Favorite album cover & why?

[Maggs44]

This is one of my favs.

This is the grossest one I have...

 

[i8tokyo2]

bump

 

[i8tokyo2]

No input

 

[Q_The_Cop]

An old thread back from the dead eh? I'll bite!

My mom, who was a die hard country fan (nothing but Alabama and The Oak Ridge Boys here), was drug to this concert by my sister and her friend. (A chaperon gig) when she got back she said it was the greatest concert she had ever seen. That was back in the early eighties by the way. I was probably about 5 or 6. Then she went to Journey, KISS, and Quiet Riot! She used to wear this concert tee all the time. So it kind of holds sentimental meaning for me. Plus it's arguably one of the greatest albums of all time. (Notice: One of the...)

R.I.P.!

 

[lurch]

This album pretty much spells out my generation. The album cover was controversial as they come so it adds to the rebellious attitude.

 

[WildBill]

Not only one of my favorite album covers. But I also bought a pre-release vinyl version of this album including authenticity (hope I spelled this word right) certificate on e-bay a few years ago. The pre-release version was only intended to be for promotional use and there are only 929 of these worldwide. Mine is number 95. I played the retail version until it was worn out and then bought it on CD to play, so the pre-release version will always be in mint condition.

Steve Vai - Passion and Warfare

 

[Chemyst]

The Stone's "Their Satanic Majesties Request"
has an interesting 3D/fresnel cover, originally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Their_Satanic_Majesties_Request

Also, Pink Floyd "Pulse" had a flashing LED in
the spine, which lasted for years.

Led Zeppelin's 3rd album had a picture wheel
that rotated drawings in different windows,
for the cover.

Many of the Grateful Dead covers were works of art.
http://malaai.org/2008/artsol/anthem.jpg

I'm sure some other covers will come to mind.

Some albums had interesting vinyl, too. Not all
vinyl was black. Nazz had an album on red vinyl.
There were a few others, that escape me, at the
moment.

Chemyst

I knew more would come to mind, soon...
like Fleetwood Mac's "Bare Trees". Nice art.

Also some of Zappa's covers were interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rats

I always liked the simplicity of "Dark Side of the Moon", too.
And U2's "Joshua Tree" is nice.

 

[Chemyst]

Would you believe that I still have that WITH the paper still in it!

That's probably valuable, these days.

Chemyst

 

[AVB]

More to waste time with. I'm surprised on how many of these I own.

 

[MoeCizlak]

More to waste time with. I'm surprised on how many of these I own.

Ok, I can take all the gore and stuff like that, but the Blind Faith and Scorpion covers made my skin crawl. I think Chris Hansen is at the door.

Edit to add: I thought I had two different covers to Beggar's Banquet. One's a cassette and one is CD so I never have the two together. What in sam hill was so offensive about the original?

 

[AVB]

The "original" had a picture of a toilet and at that time is wasn't considered in good taste. Times and attitudes change.

Edit to add: I thought I had two different covers to Beggar's Banquet. One's a cassette and one is CD so I never have the two together. What in sam hill was so offensive about the original?

What about the Bow Wow Wow covers of the 80's? Annabella Lwin was 14 on the first cover and 15 on the second.

Ok, I can take all the gore and stuff like that, but the Blind Faith and Scorpion covers made my skin crawl. I think Chris Hansen is at the door.

 

[MadMonk]

Wow, how did I miss this thread!

My all time favorite album cover is Molly Hatchet's self titled debut album.

It feature a work by Frank Frazetta entitled "Death Dealer".

Frazetta was my biggest art influence when I was a boy.

 

[The Black Cloud]

Okay, seriously, if I remember correctly I posted the cover to Rage Against The Machine's first album. This next one isn't too crazy and overloaded with design, but I dig it plus it's a great friggin' album:

 

[4cbln3]

My friend introduced me to Funkadelic: 1 Nation Under a Groove in high school as a freshman (1978) and although I was a rocker, somehow this music got to me!

and lastly, Guns-N-Roses "original cover" for "Appetite for Destruction

There was so much craziness in it I could stare at it for hours.

