Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Pimp My Classic Iconic Album Cover Dept.

Joni Mitchell's Blue sleeve worked fine on the original vinyl release (getting the inks right wasn't as easy as you might think), but as a postage-stamp size image on your hand-held device it loses impact and definition. Thus this. Gawd, I love this woman and her butterfly jazz genius.

The cover to Pet Sounds is legendarily awful. If you like it, it's because of familiarity and good associations. I say the hell with it, and let's give Brian his due. The European Intellectual look suits him, don'cha think?

Country Joe And His Fishes lost the visual plot with their third album Together, one of the worst-ever covers for a major-ish group. Here's something that reflects the gestalt (baby) with zest, gumption, moxie, and not a little pizzazz. Plus, teaches the Beach Boys a thing or two about using goats.

Captain Beefheart was no dreamy teen idol, but he could look pretty damn mythic, and it's a shame his pan wasn't featured on the later albums. This Bat Chain Puller cover uses some of his painterly explorations, color-intensified.

Click for embiggerment. Printed out and laminated, they make swell drinks coasters for when unexpected guests drop by!

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23 comments:

  1. pmacMarch 30, 2021 at 6:51 AM

    Wilson looks like Roy Orbison in that photo.

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    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 30, 2021 at 6:55 AM

      Are you kidding? His *glasses* look like Roy Orbison's glasses, but without the aquarium lenses.

      Aren't you on that plane yet? GOODBYE ALREADY!!!!

      Delete
    2. FiveGunsWestMarch 30, 2021 at 10:38 AM

      He's just waiting for that first "Estamos aqui con el coche" in that warm Nawlin' lilt.

      Delete
    3. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 30, 2021 at 11:00 AM

      "Por el precio de una tortilla, puedes tener a mi hermana, señor!"

      Delete
    4. pmacMarch 30, 2021 at 2:02 PM

      Hey - I don't eat eggs.

      Delete
    5. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 30, 2021 at 2:44 PM

      Call that suitcase packed? Your shorts are hangin' out. Oh - sorry - that's you.

      Delete
  2. Jack Kerouac's CatMarch 30, 2021 at 7:00 PM

    Wilson looks like Roy Orbison ? Are you pulling my chain?

    Très cool on the Beefheart, Farquhar!

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  3. PsychfanMarch 30, 2021 at 10:03 PM

    Interesting. The Beefheart is the one I like the least. The other three are all very much to my liking, especially the Joni Mitchell.

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  4. One Buck GuyMarch 31, 2021 at 3:15 AM

    Mouais.

    Mixed bag. Not sure Brian Wilson's mug is a huge improvement over the admittedly horrendous original.

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  5. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 31, 2021 at 4:29 AM

    The Wilson cover would never have happened, which is what makes it interesting. I'm sure there'd be better shots of him specific to the time, but choice is limited on the internet. The cover to Van Dyke Parks' epochal Song Cycle (one of my top five albums forever) is perhaps more like it coulda/shoulda been.

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  6. UncleBMarch 31, 2021 at 6:04 AM

    Bri Wi has his cheaters on to get a better look at that Cat No & then try to be able to figger out WHY on earth this is copy of his magnum opera-us pre-breakdown & downhill dive is the DUPOHONIC.

    I know there's an answer.

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  7. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 31, 2021 at 6:09 AM

    I don't think anyone will have any issues with the Together cover, basically because I'm possibly the only person on this particular planet who gives any kind of fuck about Country Joe And His Fishes third album cover.

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    1. FiveGunsWestMarch 31, 2021 at 6:28 AM

      Sadly, I am a fan. I interviewed Joe for the Freep re: Woodstock and his hilarious testimony at the Chicago Seven Trial, and Barry used to come to my gigs....as long as I played at a club near his house. https://www.countryjoe.com/chicago.htm

      Delete
    2. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 31, 2021 at 6:45 AM

      That's a great read. But there's NOTHING sad about being a fan of CJ&TF. That first album is another in my all-time Top Five.

      Delete
    3. One Buck GuyMarch 31, 2021 at 12:46 PM

      Your top five seems to be the Reed Richard of top fives...it can be stretched to include up to fifty albums!

      Nuff said?!?

      Delete
    4. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 31, 2021 at 3:05 PM

      We're going to have a major interactive feature here soon, "Your Top Five One Hundred Best Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Ever!"

      Delete
  8. Hazy DaveMarch 31, 2021 at 8:14 AM

    If there's a band whose entire oeuvre needs new album art, it's the Move. Shazam makes Joni's CSNY So Far cover, or Bob's Big Pink painting look like Rembrandt, or DaVinci, or Rockwell, or Ross, or somebody who knows which end of a felt-tip marker goes in the mouth and which end writes on the Algebra II book cover. Roy Wood was a brilliant and idiosyncratic music maker, but the fact that somebody didn't talk him into letting a professional design his album covers is criminal. Mustard! Even Annie Haslam in Wonderland is sub-Foxtrot/Nursery Cryme, for heaven's sake. Looking On would be the worst album cover from any other band, but it's the Move's least crappy. I imagine US Capitol didn't ask permission to shitcan the Message From The Country LP art and commission something unrelated, but slightly Escher-esque, but they made up for it by a complete lack of promotion. Anyway, nice work on the above, as well as a multitude of Boids album elsewhere on the Isle.

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    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 31, 2021 at 8:50 AM

      Yep, Move album covers are all UNSEE!!! category horrific. It doesn't bother me much, though, because I ain't gots none. Roy Wood, in any incarnation, leaves me not so much cold as baffled. What do perfectly reasonable citizens - such as yerself - hear in the nostril-voiced pantomime scarecrow?

      Delete
    2. Hazy DaveApril 1, 2021 at 6:24 AM

      Maybe I'll try to compile a "Roy Wood for Girls" collection. Should be able to identify at least 37 minutes of highlights between 1967 and 1974...

      Delete
    3. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIApril 1, 2021 at 6:56 AM

      Go ahead. Write a piece to go with it.

      Delete
  9. One Buck GuyMarch 31, 2021 at 12:51 PM

    Hazy Dave's post tells me we should have the fabulous Memory Foam Shit-O-Meter dusted off for artists doing their own cover art...

    Dan Fogelberg - shit (so thankfully he stopped after two failed tries

    Sniff'N'The Tears - not shit at all! Rather the opposite I'd say.

    (By the way, why does this band not get any props or renaissance when every third or fourth stringer seems to get "rediscovered"?)

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    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMarch 31, 2021 at 3:06 PM

      You're going to post their Most Bestest album so we can all find out.

      Delete

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