FLAME "FLAME"

Artist: Flame

Album: Flame
Label: RCA Victor

Catalog: AFL1-2690
Year: 1978
Genre: rock
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: Lynn Goldsmith
Artist: Jean Paul Goude

Grade: * stars



I guess it's just a personal issue, but every time I see this cover it makes me shudder - nothing against the attractive and talented Marge Raymond, but there's just something very disconcerting about the cover showing her twisted like a pretzel.  

 

 

HOTGUN "HOTGUN"

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Artist: Hotgun

Album: Hotgun
Label: Guinness

Catalog: GNS-36014
Year: 1977
Genre: rock
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: unknown
Artist: unknown

Grade: **** stars

It wasn't a particularly impressive tax scam release, but it had a fascinating history (which you can read at about at http://nightflight.com/newpost/) and the dayglo colored Andy Warhol-meets Roy Lichtenstein’s comic book-style cover was certainly eye catching.

NANTUCKET "NANTUCKET"

Artist: Nantucket

Album: Nantucket
Label: Epic

Catalog: JE 35353
Year: 1978
Genre: rock
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: Paula Scher
Artist: Robert Grossman

Grade: **** stars

Not only did it take me a couple of years to figure out how funny it was to name a Southern rock band Nantucket, but it took me even longer to appreciate Robert Grossman's funny cover.

It wasn't until I actually looked at the cover closely that I realized Grossman was responsible for dozens and dozens of magazine covers I'd seen over the years, let along dozens of album covers.

Here's a link to some of his work: http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-caricature-art-of-robert-grossman.html

Here's a llnk to Grossman's website: http://www.robertgrossman.com/
 

MAHAVISHNU OrCHESTRA "BIRDS OF FIRE"

Artist: Mahavishnu Orchestra

Album: Birds of Fire
Label: Columbia

Catalog: KC 31996
Year: 1973
Genre: jazz-rock fusion
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: Ashok (Chris Poisson)
Artist: Ashok (Chris Poisson)

Grade: **** stars

After all these years I still can't wrap my ears around John McLaughlin and his all-star cast of jazz-rock fusioners ...  I know this stuff was technically spectacular, but after all these year I continue to find it dull, plodding, and self-pretentious. I guess I'm not alone since I can remember my local Penguin Feather record store having piles of the album on sale for like a dollar a pop.  I've tried to get it,but I just don't have the proper outlook, or DNA.  In fact, Chris Poisson's cover was the album's creative highlight for me.  The psychedelic colors were certainly eye catching, but so was that neat Pointillism he employed.  Imagine Georges Seurat, or Paul Signac having designed a Mahavsihnu Orchestra cover ... 

TOWER OF POWER "BUMP CITY"

Artist: Tower of Power

Album: Bump City
Label: Warner Brothers

Catalog: BS 2616
Year: 1972
Genre: funk
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: Bruce Steinberg
Artist: Bruce Steinberg

Grade: * star

I typically highlight cover art that captures my attention for its positive attributes. Once in awhile I'll see a cover that's so gawdawful it deserves attention.  Here's one.  The airbrushed cover screams early-'70s, but in a bad way.  Like your 13 year old having grabbed some spray cans on gone nuts on the neighbor's sports car ... Seriously, how long do you think it to execute this cover ?   Twenty minutes ?  If you'd tagged a New York subway car with this the patrons would have covered it up ...

JERRY RIOPELLE "SAVING GRACE"

Artist: Jerry Riopelle

Album: Saving Grace
Label: ABC

Catalog: ABCX 827
Year: 1974
Genre: rock
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: Fritz Scholder
Artist: Fritz Scholder

Grade: **** stars

The painting on the cover of Jerry Riopelle's third album is by painter Fritz Scholder and is entitled "Indian Power".   The painting is simply stunning ...  surprising since I don't like most of Scholder's catalog.

For anyone interested, Scholder has a web presence at: http://fritzscholder.com/

THE EAGLES "HOTEL CALIFORNIA"

Artist: The Eagles

Album: Hotel California
Label: Asylum

Catalog: 7E 1084
Year: 1976
Genre: rock
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: Don Henley and John Kosh
Photo: David Alexander

Grade: **** stars

I'd really planned to avoid the obvious picks - the ones that show up on all of the top-100 lists, but my older son has been trying to learn the lead guitar chords for 'Hotel California' and after hearing weeks of practice I figured I needed to pull the album out and given a spin for the first time in a decade.  Since I own the original vinyl (complete with the poster insert), I couldn't help but gaze at the David Alexander cover - it's a classic.

I saw an interview with Henley where he described wanting a cover that captured "Faded glory, loss of innocence and decadence," "I was trying to use California as the microcosm for the rest of the nation."

Henley approach designer John Kosh with the project and Kosh and photographer David Alexander went to shoot the sun sinking behind the elegant Beverly Hills Hotel. To clear the trees surrounding the hotel, they had to clamber aboard a sixty-foot cherry picker and dangle over rush-hour traffic on Sunset Boulevard.

The cover art ended up costing $60,000 - a small price given the album's massive sales.