Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for January, 2024

Posted January 1, 2024 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Hello and Happy New Year 2024 to all of you – Hope that you all enjoyed your Holidays, however you chose to celebrate them. For those of you who, like me, used the time to think a lot about what’s yet to come this year and beyond, it gave me time to be grateful for the friends and acquaintances I’ve made over the years both here in the U.S. and overseas, as it is was your support that has kept me doing what I do and thinking of all the ways that I might better-deliver the stories that I know those friends and acquaintances would enjoy and most benefit from having ingested.

I also find these times both frightening and exhilarating, thinking about what might effect the quality of our lives (and those of our fellow citizens) going forward and what we might do to make the best of whatever might happen. It’s heavy stuff, I know, but it helps to keep things in perspective and my own thoughts focused on what’s truly important. Good health, peace (and peace of mind), strength of character, truth and justice and the comfort of others less-well-off than myself – those are the things that are truly important. Art and music (and how they’re combined) are important methods by which modern civilizations represent and express their best and worst aspects (and everything between) but, if you’re sick, or unsafe or living in fear and hunger, their importance pales, so it’s up to all of us to do all we can to take care of the basics before we enjoy the benefits of what the arts can deliver.

On that note, let’s start this month’s summary – the first of the New Year – with an overview of the categories featured in our regular updates – album art/artist-related exhibitions, interviews, sales/auctions and other miscellaneous (but still very interesting) bits and, at the end, a brief paragraph on a related topic that I found quite interesting and, therefore, motivated to share with you all.

Exhibitions and Gallery Show Info (new and upcoming soon)

a) Set to open in late 2024/early 2025, New York City’s The Hip Hop Museum (formerly, the Universal Hip Hop Museum) continues on its path towards completion and its unveiling to a very eager public. Recently, CBS reporter Maurice DuBois met with THHM Executive Director Rocky Bucano to get a private tour of the space-in-progress, and he was blown away by what is there and coming soon – https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/cbs-new-york-gets-sneak-peek-inside-the-hip-hop-museum-set-to-open-late-in-2024/?

Ongoing Exhibitions (listed in order of their end dates)

CONTINUING Through January 27, 2024 – In support of the recent release of the new Bizarre Album Art book from our chums at Easy On The Eye publishing, a new exhibition has just been launched at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead, UK – (runs thru January 27, 2024). Local coverage – https://www.birkenhead.news/funny-and-bizarre-record-cover-exhibition-opens-at-the-williamson/ and some additional coverage can be found on the PlanetRadio.co.uk site – https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/worst-album-covers-exhibition/

CONTINUING Through January 28, 2024  – Noted rock photographer Jay Blakesberg – someone who has been photographing the stars of the Bay-area music scene since he brought his father’s Pentax with him to a Labor Day weekend Grateful Dead show at Giant’s Stadium in 1978 – has a new show that just opened in the San Francisco – “RetroBlakesberg” runs from August 31, 2023 thru Jan 28, 2024 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, CA. There’s an article on the Relix site – https://relix.com/news/detail/san-francisco-to-welcome-retroblakesberg-the-music-never-stopped-exhibition-by-renowned-photographer-jay-blakesberg/ that gives us all a nice intro, while the museum’s promo materials describe the show in the following way – “Spanning the years 1978 to 2008, the exhibition transports viewers to bygone eras when Blakesberg was capturing iconic moments exclusively on film. The exhibition features a staggering collection of over 210 photographs and associated ephemera, providing attendees with a visual and emotional feast. Through Blakesberg’s lens, music aficionados can relive and feel the energy of legendary performances by artists, including the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, Neil Young, Soundgarden, Carlos Santana, and more.”

https://www.thecjm.org/exhibitions/199

CONTINUING Through January 29, 2024 – The exhibition of photographer Annie Leibovitz’s that launched this past September at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas continues its run through the end of January. According to the Museum’s promo info, the show, titled Annie Leibovitz at Work, is “a new exhibition of portraits by the famed photographer. In addition to her iconic and daring pictures for magazines like Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, the show includes a set of new works made just for Crystal Bridges—Leibovitz’s first museum commission. When Leibovitz first came to Bentonville to photograph Alice Walton, Crystal Bridges invited her to create something for the museum, offering her the opportunity to make new work without conditions or limitations…”

Album art fans will most certainly know Ms. Leibovitz’s work via the cover images she’s produced for top acts including Peter Tosh (Mystic Man); Cyndi Lauper (True Colors); Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love); Patti Smith (Gone Again); Laurie Anderson (In Our Sleep); Tony Bennett (The Art of Excellence); Judy Collins (Portrait of an American Girl); J. Geils Band (Best of the J. Geils Band); Lucinda Williams (West) and Paul Anka (Duets), among others.

