Photo: Malcom Brown
"June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from Vietnam, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon to bring attention to the repressive policies of the Catholic Diem regime that controlled the South Vietnamese government at the time." Source - World Famous Photos
What's behind a powerful album cover? Good art work? graphic design? Yep all of those contribute to some of my favorites. I have many different criteria for what makes a good album cover, vs. what makes a memorable one. Memorable album covers seem to have the sole trait of exploiting an event or familiar imagery to make it's point. There always seems to be a certain "in your face"-ness of a album cover that exploits - you have to be the type of band that can stand behind the brazen imagery.
I'll admit to not quite understanding Rage Against The Machines music when I was first introduced to it and heard from my friend Matt. All that stuck out to me was that one of the songs used the word "fuck" 27 times and ended with a "motherfucker". I didn't get it. I didn't really understand the album cover either. Was it a dummy? The font made the cover look like a zine, so it made me want to read the lyrics. It all started to click together, the imagery, the angry lyrics - but this was still pre-internet, so I was still in the dark as to the source or story behind the photo. So it just took on the job of being "The Rage Against The Machine Cover." It wasn't until college I learned about reference and it's place in art, the History of Photography, and the fine line between reference and exploitation.
In hindsight, I would say that this cover, though memorable, exploits it's use of imagery rather than owns it. This album did a lot to educate me (or at least give me the jumping off point to look into some of the subjects they spoke of, on my own), but I question the somewhat punk aesthetic of exploiting this particular event for an album.
It seems in so many ways, hip hop today is only about exploitation. It's a sad fact that so many of today's hip hop artists (not all, mind you) are fronting the same tired imagery, the ghetto fabulousness of the artists who inspired them. The Geto Boys used this image of Bushwick Bill being carted through the hospital with a blood shot eye and bandaged face, escorted by Scarface and Willie D, for the cover of We Can't Be Stopped. Strange thing is, that if this cover is supposed to envoke a certain amount of "toughness" it belies the fact that Bushwick Bill was injured by himself, shooting himself in the eye after his girlfriend refused to. So while the cover may look to represent some heroic invulnerability of life on the street, fact that this was self inflicted and B.B. was really only unable stop himself.
Ween and The Black Crowes have a similar idea, circa 1994
In 1994 women from the chest on down seemed like the modus operandi of two seemingly disparate bands. Certainly the female anatomy has been foremost on the minds of any heterosexual male (and possibly our rocking saphotic sisters too.) who ever picked up a guitar to attempt this rock n' roll thing, but 1994 was a special year that seemed to offer us two covers that were somewhat like the other. Ween's cover for Chocolate and Cheese follows the certain type of bratiness that I can only describe to as a being akin to having an older brother poke you while saying "stop poking me. stop poking me. stop poking me" The Blacke Crowes on the other hand plays off the easiest way to offend a large portion of flag loving Americans, is to take the American flag and use it in a context that is non flag like. It also in turn pokes at America's puritan underbelly and our squeamishness with all things relating to a naked human body (especially women's) and our offense to the very idea that these "naughty bits" are actually covered in hair.
The Rolling Stones get hands on with "Sticky Fingers" depiction of Jed Johnson or Joe Dallesandro
Most bands, and album covers after all are beholden to Mick and the boys for featuring one of the first album covers from a major band to not depict the band - Beggars Banquet. Fortunately, their dedication to the very idea of rock didn't stop there and as if an album cover with a toilet on it wasn't offense enough (at the time, mind you) Sticky Fingers blew it out of the water with a fly you could unzip exposing briefs that were stamped with the infamous words "This Is Not Etc." The infamous trouser bulge was one of two Warhol assistants (Jed Johnson or Joe Dallesandro - whom were probably never compensated). The Stones marriage to Warhol for "Sticky Fingers" was apropos, since the name of Warhols game was exploitation of imagery by the media machine.
Roxy Music's Country Life
Country Life was the first Roxy Music album to break the US top 40 charts. I don't feel at liberty to discuss the merits of this album, having not heard it, but I can only assume, that the appealing cover made a lot of young men give Roxy Music a chance.
