Classic 'Cover Art'

It's clear there are many music fanatics here in Civ Fanatics and that we all love talking about music. Something I haven't seen us talk about is the other great arts which goes into making records - graphic design - photography - ie. the cover art.

I read a lot of funk/jazz/hip-hop/reggae magazines, really nerdy ones, like Wax Poetics, which approach their love of music in quite academic terms. They cover the social unrest which artists came out of, what politics they mobilised with their music, the race dynamics behind the music, the economics which dictate the rise and fall of different genres, how music interrelates with other media such as film, photography and fashion. Music is afterall about a hell of a lot more than boy bands, hit singles and smilies.

One regular feature Wax Poetics does is on "Cover Art". They interview a different graphic designer associatd with any given major record label and do a full run down of their style, influences, pressures and so on. This makes for some attractive and informative mag reading.

So let's indulge ourselves with some of our favourite cover art. I'm going to try and share some extra bits of info about certain important ones, I hope you'll give us some little indicators too. (I recommend you search your albums on Amazon and just grab the shots from there).

First up,

Isaac Hayes - Black Moses:


This opens out to show him standing in a full length robe with his arms outstretched, can't find a picture of that though sorry.

Background Notes:

The early history of black recording artists on cover art is not a happy one. I don't know the precise date but it was around the early 50s when a black artist's face was first allowed to appear on their own record. America had been jiving, boogying (sp?) and rocking away to the sounds of black artists for decades but the industry firmly took the view that a black face on a record cover would drive down sales.

Many argue that a similar dynamic remains today and this is why we have artists like Eminem, Joss Stone, Jamie Cullum and so on topping the charts ie. to make black music digestible for a white audience. Well that is unfortunately a sad reality, one we all hope the discerning listener can overcome.

Black Moses:

We must remember that Isaac Hayes was intrinsically rolled up with the Civil Rights movement. He largely recorded for Stax Records which is situated in Memphis, Tennessee. When Otis Redding was killed in a plane crash, Isaac Hayes was appointed the figurehead artist at Stax, and this was at a time when the Civil Rights movement reached its highest phase. Visit the Stax site in the link to see how they got involved. This album was both the calling card to America that Isaac Hayes had arrived as the Stax Ambassador, but it was also part of a wave of cover art which sought to 'iconise' black role models and reclaim positive, powerful images for the black community.

I found this write up quite good.

Significance of an artist's face:

You can pretty well judge the significance placed on an artist by a record label by how prominent their face is on the cover. You will find that those identified as 'flagship' artists generally have their face in large on the cover. You can see this in action on some other classic Stax records for Isaac Hayes:

"Hot Buttered Soul":



"To Be Continued..."



"The Isaac Hayes Movement"



And the title of this says a lot: "Branded"

These are the first three that come to mind.

I always liked this one:

Nice one guys. Know anything about them? There are often surprising messages and stories behind our best loved record's cover art and it's only a few minutes googling away.

I should have added this when I mentioned "but it was also part of a wave of cover art which sought to 'iconise' black role models and reclaim positive, powerful images for the black community."

Of course this whole process can be seen in the film "Shaft", which echoed the same political message as "Black Moses". In depicting a funky, black cop (John Shaft), on a moral crusade, suddenly the black community had their own Humphrey Bogart, a detective crusading the world on their terms. They identified with him.

And the soundtrack by Isaac is of course a classic funk record.



So we see how the message echoed through a number of media, and in fact cover art in many ways can be seen to have led the clarion call.

Led Zeppelin songs, reggae style, Elvis vocals. What could be better?



@ WickedSmurf: Unconventional Sabs choice.

[EDIT]: In an effort to bring some greater understanding of the art on show, I've done a little write up for Punk Art:

1958 Chester Carlson invents the photocopier or Xerox machine.

Punk Art’s weapon of mass destruction had been waiting for some time. What the Xerox (Photocopier) allowed the bored and angry youth of Europe and America to do was create their own media. The number of magazines, and more precisely fanzines, shot up immeasurably during the 1970s, when these machines became more freely available. And as with the intorduction of the printing press, so too did political activity increase. More specifically, subversive political activity. This technology brought about a fragmentation of popular culture in general, and a myriad subcultures began to immerge. The same can be seen today with people being able to use desktop publishing programmes and photoshop for example.

Punk aesthetics heavily borrow from the ‘home made’ look, or the ‘cut and paste’ aesthetic. Note that this was right down the line of their political message: “Fu** you mainstream culture, we’ll go it ourselves.” And so they did.

The music produced was of the same process too. All bands, with any grain of punk sensibility, grew up in a garage and were populated by atrocious musicians, who didn’t have the first clue about making music.

But making good music wasn’t the point. The same applied to politics. And the same applies to the cover art. It was a mish-mash of cut and paste, home made jobs, making up for lack of technical ability with sheer political and social outrage. And they did a grand job!