Learn more about the show on the Museum’s web site at https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/annie-leibovitz/

The folks at Juxtapoz Magazine presented an intro to the show on their web site at – https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/relooking-at-a-legend-annie-leibovitz-at-work-crystal-bridges-museum-bentonville/

CONTINUING Through March, 2024 – Photographer Frank Ockenfels (AKA Frank Ockenfels 3) was the son of an upstate NY ad man who was introduced to the joys of photography while in high school, moving on to NYC’s School of Visual Arts in 1978 to further hone his craft and explore the endless wonders of that city. A college friend who worked at Rolling Stone Magazine brought him in to help by taking portraits of several musicians and, after graduation, a job with Josh Greene (son of famed photographer Milton Greene) further expanded his love for the medium and lead him to where he is today, the subject of a new exhibition at the Fotografiska Museum/Gallery in New York called Introspection that’s running now until the end of March, 2024 – https://www.fotografiska.com/nyc/exhibitions/frank-ockenfels-3/

Ockenfels expanded his portfolio in the 1990s to include music video production and soon moved in to creating promo campaigns for TV and films, with credits including the hit shows Breaking Bad and Mad Men and movies including The Bear, Pirates of the Caribbean and Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

Notable album package credits include – Everclear’s So Much For The Afterglow and Icons; Billy Joel – Storm Front; Michelle Shocked – Arkansas Traveller; The Highwaymen – The Road Goes On Forever; No Doubt – The Singles: 1993 – 2002; Jackson Browne – Solo Acoustic, Vols. 1 & 2; Alanis Morrissette – Flavors of Entanglement; R.E.M. – Out Of Time; Sting – The Last Ship; Norah Jones – Little Broken Hearts; Neil Diamond – The Very Best of Neil Diamond: The Original Studio Recordings and David Bowie’s Earthling and Hours, among others. While still working as a commercial photographer, Frank leads a separate life as a fine artist and you’ll find examples of both sides of his career featured in this show.

Find out more about this artist on his web site at https://fwo3.com/

CONTINUING Through next September, 2024 – A comprehensive overview of hip-hop music and culture is the basis for an exhibit that recently opened at The Grammy Museum in LA and Variety.com’s Steven J. Horowitz takes us on a tour of the multi-floor extravaganza in this article – https://variety.com/2023/music/news/grammy-museum-hip-hop-america-the-mixtape-exhibit-preview-1235747771/amp/?  The show – titled Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit – will be up until next September and includes a number of unique artifacts and interactive displays.

Artist News and Interviews

a) As he’s done each year since 2016, London-based graphic artist Chris Barker has recently released his annual Sgt. Pepper’s-style homage to those who’ve recently taken the one-way super-ferry to Pop Culture Heaven (I’d hoped to use the acronym PCH here, but I didn’t want to confuse my readers on the West Coast), with this year’s version including images of Jeff Beck, Tony Bennett, Pee Wee Herman, Sinead O’Connor and Tina Turner, among many others –  https://twitter.com/christhebarker/status/1733958849197912064? Album art fans will have their hearts touched by the inclusion of Jamie Reid’s “God Save The Queen” flag graphic front and center in the artwork…Based in London, Barker has made quite the name for himself based on his fascinating mash-ups of classic artwork (Magritte, Munch, Van Gogh, etc.) and Pop Culture imagery.

Find him also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/chrisbarkerprints/ and Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/christhebarker/    

b) Well-known album cover design duo Spencer Drate and Judith Salavetz and their webcast partner, musician/producer Patrick Bamburak, recently released a new episode of their long-running production “Indie Café 2wo” that featured a nice interview with the production team of Roddy Bogawa and Orian Williams during which they talk about their most-recent film – Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd (Narrated by Jason Isaacs, who has been getting a lot of buzz recently for his start turn in the Amazon mini-series about the late actor Cary Grant, and featuring interviews with Barrett’s former band mates done by the late designer Storm Thorgerson) – along with their much-lauded documentary on the work done by, and personalities found in – the famed album cover design studio co-headed by Thorgerson, Hipgnosis (Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis), which was initially released in 2011, just 2 years before Storm’s untimely demise.   

You can watch the trailers for both of the films via the following links –

Have You Got It Yet? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtR19VBThkA

Taken By Storm – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m_KOc4YRYY

And read a review of the Barrett/PF film on the Variety.com site – https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/syd-barrett-pink-floyd-documentary-have-you-got-it-yet-film-review-1235666102/

I had the pleasure of interviewing both the Drate/Salavetz design team (who’ve designed/art directed a large portfolio of design work for a broad range of entertainment industry clients that includes scores of album packages and who are also the authors of many notable books about music industry design, including Rock Art: CDs, Albums & Posters, published in 1994; SWAG: Rock Posters Of The 90s (with a forward by designer Art Chantry, published in 2003) and its follow up titled SWAG 2: Rock Posters Of The 90s And Beyond (2005); 45 RPM (the first visual history book on 7″ record sleeve design) and Five Hundred 45s), as well as film director Roddy Bogawa several years ago, so if you’d like to revisit those articles, simply click on  

https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/interview-with-designers-spencer-drate-and-judith-salavetz-talking-heads-fear-of-music-album-cover/ for my interview with the designers behind Fear Of Music for Talking Heads and https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2011/06/index.html for the first of my two-part interview with Roddy B, done just as he was completing his Taken By Storm work.

c) In writer Henry Yates’ recent article on the LouderSound.com site, you’ll read the story about the late designer/photographer Bob Seidemann’s patient work to capture just the right backdrop for his Magritte-inspired album cover image found on singer/songwriter Jackson Browne’s 1974 hit album Late For The Sky –  https://www.loudersound.com/features/jackson-browne-late-for-the-sky-cover-art  Perhaps best-known for his controversial cover image created for Blind Faith’s self-titled album back in 1969 (perhaps a pre-cursor to the on-again/off-again/back on again lawsuit you’ll read about a bit later in this newsletter), Bob was also responsible for a bevvy of memorable covers for musical acts such as Supertramp, Neil Young and Jerry Garcia, among others.