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Blind Faith
Some imagery album art transcends the individual talents on the album. The pre-pubescent image of Mariora Goschen holding a spaceship designed by jeweler Mick Milligan on Blind Faith's eponymously titled album sicks out in my mind as one of the more memorable exploitation covers. Let me digress to say that I saw this album for a good ten years before I ever even knew who was in Blind Faith, but it's so iconic I will probably always know the cover over the actual music. According to wikipedia, Ms. Goschen was paid handsomely, and was photographed with her parents permission, so there's something for you post modern theorists to chew on - does proper compensation or credit for an image still equal exploitation? Further more does it do a band band such as Blind Faith justice to have such a cover, when you have musicians such as Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech playing on the same record. These were by no means un-popular recording artists and the album would have sold regardless of any controversy the album cover possessed.
We are now entrenched in the digital music era, where album art is down loadable and will even appear as the bits and bytes tick off our favorite tunes. The album cover is more like an file icon, or a place marker. The web shocks and exploits everyday, and music - well, music is finding it's way to ears in all sorts of new ways that transcend physicality. Perhaps in the future we will look back at Radioheads "In Rainbows" as one of the first major bands to exploit the Internet medium with teases and clues as to their next album. So now that the mystery is gone, the here and now that record stores invoke in many of us (but I fear not in our future audiophillic digital brethren), what will prod us and push us to "pick up" an album and give it a spin. Radiohead's pricing scheme definitely has me thirsting for a listen, but will it last? Perhaps artists will have to keep pushing our buttons in different ways, if they still want to try to provoke us to press play.
Posted on 10/10/2007
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Love this post. The cover to Amorica, however is a reprint of the July 1976 issue of Hustler magazine. So really that was Larry Flynt's idea to offend flag loving Americans. Which has really been his schtick all along. That cd cover was quickly censored , with an all black cover replacing it. I am lucky enough, though to posses a copy of the cd with original cover. I also have an original LP press of the Blind Faith record, although it is the censored version of it with the band photo on it. The CD edition I have of it though, has the original artwork on it and the older I get the more it creeps me out.
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Never knew it was a Hustler cover. - 10 points for The Black Crowes. That could be a whole post in itself - re-appropriation. But good for Larry Flint, he's very good at rubbing the pubic - I mean public, the wrong way. He's pretty rock n' roll in his actions.
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Great post!
I've been closely following the demise (at the very least, artistically & physically speaking) of the art of the album cover for some years now. A friend of mine who I use as my photo editor has told that I should be shooting album covers - and I'd love to. Unfortunately the album cover industry has changed with the music industry.
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i have those rolling stones and blind faith vinyls! sticky fingers always cracked me up. and oh ween, you and your voodoo lady.
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Great post! Lots of food for thought here. I guess the question is what is considered merely offensive/shocking/over the line, and what is actually exploitation. I mean, while many I'm sure considered this schocking:
(which is funny considering the album title) I don't think it could be considered exploitation. Same with Beggar's Banquet. The Blind Faith cover, however . . .
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A most interesting and thought provoking post, Contra. Your post reminds how basically commercial the music industry can be. It's all about money making...And for no one's found anything better than the booty-shaker.
I've got the Sticky Fingers vinyl with the zip-fly cover. Classy. Another classic of "exploitation" artwork is Lou Reed's Transformer (sorry I'm preaching for my own parish here). Especially the back cover:
Note the enormous bulge on the "boy" (right) and the flat chest on the "girl" (left) If you look carefully, you'll see that the "boy" looks oddly feminine (notice the hips). You'll also notice how the "girl's" shoulders are broader than her hips - note the square jaw. The album is called "Transformer" and so what we are given to see is a scene of "transvestitism"
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all great album covers, and all by artistic musicians.
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More on this theme wouldn't go amiss. One point - I can think of a few album covers without the band on the front that predate Let It Bleed. The earliest is the first Velvets album, whose cover is by, yes, Andy Warhol. The other side of the coin is the front of Rubber Soul....a band so famous there's no name or album title, just a photo.
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White and Nerdy - Yep, as a visual artist myself, I have a special love for album cover art. I have to admire bands like Radiohead who offer the "collectors edition" special packaging of an album, because I've always thought that this is where music was heading - make the music available to everyone for cheap, but offer limited edition/limited run pressings of albums that one can own if they like the physical album. It works like a lithographic print does in the Art World.
