The worst album cover ever

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 06:31 PM

Blind Faith - anyone who tried that nowadays would be lynched (and rightly so).

Yessongs - need you ask why? (See also Fragile and Topographic Oceans)

Steeleye Span - All Around My Hat. UGLY!

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 10:53 PM

Well, I was talking to Big Bill tonight, gathering valuable input for next year's courses at the WSSBA, and he said that he is rather flattered and touched that someone would recognize HIS album cover as the worst of all time. He admits that it's "pretty cheesy".

He did insist though, that it's NOT the absolute worst. "Believe me, if I had had intentions of having the WORST cover of all time, I would have had Leonard there on one side of me, wearing his pointed ears and looking deeply serious, and De on the other side in a tutu. A pink one. I believe then it might qualify as the worst, and I mean the absolute, gut-wrenching, bottom of the barrel WORST. If you've seen De in a tutu, you know just what I mean. Yes, I agree that the camera tripod is incredibly tacky, and the haircut is dated. What can I say? We were working with a...limited budget. If I had it all to do over again...I wouldn't. Ce'st la vie. I have no regrets. Well, one or two, but no serious regrets."

What a guy, eh? Charismatic, yet humble. Virile, yet self-deprecating. Overweight, yet svelte.

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: GUEST,spreznib
Date: 11 Aug 02 - 07:21 PM

there are different kinds of bad - my nominee is a punk band whose name I don't recall. The LP had a large piece of coarse sandpaper glued on the front - kind of an editorial comment on the rest of your music collection.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 10:49 PM

I will go to see Rick Fielding to hear him play guitar though! Not to mention the singing...

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 10:18 PM

Well...of course I am willing to recognize that Clapton and Winwood and some other guitar players were great musicians...and still are.

But I still basically ignored them back then. It was singers and/or songwriters who deeply interested me. I never bought an album or went to a concert in order to hear a guy play the guitar...I went to hear the singing.

I just love both lyrics and singing, that's all. I liked Hendrix, because some of his songs actually were kind of neat on the lyrical and vocal side.

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 09:55 PM

Little Hawk...They were one of those hundreds of loud rock bands with 4 or 5 guys with very long hair, which I routinely ignored while on the prowl for songwriters with great lyrical gifts

Ever heard of Eric Clapton? How about Steve Winwood? These were just a couple of guys with long hair?!?

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: RangerSteve
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 11:06 AM

Starday Records from Nashville had the worst album covers ever. There was never any thought to making a good cover. Along the top of the cover was the announcement in big letters that the album was in STEREO, long after all albums were stereo and it could be taken for granted. The song list was also printed on the front, along with the title and the artist's name, all of which covered up the photo of the performer. On the plus side, they were consistant, all the covers look the same and are easy to spot at flea markets from a distance.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 08:25 PM

Right. They were one of those hundreds of loud rock bands with 4 or 5 guys with very long hair, which I routinely ignored while on the prowl for songwriters with great lyrical gifts...and I found a few of them. Guitar heroes don't generally impress me that much unless they've got something memorable to say.

Except for Nigel Tufnel, of course...Nigel ROCKS!!! He's got very little to say, but he ROCKS. Mark Knopfler's not half bad, and he even DOES have something to say. Bargain!

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 03:00 PM

LH -- that was the original cover of the Blind Faith album which was outlawed in some countries. Being young and impressionable when it came out, I thought at the time it was actually quite daring, and thrilling...

Michael

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 02:55 PM

I had once heard that the cover of Andy M. Stewart's Donegal Rain was considered so bad that a Donegal Rain Award was conceived somewhere for really bad cover art.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: allanwill
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 12:50 PM

C-flat

I agree. When you bought a record you bought more than just the vinyl inside - the covers were almost another sort of entertainment. Just think of those best-of albums of The Byrds and Fairport where they had the "family histories".

Buying CD's is nowhere near as much fun as buying LP's - for one thing the writing on the "covers" is so bloody small, I don't even bother trying to read them.

Allan

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 12:29 PM

Shambles, Pet Sounds did indeed have an odd cover. You would never anticipate that the record itself would be the ground-breaking experimentation in sound and recording that it was.

How about the Velvet Underground's first, with the Warhol peelable banana? Has to be in my top ten.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 12:27 PM

LEJ - I just absolutely hated R. Crumb's "art" in general...but I have to admit that the cover on "Cheap Thrills" was among the classic covers of ALL time, and it was perfect for Janis & Big Brother...just the right vibe.

Normally speaking, I detested the way Crumb drew women...it made me sick...but his style suited that album just fine, and the music was pretty memorable too.