Brief Bits:

d) Since the release of his remarkable book about the many examples of album cover art that have confounded/disturbed/perplexed viewers as to why they were ever created (included in the contents of The Art of the Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve, published by Easy on the Eye in the U.K.), author Simon Robinson has been getting a good amount of press coverage on his joint effort with collector Stephen Goldman, including this very nice piece found in the “Stranger Things” section of the Yorkshire Post that you can read via this link – https://easyontheeyebooks.co.uk/2023/12/18/stranger-things/ I received my copy of Simon’s book just recently and find the stories behind the images (and the image-makers) quite fascinating, and a lesson to those musical acts who have opted to “go with their guts” instead of their brains when approving the images that grace their recorded music products.

e) An early-December art show staged in Manchester and curated by the Chanel design house commissioned noted designer Peter Saville to create custom imagery for the show, including an invitation that came in the form of a four-song EP encased in a Saville-designed record sleeve – https://www.wallpaper.com/fashion-beauty/chanel-metiers-d-art-manchester-peter-saville With a long and influential career in making memorable album cover artwork (including what is perhaps one of the most-seen images on t-shirts worldwide – i.e., his wave-based cover for Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures), it’s always nice to see how talent like this is given the chance to impress fans in other consumer markets.

f) A photographer who most-certainly must be credited with the rise in popularity of super-saturated color photography (and the dye-transfer printing process), William Eggleston’s contributions to the world of fine art photography – where he took everyday scenes and objects and presented them as things of great beauty – have inspired visual artists ever since he rose to fame in the 1970s. He also seems to have inspired a number of musical acts, as the works he produced prior to his passing in 2015 have been featured on records from a wide range of music-makers, including Big Star, Spoon, Jimmy Eats World and others. A recent article on the American Songwriter site by Thom Donovan gives us the details behind a half-dozen of these covers – https://americansongwriter.com/6-must-see-iconic-album-covers-by-photographer-william-eggleston/

g) Photographer Bob Gruen provides readers with the details behind the 1974 photo shoot in NYC that would ultimately produce the memorable cover image found on the Dressed To Kill album by KISS – https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/photographer_bob_gruen_explains_the_story_behind_kiss_iconic_dressed_to_kill_cover_photo.html They were so cute when they were young!

h) – A designer specializing in album art for “Christian Urban/Rap” artists talks about his inspirations (besides the obvious one) and why album art matters – https://rapzilla.com/2023-12-kevin-hackett-album-art-matters-early-work/ In this two-part interview by writer Darius Mullin for the Rapzilla.com site, you’ll meet Kevin Hackett, Creative Director for Reach Records, during which you’ll learn more about how he drew inspiration from the works of early album cover artists and applied that to the images he’s created for this particular genre – https://rapzilla.com/2023-12-kevin-hackett-album-art-matters-early-work/ and https://rapzilla.com/2023-12-reach-records-graphic-design-wizard-kevin-hackett/

Items for Sale and/or at Auction

a) There’s a new edition of one of my favorite all-around books about record collecting and how that obsession is integrated into the daily lives (and living spaces) of the people that do it – https://store.waxpoetics.com/products/dust-grooves-adventures-in-record-collecting-deluxe-second-edition-book-slipcase? This second (revised) edition of Eilon Paz’s 436-page “coffee table book” – Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting – combines interviews with over 130 collectors about their prides and joys and what motivates them to do what they do with some beautiful photography of these people in their natural environments – that is, their homes and music rooms/libraries. The book includes a forward by Wu-Tang Clan producer/performer and mega record collector RZA, whose own work would fill a pretty nice-sized cabinet!

Bonus related content – 10 years or so ago, Eilon teamed up with film director and fellow record fan Roddy Bogawa to craft a 5-minute video of Roddy showing off parts of his vinyl collection, which he shared with me at the time and that I’d like to share with you all again – https://vimeo.com/60627506

b) U.K.-based gallerist/print publisher Hypergallery has just released some new Peter Gabriel cover art prints for sale, including one for Gabriel’s 1989 album of the soundtrack he created for Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Temptation of Christ (the album’s titled Passion: The Last Temptation of Christ) and which features a stunning painting by Southampton, U.K.-based painter Julian Grater on its cover – https://hypergallery.com/en-us/collections/peter-gabriel-genesis/products/peter-gabriel-passion?variant=32542215962764  According to a post on PG’s Facebook page a few years ago, Peter thought that Grater’s original artwork – initially titled “Drawing Study for Self Image II” and crafted using charcoal, graphite, paste, acrylic, bitumen, beeswax, dry pigment, straw and flower petals (on paper) – “had a number of particular qualities that he felt resonated in a powerful way with the rich, cultural fusion of the music’s complex soundscape.” This record was the first released on Gabriel’s Real World label, marking another milestone in the musician’s long creative career – www.petergabriel.com/release/passion  

c) One of the best-known “mascots” in rock music history has to be the one known as “Eddie”; a skeletal creature found on most of Iron Maiden’s record packages over the years. A company called Sideshow Collectibles has created a new sculpture that shows Eddie as he appears on the cover of the band’s 1983 single, “The Trooper” and turns it into a fully realized, three-dimensional statue for Iron Maiden fans they call the “Iron Maiden: The Trooper Eddie Premium Format Figure”.

