Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for October, 2021
Posted October 1, 2021 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com
Now that Summer has ended and we’ve “officially” entered the Fall (or is it Autumn?) season, we can all celebrate the harvest, the changing colors of Fall foliage and the fact that the nominations and voting for this year’s class of inductees will begin in earnest during the month. More bios have been added to the site in preparation for this effort, so this prep works serves two good purposes (voting prep and more content on the site) at the same time.
While my work continues unabated, so do the efforts of the people responsible for packaging your favorite music products and so, to that end, this month’s edition of the ACHOF News Update and Summary is packed with more of the high-quality bits of album cover artist/art news and updates you’ve come to expect in these monthly summaries. Read on to see this month’s summary of these articles, posts and announcements I’ve gathered recently regarding all things regarding album cover artists and the art they produce. Their work – and our interest in and excitement about their work – endures and so, without further delay, let’s dive into this month’s summary.
Exhibitions and Gallery Show Info –
a) A fantasy art exhibition now on display (thru 10/31/21) at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA includes interviews with several artists who also contributed their work to album covers – https://www.nrm.org/2021/05/enchanted-a-history-of-fantasy-illustration/
As you know, there have been a number of examples of art created by artists well-known for their contributions to the fantasy art genre that have graced some very well-known album covers – Frank Frazetta (Molly Hatchett, Nazareth, etc.), Frank Kelly Freas (Queen), and Ken Kelly (KISS, Manowar, others) are just a few examples of those who are credited with such work – so it’s great that fans of these artists can now see them, along with the work of dozens of others, in such a fine and well-curated setting. The show will later travel to venues in Chattanooga, TN (at the Hunter Museum of American Art May 20, 2022 through September 5, 2022) and Flint, MI (the Flint Institute of Arts, from September 23, 2022 through January 8, 2023).
b) The latest staging of what’s known as The One LP Project – featuring photos by William Ellis – took place at high-end audio salon Loud & Clear’s showroom in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning on September 24th, , with Mr. Ellis himself on hand on the 25th to meet fans, sign prints and talk about this special exhibition.
While the British photographer (b. 1957 in Liverpool, UK) is perhaps better known for his photos of jazz legends (Tony Bennet, Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson and many others, with many of his images in the permanent collections of photo/art/music museums around the world), he’s also had sessions with singers James Brown, Tracy Chapman and Al Green and the great Paul McCartney and also has a beautiful portfolio of pix of reggae artists, with selections from that collection on display at The University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.
Having first staged his One LP Project in New York in 2010 at the home of the ARChive of Contemporary Music located there, Ellis describes the origins of the unique combination photo/video storytelling effort as follows – “One LP commenced in 2010 as a response to conversations with musicians about their relationship with the work of other artists encountered via recordings. In particular, conversations had focused on the albums that had profoundly moved the subjects…it explores the inspirational qualities of jazz recordings and the impact that they have on people’s lives. Each portrait features the subject holding a recording that is of fundamental importance to them. The photograph is accompanied by a short interview that explores the meaning and value of the selected album”. It has since been staged in several other venues and has changed its source materials (and interviewees) to focus on Northern Soul, Reggae and rock albums, offering something for everyone during the project’s 10+ year life so far.
There’s a nice intro to the recent staging in Scotland on the local newspaper’s web site – https://www.scotsman.com/business/edinburgh-hi-fi-dealer-making-big-noise-with-unique-music-photography-exhibition-3377973 with additional info on the host’s web site- https://loud-clear.co.uk/edinburgh/william-ellis/ The striking images will be displayed throughout their showrooms and are enhanced by carefully selected tracks played through some of the world’s finest hi-fi.
