My Top 10 Favourite Album Covers - Part 3

This is it! The end of my list! I have really enjoyed creating this list and writing about all these albums that I love so much. Read on to find out which album is my #1! If you haven't read Part 1 or Part 2 be sure to check those out first!

4. Pink Floyd - Animals

Pink Floyd’s Animals is my favourite of all their records. It showcases the mellow acoustic side of Pink Floyd. The concept for the album cover was originally done by Hipgnosis, the design group behind the previous Pink Floyd album covers. The concept for the original cover was of a child walking in on his parents having “animal like” sex. Bassist, Roger Waters came up with an alternative cover idea and decided to showcase the Battersea Power Station near Clapham Common. This was a building he frequently drove by and felt was appropriate for the cover.  The first few sessions photographing the building with the iconic flying pig were unsuccessful and in the final product, a pig was superimposed into the shot. On a funny side note, as a kid, not knowing what this album was, I was convinced it was the Willy Wonka’s factory from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I don’t know how that idea got into my head!

3. Cream - Disraeli Gears

This album ties into the same psychedelic rock category that The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Are You Experienced (#8 on my list) album fit into. In fact, I was surprised to find out that this album wasn’t designed by Karl Ferris, but in fact, Australian artist, Martin Sharp. Not only did he design the cover art, but he even wrote music with Eric Clapton, one of the songs being Tales of Brave Ulysses which was featured on Disraeli Gears! He and Eric Clapton even lived in the same building! The only way to describe this album cover is that it looks like what you would assume an acid trip looks like. I love it (the album cover, not acid)!

2. Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King

This album cover is awesome. It was even drawn by Dave Matthews himself! The scene on the cover is of a Mardi Gras style parade in New Orleans. The reason this cover is so high on my list is because when I found out Dave made it himself, it really inspired me to get into drawing a lot more and playing with ink and lines. It has been a huge influence in the canvases I create today. This album was my introduction to The Dave Matthews Band, and since I discovered it, I have become a huge fan! Dave also created the cover for his latest album Away From The World. This cover is just as neat to look at as Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King and flaunts how Dave has many talents other than his signature guitar playing and voice. I watched an interview with Dave earlier this year and in it, he said that he did not add nipples to the naked women on Away From The World, but whenever he signs a fan’s copy he adds them in! I thought that was pretty funny! Give this album a listen, you won’t regret it!

1. Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

What do Bob Dylan, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allen Poe, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Carl Gustav Jung, Diana Dors, W.C. Fields, Issy Bonn, Marilyn Monroe, Aldous Huxley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Aleister Crowley, Sigmund Freud, Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Sir Robert Peel, H.G. Wells, Stan Laurel, Marlon Brando, Lenny Bruce and Oliver Hardy have in common? They were all featured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, my all time favourite album cover! Are you even surprised? This is everyone’s favourite! An interesting fact about this album is that John Lennon wanted to include Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler as members of The Lonely Hearts Club Band, but this idea was rejected for very obvious reasons. If you haven’t heard this album, stop what you are doing and go listen to it. Thanks for reading, now go take a trip on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Bandwagon!

My Top 10 Favourite Album Covers - Part 2

Time for round two! If you haven't seen Part 1 of this list yet, be sure to check that out first!

7. Ray Lamontagne - Trouble

The artwork on Ray Lamontagne’s Trouble was done by artist, Jason Holley. Jason Holley has done work for big names such as Rolling Stone Magazine and the New York Times. When I look at this album cover, the first thing I think of is the legend of Robert Johnson and how he sold his soul to the devil to play the blues.  It has that bluesy look to it and the folksy art is very appropriate for a folk musician such as Ray Lamontagne. The theme of the album is very gritty with the inner sleeve of the record reading, “And you, liar, teller of tall tales: you trample all the Lord’s commandments underfoot, you murder, steal, commit adultery and afterward break into tears, beat your breast, take down your guitar and turn the sin into a song. Shrewd devil, you know very well that God pardons singers no matter what they do, because he can simply die for a song…”. This is a quote from Nikos Kaztantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ. Upon reading this quote, I can’t help but wonder if this album was written as a confessional. How much did Ray Lamontagne’s past choices influence the creation of this album? Did he have a dance with the devil?

6. Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way

This album has a very special place in my heart because it reminds me of my childhood, sitting in the back seat of my fathers truck. Julian Schnabel was responsible for the interesting artwork on this album. He offered to design the album for, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, John Frusciante. The woman on the cover was John Frusciante’s girlfriend and Julian Schnabel’s daughter, Stella Schnabel. In the creating of this album artwork, Schnabel was given rough cuts of a few of the songs featured on the record. The resulting artwork was based of the vibes and emotions Schnabel felt while listening to these rough cuts and in my opinion, it is a perfect visual companion to the songs on By The Way.

5. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

This is a very interesting album to look at and play around with. Led Zeppelin had this cool idea to make their album covers interactive. With Led Leppelin III, the album contained a pin wheel, which when turned, would alter images on the cover of the album. In Through The Out Door contained inner sleeves, which when dampened, would change from black and white to coloured. Finally, Physical Graffiti contained holes in each of the windows, as well as images on the inner sleeves that could be altered to show different people in the building. The famous people in these images include Queen Elizabeth I, Lee Harvey Oswald, Elizabeth Taylor and Neil Armstrong. This album includes my favourite Led Zeppelin song, In My Time Of Dying. It is definitely a good listen!

My Top 10 Favourite Album Covers - Part 1

Today, I was sitting down and looking through my record collection and decided that I absolutely had to do a top 10 list of my favourite album covers. There were an awful lot that were close, but didn't quite make the cut. It was not easy putting this list together, but I am very pleased with the result. Since I have quite a bit to say about each of these albums, I will be doing this list in three parts. I hope through viewing this top 10 you find some new and exciting music to check out. Enjoy.

10. Paul McCartney and Wings - Band On The Run

The photo used for this album cover was taken by photographer, Clive Arrowsmith. He has also collaborated with musicians and bands such as Fleetwood Mac, Humble Pie and The Jeff Beck Group, as well as another famous Beatle, George Harrison. This album is in my top 10 favourite album covers mainly because I love the random cameos. James Coburn, famous for such films as Charade, The Great Escape and The Magnificent 7 is one of the talented actors who posed for this cover. He is joined by Dracula himself, Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee is a very distinguished actor with an unmistakable voice. He has played rolls in many of my favourite movies such as, Count Dooku, in the Star Wars saga, Saruman, in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and as I previously mentioned, Dracula was one of the many horror icons he portrayed in his work with Hammer Film Productions. Other familiar faces on this album cover include Michael Parkinson, Kenny Lynch, Clement Freud and John Conteh. If you have never heard Band On The Run, I highly recommend checking it out. It is a great album from beginning to end, and arguably the best produced by Paul McCartney and Wings.

9. Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs

The cover of Eddie Vedder's Ukulele Songs displays a powerful image of “The Lost Correspondent”, an underwater sculpture created by Jason deCaires Taylor. Jason deClaires Taylor has done many interesting underwater sculptures like this one. I love that, over time, these sculptures become artificial reefs. It is such a fantastic concept, not only as a scuba/snorkelling attraction, but also as a way for art and design to have a positive effect on the environment. When I look at this album, it immediately reminds me of my high school field trip to the Hawaiian islands. This album was the soundtrack of my Hawaiian adventure. Feelings of nostalgia and the memories I connect to these albums have had an incredible impact on this list.

8. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

This was Jimi Hendrix’s debut album and it took the world of rock by storm. The artwork for this album was done by Karl Ferris, who was famous for his contribution to the “psychedelic rock” phase through his amazing photography and designs. He was a photographer for bands such as Cream, The Hollies and Donovan. His work with Jimi Hendrix was his crowning achievement and after designing the cover for Are You Experienced, he went on to do the covers for Axis: Bold As Love,as well as Electric Ladyland. The first Jimi Hendrix song I ever heard, when I was very young, was Purple Haze. It blew my mind! Soon after, I listened to this whole record from beginning to end. I could not get enough Jimi Hendrix. This album was one of the first albums that introduced me to the music genre which we now call “classic rock”. I can definitely say that without this album, I may not have become the crazy vinyl junkie I am today.