The company recently released an “unboxing” video in which they give us all a look at the impressive details found on this sculpture – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwa4mnToabo  – and an inspection of their site also unearthed two more videos – one that features one of the company’s artists who shows how these are hand-painted – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_ncXs-kZaA&t=2s

while the other shows both of the company’s Eddie-related statues in animated slide-show style – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoC2o1W2PQ (their other statue is a bust of Eddie that’s based on the artwork for the band’s Power Slave record).

Scheduled to ship Q1 2024, the 19” tall figure is priced at $666.00 and can be seen/ordered on the web site – https://www.sideshow.com/collectibles/iron-maiden-the-trooper-eddie-sideshow-collectibles-300845?

Brief Bits:

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THIS – COMING VERY SOON – They’re back…and, by the looks of things, better than ever. For several years prior to COVID, those in the music/arts worlds collaborated to create a very unusual and successful project to raise money for charities in the UK but, like so many things paused by the pandemic, this effort has remained dormant. If you’ll recall, the Secret 7” project asked visual artists of all stripes to anonymously craft one-off designs for singles put out by some of the music industry’s top talent, with these items put up for auction/sale, with all of the proceeds going to that year’s selected charitable organizations. What made this all the more exciting was that, amongst the works submitted, several were created by some of the world’s most-collected artists so, without knowing it, the lucky buyers might have ended up with an original by Stanley Donwood, Anish Kapoor or Lubaina Himid (who all were included in the last offering in 2021), among others. Past contributors have also included Yoko Ono, Ai Weiwei, Antony Gormley and other top artists.

Once they’re submitted, all of the covers (100 each of seven tracks) will be put up on display at London’s NOW Gallery from the 2nd to the 18th of March, 2024, after which they’ll be sold off. If you’re an artist interested in submitting a cover, here’s a link to a page on the Secret 7 that will give you all of the basics – https://www.secret-7.co.uk/submission (you have until early January to participate).

https://www.secret-7.co.uk/

So happy to see this return.

Auction Results Updates

a) Last month, I teased you with info on an early-December auction in which equipment and original photos from the personal collection of photographer Dick Zimmerman (the shooter credited with the cover image for what might be the most-popular record ever sold, that being Michael Jackson’s classic Thriller), and I’m now happy to share the results of that auction, which were pretty impressive, I think.

The lots that were offered by Blackwell’s Auction house in Florida included both the camera Mr, Zimmerman used to shoot the famous image (a Hasselblad model 500ELX) and several test/alt shots he took during that photo session – https://bid.blackwellauctions.com/auctions/5-Z3U9A/the-iconic-sale?limit=36&search=zimmerman

Pre-auction estimates were $10-20,000 for “the Thriller camera” itself, $10-20,000 for the single polaroid shot that established the basis for the final MJ cover shot, and somewhere in the $4-8,000 range for the alt cover shots. While the camera was no longer working after years of hard use, its lenses were also the ones that, according to the item’s description, “…included two other sessions with the King of Pop: Michael’s collaboration with Steven Spielberg on the E.T. album, as well as the exclusive wedding photos of Michael and Lisa Marie.”

Actual prices realized were as follows – $24,500 for the camera, $30,000 for the MJ Thriller cover Polaroid, $17,500 each for the first three alt cover Polaroids and a mere $15,000 for Alt #4. As Zimmerman noted on the Blackwell’s web site pre-auction, “As an artist, I’m proud to have played a part in creating the best-selling album ever. Undoubtedly, collectors of entertainment memorabilia and celebrity photographs would understand that the test photos and camera from the Thriller shoot are important pieces of music history.” Based on the results, it seems certain that those collectors got the message!

b) The desirability/collectability of pieces from Andy Warhol’s album art portfolio continues to fuel bidding and buying at art auctions world wide, as is evidenced by this Mick Jagger portrait that sold recently for twice the pre-auction estimate –  https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW44591 With a pre-auction estimate in the range of $135,000.00 – $175,000.00, when it was all over, the print sold for an impressive $276,000.00.

Details were initially provided here – https://bravewords.com/news/iconic-artist-andy-warhol-s-portrait-of-the-rolling-stones-frontman-mick-jagger-heads-to-auction

c) The mid-December “Marvels of Modern Music” auction at the RR Auction house included several album art-related items – https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/auction-details/679/?page=1&itemQty=24&view=gallery&sort=hp&cat=0

The artist’s proof print of Stanley Mouse’s artwork for the Jimi Hendrix Power of Soul album beat its pre-auction estimate of $600 to sell for $756.00, while photographer Iain MacMillan’s Abbey Road back cover photo mockup sold for $2505.00, handily beating its pre-auction estimate of $2,000.00. On a personal note, a couple of rather charming promo postcards from early Beatles record label Parlophone that I’d hoped to bid on (with auction estimates in the $200 – $300 range) sold to some greedy bastard for nearly $5,000, so Merry Fricking Christmas to whoever that was (I’m not too angry now, am I?).