There was an album by some very popular band with a picture of a very young naked red-haired girl holding a silver miniature airplane in her hands...I nominate it as among the 20 or so worst covers ever.

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 11:53 AM

I started buying records at the height of the fancy album cover fad. There were some beauties, The "Sticky Fingers" cover by Andy Warhol gets my nod as the most creative. The goofiest is a ties among four albums, the Kiss "solo" albums with each band member on the cover.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: C-flat
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 04:46 AM

I've just realised how much I miss the old album covers! Back when I was buying my first records one of the biggest pleasures was to study the cover while the disc was spinning. More often than not, it was the first time you'd seen what the artist/band actually looked like (which somehow was never how you expected them to look) and, if you were lucky, all the words to all the songs would be there too!
I suppose that the music industry was more about the music then.I remember hearing songs by Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, Diana Ross and the Supremes, on my little one-wave-band radio and having no idea who these people were or what they looked like but I knew what they sounded like and that was what mattered. Seeing their faces on the album cover was a bonus and occassionally the photos gave a clue as to "who" the artist was but you had to like the music first to have bought the album.
I'm sure the first test for todays music stars is more likely to come in the photographers studio than the recording studio and if you can pass the first part then you're 75% there.
I think I might have a rummage round the attic and dig out my old album collection.
Now.......where did I put that old turntable..................

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: The Shambles
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 04:37 AM

Pet Sounds.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Kaleea
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 02:27 AM

I recall seeing the picture on the Tiny Tim albumn with "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" on there. I literally shuddered when I--a quite impressionable 7th grader--saw the picture of him on the album. The guy was no more than a joke on the "Johnny Carson show" to me, but after seeing his face on the close up album cover scared me. I thought he was some kind of pervert who would attack & molest kids. Then about a year or two later, on a dare, I wrote to him asking for an autographed photo. I actually got it, and made fun of it, tossing darts (no wrapping fish).

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 10:56 PM

Just talking about the artwork, Clinton... the album itself, of course, stands with the greats!

;-) Michael

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 04:29 PM

Hey... what's wrong with BOOH????

Better that than the sequel, that's for sure...

;-)

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 04:25 PM

"I am rapidly becoming a real Shatner fan instead of just a humorous imitation of one"

Aaaaah! Little Hawk!!! Good god, man, turn back before it is too late!! Too late?! Too late -- he's gone!

Oh, the humanity...

BTW, my nomination for Worst Album Cover goes to Meat Loaf, "Bat out of Hell".

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 04:04 PM

LH, I thought Axis was a bit goofy. Hendrix and the boys as some kind of cartoon version of Hindu Deities pushed the 60s Silliness Envelope, which is saying something.

BUT (and its a big but) R Crumb may have done the definitive album cover of the era with his Cheap Thrills for Big Brother.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 03:39 PM

My nominations for best album covers are:

"Bringing It All Back Home" - just a superb cover that conveys the feeling of the album and Mr. Dylan at the time perfectly.

"Blonde on Blonde" - An incredible picture. Talk about alienation. It still gives me chills when I look at it now. I mean, look at his eyes....whew!

And Kansas did one with John Brown on the cover that looked really wild. I liked it a lot. John Brown gave people chills too.

Clinton - Yeah, the Jethro Tull one is a beauty!

Yes did a couple of pretty interesting covers...

And ELP did one called Tarkus, with a foldout...very neat.

And Jimi Hendrix' "Axis - Bold As Love" was a spectacular cover.

- LH

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 03:16 PM

Hey!

Dis ye not Chris de Burgh!!!

His early stuff (befor he went religion crazy stupid) was very, very good indeed...

Ya wanna talk BEST album covers, Jethro Tull, Broadsword And The Beast tops my list!

Front

Back

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 03:06 PM

Yeah man. And they had the far out heavy music to lay that trip on you man... Lady In Black... God forbid, I'd almost rather have Chris de Burgh... This is bad for me. I'm going to stop reading this thread. It is reminding me of things I would prefer to forget.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Bardford
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 01:42 PM

Hey Little Hawk - check out Uriah Heep's "Look At Yourself". Had a mirror cover. What a trip indeed! Scroll down to see the evidence.(Hmm, the mirror doesn't seem to function on my monitor. Maybe I need more ram...)

Uriah Heep Album covers

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 12:29 PM

One of my favorites had to be the Doors' Strange Days. Circus freaks prowling the street on the cover, and the only mention of the band is a tattered handbill tacked to a door. It was quite a groundbreaking concept at the time.