More details of past One LP shows can be found at http://www.onelp.com/one-lp-portraits/%40archive-of-contemporary-music-nyc/, with more info on the talented Mr. Ellis available on his web site at – https://www.william-ellis.com/about-the-photographs
c) IT’S FINALLY HERE – I’m pleased to share the announcement of the October 1 opening of the photo show featuring Brian Griffin’s Black Country Dada photo collection. Brian’s work is included in The Northern Eye 2021 International Photography Festival that is being staged in various locations in and near Colwyn Bay, North Wales, UK. According to the pre-show press, “The Northern Eye Photography Festival is a collaboration between the Oriel Colwyn photography gallery and Aberystwyth’s The Eye Festival. The biennial festival is hosted on the ‘odd’ years and is described by their producers as being “a friendly festival that kind of likes being a little ‘odd’, different and non-exclusive with an overarching desire to champion photography and widen its reach. In our celebration of photography we bring an all new set of outstanding photographers, speakers and exhibitions to the North Wales coastal town of Colwyn Bay.”
A long-time chronicler of life around Britain and the people living those lives (and the maker of many memorable album covers, including A Broken Frame for Depeche Mode, Look Sharp! for Joe Jackson and dozens of other great images), Brian’s work will be on display the entire month of October at the Oriel Colwyn gallery, with more info available on the festival’s web site at https://www.northerneyefestival.co.uk/dada
d) Kicking off with a Happy Hour event on September 10th at the Hey Nonny club in Arlington Height, IL (a suburb of Chicago), there’s a new rock photo show featuring the work of Jim Summaria, with details provided by the Daily Herald’s web site – https://www.dailyherald.com/business/20210902/hey-nonny-to-host-gallery-of-work-from-legendary-rock-photographer-jim-summaria
Jim’s photos have been found on album packages for musical acts such as Savoy Brown (and Kim Simmonds’ solo efforts), Montrose, Elvis Presley and Robin Trower, and he’s worked as a commercial photographer based in the Chicago area since the late 1970s. A book titled Classic Rock Photographs from Yesterday & Today built around his portfolio of rock shots from the 1970s – present (co-authored with Mark Plotnick, who is also the co-host on their weekly radio show called “The Classic Rock Show”) is available in bookstores and on his website – https://jsummaria.wixsite.com/rocknrollphotos/bio
e) UPDATE ON ARGYLL SCOTLAND SHOW – Following up on my promise to get my hands on more info about the album art show (Art On My Sleeves) that was staged in August/September at the Dunoon Burgh Hall (on Argyle St. in Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland) and the collector/curator who put this exhibition together, I’d like to share the first bits of what I hope is much more info on the nice man, his collection and the show he’s organized. Jules Seamer has agreed to work with me on an interview/walk-thru of his show and, while we work on that together, he gave me some notes that provide some of the basics.
“Hi Mike and thank you so much for taking an interest in my exhibition at the Burgh Hall, Dunoon. Just so I’m not too much of a ‘mysterious collector’ (as I’d called him originally!), here’s a bit about myself – I am a lifelong record collector and lover of music of many genres, a graduate of the University of Brighton – where I studied the History of Design – and a resident of Argyll, Scotland, where I’m also currently the Exhibition Coordinator at Dunoon Burgh Hall.
The exhibition is an exploration of the design of record sleeves throughout its 80-or-so-year history. The display centers on several aspects of album cover design: the uses of Art, Illustration, Photography and Graphic Design; the art of Jazz record sleeves; the designs of John Kosh; Reid Miles’ work for Blue Note records and an appraisal of the album sleeves of Morrissey & The Smiths.” Jules also shared two large and detailed documents which he called his “Sleeve Notes” that serve to give readers the stories behind the design of the album covers featured in the exhibition.
Watch this space for more on this show. If you’d like to learn more about this venue, please visit – https://www.dunoonburghhall.org.uk/
f)
Although I introduced you to the Pushpin Graphics show now on at NYC’s Poster House (titled The Push Pin Legacy and running through the 6th of February, 2022) in last month’s news summary, I figured that any show built around the collective output of such great designers/artists as Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, Reynold Ruffins, Loring Eutemay, Herb Leavitt and dozens of others would certainly include examples of their album cover work and, based on the list kindly provided by Poster House’s Julia Knight, it seems as though this show is even more of a must-see by album art/poster fans than I’d gathered (without being able to see it myself)!