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: All accounted for, sir.

a) Happy 40^th anniversary to Metallica on the release of their Kill ‘Em All debut record. In a true display of heavy metal attitude, the original image for the record, which had been tentatively titled Metal Up Your Ass, featured a Stephen Gorman-designed depiction of just exactly what you think it would be, so as the distributors for the Megaforce Records label had hoped to be able to sell the album in traditional record retailers, changes were needing to be made. You can read more of the gory details in Justin Beckner’s article for Ultimate Guitar – https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/the_story_behind_the_artwork_on_metallicas_debut_album_kill_em_all-160081 that includes bits of a 1984 interview published in Louder magazine with drummer Lars Ulrich during which he shared the band’s hopes and dreams and desire to make fans very uncomfortable the next time they sat on a toilet…

b) From time to time, we’re treated with articles from writers all over the world who share the same passion we here at the ACHOF do for the work of people involved in the visual aspects of the recorded music business, so it was with much interest I recently read this article by Gavin McGrath of ABC Ballarat (Australia) in which he checks in with several artists working for musical acts in that corner of the world to see whether they believe that their work product is still valued by both their clients and the buying public – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-24/album-cover-art-and-streaming/103261974 While streaming music still accounts for 2/3 of the money spent on recorded music in Australia (with CDs accounting for only approx. 10% of the sales of physical products), the sales of vinyl records in the past couple of years has grown dramatically, thus delivering more full-sized album cover packages into the hands of seemingly-appreciative consumers. Cool.  

c) While on hiatus from the Welcome to Wrexham docuseries on Hulu that features creative partners and co-owners of the Welsh football team Wrexham A.F.C. – that being Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny – the pair were notified that there were some samples of fan-generated album cover spoofs by an artist identified as “DarthPunk69” that included Ryan and Rob’s faces as the bases of the works. Rather than get all in a huff about it, the actors thought that the covers – which show their faces superimposed on Wham! singers George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as they appeared on the covers of the Last Christmas and Fantastic recordings – were so well done that they shared them on their Instagram accounts.  had turned out so well and that the stars themselves seemed to appreciate his efforts – https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/welcome-wrexham-hiatus-fan-used-214255986.html

In a fine example of “look before you leap” reporting, earlier that same day, People Magazine posted a story that the pair had actually participated in the making of these spoofs, which only goes to show you that it pays to fact-check before you post – https://people.com/ryan-reynolds-robert-mcelhenney-recreate-classic-wham-cover-art-8417840

d) He’s ba-a-a-ck…No, we’re not referring to Indiana Jones or Freddy Kreuger, who both returned recently to haunt us…rather, we’re talking about former Nirvana baby Spencer Elden who, by some miracle (and the relentless pursuit of attorneys working on his behalf), have been able to reintroduce this child pornography-adjacent case in a U.S. Court of Appeals (the always-popular Ninth Circuit, which covers the entire West Coast of the U.S.) after that court overturned a lower court’s original verdict against Mr. Elden that he’d waited too long to bring his case to court. As you might figure, it is a story that has absolutely dominated media outlets of all types, everywhere, with several examples available via the links that follow:

Reuters – https://www.reuters.com/legal/court-revives-nirvana-child-pornography-lawsuit-over-nevermind-cover-2023-12-21/ and Deadline.com provide the basic details – https://deadline.com/2023/12/nirvana-nevermind-child-porn-lawsuit-tossed-l-a-judge-1235107763/ , while this article by the Washington Post’s in-house “lawsuit explainer” digs a tiny bit deeper – https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/12/23/nirvana-nevermind-album-lawsuit-explainer/

More to come – you can count on it.

NEW FROM MUSE BY CLIO – Here’s a brief overview of the latest entries in the ongoing series of album art-related features on the Muse By Clio site. This recap finds the editorial team behind the “Art of the Album” series asking several artists/production execs/musicians and album art fans to share some of their favorite covers and why it is that they stand out amongst all others.

It was a bit of a slow month on the Muse By Clio site, with the only entry provided by the main man at Muse By Clio, Michael Kauffman, who looked to celebrate National Jukebox Day (launched by Touchtunes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 2017) with an article titled “5 Great Jukebox Album Covers, Chosen by Michael Kauffman of the Clio Awards: Moe Bandy, Bruno Mars, Doobie Brothers and more” – https://musebycl.io/art-album/5-great-jukebox-album-covers-chosen-michael-kauffman-clio-awards – with Michael prefacing his article with the fact that, when he worked a while back for the renowned Windham Hill record label, a co-worked had gifted him a 1954 AMI jukebox (nice gift!!).

Muse By Clio is part of the same group that puts on the annual Clio Music Awards, with the 2024 edition of the annual awards show set to take place on January 31, 2024, so be sure to check back here to see the list of winners.