Here are two classics from the old days:

Didn't this get banned when it first came out?

Rambuchan said:

Two classics from the old days:

Didn't this get banned when it first came out?

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The song was banned from the radio, and i think they tried to get the album banend (or at least change the name/cover). And to think, this was just 25 years ago. Oh how times have changed, and for the better IMO.

@ Ram: re God Save the Queen...the cover or the song? I own a couple of GrindCore-type LP's where the cover is "obscene" and were "ask at counter" items.

Thanks guys. I was wondering if the cover made it onto shop shelves. Remember that Hendrix album cover that never made it into the shops?

Here is somemore Classic Punk Cover Art which typifies what I have edited in above:

The Sex Pistols ~ "Jubilee"



Dead Kennedys ~ "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables"



Dead Kennedys ~ "Bedtime for Democracy" <<< the title says it all (and yes it is meant to be side-up).



Dead Kennedys ~ "Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death"



Theatre of Hate ~ "West World"



The Sex Pistols ~ "Nevermind The Bo**ocks"

Bartleby said:

@ WickedSmurf: Unconventional Sabs choice.

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Always liked that cover, can't really tell why.

Here are some more:

I was going to complain that the "Fresh Fruit" cover is actually part of the insert, but I see there's a new "limited edition" out. It was a real shame about the whole court case business.

@WickedSmurf: Yeah, many Black Sabbath sleeves are not much to look at (esp. Vol 4 and Masters...)
edit: come to think of it, only "Black Sabbath" and "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" are worth looking at; "Paranoid" is kinda silly, and the less said about "Sabotage" the better

one of my motorhead faves (inside and out):

OK here are some Parliament Funkadelic covers. As you can see these guys are on a completely different planet to the rest of us, but they make ridiculously funky music.

Stylistically there is a real distinction from Punk Art, but you can see that much of the message and method is the same. They largely have a home-made aesthetic and they ransack popular, conservative images.

Parliament ~ "The Mothership Connection" (This is what my title refers to)


Funkadelic ~ "One Nation Under A Groove"


Funkadelic~ "America Eats Its Young"


Funkadelic ~ "Standing on The Verge Of Getting It On" (probably the grooviest song title ever?)

"I recall, when I left a little town in North Carolina, I tried to escape this music. I said it was for the old country folks. I went to New York, got slick, got my hair made (heh-heh- heh-heh), I was cool. I was cool. But I had no groove, no groove. I had no groove. But now, fly on baby...Dig...Can you feel that baby? It's called Funkadelic music. It will blow your funky mind."

("Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?," Funkadelic, 1969)

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Rambuchan said:

Here are two classics from the old days:

Didn't this get banned when it first came out?

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It was No.1 in the charts during the the Queens's silver Jubliee week. Whilst it was not banned, many retailers swapped the No.2 song (Rod Stewart iirc), made it number one and had a blank space for No.2

Iggy said:

It was No.1 in the charts during the the Queens's silver Jubliee week. Whilst it was not banned, many retailers swapped the No.2 song (Rod Stewart iirc), made it number one and had a blank space for No.2

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That's what I suspected. Amazing reaction. I mean, it's only the Queen!!!

This one requires no explanation.

Peter Tosh ~ "Legalise It"

@Ram: I'm surprised that you didn't have the "Free your mind and your ass will follow" Funkadelic cover, but then I can't find a pic of the backside...

I'm partial to the sci fi/fantasy covers of the progressive bands from the 70's, like these Yes covers by Roger Dean:
Fragile:


Close to the Edge (inside):


Yessongs:

One of my favourite covers of all time - And one of the finest albums of Metal too...

A classic album with a classic cover:

Bartleby said:

I was going to complain that the "Fresh Fruit" cover is actually part of the insert, but I see there's a new "limited edition" out. It was a real shame about the whole court case business.

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What's all this court case business Bart? And yes that's a limited edition, I lost my copy of this .

@ mrtn: Didn't include 'FYMAYAWF' cos of space. I also wanted to get in 'Gloryhalastoopid' (aka Pin the Tail on the Funky) but space again. I love psychadelic covers . The Yes covers remind me a lot of many Osibisa records I have, maybe I'll go find the covers for them some time.

@ Curt: That is brilliant man!!!

Here is another heavyweight reggae album. For those who are actually reading my commentary, you will see how that 'iconising' process is in action here. Note it is Biblical again, like "Black Moses", appealing the broadbase Christian sensibilities of black communities all across America, the Caribbean and West Africa.

Alpha Blondy is a Ghanaian reggae artist, who is probably better know by our French posters. The album's title track is of monumental stature in the reggae world and certainly in my collection. Here he strikes a peace-loving, ecumenical beat for mankind to follow and appeals to our Abrahamic (sp?) roots for cohesion. Check the lyrics here.

Rambuchan said:

What's all this court case business Bart?

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I was referring to this.