There are eight packages by Mr. Glaser, with examples including his covers for Linda Cohen’s 1973 recording Lake of Light and the 1965 package Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America/Voices Incorporated; five covers by award-winning designer Loring Eutemey including We Got A Thing by The Capitols (1966) and The Bar-Kays 1967 record Soul Finger; several by Grammy-winning designer Paula Scher, such as Rising Sun by singer Yvonne Elliman (1975) and Dan Hartman’s 1978 LP Instant Replay, plus others designed and/or illustrated by Barry Zaid, Carl Berkowitz, Sam Antupit, Stanislaw Zagorski, Isadore Seltzer, James McMullan and Bernard Bonhomme.
Julia also confirmed that they’ll soon be sharing a recording of the panel discussion staged on September 25th – moderated by Phyllis Feder featuring Seymour Chwast, Myrna Davis, Paul Davis, and Jim McMullan, four of the over 100 designers who’ve plied their trade under the Pushpin Studios/Group name – that was titled “Pushing the Envelope: An Evening With Push Pin Legends”. This video will be posted to the museum’s Vimeo page – https://vimeo.com/posterhousenyc – so please visit this site to see this and any of the dozens of videos available for viewing there.
More on the show is available on the museum’s web site at https://posterhouse.org/exhibition/the-push-pin-legacy/
Brief bits:
g) – The Pink Floyd touring exhibition “Their Mortal Remains” (originally staged in 2017 at the V&A Museum in the U.K. before moving to Italy, Germany and Spain in 2018-19) finally opened in early September at the Vogue Multicultural Museum on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles and is set to run now through the 9th of January, 2022.
Tickets and more information on this immersive exhibit, which includes container loads of Pink Floyd’s artifacts, stage sets and items from a number of private collections can be found on the museum’s web site at https://www.vmmla.com/the-pink-floyd-exhibition/
You can also read more about the show in two take a little time today and read a preview of the show at https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-museum-exhibit/ along with an interview with drummer Nick Mason, who was on hand at the show’s LA opening – https://ultimateclassicrock.com/nick-mason-their-mortal-remains/
Artist News and Interviews –
a) Always at or near the top of the “most-influential rock photographer” lists is the late Jim Marshall, whose portfolio includes historic photos of a huge number of seminal rock music-related events – backstage shots of The Beatles’ final concert at Candlestick in 1966, the Monterey Pop Festival and shows by the pre-eminent acts performing during the “Summer of Love” in 1967 (Santana, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Cream, etc.), Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison in 1968, Woodstock, Johnny Cash “flipping the bird” at San Quentin and the album cover for The Allman Brothers Live At The Fillmore East in 1969 – along with scores of covers for Rolling Stone and LIFE magazines.
While his work – and outsized personality – has been the subject of a number of books and articles, his life’s story is now the subject of a documentary film that will be released in mid-October. Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall will soon be available for American audiences to stream on demand (via Apple TV and Altavod beginning October 12th, with pre-orders accepted now)! There are also several in-person theater screenings scheduled in Austin (at 3TEN @ ACL Live), Los Angeles (one at the Grammy Museum and one at the Leica Gallery there), San Francisco (Roxy Theater), and New York (National Arts Club-sponsored) during the month.
More on the scheduled in-theater showings – https://www.media.jimmarshallphotographyllc.com/update-jim-marshall-documentary-show-me-picture-comes-us
Watch the trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zKNqtXTd80
b) The team behind Muse By Clio’s ongoing “Art of the Album” series of artist/designer/fan-driven articles about album cover art continued to deliver on their mission to deliver articles written by people in/around the music business. During the month of September, award-winning art director Gavin Lester of the LA-based Zambezi creative agency shared his list of “10 Great Album Covers” (inc. covers for Grace Jones, Pixies, Isaac Hayes and Frank Zappa, among others) along with the reasons why these images stand above all others – https://musebycl.io/art-album/10-great-album-covers-chosen-gavin-lester-zambezi
This list was preceded in the month by another article – this one by producer/game developer/all-around creative Alan Mawdsley, music director at the Syn Tokyo agency, who shares his love of Japanese album covers in this article – https://musebycl.io/art-album/10-japanese-album-covers-will-rock-your-world I’ve always found the artwork on Japanese music recordings to be quite compelling and trend-setting, so its great to learn more about some of the stand-out work being done in that area.