Brief Bits:

e) The schedule for the special ceremony that will include the awarding of the Grammy Awards in the three record packaging categories has been announced – “The 66th Annual Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony will take place on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with the live webcast taking place beginning at 12:30pm local time.” Of course, the entire staff of the ACHOF will be on hand (on a beige carpet – we couldn’t get close to the red one) to bring you all of the exciting details within minutes of them happening, so please be sure to add a calendar reminder to check in for that important news info.

f) The downtown Los Angeles hotel that served as the backdrop of one of the 1960’s most-memorable album covers is going to be renovated and used as affordable housing and, in celebration of the sale of the property to the organizations that will lead the effort, two people intimately involved in the making of that original cover image – photographer Henry Diltz and John Densmore, drummer for The Doors, were at the ceremony at the Morrison Hotel and shared their recollections of their collaborative effort with the press and others on hand.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/john-densmore-henry-diltz-join-050900482.html

The local ABC TV affiliate – KIABC – also had a crew on hand to record the event – https://abc7.com/morrison-hotel-the-doors-album-jim-affordable-housing/14204352/

g) Writing for Far Out Magazine, Elle Palmer gives us her takes on Joni Mitchell and the artwork she produced for her own albums – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-joni-mitchell-painted-her-own-album-covers-my-songs-are-very-visual/

h) Hannah Westerman, the illustrator whose Peanut’s-esque drawing encapsulates the spirit of the city, and the season – bring us all A Philly Special Christmas – https://6abc.com/eagles-christmas-album-hannah-westerman-artwork-holiday-music-a-philly-special/14155392/

i) SPIN Magazine presents a somewhat-unique take on the typical “10 Worst Album Covers Of All Time” article – https://www.spin.com/2023/11/12-album-covers-so-bad-theyre-awesome/ While I usually don’t participate in any discussions regarding the aesthetic virtues of particular album covers, I must admit that their #2 pick – the cover for a very-consequential fusion jazz record put out by keyboard king George Duke and “King of All Drummers” (according to me) Billy Cobham (“Live” On Tour In Europe by The Billy Cobham/George Duke Band) – always kinda creeped me out…

j) The parade of Abbey Road parodies continues – this one featuring the stars of the hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise – https://screenrant.com/tmnt-mutant-mayhem-movie-art-album-covers/ The super-powered pack of tortoises (or are they terrapins?) also spoofed some other covers, so why not?

k) Frank Zappa’s Over-Nite Sensation hits 50 years old and is re-released in a special edition package that includes the artwork done by the late great (and friend of yours truly) Dave McMacken – https://www.goldminemag.com/columns/over-nite-sensation-is-a-50-year-marvel

My interview with Dave McM (2013) shares the details behind “the making of” this classic cover – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/interview-with-dave-mcmacken-frank-zappas-over-nite-sensation-album-cover/

l) They’re not actual album covers, but they could be? That’s the premise of a “sub-Reddit” site called “Images That Could Be Album Covers” and, in this article on the Bored Panda site, you get to scroll through 50 such images – https://www.boredpanda.com/pics-could-be-album-cover-images/ The article, titled “50 Images That Are So Dope, You Could Slap Them On The Cover Of Music Albums” was written by Agne Steponaityte and Gabija Saveiskyte (who you’ll meet again in the Special Bonus section, below) and is interspersed with some details about how other famous album covers were made. Not sure what purpose the article serves, but the string of images included certainly did contain several that may have made for memorable cover art.

m) Living as we do in a media environment that longs for stories about conspiracies, it only seems fitting that there’s a recent story on the Ultimate Guitar site that provides us with the details about one in which the cover photo for David Bowie’s 1972 Ziggy Stardust… LP has easter eggs embedded in the image that foretell the coming of another self-proclaimed savior, rapper Kanye West (I’m not making this up, folks) –  https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/story_behind_david_bowie_album_cover_that_spawned_many_conspiracy_theories-160486

n) Leading up to my special coverage you’ll find a very little bit later on about this year’s “Best/Worst” album covers, here’s a list of 20 of the worst covers ever, according to https://lite987.com/ixp/252/p/worst-pop-album-cover-art/ Not sure what the criteria were for these selections, but some do include some pretty popular musical acts.

SPECIAL BONUS – Best/Worst Album Covers of 2023

It’s been several years since I did a full-fledged item that summarized the results of the many “Best of” and “Worst of” articles that looked back on the most-recent year’s contributions to the 70+ year history of album cover artwork. Besides the fact that many of us are simply tired of hearing pundits sharing their opinions on the topic, it seems as though, over the years, fewer and fewer publications/web sites have actually published anything on the subject and, at least to my eyes, many of the ones I have read spent little time explaining the criteria used to make the selections that appeared on the various lists.

For 2023, I did find several articles that shared the opinions of individuals and editorial staffs, which you’ll be able to see later on in this article, but now that AI has been dominating the headlines and, in many areas, has been the principal way that research has been done on subjects such as this, I thought “why the Hell not?” and asked the latest version ChatGPT (Microsoft’s “Bing Chat”) to put together a list for us to consider thinking, at least, that a multi-billion dollar supercomputer with nearly limitless analytical power might be able to present lists worth considering. What was I to find? The following is a brief summary of that recent Q&A session.

Bing Chat referenced three separate sources – Our Culture Magazine, ThisisDig.com and Rate Your Music.com and produced the following list of “10 Best for 2023”:

“Here is a list of the 10 best album covers of 2023, based on my web search results:

Tiny Ruins, Ceremony: A painting by Christiane Shortal that depicts two dogs walking on the shore of Auckland’s Manukau Harbour, with references to the album’s lyrics and themes1.