Groon - I believe all the art on the covers of the first 3 Jane's albums were all sculptures by Perry Farrel. I'm really never offended by art (come to think of it, very few things offend me). I think when things are said in art, it is said in an environment that promotes reflection. I do however question the choices some people make in their art, whether or not it offers a proper dialog or is just used to offend. I question rages use of the image, because a.) if they in any way associate what they are saying in their lyrics towards the action of the monk, then they are naive and fooling themselves. The monk proved in his actions that he was a martyr for a cause, Rage can only say their martyrs, but it will never go further than that. B.) Rage has always been on Sony Records, hardly the D.I.Y., grass roots thinking and punk of yester year. I believe that hurts their message A LOT when their distributed by such a large corporation.
Bartleby - I've always been a big fan of androgyny's role in R n' R. I think it's just as important as the whole sex and drugs factor. While it's definitely a provoking cover, and very Lou Reed, it also is strange too since Lou Reed's antics of beating up reporters who called him "gay, and his denial or his public displays of(at the very least) bi-sexual behavior. Reed could definitely be credited with introducing the freakiness into Rock n' Roll - of which I'm sure Bowie took many cues. I think when it comes down to it, despite how much depth we find in some of the music we love, it is still show business w/ the emphasis on business.
Jonh - Your right, V.U does predate it, and I should have been suspicious of wikipedia there. Good point about Rubber Soul, but (I could be wrong) I believe the U.S. versions had "Rubber Soul" stamped in the corner - or at least the later ones did. Probably some chicken shit executive decision worried people would get confused. And I'm sure there were plenty of non rock albums (Jazz, perhaps) that used album art instead of photos. I can think of Jao Gilberto/Stan Getz "Girl Fro Ipenema" off hand. Thanks for pointing that out. Perhaps I should change it to "are beholden to Mick and the boys for being one of the first..." is a little less specific.
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Very interesting post! On the thought of proding & pushing us to “pick up” an album rather than download...
I'd like to add the idea that Beck, or whomever, came up with for his latest_Information_ album. They left the cover with a blank graph insert and included a bunch of stickers for a personal design. This didn't particularly sway me to go buy the album (I prefer having a hard copy anyway). I ended up using the stickers elseware, on my daily planner and my motercycle helmet, so I think the insert to our album is still blank. But still unique
Also Tool's 10,000 days with a little 3-D effect is a very cool idea.
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I wouldn't be able to make my own though. Being a former comic geek, it goes against the idea of keeping something "mint condition", so I would just feel the album devalue if I did that, even though I know that's ridiculous thinking, it's one of those habits I can't seem to escape. I even had a hard time figuring where I would put stickers when I was younger and would get a pristine sheet of stickers.
But your right, those are great ideas for covers. Hardly shocking, but innovative none the less.
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HA! I never thought of that, maybe that's the reason why I couldn't bring myself to actually put the stickers on the cover, for fear of devaluing the album.
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You got that info from Wikipedia?? Sheesh - fire that so-called expert. Now I'm going to look up my Taschen book called '1000 Album Covers' and see if there's an even earlier example. Certainly in jazz, Blue Note were doing abstract and illustration covers in the 50s. But I'd love to see a further development of your overall thesis. Have you thought of casting your eye over the early Stiff and Radar covers- the work of the amazing Barney Bubbles? Or Peter Saville at Factory? Or more sloppy thinking from bands like Rage?
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I did intend to expand on this idea, and possibly I will on my own blog or website, but I try to not make my posts supper long because I believe that you should keep blog posts to a couple paragraphs, since the responses are such fun continuations of the posts.
I've often drooled over that book (It's by Michael Ochs, is it not? brother of folk singer Phil.) My resources are a bit limited, as is time, so I had to kind of tailor it to a select limited, off the top of my head covers.
You've brought up wonderful examples that I will definitely keep in mind if I take this further, or write it in sections.
With our baby and posting on the dl at work, I can't post as frequent as I'd like, so I've been working on that one outside of Mog. So right now I'm working to at least one solid post a week rather than my usual mish mash of things I find while trolling the net.
Thanks for the input Jonh!
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It is indeed from the Michael Ochs archives (my mentor way back in the dark days of youth and yearning) and makes a wonderful xmas present, should your loved ones listen to your hints.
I know what you mean about time and posting. Damn the real world! Except where babies are concerned.
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Michael Ochs was your mentor! I bow to you Sir. My friend who got me interested in Phil Ochs has in the past been involved in an annual Phil Ochs night in Philadelphia organized by Phil and Michaels sister. I think I read an article some years ago about the Ochs Archve and it had some pictures, I was floored by it. What an undertaking, and what a trove of pop culture. I would probably explode in there.