As always, I’m eager to see what turns up on next month’s collection of articles – keep up the good work, Team Clio.
Brief bits:
c) John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal speaks with Styx’s Tommy Shaw about the key role that album cover art has played in the band’s ongoing popularity – https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/entertainment-columns/kats/styx-star-shaw-revives-the-days-of-album-artwork-2445665/
d) Here’s an article with the story behind the Hipgnosis-designed cover for Pieces of Eight by Styx – guitarist James Young shares his remembrances of how the cover came to be – https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-styxs-pieces-of-eight-album-artwork
e) As the controversy over the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind (and the lawsuit served by the now-grown-up baby featured on its cover) continues, art/photo fans will want to take a break from the hub-bub and click on over to this recent article on the Juxtapoz Magazine site featuring photographer Kirk Weddle’s Nevermind photo session out-takes (reference my interview with him that includes a few as well) – https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/nirvana-nevermind-outtakes-by-kirk-weddle/ If you have some additional time, I’d invite you to revisit my own illustrated article based on my interview/portfolio review done with Kirk W a few years back – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/featured-album-cover-artist-portfolio-kirk-weddle/
Items for Sale and/or at Auction –
a) Kirk Weddle’s Nirvana book and deluxe book set titled Nirvana: Never Mind the Photos is scheduled to ship in late October. According to the promo text on the Modern Rocks Gallery site (published by ACC Art Books), “Nirvana: Never Mind the Photos will be the first time the photographs will be published as a whole. The book showcases these extraordinary shots, examining just how difficult photographing an underwater baby turned out to be, nevertheless photographing an underwater band. These images of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic capture the band as they dive in and submerge themselves into the rock icon stratosphere.”
In addition to the 150 color and B&W photos included in the 192-page hard-bound tome, there are essays, quotes and other related text found throughout the book, including those from Steven Walker, owner of Modern Rocks Gallery (USA), journalist Steve Fairclough and album art director Robert Fisher, coupled with Weddle’s own commentary.
The book only – signed by Weddle – is available for pre-order ($40) with a late-October shipping date – https://www.modernrocksgallery.com/bookshop/nirvana-book, while collectors can snap up one of the 100 limited-edition deluxe sets ($750) which include two 8×10” prints, a signed bookplate and a signed/number COA – all signed by Kirk Weddle – with the entire collection presented in a custom-printed slipcase. Pre-order this item at https://www.modernrocksgallery.com/bookshop/nirvana-book-deluxe-edition
b) Take a look at the new pop-up store for Queen fans that opened up in late September in London… Working with the Bravado licensing company, Queen has just opened up a new shop in London (on Carnaby street, just a few doors down from a similar retail space featuring Rolling Stones merch) they’re calling Queen The Greatest that will give fans access to a wide arrange of Queen-branded merchandise.
According to an article by Elizabeth Scarlett published on the LouderSound web site – https://www.loudersound.com/news/queen-pop-up-shop-opens-on-londons-carnaby-street – the two story retail space “covers multiple eras, from the 70s thrift store in tribute to Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor’s stall in Kensington Market, to their iconic live performances and tours of the 80s, a record store of the 90s, an homage to 00s DVDs and the technology of the 2010s.”
