of the decade’s most iconic.

#5

Pop artist Andy Warhol designed this famous image for The Rolling Stones‘ 1971 classic “Sticky Fingers.” Original pressings featured not only a working zipper, but a hidden second cover showing a pair of “tighty whities” and Warhol’s name stamped on each copy. It marked the first release on The Stones’ own record label after their Decca contract expired.

#6

Carlos Santana saw German/French painter Mati Klarwein’s dazzling 1961 work in a magazine one day and insisted that it be selected for use on the cover of Santana’s 1970 classic second LP “Abraxas.” Klarwein went on to contribute art for several other albums in the 1970s by the likes of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Earth Wind & Fire and Gregg Allman.

#7

Two adjacent five-story apartment buildings (with the fourth stories airbrushed out) in New York City’s East Village were used on the award-winning die-cut album cover for Led Zeppelin‘s 1975 extravaganza, “Physical Graffiti.” Designer Peter Corrosion used interchangeable inner sleeves to depict various people in the window slots. One sleeve uses letters in the windows that spell out the album title.

#8

For the cover of their next album, “Morrison Hotel,” in early 1970, The Doors hired legendary rock music photographer Henry Diltz to shoot them in front of the actual Morrison Hotel in downtown L.A. The manager refused permission, so they waited until the front desk clerk was called away before quickly taking positions in the front window while Diltz snapped a few frames to get what they wanted.

#9

Jeff Ayeroff and Norman Moore came up with the cover artwork using a variety of different photos of band members Stewart Copeland, Sting and Andy Summers, overlaid by horizontal stripes of the three primary colors. In one of more than 30 variations, the middle montage showed Sting reading a copy of Carl Jung’s book “Synchronicity,” on which The Police‘s 1983 LP was based.

#10

Big Brother and the Holding Company‘s lead singer, the incomparable Janis Joplin, was a huge fan of underground comic books. She commissioned the great Robert Crumb to illustrate the song titles and band members for the back cover art, but once she saw the result, Joplin insisted it be on the front cover. The album title (originally “Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills“) was shortened by the record label.

#11

Elliot Landy rivaled Henry Diltz as the “go to” rock photographer in the late ’60s and early ’70s, shooting important covers for Bob Dylan (“Nashville Skyline”) and Van Morrison (“Moondance”) and portraits of Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Frank Zappa and others. His work appears on the covers of “Music From Big Pink” and “The Band,” the first two LPs by Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and company.

#12

For the cover of his 1978 jazz-influenced album “52nd Street,” Billy Joel was photographed leaning against the dingy side of the Griddle Coffee Shop at 7th Avenue and 52nd Street in Manhattan, once a popular hangout location for jazz musicians, and just a block away from the CBS Building and the studio where the album was recorded.

#13

Many psychedelic rock bands used oils and waters on a glass surface projected onto huge screens behind the bands to add trippy visuals to the acid rock music being performed. For the cover of their “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” album in 1968, Iron Butterfly used an image by photographer Stephen Paley of the group on stage that year with the liquid light show behind them.

#14

Keith Emerson became fascinated with the “biomechanics” artwork of Swiss artist Hans Reudi Giger, and in 1973, Giger was commissioned to create two pieces to serve as an outer (mechanical male) cover and inner (human female) cover for the new Emerson, Lake & Palmer album, “Brain Salad Surgery.” Giger also designed a new ELP logo as part of the outer cover that was used on all subsequent releases.

#15

When John Lennon re-entered the public arena in 1980, he was adamant that his new songs be presented in partnership with the new offerings of his wife, Yoko Ono. The album, entitled “Double Fantasy,” alternated ballads and rockers from each artist, all focusing on their idealized romance. Ono selected acclaimed Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama to capture the loving couple in mid-kiss.

#16

The cover for Fleetwood Mac‘s ubersuccessful “Rumours” album bears some resemblance to the 1975 “Fleetwood Mac” album that precedes it. Photographer Herbert Worthington and designer Desmond Strobel again featured 6’6″ Mick Fleetwood’s beanpole frame, but this time he was paired with sultry songstress Stevie Nicks in her diaphanous stage garments, lending a ballet-like aura to the image.

#17

When Eric Clapton first spied “La Fille Au Bouquet,” a painting by French artist Émile-Théodore Frandsen de Shomberg, he saw a strong resemblance between the girl depicted and his obsessive love interest, Pattie Boyd Harrison, the subject of his brilliant tune “Layla.” The painting became the cover art for “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” the 1970 double LP by Derek (Clapton) and The Dominos.

#18

For his hugely influential 1965 LP “Highway 61 Revisited,” Bob Dylan was photographed sitting on the front stoop of manager Albert Grossman’s apartment in Gramercy Park in Manhattan. Photographer Daniel Kramer, who positioned Dylan’s cohort Bob Neuwirth behind Dylan “to give the shot extra color and depth,” urged Dylan to adopt an expression of “hostile moodiness” that fit his rebel image.

#19

Actors, statesmen, models, singers and celebrities of nearly every stripe were eager to be photographed by acclaimed portrait photographer Richard Avedon in the 1950-1990 era. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel felt honored that Avedon accepted the assignment to shoot the duo for the cover of their “Bookends” LP in 1968. It was one of only a half-dozen album covers in which he was involved.

#20

Steven Georgiou, later known worldwide as Cat Stevens and then eventually Yusuf, was a promising art student as well as a singer-songwriter. His two most popular albums — 1970’s “Tea For the Tillerman” and 1971’s “Teaser and the Firecat” — feature album cover artwork created by Stevens himself. He used children’s book illustration techniques to complement the gentle music and lyrics of his songs.

#21

Henry Diltz’s talent shows up a second time in this indelible image of Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby sitting on an abandoned couch in front of a condemned home in Hollywood. Realizing they’d been positioned out of order, they returned a few days later to reshoot, but the house had been razed. So the “Crosby, Stills and Nash” album went out as is in the spring of 1969.

#22

It’s one of the most iconic images of David Bowie‘s long career, but it was the only time he wore the striking thunderbolt face makeup. As the cover for the 1973 LP “Aladdin Sane,” the image maintained and enhanced his breakthrough “Ziggy Stardust” persona, with photographer Brian Duffy using an unprecedented seven-color system that made it the most expensive cover ever made up to that point.

#23

Art designer Janet Perr won the 1985 Best Album Package Grammy for this boldly colorful presentation of Rolling Stone photographer Annie Leibovitz’s shot of Cyndi Lauper on Henderson Walk in Coney Island. For the “She’s So Unusual” cover, Lauper wore vintage clothing and accessories she found at Screaming Mimi’s, a vintage clothing shop near there where she once worked.

#24

The design team of Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse again worked with The Grateful Dead on the cover artwork for their superb 1972 triple live album “Europe ’72.” The triple-gatefold sleeve illustrations feature not only the familiar “truckin'” foot stepping across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, but also, on the back cover, the “truckin’ fool” smashing an ice cream cone against his forehead.

#25

Photographer Dan Hudson Jr.’s bucolic photo of young Vaylor Trucks (son of drummer Butch Trucks) playing in the autumn leaves provides a stark contrast to the tension and grief that surrounded The Allman Brothers Band in 1973 following the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. This shot, and a similar shot of Oakley’s daughter Brittany on the back, appear on their “Brothers and Sisters” LP.

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