Almanac Music: Favourite Album Cover Art
Recently having purchased an old place in Ballarat, we finally had the opportunity to put up some art and photos that have been sitting in boxes for decades.
I’ve always loved album art that compliments the music contained within. That can often mean dreadful accompanying dreadful, but of course all our favourite music comes with an instantly recognisable cover.
With this in mind I thought about putting together a collage of mine and Lynda’s albums that have had some level of influence on our lives.
I started out trying to do it on Powerpoint and Word to no avail then I Googled ‘collage software’ and found something for around $30 that I could download.
This was much easier so all I needed to do was find the album covers and place them inside the collage grid which you could set to an appropriate size suitable for one’s needs.
I was aware of a site called www.albumartexchange.com as I had downloaded a couple of images in the past of excellent quality for a t shirt or two. Any image I couldn’t find, I was able to find by Googling.
What started as a simple brainstorming exercise turned into a journey of elusive rabbit holes that ended up with almost four hundred images!
We ended up cutting back to three hundred and seventy five album covers which fitted into several A4’s. We then took them to a local printer who joined them all up and printed them on a board. This is the final result.
So over a walk and a coffee we discussed the ridiculous proposal of picking our top 30 album covers and what criteria it would be based on.
We agreed to throw out any criteria and just go with the same philosophy as if visiting an art museum, that being if you like it for whatever reason, just go with it. It’s all subjective, but for me the covers instantly bring a smile to my face in anticipation of great music as you remove the vinyl, cd or cassette packaging.
So hear’s my thirty favourite album covers and a little of the ‘why’ for what it’s worth.
Collage created using TurboCollage software from www.TurboCollage.com
- Rock n Roll Animal. Lou Reed. Probably my number one. An album that changed everything as a 13YO numbskull. I can play every air guitar chord of Steve Hunter’s Sweet Jane intro. The fantastic distorted photo depicts a raunchy androgynous Reed in studded neck choker.
- Master of Reality. Black Sabbath. Along with Rock n Roll Animal I discovered this album in the same house of my friend Andrew in Atkinson Rd Medina WA. It’s both delicate and dark, all heightened by Ozzy Osbornes incredible vocals. I just love the font and combination of black and purple on the cover.
- Nebraska. Bruce Springsteen. Pretty self-explanatory. The cover evokes the cold images portrayed throughout the album which was critically ignored but considered Bruce’s best by his many fans.
- Today Wonder. Ed Kuepper. I just love the image and it suits this brilliant acoustic album Ed did with drummer Mark Dawson. I just wish he was friendlier. :)
- Pirates. Rickie Lee Jones. One of my all-time favourite albums. After the success of her self titled first album RLJ went off the rails a bit having broken up with Tom Waits, but put her energies into an exquisite record. The cover is actually an old photo by Hungarian-French artist Brassai, and not RLJ and Waits as I thought for decades.
- Intolerance. Grant Hart. My Desert Island Disc and is a no brainer for inclusion. Grant was an accomplished artist as well as a multi-instrumentalist. The cover is one of his collages.
- Rant in E-Minor. Bill Hicks. All of Bill’s covers were works of art but if I had to pick one it’s this one. It also reminds me of a funny friend of mine, Scott in the days when we all smoked. This photo exudes the satarist’s carefree approach to his art and his zero tolerance of politicians, marketing, fundamentalist Christians and artistic mediocrity.
- Nashville Skyline. Bob Dylan. A classic album accompanied with a happy Bob on the cover. The album sounds like the cover, flawed and joyous.
- Jazzmataz. Guru. Guru came to prominence in the early 1990’s with this exceptional album. It was a fusion of hip hop, rap and smooth jazz and would be the first of a series of Jazzmatazz albums. The album was recorded on the Chrysalis label but it looked like a classic Blue Note cover and certainly sets the scene for what is a very chilled record.
- Wish You Were Here. Pink Floyd. Always searching for something different and under pressure to follow up their epic Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd opted for this iconic cover featuring the burning man. It was an elaborate cover for what is still a terrific album.
- Miami. The Gun Club. Led by the enigmatic Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the Gun Club had a strange mix of punk, rockabilly and blues. This was their excellent second album produced by Blondie’s Chris Stein with Deborah Harry on backing vocals. The cover shows the mysterious Pierce and band with their hometown of LA and its obligatory palm trees in the background.
- Rust Never Sleeps. Neil Young. Tough to pick one of Neil’s but I think this one was played so much as a teenager discovering alcohol and girls back home, it had to go in. This cover has that weary font, a trademark of his albums and puts the full band on stage where they did their best work. A classic album.
- Sabotage. John Cale. This is a seriously good live album. It was introduced to me by an old army mate Mark, who sadly is no longer with us. This will always be a reminder of the great times we had. The cover is explosive as is the content. John Cale at his creative and powerful best.
