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Inspiration from Artists Week 132: Album Cover Art
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Posted
Just wanted to bring this thread forward again, so here’s another great cover. It was produced by Jean Luc Epstein and illustrated by Dan Fern. Internet searches show multiple Dan Ferns but I believe him to have graduated from Manchester College of Art and the RCA, he’s had an extensive career and has now retired as Head of the RCA’s School of Communications in 2010.
The album is Downtown Tonight by Racing Cars. A Welsh band from the 70s that had one major single hit which reached #14 in the UK charts called “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?”.
Edited
by Andrew Roles
Posted
That's a beaut. A few more I find interesting...
Slayer - reign in blood (I don't know half these bands or their music, it's the covers that get my attention)..this Bosch-like art was by Larry Carroll...
A couple more by Robert Crumb....
A cover for Quincy Jones, that looks like digital art to me...
A couple more by Robert Crumb....
A cover for Quincy Jones, that looks like digital art to me...
Drawing by Tim Bruckne, such a clever design
By tom Hunnicutt, the car almost as famous as the band!
Posted
Seeing these covers has thrown me into a nostalgia binge, and got me thinking about the players we had. My first memory of a record player was my cousin's wind-up player, some of you will remember those...like this...
...he'd let me play it for hours. The needles looked like nails as I remember. He had mostly singles, with sleeves rather than covers. I'd have been about 8, my cousin was a teenager.
When I got my first job, I bought an electric player from a second-hand shop. It was a Dansette, similar to this....
...this served me well until I got married. We splashed out on a radiogram. Remember those? It had the big new thing...STEREO!!! I thought it sounded wonderful. Our radiogram was similar to this...
This was in the 1960's, the radiogram had room for about 20 albums. I had more than that. My music mix was pretty eclectic, I liked about half-a-dozen operatic arias, a lot more operatic (or classic) instrumentals, some pop music of the era, and jazz. A favorite piece was Ravel's Bolero, it sounded great on the radiogram. I've been unable to find the cover, but, as far as I can remember, it was just the one word...BOLERO.
Time gave us CDs, and now people listen to music on phones, ipads and TV sets. No doubt the sound quality is better, but, for me, nothing beat our old radiogram. In part, it was the mechanics on show that added to the music experience. The spinning record finishing, the next LP loading, the needle moving into place...magic. Nowadays you press a button. Maybe other people feel the same, and that's why vinyl is making a comeback.
I have hearing aids now, music is not the same for me. The old favorites that still sound ok are things like Chris Barber and Louie Armstrong jazz, maybe the recordings were simpler.
Great memories. But, of course, music is the great facilitator of memory.
...he'd let me play it for hours. The needles looked like nails as I remember. He had mostly singles, with sleeves rather than covers. I'd have been about 8, my cousin was a teenager.
When I got my first job, I bought an electric player from a second-hand shop. It was a Dansette, similar to this....
...this served me well until I got married. We splashed out on a radiogram. Remember those? It had the big new thing...STEREO!!! I thought it sounded wonderful. Our radiogram was similar to this...
This was in the 1960's, the radiogram had room for about 20 albums. I had more than that. My music mix was pretty eclectic, I liked about half-a-dozen operatic arias, a lot more operatic (or classic) instrumentals, some pop music of the era, and jazz. A favorite piece was Ravel's Bolero, it sounded great on the radiogram. I've been unable to find the cover, but, as far as I can remember, it was just the one word...BOLERO.
Time gave us CDs, and now people listen to music on phones, ipads and TV sets. No doubt the sound quality is better, but, for me, nothing beat our old radiogram. In part, it was the mechanics on show that added to the music experience. The spinning record finishing, the next LP loading, the needle moving into place...magic. Nowadays you press a button. Maybe other people feel the same, and that's why vinyl is making a comeback.
I have hearing aids now, music is not the same for me. The old favorites that still sound ok are things like Chris Barber and Louie Armstrong jazz, maybe the recordings were simpler.
Great memories. But, of course, music is the great facilitator of memory.
Posted
Some good covers today - that ZZ Top album was one of my favourites. And a good trip down memory lane Lewis, I had one of the first portable stereo record players, the lid came off and split into two speakers which you could position a few feet apart for ‘that true stereo effect’ . I remember lying on the floor with a speaker either side of my head and listening to Led Zeppelin II at full volume. No wonder I’m going deaf.
Just to show I’m not a complete 70s Luddite, here’s a CD cover from the 1990’s designed by the model / actress / artist Christie Brinkley who was the wife of Billy Joel at the time of the release of River of Dreams (1993).
Edited
by Andrew Roles
Posted
Cream’s ‘Disraeli Gears’ 1967 - psychedelic cover design by Martin Sharp, an Australian pop artist and cartoonist. He contributed both lyrics and artwork for Cream’s albums.
‘Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake’ the Small Faces’ 1968 concept album - circular cover design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown, inspired by a Liverpudlian tobacco brand.
‘Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake’ the Small Faces’ 1968 concept album - circular cover design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown, inspired by a Liverpudlian tobacco brand.
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
Some more covers I like...
From the sixties onwards photography seems largely to have taken over from art. I'm not too keen on much of it, photo portraits of the musicians can get a bit boring. But some photo manipulations were great...I like this one...
A bit of both with this Micheal Jackson cover...
From the sixties onwards photography seems largely to have taken over from art. I'm not too keen on much of it, photo portraits of the musicians can get a bit boring. But some photo manipulations were great...I like this one...
A bit of both with this Micheal Jackson cover...
My favourite album! Not perhaps the most accomplished artwork. 