As for the baby, I'm just trying to get through the first 3 months (one down, two to go). If I remember correctly, with my son it got easier after the 3rd month. But I hardly remember anything these days. Chldren keep you young while making you old, or something to that effect...
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Mike was the PR at Columbia Records when I first got going on the journalism tip. He was a huge fount of knowledge about rock and roll and would send me up to Village Music in SF with a shopping list for oldies that had just been unearthed in some midwest warehouse. The Archive came about because all the labels were throwing out their photo archives so he was phoning up and getting them. The records came because he's an inveterate collector. I visited him at home around 1980 and the only room with no records was his bedroom. And we're talking every room with floor to ceiling shelf systems just filled. Now they're in a warehouse. There's an Archive web site, though I haven't been there for awhile.
Keep you young while making you old...you got that right! And I'm finding that as they become teenagers, they turn you into the parent you loathed.
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Excellent post, especially for someone with an album cover fetish like me (I can buy an album based on the cover art alone; don't worry, I don't roll the same way with books!).
To me, the most important thing is aesthetics, it's what I usually seek and what catches my eye, more than power or provocation. If I don't agree with their taste in art, can I really agree with (I'll put it this way here) taste in music? It might sound shallow, but it works for me most of the time. Needless to say, I don't reject bands due to album covers, just explaining what catches my eye.
Off the top of my head, here are 3 random favourites of mine.
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Yep, that's another post too. My favorite all time covers. Usually good graphic design and packaging design will do it for me. I think there's a few I've taken a chance on because of the cover, but often times the art is much better than the album. There are some amazing visual artists out there making great covers. Perhaps I'll d a post and cite the artists of the cover.
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I didn't go off topic, did I? blushes I meant that as long as they have delicious aesthetics, I'll sure be pressing play :) But yes, you should make the other post as well if you feel like it. It will be interesting, methinks.
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lovely post, bravo
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THIS IS A PERFECT POST TYLER !!! I'll take Groon's suggestion & raise him...
_*Sooooooooooooooooo offensive... they had to change it... but I love the sentiment written on the second cover as well... I have both - you kiddin me - we're talkin'
JANE'S here people ;)
& the quote at the beginning: "Señores y señoras: nosotros tenemos más influencia con sus hijos que tú tienes, pero los queremos. Creados y regados de Los Ángeles, Juanas Addicción!". This roughly translates to: "Ladies and gentlemen - we have more influence over your children than you do, but we love them. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jane's Addiction!".
Gotta love that First Amendment...
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Man that group was SO good. Why did they have to get back together and ruin it. Don't they know 3 is the magic number?
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Sure is for the song Three Days - easily... *FAR & AWAY& one of my all time top 5 songs in the history of songs...
I SAY HOT DAYUM I LOVE THAT SONG !!!
turn it up to begin with y'all...
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Funny story. I went into a gas station the other day and Mountain Song was playing loud on the speakers. One attendant to another said "What is this?" the other said "I don't know, but it's already giving me a headache!" I paid them and said, "Hey, that's Janes Addiction!" She looked at me like white people were crazy and shouted real loud, "The customer knows this music!" It was so surreal. All I could do was smile.
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Awesome,contraB.. Here's one on the R & B exploitation tip
and one on the blaxploitation tip
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I actually _"Mind videotape"_ those moments - had someone asks me - who the hell is brian vander ark (on my shirt) ??? I say - lead singer of Verve Pipe... WHO ? They sing the song "Freshmen".......................................................... _oh_
but when you know the song & educate the community - now that is supremacy at it's finest... I love getting all hoity-toity when it comes to music & arseholes who can't see the genius in the music....
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Cody B - Mmm, honey...I love that their all in the background like they just happened upon this scene...Hey guys look!
Lizzie, if they say who or what type of music I say, "oh, it's Nordic Dark Metal, you should check it out, it's great!"
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I guess later in the shoot they had the model lie down on a table . She was drizzled heavily with honey, and in combination with the lighting, she was stuck to the table. She had to be surgically removed to save her skin. She was also payed far below minimum wage, now that's exploitation.
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Tyler: I am SOOOO stealin that from you - but I will properly quote it & say:
"littlelaughingreddevil told me so !!!"
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Cody, wow that's incredible. Damn, the only thing close to that I can think of is the women painted gold in "Goldfinger" (the movie) I believe kept passing out because the paint kept her skin from respirating and she would over heat.
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Aaah, the things they do for art!
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