One of the more interesting...Electric Mud by Muddy Waters. On the cover, Muddy is wearing a barber apron, holding his guitar, and his hair is freshly processed and luxuriant. Inside, Muddy is sitting in a barber chair in the midst of getting his process done, looking into a mirror in which there is also a reflection of a huge, gaudily painted ceramic cobra. Weird, but appropriate.

And be careful with the S___ references, Lonesome Hawk. A word to the wise is sufficient.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 11:12 AM

I agree about the White Album. It was a dumb, pretentious thing to do.

I wonder if anyone has had the bad taste to issue an album that was surfaced like a mirror! Everyone would see themselves in it! Wow...man...heavy. What a trip!

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Mooh
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 07:38 AM

There's countless unimaginative covers among those elevator music type cds, soft jazz, mood music, quasi-classical, ada, tada, tada...You know the ones, as generic as no name mac'n'cheese, or the picture which comes in a new picture frame. As if it's not bad enough tripping over the tripe at flee markets and record stores, I gotta flash to a news channel when the ads come on TV. How these images sell anything to anyone is beyond me. If it's low budget cover rendering they want, any adolescent attempt would be more interesting.

I concur with SharonA regarding the White Album. I didn't understand the hoopla then and don't get it now. Sure the music needs to stand on its own, but passing up album art (and it was much bigger then) is like missing breakfast.

There was once a Stratford (Ontario, Canada) area band called the Wheezing Dogs who issued one with sparkles glued to the outside. Had to be thrown out to avoid getting them all through one's collection. The record sucked anyway.

As an aside, one of my alltime favourites is Steeleye Span's "Now We Are Six". Itself a picture frame as viewed from both sides, too bad the record wasn't their strongest.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 01:03 AM

Hmmmmm....

Had a look at those blue clickies up there.

Regarding John & Yoko, I don't find that picture offensive particularly. It's just a bit...unusual. There's nothing erotic about it, nor any intention that way in the first place obviously, which is kind of refreshing in these times. I'll tell you what I find offensive...all the stupid soft pornography in advertising, women's fashion magazines, movies, etc. Then there are the men's magazines which go beyond soft pornography to totally soulless vulgarity and absolute obscenity. John and Yoko were eccentric, John was sometimes egomaniacal and insecure, but they were a big improvement on Madison Avenue as far as I'm concerned. In their own confused way they were actually trying to improve the world. How many big business people try to do that?

Regarding Cream and the "Wheels Of Fire" album (probably inspired by a certain Dylan song)...AGREED! That awful, awful psychedelic art...oooog! I couldn't stand it even back then.

But I like the way the lads look with their long hair and baroque clothing styles! Lovely. It was a time when the past was still honoured...they could almost be French musketeers or something like that. I loved the way young people looked then, and I still love it now in retrospect, for all the silliness of the time. Nowadays (in general) they mostly just look like ghetto punks from Los Angeles or somewhere similar..no romance, no style, no celebration of life, but lots of metal objects stuck through their anatomy. It's nihilistic and very sad.

LEJ, etc - I also am scrupulously avoiding the mention of the word S**tner in thread titles. I think you know why. Fortunately, Big Bill is so big that I am sure he will keep showing up here and there regardless... :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 11:24 PM

Greg: You're right about the bushes, but they weren't confined to the seventies. I used to kid around that when someone wanted a cover for a folk album everyone said, "C'mon!, let's see if we can find any bushes!" I don't know what the appeal was...

Jerry

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 10:57 PM

I agree, Ian. William Shatner is actually a very likeable man who is definitely doing something right. I just finished reading his recent book, "Get A Life", and I have never had so much fun reading anything else in the last 10 years at least. It's a great book. I recommend it without ANY reservations to anyone who has the good sense to read it, jokes about Big Bill notwithstanding.

No one has a better humour about William Shatner than Shatner himself, which is one reason why the book is such a delight to read. I am rapidly becoming a real Shatner fan instead of just a humorous imitation of one, and I always liked the Star Trek shows, even though the original one was QUITE corny a lot of the time. Despite the corn, it was also absolutely new and unique in its perspective, and layed the groundwork for finer things to come in the arena of Sci-Fi....like Next Generation, etc.

I think Bill Shatner is great, and he knows as well as anyone that he is not exactly among the world's greatest actors...unlike Patrick Stewart, who is undeniably very, very good whether onstage or onscreen.

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Ian Darby
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 09:59 PM

Thanks to the lot of you...

I'll have to sleep with the light on for the next six weeks.

Also, stop knocking Wm Shatner.

Any man of his age who sports more hair than he did 10 years ago must be doing something right.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 08:33 PM

Oh....GOOD suggestion, Wyowoman...