Open from now through the upcoming holiday shopping season, each month the store will present merchandise according to various themes, with October’s theme being “Music” and featuring the band’s record releases (including solo releases by Brian May and Roger Taylor), while November’s theme of Art & Design will include a variety of specially-made items, including clothing and collectible (and, get ready, a Queen pinball machine!). December’s shoppers will see the shop explore the theme of “Magic”, adding Christmas items as well (cards, wrapping paper, etc.). All the while, visitors will be treated to video reels of Queen performances and other special opportunities to interact with the content they’ll see and hear there. Additional info can also be found on this article published by Forbes Magazine – https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfaithfull/2021/09/28/queen-rock-up-on-carnaby-street-to-celebrate-50-year-anniversary/? Make a big noise, play in the street and kick your can down to see this fascinating new establishment while you can.
c) Those of you who’ve known me for a long while (back from my old RockPoP Gallery days) will recall that I had the priviledge of selling fine art prints of several of album covers designed by noted artist – and master of the collage – Winston Smith. I recently bought a couple of t-shirts from his online store and, while there, saw that he had some cool art items he was making available at REALLY reasonable prices, including a limited-edition print ($150 in an edition of 10 “First Collector’s” prints) of the record cover art he did for the late/great comedian George Carlin’s 17th album (of his 12th HBO special) titled George Carlin: Complaints & Grievances – https://destroyallgalleries.com/products/winston-smith-george-carlin-complaints-grievances-signed-12-x-29-art-print?
Also available (in an edition of 80 signed screen-prints) is a wonderful work printed on 12” LP records – the Winston Smith x Political Gridlock Mona Mohawk 12″ LP. According to the site, “Everybody knows Mona has the best record collection and is punker than you! The original Mona Mohawk was created by Winston Smith in 1984. The 7-color screenprint handmade by Political Gridlock, on random vinyl record. You’ll receive a mystery LP record sleeve ranging from PIL to B52’s to Beatles to Christmas Songs to “An Hour of Dance Polkas!” among many more! Comes with original record sleeve. Actual record may still play on one side! Order yours (I did!) at https://destroyallgalleries.com/products/winston-smith-mona-mohawk-12-lp-w-vintage-record-sleeve?
Brief bits:
d) Some of artist Stanley Donwood’s original artwork done for Radiohead is going up for auction at Christie’s in October as part of their “Post War and Contemporary Art” sale – https://www.christies.com/features/Radiohead-11846-7.aspx?sc_lang=en
London auction page – https://www.christies.com/en/auction/first-open-post-war-and-contemporary-art-online-19842-cks/ Bidding online opens October 5th, with the hammer going down on the 19th.
e) Iconic Images offers prints from the collection they assembled for this year’s “Photo London 2021” event (“from the Blitz to the Beatles, Balkans and Civil Rights”), plus more – https://iconicimagesstore.net/
f) Cover artwork for the Allman Brothers’ Eat a Peach album is being offered as part of a 3 pc NFT series – https://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/allman-brothers-bands-nft-eat-peach-artwork-auction
g) Primal Scream’s brightly-colored Screamadelica album cover art is now available pressed into a vinyl disc – https://www.thefloodgallery.com/products/copy-of-ocean-rain-2021-reissue?
h) Photographer Bob Gruen’s got a new book coming out that looks to be “just the thing” for those getting an early jump on their holiday shopping – https://www.villagevoice.com/2021/09/06/photographer-bob-gruen-gets-candid/ The Village Voice article is written by Katherine Turman. I find it fascinating that the publication posts both a standard web-style version of the article, followed by images of the article as it appears in their print pub. The internet provides publishers with an unlimited number of pages, so wny not?
i) Norman Seeff – one of the music industry’s best-known and most-prolific album cover photographers and still producing great work into his 80s – has just released a new series of photographs, with the kick-off event held recently at Studio CT in Agoura Hills, CA – https://www.chandeliersandtulips.com/pages/eventbright
The Village Voice provides us with an overview of the talented photographer’s show and provides some additional details of the man behind the work – https://www.villagevoice.com/2021/08/26/norman-seeff-photographing-the-invisible/ Album cover fans will find a lot to appreciate when you consider that he’s the person who has given us such memorable cover image like those found on Carly Simon’s Playin’ Possum; Hotter Than Hell for KISS; Blondie’s Eat to the Beat; Rickie Lee Jones’s debut Rickie Lee Jones; Earth Wind & Fire’s That’s The Way Of The World; Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage Acts 1, 2 & 3; Rare Genius for Ray Charles; War’s War and Inner Secrets for Santana, just to name a few.