 

[MoeCizlak]

The "original" had a picture of a toilet and at that time is wasn't considered in good taste. Times and attitudes change.

Edit to add: I thought I had two different covers to Beggar's Banquet. One's a cassette and one is CD so I never have the two together. What in sam hill was so offensive about the original?

What about the Bow Wow Wow covers of the 80's? Annabella Lwin was 14 on the first cover and 15 on the second.

Ok, I can take all the gore and stuff like that, but the Blind Faith and Scorpion covers made my skin crawl. I think Chris Hansen is at the door.

I remember Bow Wow Wow videos on MTV when I was in high school but I don't ever recall seeing an album cover of theirs. If it's as bad as the other two, I'm going to have a seat right over there.

 

[jgohlke]

Yeah, Roger Dean. Anything by Yes at the time. I remember looking at those albums and wondering how anybody could have such an imagination.

"I want candy"....yes I do. I remember that album cover.

Blue Oyster Cult - On your feet or on your knees. I played that album until I wore it out. Plus after my parents saw the cover, they thought I was worshipping Satan. During one of my mother's rants, I saved the album from eternal damnation (and the trash) by pointing out that my sister had a Ouiji board. The Ouiji board didn't survive, but my sister put up a good fight. My mother was worn out and had long forgotten about the BOC album by the time she got the Ouiji board to the garbage.

Joni Mitchell - Hejira. Burned into my brain, both cover and lyrics. Just happened to be the last album I bought before joining the Army. It was the music stuck in my brain through basic and AIT. Hejira means "journey", which I didn't learn until years later and the cover has her picture with a road picture blended in....it was my time for a journey as well. The timing for my life was both accidental and perfect. One of those things that happens and you don't even realize how perfect it was until later.

The Santana albums. Lots to look at.

Hendrix - Band of Gypsies. Hendrix is just so cool.

Zappa/Beefhart - Bongo Fury. What's up with the ice cream cones?

 

[Not A Nice Person]

Had this one back in my Seabee days . . . what's not to like about an album with a, errr, violated cantaloupe on the cover (not to mention grimy undies!) and a song like "Dirty Love" on the inside?

This one just always makes me laugh:

~Boar

 

[MoeCizlak]

Yeah, Roger Dean. Anything by Yes at the time. I remember looking at those albums and wondering how anybody could have such an imagination.

"I want candy"....yes I do. I remember that album cover.

Blue Oyster Cult - On your feet or on your knees. I played that album until I wore it out. Plus after my parents saw the cover, they thought I was worshipping Satan. During one of my mother's rants, I saved the album from eternal damnation (and the trash) by pointing out that my sister had a Ouiji board. The Ouiji board didn't survive, but my sister put up a good fight. My mother was worn out and had long forgotten about the BOC album by the time she got the Ouiji board to the garbage.

Joni Mitchell - Hejira. Burned into my brain, both cover and lyrics. Just happened to be the last album I bought before joining the Army. It was the music stuck in my brain through basic and AIT. Hejira means "journey", which I didn't learn until years later and the cover has her picture with a road picture blended in....it was my time for a journey as well. The timing for my life was both accidental and perfect. One of those things that happens and you don't even realize how perfect it was until later.

The Santana albums. Lots to look at.

Hendrix - Band of Gypsies. Hendrix is just so cool.

Zappa/Beefhart - Bongo Fury. What's up with the ice cream cones?

That is neat stuff, thanks for sharing.

 

[Doc Wylie]

The Beatles Abbey Road

The music is excellent on so many levels, but I love that album cover because I had the chance to visit the EMI Studios on Abbey Road and stand on the spot where the album photo was taken. It was back in 1988 when I was in London on a two-week assignment with the Army. Several of us made an expedition to the studio around 10PM one night from our base in Chessington. As you can see on the album cover, it's in the middle of a mostly residential area in posh St. John's Wood. Somewhere in my pile of unsorted photos is one of us reenacting the album cover shot. There were only three of us there, but when we were trying to figure out the shot, a couple of Japanese tourists happened along, and we drafted one of them (a young, slender fellow wearing jeans and a blue denim shirt) to portray George Harrison. I ended up portraying Ringo. Anyway..it was a great night and an even better memory.