Black Belt Eagle Scout, The Land, the Water, the Sky: A photo by Katherine Paul that shows her reflection in a lake surrounded by mountains and trees, representing her connection to her ancestral lands and culture1.

Blur, The Ballad of Darren: A collage by Damon Albarn that features various images related to his childhood memories and influences, such as football cards, comic books, and graffiti1.

Lucy Liyou, Dog Dreams (​개​​꿈​): A digital art by Lucy Liyou that depicts a surreal scene of a dog flying in space with a planet in its mouth1.

Cicada, 棲​居​在​溪​源​之​上 Seeking the Sources of Streams: A watercolor by Cicada that portrays a serene landscape of bamboo forests and rivers in Japan1.

Fireworks, Higher Lonely Power: A neon sign by Fireworks that spells out the title of their album in bright colors and shapes1.

deathcrash, Less: A photograph by deathcrash that shows a close-up of his face covered in blood and dirt1.

Liv.e, Girl in the Half Pearl: A drawing by Liv.e that illustrates a girl wearing a half pearl necklace and holding a knife behind her back1.

Dove Cameron: Alchemical: Vol.1: A painting by an unknown artist that shows Dove Cameron lying on her back with her arms spread out like wings2.

Hozier: Unreal Unearth: A photograph by Julia Johnson that shows Hozier buried in a shallow grave with only his lips and teeth visible above the surface.”

I then asked the AI bot the following question – “Can you find any other sources than the three you previously referenced who also published a list of the best album covers – or best record sleeves – for the year 2023?”, to which it responded as follows –

“Sure, I can help you with that. Here are some other sources that also published a list of the best album covers or best record sleeves for the year 2023, besides the three I previously referenced:

[Best Album Covers Of 2023: 40 Great Artworks Of The Year]: This article by Dig! features 40 album covers from various genres and artists, such as Dove Cameron, Hozier, Fenne Lily, Doja Cat, and more. It also includes some quotes from the artists about their creative process and inspiration. https://www.thisisdig.com/feature/best-album-covers-of-2023/

[The best vinyl album covers of 2023]: This article by The Guardian showcases the contenders for the annual Art Vinyl prize for the best designed vinyl album cover. It includes covers from Orbital, Metallica, Yaeji, Róisín Murphy, and more. It also provides some background information and context for each cover. https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2023/nov/29/the-best-vinyl-album-covers-of-2023

[The 50 Best Album Covers of 2023]: This article by Our Culture highlights the most memorable and striking album covers of the year, with quotes from many of the featured artists. It includes covers from Black Belt Eagle Scout, Lucy Liyou, Cicada, Fireworks, deathcrash, Liv.e, and more. See link, below.

The Top 30 Album Covers of 2023: This article by Heaviest of Art presents a comprehensive list of the top 30 album covers of the year, narrowed down into a showcase of varying schools of thought and artistic practices. It includes covers from Arrival of Autumn, Death Grips’ I’ve Become One With The Machine II (Part II), Frank Ocean’s Endless/Blonde (Deluxe Edition), Kanye West’s Donda (Deluxe Edition), and more1.” https://ourculturemag.com/2023/12/08/the-50-best-album-covers-of-2023/

While those results still have me wondering just when and how this whole AI-based researching trend will begin to produce results that don’t require human follow-up and fact-checking, as I mentioned at the start of this article, my initial basic Google/Bing searches for this year’s “Best Album Covers” produced the following articles (which I’ve summarized a bit for you) –

Our Culture Magazine – https://ourculturemag.com/2023/12/08/the-50-best-album-covers-of-2023/

#1 – Caroline Rose, The Art of Forgetting (art direction by Caroline Rose) Grammy nom; 2. Sufjan Stevens, Javelin (AD by Sufjan Stevens); 3. Kelela, Raven (AD by Alessandro Belliero, Denis Olgac, and Hendrik Schneider); 4. Bell Witch, Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate (artwork by Jordi Diaz Alama) and 5. Young Fathers, Heavy Heavy (Hingston Studio).

Far Out Magazine – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-10-best-album-artworks-of-2023/

Tom Taylor pens a Top 10 editorial – #1 – Destroyer – M.A.G.S. (Elliott Mags and Casey Nichols); 2. Sotto Voce – Claire Deak (illustration by R. Keane); 3. Portals – Melanie Martinez (??); 4. Ax Ox – Gnoomes (??) and 5. Holy Joe’s Coral Island Medicine Show – The Coral (artwork by Ian Skelly).

The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2023/nov/29/the-best-vinyl-album-covers-of-2023 This article was not an editorial in and of itself but, rather, presented the Best Art Vinyl short list. The winners to be announced in January, 2024, so these are presented in no particular order.

Pickled Priest (“Records as Religion”) – produced two lists for 2023, both “Best” and “Worst” album covers. The “Best” list (25 items) was topped by a cover for a record of “contemporary folklore” by an artist from Athens, Greece –  https://www.pickledpriest.com/single-post/2023-year-in-review-our-25-favorite-album-covers-of-the-year-and-our-10-worst – while the “best of the worst” was awarded to perpetually-sulking chanteuse Lana del Rey for the “I’m so bored with this whole thing” cover found on her Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd album.

