#63 - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: The Smashing Pumpkins (1995)

Interesting story behind this one … The artist, John Craig, was not familiar with the band, and was engaged by his agent. He was signed, let go, then signed again.

Band lead Billy Corgan wanted an antique look, and provided Craig with lots of directions.

Hard to believe, but the work is all collage. The cover includes Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s The Souvenir, as well as a Raphael Madonna:

There’s tons of inside art as well:

And here's the whole kit and caboodle:

It's very whimsical, but without ever being twee. NPR did a great interview of Craig talking about the project.

Craig had a little over 25 credits, most of them very obscure and not all that great. He did two for Rod Stewart, though, that are kinda interesting:

MC&IS is quite an ambitious album. It includes 2 discs (and 3 LPSs), garnered 7 Grammy nominations, and was the band’s only #1. Lots of hits, including “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” – which Craig did the 45 sleeve for as well:

The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the great alt bands of the 90s. There were an interesting combo of psychedelic, gothic, prog, and dream, with deeply emotional, cathartic lyrics.

They were also famous for their very creative videos. The one for “Tonight Tonight” is my fave, and perfectly encapsulates this album.

They had a couple of other really great album covers as well. My two favorites are Machina II and Oh So Bright.

The band was Bassist Darcy Wretsky, the incredible Billy Corgan, and guitarist James Iha:

Yes, there are a few parodies. In fact, this one is probably my favorite in this whole blog:

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#64 - Sweetheart of the Rodeo: The Byrds (1968)

The Byrds were famous for their folk and psychedelic rock. Sweetheart of the Rodeo, though, represented one of the first forays ever into country rock.

The album was wholly due to the influence of a new band member, the incredibly talented, enigmatic, and very short-lived Gram Parsons. He would actually leave the band, interestingly, before the album was even released.

I have a CD of this and listen to it only once in a great while. That said, the haunting Graham Parsons number “Hickory Wind” is one of my favorite songs of all time.

The very charming artwork is from a 1932 poster by Western artist Jo Mora. Born in Uruguay, Mora was something of a Renaissance Man, authoring books, riding the range, and living with the Hopi, in addition to being an illustrator, cartoonist, sculptor, painter, photographer, and muralist. Not too surprisingly, this is his only album cover credit.

As for that cover … You know, you can always tell when something achieves iconic status – people make fun of it. Ever hear of Golden Throats? It’s a set of 4 compilations issued by Rhino, all featuring people who should not be cutting albums. I’m talking Leonard Nimoy doing “Proud Mary,” Sam Ervin (the NC senator) “Bridge over Troubled Water,” Telly Savalas “I Walk the Line,” and Mae West “Day Tripper.”  They are a hoot!

By the way, most of the band’s other album covers are pretty boring. Honestly, it’s mostly just the boys posing. And then there’s this horror:

Indeed, this is the only one that seems at all interesting (kinda like Han Solo in carbonite):

Here are a couple of homages/parodies:

In order, they are:

• A "Christian parody" of the album
• From a band that named themselves after the album
• From a female Japanese ukulele duo.

<#65                    #63>

#65 - Bat out of Hell: Meatloaf (1977)

Not a huge Meatloaf fan. That said, this is one great cover, and makes it onto many greatest album cover lists. I’d probably have it much higher if I was more of a heavy metal kind of guy.

The cover was designed by Richard Corben, a well-known comic artist, especially for his work in Heavy Metal magazine.

He did seven other covers, of much the same genre but not as cool as #65:

This was actually Meat Loaf’s first album. Subsequent ones would play on it, both in the title (Bat out of Hell II, Bat out of Hell III, Hell in a Handbasket, Heaven and Hell, Hits out of Hell …) and the cover art:

Though that last one looks positively Aryan

Some interesting trivia about Mr. Loaf: 

• His birth name was Marvin Lee Aday
• He is very popular in the UK
• He’s a decent actor and appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fight Club, Hair (on Broadway), and numerous TV shows
• He’s a Republican supporter
• The nickname came from a high school football coach

Here's a shot of Meat and a friend:

He’s the one on the right

An homage and a few parodies:

<#66                    #64>

#66 - Go Jungle!: Bow Wow Wow (1981)

Whoa! Someone studied some art history.

In particular, that someone was photographer Andy Earl. And just in case, your art history is a little rusty, what he did was recreate Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) with the members of the band.

Now, he’s not the only one who has attempted something like that. In fact, Picasso, Monet, Cezanne, Botero, Max Ernst, and Neon Park have all tried their hand. I think the Star Wars one, though, is my fave.

Earl’s version was not without some controversy. In particular, the nude on the left, the band’s singer, Annabella Lwin, just so happened to be all of 14 at the time. Her mum would, in fact, ask Scotland Yard to begin an investigation. And those prudish Yanks would get a totally different cover.

Andy Earl specialized in celebs, rock stars, architecture, and panoramic vistas. He also had over 150  album credits, mostly for inside or back cover band photos though. In fact, he only has 16 covers listed. He also did several music videos as well.

Here are a couple of covers I know are his:

Bow Wow Wow was a new wave band created by impresario Malcom MacClaren, primarily from former band members of Adam and the Ants. I was never a fan, so allow me to let Wikipedia describe them for me: “[The band] was characterized by a danceable new wave sound that drew on a Burundi beat provided by Dave Barbarossa on drums, as well as the suggestive lyrics squealed into the mic by their teenage lead vocalist.”

This particular album, their first, went by the rather unusual title of See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! (usually shortened to See Jungle!). “Go Wild in the Country” was its only real hit.

Interestingly, SJSJGJYGYCAOGAC was the band’s only album cover worth sharing, by far. A number of the rest did, though, manage to exploit the teenaged singer in a similar fashion.

BWW was Drummer David Barbarossa, Annabella, bassist Leigh Gorman, guitarist Matthew Ashman:

And are not to be confused with Bow Wow:

I did find one priceless parody out there:

And that's from a priceless collection by the extremely clever Peter Routley. 

<#67                    #65>

#67 - Weasels Ripped My Flesh: Frank Zappa (1970)

Ah, Zappa again. This one was designed by the immortal Neon Park. It – and the title – was based on a 50s men’s magazine that Zappa found.  He challenged Park, "This is it. What can you do that's worse than this?" Park subsequently found an ad from the same time, put the two together … and the rest is history.

Neon, born Martin Muller, was most famous for his covers for Little Feat (at least one of which we will feature in this blog). In fact, the only cover of theirs he didn’t do was their very first one.

Neon also did covers for Bowie, the Beach Boys, Dr. John, and Lowell George, and had illustrations in Playboy and National Lampoon. He died pretty young, of ALS.

In general, his stuff combined elements of whimsy, surrealism, and Americana. I won’t possibly have room to do him justice, so let me throw in a few extra here.

Weasels Ripped My Flesh is, like Hot Rats, another instrumental done soon after the Mothers broke up. And like Hot Rats, WRMF is also one of Zappa’s better efforts. No big hits (unless, of course, you’re a fan). By the way, the title track is 2 minutes of very loud static, played in concert no less.

A few more great Zappa (and extremely bizarre) covers:

Here's one of my favorite shots of Frank. It was actually taken by Norman Seeff, whom we’ve seen here before.

Hard to believe, but there are actually some parodies (well, sort of) out there:

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