- Civilians. Joe Henry. Again a tribute to old friends Tails and Jill who introduced me to this wonderful artist. We saw him on his last tour to Oz with Billy Bragg and it just cemented our love for him. The cover of Civilians is an odd one but I love it and the album is one I always listen to when travelling.
- Car Tape. Lisa Miller. Yes I was one of those obsessive compilation tape people in the 80’s and 90’s. I loved doing them for friends as something personal to say, due perhaps of my inability to properly speak my thoughts! Lisa does a brilliant job on this record and her follow up Car Tape 2. The cover couldn’t be more perfect.
- Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Lucinda Williams. As an unabashed Lucinda fan this image on the cover does set the scene for one of the truly great records of the last fifty years. One of the best examples of raw honesty combined with ethereal writing and musicianship.
- Double Nickels on the Dime. The Minutemen. Another acquaintance one. My close friend Karl put me onto this very original 1984 album many years ago and it still stands up. The album contains forty five songs over eighty minutes. Strap in for punk, jazz, country, spoken word, instrumentals, you name it it’s in there. The cover is a photo take from the back of bassist Mike Watt’s VW Beetle, with Watt driving at 55MPH, trucker slang for Double Nickels.
- Horses. Patti Smith. Robert Mapplethorpe’s classic photo has withstood the test of time as much as the music on Patti’s debut album. We were fortunate to see a tribute to the album put together by Gareth Liddiard and friends a few years ago and then Patti and band came out and performed the album live not long after. A timeless photo and timeless album.
- Broken English. Marianne Faithfull. All the anguish and stories of a life of poor decision making mixed with pure joy and redemption, jump out at you on this brilliant record. One giant purge from a great artist. The cover says it all.
- Raw Power. Iggy and The Stooges. The eternal survivor, this cover is simply Iggy Pop in a typical heroin-chic pose. It was David Bowie who came on board in 1973 and helped Iggy clean up and make this excellent record, The Stooges third and most successful.
- Swordfishtrombones. Tom Waits. I remember buying this in 1983 off the back of Tom’s, Nighthawks at the Dineralbum. Swordfish was a dramatic turn to something eclectic that was going to be his trademark for the rest of his career. The photo is Tom with a couple of elderly actors. I loved it and it’s as abstract as the music.
- Sunnyboys. The Sunnyboys. Simple image and simple structure to the songs that make up one of the best debut albums made by anyone!
- Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express. The Go Betweens. I think this shot displays how the band were feeling when they made this classic Australian album. They certainly had their issues internally over the ensuing years but there’s a lot of love put into this one.
- Born Sandy Devotional. The Triffids. Not only is this record on of Australia’s finest but it just so happens I come from a town not far from where this aerial photo was taken. This is the coastal town of Mandurah WA in the 1960’s and I’m from Kwinana, just up the road. Besides that, David McComb’s songs take me back to a simpler time and I’ll always love this image and album.
- Exile on Main Street. Rolling Stones. A cover consisting of the band members and circus freaks pretty much sums up the crazy events leading up to and including the recording of arguably the greatest rock album of all time.
- The Big Don’t Argue. Weddings Parties Anything. The arresting cover art sets the scene for one of my all-time favourite songs, A Tale They Won’t Believe, the unbelievable story of convict Alexander Pearce, Tasmania and Australia’s first recorded cannibal. It’s the feature song on what is a superb album produced in the US by the legendary Jim Dickenson, an album that was to finally expose this great Melbourne band to the world. Alas it wasn’t to be but for WPA fans it’s still adored. Having spent four years working in Tassie my youngest daughter Mia would demand A Tale They Wont Believe whenever we went for a drive. Despite the repetition I never get sick of it. Just out of interest, WPA front man and Saints tragic Mick Thomas named the album after Tony Lockett.
- Post. Paul Kelly. An emaciated Kelly adorns the front of this classic Australian album. Helped by signature lead guitar from Steve Connolly, this record is an insight into a hazy, drugged up Australia however it’s overlayed with incredible tenderness and beautiful song writing. I like the distorted image on the cover which matches the mood of the songs.
- Apocalypse. Bill Callahan. Once I get started on Bill Callahan albums or his first band Smog, I can’t stop playing them. Probably described as ‘lo-fi’, we were lucky to see him play twice over the past few years. He looks like GWS champ Toby Green but a lot gentler! His songs are about birds, trees, horses, the wind and just stuff we need to think more about!
There’s something meditative about his music and this cover represents the beauty of this album and many of his others.
- Small Town Romance. Richard Thompson. This album was my first entry into this guitar maestro’s world. It’s purely acoustic and recorded live at The Bottom Line in New York in 1982. In the late 90’s I finally got to see him live with a couple of friends who both were handy guitarists. After the show I asked what they thought. They both decided tongue in cheek to destroy their guitars and never play again given what they had just witnessed! This is a stunning record and album cover that provides plenty of great memories. If he returns to Australia, he can’t be missed.