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: WyoWoman
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 08:24 PM

"Smell the Glove" by Spinal Tap ...

ww

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 08:24 PM

Goddamit! I just typed out a lengthy response to this thread, and hit some damned key down by the "space"bar (doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo) and...the whole page vanished off the screen!!!!!!!! It is gone forever!

AAAAARRRRGHHHH! This happens occasionally, and I STILL do not know which key it is that makes it happen! Blast!

Anyway, that is one incredibly rare album, Jack, and I agree that it has a pretty awful cover, but I don't think it's the worst EVER. Face it, there's some stiff competition out there. Think about heavy metal groups, rockers, alternative bands, rappers, and tacky Christian singers, not to mention country music and Culture Club! Did Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker make some albums? If so, I bet they'd be serious contenders.

(BTW, you were wise not to put the great Shatner's name in the thread title...well done.)

For worst album cover ever...well...

How about the painting Dylan did on the front of "Self-Portrait"...

And you know I love Bob, but that was just plain awful.

I also think the cover of "Let It Bleed" is really, really bad.

- LH

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: GUEST,Frogmore
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 07:55 PM

I couldn't help realizing that the word "cover" has 2 meanings in the Mudcat context. 1) The container that holds the product and 2) One person's version of another's song. (There are many contexts - for instance (Take cover!)

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: RolyH
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 07:01 PM

There is a book called 'Album Covers From the Vinyl Junkyard'(ISBN 1-86154-075-2)that has hundreds of pictures of the worst album covers that you could imagine.

i.e. 'Hammond Pop Party' by Zygmunt Jankowski

Now someone is going to tell me how brilliant Mr Jankowski was

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 05:40 PM

Its a lot better than a piece of white cardboard with "Herman's Hermits" printed on it.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: SharonA
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 05:26 PM

I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for this but... The Beatles' White Album. All the ooh-ing and ahh-ing that was done at the time of its release about the "design" of it made me ill. Hell-LO, it's a piece of white cardboard with "The Beatles" printed on it. What grade-school kid couldn't have come up with THAT???

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: wa banzhou
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 05:09 PM

The vagina pie album cover from Every Mother's Son. If you ever saw it, you remember. The music was just about as bad.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: GUEST,clansfolk
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 04:58 PM

what do you think of this one.......

http://www.pennyblackfolk.co.uk

CD section

Two in a Bar by Penny Black - for all you UK PEL activists :-) the CD number is EDM 1182 - has your MP signed???

Pete

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 04:54 PM

I'll have you all know that I recorded the worst album ever--twice.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 04:47 PM

All the nominations are good, but I remind you I bring you Shatner, in a cheezy 70's hairdo, which ipso facto mys be a cheezy 70's rug. He is in a cheezy knock off of a "starfleet" uni holding a 4 barrelled phaser. (Camera tripod) How could ...... it POSibly.. Be...Worse?

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 04:38 PM

I nominate This One!

That has NEVER been a good look on ANYONE!

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: alanabit
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 03:34 PM

Greg, I fear you have opened the door to potential blackmailers here!

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 02:48 PM

Bruce, you're right, and I've taken the same oath. BUT...as we can't possibly censor any mention of S___ in a thread, I'm sticking to avoiding ones with S___ in the title.

Ah yes...Wheels of Fire. The very look of the chrome album cover conjures up smoky rooms and circles of friends and hookahs, listening to Spoonful. Ya had to be there.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 02:34 PM

Any number of 60's psychedelia covers such as this one . You know.... give your gilrfriend a hit of acid and a box of paints and say, "Now, pretend you're Peter Max and paint me an album cover". They looked cool back then, but now they just look like childish squiggles. Some of the music was great - the "art" just sucked.

Bruce

BTW: I am breaking my own "ignore them and they will go away" rule about not posting to Shatner threads, even though this is obviously a Shatner thread in a very thin disguise.*G*

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 02:25 PM

Any one of a hundred photos of folkies standing under trees,by streams, looking out to sea etc with ridiculous 70's hair. I'm not confirming or denying whether I've ever appeared in any such picture.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 02:05 PM

My favorite is an oldie...Edwin Starr's War...and Peace! It's apparently out of print now, which is a shame. It showed two photos side-by-side on the cover. In the left hand photo, Edwin is dressed in an outlandish uniform that looks like a cross between Napolean's get-up and the guards at the Witch's castle in Wizard of Oz. He is snarling and surrounded by flames, and holds a cutlass. In the right hand photo, Edwin is dressed in a white jumpsuit and flowered shirt, holding a daisy and giving a peace sign, a blissful look on his mug.

Subject: RE: The worst album cover ever
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 01:33 PM

Yeah Two Virgins is particulary nasty but neither of them is holding a tripos upside down.