Anal Bum Cover

I have no idea how this came up, but over at Deadspin Up! All Night, we got to discussing Kenny Loggins. Pretty standard, except for that Kenny Loggins Alive is possibly the greatest album cover ever. This got me to wondering what are some of the most recognizable and famous album covers are. It seems like everybody at Deadon is required to write atleast one post about music, so here’s my attempt at it. Hit the jump for the list.

 

London Calling – The Clash –1979

The Story: The picture is an out of focus shot of bass player Paul Simonon smashing his guitar. The Clash were known for being historians/lovers of music, inspired by everybody from The Who to Toots and the Maytals. This sense of history shows itself in the design of the cover was a inspired by Elvis’ self titled debut right down to the font and black and white picture.

Where You Have Seen it: Recreated as cheap advertising to bar mitzvahs, frat parties, and happy hours on two continents.

Selected Song: Death or Glory

 

Abbey Road – The Beatles – 1969

The Story – The photograph was taken during a break in recording and right outside the Abbey Road studio. The album cover also proves beyond a doubt that Paul McCartney is dead. The four men represent the priest (John), undertaker (Ringo), corpse (Paul), and gravedigger (George).

Where You’ve Seen it -This has been everywhere: Rethought by artists such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers who are walking on the “zebra crossing” wearing nothing but a few well placed tube socks and Kanye West, who placed his own trademark bear on the crosswalk.

Selected Song: Carry That Weight

Honorable Mentions – The Beatles have produced more famous album covers than any other band, here’s a sampling of other albums you should know.

from left to right: Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (aka The White Album), Let it Be

 

Nevermind – Nirvana – 1991

The Story – Cobain and Grohl were watching a documentary of water births (There’s a baby in my soup!) and the idea came to Cobain. The dollar with a fishhook was later added by Cobain. The baby is Spencer Elden, who grew up and looks exactly as you would expect the subject of a Nirvana album to. Elden’s parents were given $200 and promised that the Cobain, Grohl, and Novoselic would go out to dinner with Spencer when he grew up. I think only one of those two things happened.

Where You’ve Seen it – On the t-shirts of 14 year old kids who think its retro and the hats of the aging Gen X-ers who hate them.

Selected Song: Lithium

 

Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd – 1973

The Story – Probably the simplest of the covers here, Dark Side of the Moon features light being bent by a prism into a rainbow. The cover was created by Hipgnosis, a British design group that specialized in album covers. Besides Darkside of the Moon, they also designed the other three Pink Floyd albums below as well as albums for well known artists such as The Alan Parson’s Project, Todd Rundgren, Black Sabbath, ELO, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Yes, and Wings.

Where You’ve Seen it – On the walls of your ex-hippie physics teacher’s classroom. Other than that, not as much recently since gays took refracted light. Pretty greedy, gays.

Selected Song: Time

Honorable Mentions – Pink Floyd is another band that put out classic album covers.

from left to right: Animals, Wish You Were Here, The Wall

That’s all from me for now. Bitch, complain, and fight amongst yourselves in the comments.