j) You’ve seen the exhibit, now get the book – Fantasy art fans have long held a special place in their hearts for the work of the late, great Frank Frazetta, one of the artists featured in the Norman Rockwell Museum show I told you about earlier. Considered one of the best-known artists in the field of commercial illustration, there’s a new book of the illustrator’s work, with all of the details available in this article on The Village Voice web site – https://www.villagevoice.com/2021/07/25/how-frank-frazetta-won-the-game-of-thrones-half-a-century-ago/
k) DON’T FORGET TO ORDER YOURS – Last month, I told you about author Ramon Oscuro Martos – the music historian who has so far given us several great books (in the …And Justice For Art series) about the mind-bending array of artwork found on the sleeves of some of metal music’s best-known recordings who spent his COVID-induced “down time” putting together a new book, this time focused on the art/imagery you’ll see on the covers of some of the genre’s most-loved LIVE albums. As he’s done in the past, he’s looking for fans to help him bring this new tome to market via pre-order commitments.
As Ramon describes the project in his latest appeal, “…AND JUSTICE FOR ART… LIVE! Stories About Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Live Album Covers reveals the stories behind hundreds of cover artworks for live Heavy Metal/Hard Rock albums. It contains more than 100 chapters, more than 500 graphics (including original artworks, sketches, behind-the-scenes images, etc.) and exclusive comments by approximately 100 bands and visual artists.”
He’s looking to produce 500 copies of this new book and, as he puts it, “to make it accessible to everyone, I will only be accepting contributions of $21 dollars. In gratitude for your contribution, you will receive the following benefits:
1 – Your name will be included in the book’s THANK YOU credits.
2 – You will be able to order the signed book 3 weeks before the rest of the public, so you can secure your copy.
3 – You will get a 12% discount when you purchase the book (this discount doesn’t expire, so you can use it any time you want).
4 – A free bookmark featuring the book’s artwork.
5 – You will receive with your purchase either a free CD, a SIGNED POSTER, or a SET OF CARDS featuring exclusive artworks.
6 – Since you will be contributing to Metal history, helping to save all these album cover stories for posterity and future generations, you will receive an appreciation letter thanking you for your support. This letter will be signed either by the book’s author OR one of the artists/musicians involved in the book.”
So, if you’re like me and are always happy to help bring good album art-related publications out for fans to enjoy, I’d invite you to help Ramon bring his labor of love out and make the commitment today. Simply click on over to https://andjusticeforart.bigcartel.com/product/let-s-print-and-justice-for-art-live to make your reservation now. I want to see this book and hope you do, too.
ONGOING THRU THE HOLIDAYS) I would also like to let you know that some of the unsold items from my old RockPoP collection that were in the June and mid-August auctions staged by Jacques and his team at Backstage Auctions are now available for sale (at wallet-friendly fixed prices) in the Backstage Auctions online store – https://www.backstageauctions.com/store/ with most items found in the “Fine Art Prints & Lithographs” and “Photos – Limited-Edition Prints” sections. If you think that there might be something nice there to add to your collection, I do hope you’ll go take a look and, if so motivated, provide a new home for one of the prints I was proud to call my own.
Miscellaneous Items and other Brief Bits –
As always, I’m going to have to keep these short-and-sweet (well, most of them, anyway):
OBITS) I’m again happy to announce that I didn’t have to update the Bio section on the ACHOF site with any “d”s this past month. Stay healthy, people!