Canvas and Ink

Whenever I am checking out a new stack of records, I always like to have a little drawing or doodle to work on. Over the past few months, I have been getting into a lot of ink work. I sometimes use calligraphy pens, but my favourite tool is the Sharpie Paint Marker. Here are a few of the canvases I have done lately!

The World as I See it

Twists and Turns

Reflecting Pyramids

Stripes and Signs

Upcycling Damaged Records

One of the most exciting parts of being a vinyl collector is the thrill of crate digging. Nothing beats sitting down at your record player with a great big stack of new records. Half the time the records aren't the best of quality, but finding that mint condition gem is the most satisfying feeling ever. The problem is, what do you do with those records that you are scared to even let your needle come into contact with? Melt them.

Records can be upcycled in many ways. I have tried making bowls with them. That is a lot of fun! These are very easy to make too! All you need to do is:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 °F (204 °C).
2. Place a bowl on a cookie sheet.
3. Center your record on the bowl.
4. Place your objects in the oven.
5. Take the record out as soon as it begins to sag.
6. Shape your record the way you want it using oven mits.
7. Let your record cool and harden.

I use my record bowl to hold a variety of shells I collected on a trip to Hawaii a few years back. I quite like how it flows with the theme of my room.

If you can't quite get the right shape out of your record bowl, don't sweat it! Find another use for it! Here is an example of how I used a record simply as a decoration.

It was sad to see this record melt because I was quite excited to purchase it. When I got home and played it, the sound quality was awful. I am a big fan of Fleetwood Mac, especially in their Peter Green years. This record was Fleetwood Mac's Black Magic Woman. The reason I decided not to make a record bowl out of this one was because I wanted the label to be visible on such a great record. I am very happy with how both of my upcycling projects turned out.

Using Music to Create Visual Art

It is a pretty amazing thing, how sights can inspire music, but it is also not uncommon for music to inspire sights in the form of artwork. Music can change the way we think and feel; therefore, it can influence the things we do and the way we do them. If you were to draw a persons profile while listening to the mellow sounds of jazz, odds are, your final project would look nothing like it would if you were listening to a much more intense music such as heavy metal. It is fascinating  how the senses intertwine and influence each other. 

This sculpture, created out of a wide variety of guitars, is located at the EMP Museum in Seattle, Washington. It is a wild sculpture to see in person. Its enormous scale commands your attention as you enter the museum. Every time I visit, I love to try and count the different guitar brands and models it is comprised of.

Three Musicians, by Pablo Picasso, is another great example of musically inspired artwork. This piece screams Picasso, with his classic abstract cubism which he was so famous for.

In an anticlimactic end to this post, this is a little project that I did for fun a while back. I was bored with the same old ukulele and I wanted to give it a bit of personality. I took a sharpie to it and this was the end result. I had a lot of fun with it!

Album Covers: A Lost Art?

We are living in a digital world. Things are changing every day, and although this technological advance brings many benefits such as ease of communication and access to such a limitless supply of information, many gems and treasures have been lost along the way. With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle, and the Apple iPod and iPhone, gone are the days when shelves and bookcases were riddled with movies, books, records and CDs. These different forms of media are now all found online or saved to a hard drive. I have always felt that you can learn a lot about a person by the odds and ends that fill their shelves. That is a way to express who you are and add a personal touch to your living space. I may be thinking in an old fashioned frame of mind, but I like being able to personalize my home this way. It is the personal touches that make a house a home. 

One of the many ways I like to personalize my living space is through album artwork. There is something I find extremely satisfying in being able to actually hold a record in my hands and know it is right there in front of me. This is a feeling that can’t be duplicated by a digital file. As music has evolved from the classic LP record, to cassette, to CD, and finally to that little title you click in iTunes which plays the song you have selected, the album art has been cast off into the corner. I am an avid record collector. Apart from the unparalleled sound quality, one of my favourite parts of this hobby is being able to take a close look at the album art found on the record cases. It is a shame how the detail and the effort put into these covers has been long forgotten. There are things you see on these cases that you could never point out on a minuscule 300x300 jpg file that comes with a downloaded album. Albums such as The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Santana’s Abraxas and Cream’s Disraeli Gears make these record sleeves an art form. Record covers are among the many pieces that I use frequently in interior decorating. They make for a great focal point, as well as an excellent conversation piece.