Moving on to gathering articles on 2023’s “Worst Album Art” category, my research initially only produced a single article on the worst cover images of the past year – Exclaim! Magazine‘s “25 Worst of 2023” –https://exclaim.ca/music/article/exclaim_worst_album_covers_of_2023 – so I decided to enlist the help of the always-handy Bing ChatBot, and it sent me the following answers –

“Here are some examples of articles that name the worst album cover or record sleeve images released n 2023, based on my web search results:

[30 Of The Worst Album Covers, As Shared By This Dedicated X Page]: This article by Bored Panda features 30 album covers from various genres and artists, such as Black Sabbath, Predator, Destruction, Snatch, and more. It also includes some quotes from the artists about their creative process and inspiration. https://www.boredpanda.com/bad-record-covers/

[The 50 worst album covers by rock and metal bands]: This article by Louder showcases the contenders for the annual Art Vinyl prize for the best designed vinyl album cover. It includes covers from Orbital, Metallica, Yaeji, Róisín Murphy, and more. It also provides some background information and context for each cover. https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-50-most-hilariously-ugly-rock-and-metal-album-covers-ever

Koreaboo.com – 5 Worst K-Pop Album Covers From 2023 That Scream “Graphics Design Is My Passion”: This article by Koreaboo lists five of the worst K-pop album covers from 2023 that caused confusion and disappointment among netizens. It includes covers from Jungkook’s “3D”, LE SSERAFIM’s “The End of Time”, FIFTY FIFTY’s “Fifty Fifty”, SF9’s “SF9”, and Stray Kids’ “Stray Kids”1. https://www.koreaboo.com/lists/worst-kpop-album-covers-2023/

Digging a bit deeper, it turns out that the Bored Panda article didn’t limit its answers to just last year, while the one on the Louder Sound site – https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-50-most-hilariously-ugly-rock-and-metal-album-covers-ever – does the same thing (i.e., not just 2023). I found it strange that the GPT-4-suppled answer also described a different article than referenced…

Since the Chatbots have now had access to larger samples of data, I wanted to ask this one whether it had a “favorite” cover of its own, entering the query “Do you have a personal favorite of all of the new album covers that were released in 2023?” Seconds later, it replied as follows – “That’s a tough question, as there are so many amazing album covers to choose from. But if I had to pick one, I would say Cicada, 棲​居​在​溪​源​之​上 Seeking the Sources of Streams. I really like the watercolor style and the peaceful atmosphere it creates. It makes me want to listen to the music and explore the natural beauty of Japan.” Scary, right? Does a chatbot listen to music and dig through travel brochures while on it’s lunch break? I now have to wonder…

I also must apologize that there wasn’t really anything else out there to share on this topic but, perhaps, it might be a topic that’s past its prime. News and social media sources are so timely and replete with commentary that the public’s opinions on what’s “good” and “bad” are well-known in near-real-time, so maybe it makes more sense to present less editorial and more story-and-fact-based articles on the topic going forward. Is there a new and updated edition of The Greatest Album Covers of All Time out soon?

Lastly but not Leastly…

When I both worked in music-related production and the fine art photography world, it was common knowledge that there were several acts who closely protected their intellectual property and that anyone thinking about doing something that “borrowed” from the catalogs of imagery previously created for those acts should think long and hard before proceeding (that is, if you planned on staying out of court). Well known examples of those acts included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and several other acts of that stature. On the flip side, there have been occasions over the years where certain acts -whether on purpose or unknowingly – “borrowed” imagery created by others in the process of making their own promo materials, so it was with keen interest that I read this article about a man whose vintage automobile figured prominently on the cover of a major musical act’s most-recent recording and that, according to the owner of that car, it was done without his permission and without any compensation – https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2023/12/springsteen-stiffed-my-dad-for-using-gto-on-album-cover-nj-man-says-in-suit.html I’m not sure how this is going to turn out but, with the Nirvana album art case back in court soon and AI-related “who owns what” discussions dominating the punditwaves, I’m sure that it will remain front and center in arts-related media coverage for several months – I can’t wait (oh, yes I can).

That’s all for now – be on the lookout for the next newsletter update, scheduled to be delivered on the first day of February, published just in time for it to distract you from your Valentine’s Day shopping dilemmas. As I’m always looking to visit with my friends more often than once a month, I will perhaps publish a special article/news alert or two along the way, so I’d suggest that, if you haven’t done so already, you sign up on the ACHOF home page to get an automatic email every time there’s something new on the ACHOF site.

Also, if you have any suggestions for me – ideas for articles, notices about events or adding/editing sections of the newsletter or web site, please feel free to share those with me. I read every email I get (and reply to them all) and really appreciate the feedback as it’s my hope to make this site/news source as good as it can be.

Until we meet again next month,

Peace and Love to you all,

Mike G

Unless otherwise noted, all text and images included in this article are Copyright 2023-2024 Mike Goldstein and AlbumCoverHallofFame.com – All Rights Reserved. All the trade names mentioned in these summaries are the properties of their respective owners and are used for reference only.