a) Record art historian/collector Guy Minnebach continues to impress with his posts on the Andy Earhole site, with this recent article about how designer Acy R. Lehman collaborated with Warhol years before their work together on the famed “Banana Cover” for The Velvet Underground & Nico – https://warholcoverart.com/2021/09/07/designer-acy-r-lehman-the-cool-gabriels-and-the-peelable-banana/ – Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a lot written about Lehman and his background, so his ACHOF bio is a bit light on personal info, but I did try to include a fairly-broad representation of the albums he art directed. He also rec’d eight Grammy nominations (and won one, for a cover he did for a band that I used to see pretty often in local venues here in Chicago – the Siegel-Schwall Blues Band), so he certainly was quite influential. I was also surprised to see that he was the guy behind the Pure Prairie League’s Bustin’ Out album cover art – very well known for its George Gross illustration on the cover. Time marches on and so it’s important that we all work together to preserve the legacies of the people who’ve given us some of the music industry’s most-memorable images.
b) The editorial team at Far Out Magazine continues on with their The Cover Uncovered album cover art series, with this month’s articles delivering dissertations on both the power of the album cover image – particularly as a weapon of protest (see Mick McStarkey’s article on the stunning and disturbing image of a Vietnamese monk who’d set himself on fire in protest that’s found on the cover of the debut album by Rage Against The Machine – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/rage-against-the-machine-political-album-cover/ ) – and how a 1995 packaging stunt by Pulp on the release of their single “Sorted for E’s and Whizz” so enraged certain members of the U.K. press that they crusaded to have the record banned from stores, regardless of the song’s actual message – read Joe Taysom’s article at https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/pulp-sorted-for-es-and-wizz-cover-story/
c) Erik Lacitis, a staff reporter for the Seattle Times, brings us the stories behind works by several Pacific NW-area photographers, including Charles Peterson, Jini Dellacio (one of the music industry’s first female photographers) and others – https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/6-northwest-photographers-expose-the-stories-behind-their-iconic-rock-n-roll-images/
d) Writing for The Mirror, Emily Slight talks about the math and science behind Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon album cover art, another memorable Hipgnosis-designed/produced project – https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/pink-floyds-dark-side-moon-25089569
e) In an article by Tone Wheeler on the Architecture And Design (AU) site, the author discusses his take on the recently-late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts’ talents as both a talented drummer and graphic designer – https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/people/tone-on-friday-charlie-watts-graphic-designer-too
f) Pop art wunderkind Damien Hirst creates Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album art with strange emojis and the fine art world goes absolutely bonkers – https://news.artnet.com/art-world/damien-hirst-behind-bizarre-cover-art-drakes-new-album-2004302? . The controversial image features a dozen pregnant women emojis set against a white backdrop – https://www.instagram.com/p/CTMpS_unl0m/?
Cool, calm and collected record art blogger/educator Dr. Richard Forrest takes us on a deep dive into the artwork and career of the enigmatic Mr. Hirst in a recent posting on the Record Art site – https://recordart.net/2021/09/29/new-cover-art-by-damien-hirst-3d/
g) Lil Nas X draws inspiration for his latest cover from…SpongeBob Square Pants? First it’s Satan, then one of the cartoon world’s most-beloved (?!) characters – you’ve got to credit the singer for being open to motivation from a wide range of sources – read about it on the Billboard.com site – https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/9622732/lil-nas-x-reveals-montero-album-cover-spongebob-inspirations/?
h) Musician and music writer Bob Stanley thinks that album cover art’s best days are behind us – https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-beatles-roxy-and-the-lost-art-of-the-album-cover-nk5zbs66f
Bob Stanley is a writer and is keyboardist for the pop group Saint Etienne and writes a weekly column for The Times in the U.K. As they say, “everyone’s entitled to their opinion, even when it’s wrong…”
That’s all for now – stay tuned and be on the lookout for timely news alerts on our news feeds (sign up below to get an automatic email every time there’s something new on the ACHOF site). I’ll be returning right around the first of next month with another news summary for you.
Until then, Peace and Love and Good Health to you all.
Unless otherwise noted, all text and images included in this article are Copyright 2021 Mike Goldstein and AlbumCoverHallofFame.com – All Rights Reserved. All of the trade names mentioned in these summaries are the properties of their respective owners and are used for reference only.
Album Cover Hall of Fame.com 