We Can Be Happy Underground - Over The Radar Bands with Underground Album Covers (Part 1)

"Although the counterculture spawned many new mediums, it was the music scene (with its viable commodities: graphics, posters, magazines, and records) that brought the revolution and the corporation into face-to-face confrontation. The counterculture didn't possess the means or the infrastructure to distribute its wares. For a split second everything was new, pure and untarnished, before the scruples of the unifying ideology (freedom from reclaiming the individual and building new community values, not based on personal greed) became compromised by having to broker deals with the outside world. While some bands started manufacturing their own product, these were really devices for attracting deals with major record labels. The politics of how musicians negotiated with corporations was won and lost on an individual basis; there was no template for dealing with straight society."
- Paul Drummond, "Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erikson and The 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound (pgs. 9-10) ©2007 Process Media

Cover by R. Crumb (1968)
Robert Crumb's "Zap Comics #1" could be considered the dawn of the Underground Comix movement. Crumb, a disciple of Harvey Kurtzman (creator of Mad Magazine - from which the term "Comics Go Underground" is attributed to naming the movement) produced a comic that was unlike anything ever seen in the comics world. It was full of biting satire, and racy behavior, it seemed a perfect addition to the counter cultural movement that was in effect. Although many of these artists bodies of work are much greater than these examples, the album covers may remain what they are best known for.

This was originally the back cover to the album, the track listing, but the band liked it better as the front cover. Here's R. Crumb in his own words:

Creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Gilbert Shelton did this cover for the Grateful Dead's 1978 album "Shakedown Street". Here's a great clip from a French site with a brief interview with Mr. Shelton.
Cover by Gilbert Shelton (1978)