- Long Gone Whistle. Maurice Frawley. This triple album was released in 2010. It was recorded a year after Maurice’s death and featured a compilation of his songs plus a group of some of Australia’s finest artists doing versions of his songs. The cover makes me a bit sad. Firstly because Maurice was so overlooked and secondly I’m upset at myself for never going to see him live. This is a brilliant tribute lovingly put together by Paul Kelly that highlights pure, authentic Australian storytelling and superb musicianship.
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About Ian Wilson
Former army aircraft mechanic, sales manager, VFA footballer and coach. Now mental health worker and blogger. Lifelong St Kilda FC tragic and father to 2 x girls.
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This is such a wonderful idea….and open to so many possibilities. Like the portrait covers (eg Nashville Skyline) or the psychedelic covers (eg Disraeli Gears) or the quirky covers (eg Thick As A Brick). I have a fondness for album covers that depict the ocean and small craft (eg Overboard by Verve Pipe). I think your key criteria – ie those that bring personal joy – is the way to go. Thanks for the post!
My collage would probably be made up of all Dylan records but I have a sneaking suspicion I will be over ruled in our household if I put forward the idea!
For me simply. All Roxy Music albums. Rounded out with Pink Floyd Wish you were here and Dark Side. To finish off Lou Reeds Transformer. Frank.
I’ve toyed with this idea occasionally too, Ian. Well done on actually doing it! Great, eclectic set of album covers too but I was especially pleased to see Bill Callahan’s Apocalypse largely on the strength of the closing song, ‘One Fine Morning.’ For me it’s both dream-like and nightmarish and Nick Cave rates it highly saying it’s a song he, ‘can pull over myself, like a child might pull the bed covers over their head when the blaze of the world becomes too intense.’
I’d love to see him live. Thanks for this.
A super idea, Ian, and very well executed.
And as an Australian music lover, I particularly like your choice of Australian album covers.
That photo of the Go Betweens is my favourite of them, despite Amanda Brown not having yet joined the band.
Terrific stuff. Love the art and most of your eclectic musical taste. I knew most of them on sight – but thought top right was Bob Dylan’s naive painting on the cover of The Band’s “Music from Big Pink”. Reckon I’d have a Yes album cover in there. Wasn’t a great prog rock fan but the surreal cover art by Roger Dean always captivated me.
Very good. But while we’re on Bill Callahan, Woke On A Whaleheart has a better album cover (and is a better album) than that one.
It’s illegal not to include London Calling. (A nod to Elvis P) And immoral not to include Sticky Fingers. (I shoplifted a copy with a real zipper way back when.)
And the banana for VU by Warhol is iconic even among icons.
And Abraxas by Santana. (With a hot, black Virgin Mary. Spent many hours ogling her.) Same artist did Bitches Brew, another ripper.
Get Yer Ya Yas Out. Or is that just me getting tangled in the music and memories?
Oh… Born To Run.
Nice work, Willo!
One of my favourite album covers is the gorgeous black-and-white one of the Beatles’ second album, With The Beatles – I like the version of the cover that was released only in Australia.
Oh Ian.Wilson6344,
Wonderful idea.
Superb execution.
You own wall of memory, art, sound.
Five stars.
Onya Dave Cheers
Great stuff. There are some really great coffee table books about album art. It really went through the roof during the 70s when it came to prog rock and gatefold sleeves.
Some of my personal faves:
Midnight Oil-Red Sails on the sunset (When you see that when young when there was still a cold war on it stayed with you)
Pink Floyd-Animals
Any number of Sparks albums. ‘Propaganda’ and ‘Angst in my pants’ especially.
Radio Birdman-Radios Appear
Hey Ian, raising a glass to your idea and even more so, getting it done! Thanks for the album art exchange website tip. My go to has been Google images but this looks a much better site.
Many artist intersections between us, and good to see a Joe Henry album. And yep, the NY choice is spot on, for similar reasons. I came to him as a teenager heading into my 20s.
If I created an album cover wall I would include punk, soul and country and now you’ve got me in a frame of mind …
Cheers
Glad to see Dennis Wilson and Rowland S. Howard in there, they are two of my favourites.
I find the images of the hirsute former teen idol in Wilson and the ailing Howard captivating.
The album covers clearly reflect the nature of the music contained within.
I do like the Blue Note Records covers, and Coltrane’s ‘Blue Train’ cover is a favourite. Up there with Hank Mobley’s ‘Workout’ and ‘No Room For Squares’.
I agree with your comments on ‘Nebraska’. It is the only Springsteen album I own on vinyl and the only one I listen to regularly these days. Maybe I have just grown tired of the others? I do like the starkness of the album and the cover.
Any young bank that thinks they are ‘hard’ should just be given a copy of ‘Raw Power’ and told to go away and take a good look at themselves.