Album Cover: Interesting Stories Behind Them, Do You Know Any?

Never mind of you have to research. Even if you copy and paste from elsewhere, no problem, so long as source it and if you paste it, as opposed to paste the link - as one day it might get lost.

Initially I was thinking of photograph-based covers but doesn't have to be. Any album cover.

What would be interesting is to have this depository of interesting stories beyond who the author was. Good trivia that will educate you and everybody else.

Start by your favourite albums and or favourite artwork.

Important: Please insert artwork so that we call know what you're talking about.

 

Ramones PUNK magazine photo shoot outtakes. Inside the garden on east 2nd street between 2nd ave and the Bowery. The photo shoot ended when Dee Dee stepped in ****, scraped it off of his shoe with a stick, and proceeded to chase the guys with it. [Photos by Roberta Bayley, 1976]

 

This is the final album of the great man.

" ‘Blackstar’, Bowie’s twenty-fifth studio album, was released on the star’s 69th birthday (January 8) and two days before his death (January 10). Jonathan Barnbrook says: "David Bowie‘s long-term design collaborator Jonathan Barnbrook has spoken about his work on the late singer’s final album ‘Blackstar’. Barnbrook designed the album’s cover and sleeves, having previously worked with Bowie on 2002’s ‘Heathen’, 2003’s ‘Reality’, 2013’s ‘The Next Day’ and 2014 compilation album ‘Nothing Has Changed’.“A lot of people said it was a ******** cover when it came out, that it took five minutes to design. But I think there is a misunderstanding about the simplicity.” The vinyl record sees the star cut from its black sleeve, showing the record inside. “The fact that you can see the record as a physical thing that degrades, it get scratched as soon as it comes into being, that is a comment on mortality too,” Barnbrook said of its design. Speaking about working with Bowie in general, Barnbrook added: “He always wanted to do something interesting, often to the annoyance of the record company. He understood the value of the image on a record cover, when other people had forgotten about it.”." in NME (21.01.2016):

For those not in the know: the word "Bowie" is written using the blackstar symbol.

 

Apparently the band and photographer Ethan Russell were driving around looking for a likely spot for a cover shoot and saw the concrete plynth sticking out of a slag heap in Easington Colliery, a former coal mining town in County Durham, England.. They tried several different ideas including hugging the thing, but one of them had the idea to just take a leak on it. The story goes that not everyone had to go so some of what we see is just water. The cloudy sky was added into the photo later. I've seen vague references to the monolith from 2001 in some stories as well.

 

Side one of Parachute consists of songs about city life and side two is about country life. Hipgnosis designed the cover with that in mind. I've never figured out the significance of the child with an outstretched hand nor the rather ominous looking thing at the end of the road. Back in 1970 I initially thought it was a gravestone so the youth to the grave made some sense. But it's not. I'm also not sure what the thing is in the water behind the flower.

 

Phil May did the artwork for the S.F. Sorrow album cover and inside the gatefold. It depicts all the stages of Sorrow's life from birth to isolated old age. EMI did not want to pay for artwork for a gatefold album cover and told the band the only way they were going to get it was by doing the art and photography themselves. Dick Taylor took the photos on the back cover and incorporated them into Phil's artwork.

 

I saw an album cover for a recent release, but I've forgotten the artist and title. It was a black and white shot close-up of a very beautiful woman's face. She had many piercings and a buzz cut. Anyone know what this is? I almost bought it just for the cover!