#37 - Animals: Pink Floyd (1977)

And here’s our second Pink Floyd album. Like our first, it’s the work of Storm Thorgerson. (The idea, though, was Roger Waters.)

Here’s another (bad) pic of Thorgerson (I swear, he was just totally non-photogenic), plus some other great covers he did for the band.

Believe it or not, that’s a real photo, and a real balloon (of a pig). The site, by the way, is the old Battersea Power Station, in London. It’s actually pretty famous, and has appeared in album art by The Who, Morrissey, and others. It’s being brought to back to life as a chi-chi place to live, work, shop, and eat. One of the main occupants will be Apple.  

The pig is behind one of the great stories of rock ‘n roll. Turns out the balloon escaped, shut down Heathrow, was chased by the RAF, then finally landed in an irate farmer’s field in Kent.  The pig, known as Algie, would become a concert staple. Filled with an oxygen/acetylene mix, it would actually explode at one show.

Though never as popular as some of their other albums, there are a couple of interesting things happening on this one. One, it was very political, a major departure from previous work. The overall theme harkens back to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, but focusing on Margaret Thatcher’s capitalism instead. It was also the first album where Roger Waters really started to take over, as well as the first to be recorded in the new studio the band had built. The five songs on it are titled “Sheep,” “Dogs,” “Pigs,” and “Pigs on the Wing” (two parts for the last one).

Probably my favorite pic of the band:

And, yes, there is some creative stuff out there inspired by the cover.  First, some homages:

And next, what a band called the Australian Pink Floyd Show came up with to honor Algie:

And finally, two parodies:

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#38 - Physical Graffiti: Led Zeppelin (1975)

Our third Led Zeppelin cover. Interestingly, like our first, this is another die-cut. Depending on what sleeves you stuck in there (it was a double album), you could spell out the title (as shown above) or fill the windows with various American icons – Buzz Aldrin, Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Atlas, the main characters from The Wizard of Oz ... In that sense, I guess, it must have been something of an homage to Sgt. Pepper.

The artist was one Peter Corriston. 

The photo was a heavily altered pic of two apartment buildings off of St. Mark's Place, 96 and 98 East 8th Street.

Corriston didn’t have to go far for the pic, as he was originally based out of Greenwich Village. The graphic designer did tons of covers, winning a Grammy for the Stones' rather underwhelming Tattoo You. I like these better:

The big question, though, is whether Corriston and the band actually stole the idea from Jose Feliciano. 

Thanks for that one, dangerousminds.com.  

The album itself was Robert Plant’s favorite, and a number of people consider it to represent the peak of the band’s career. It went #1 in the US and UK, and provided a number of standards for their concerts, including the great “Kashmir.” 

Days of big hair: Plant, Jones, Bonham, Page

Not a lotta parodies of this one, but here’s a couple of homages:

And one great parody ...

...  and a throw pillow:

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#39 - God Shuffled His Feet: Crash Test Dummies (1993)

It’s an obscure band (at least to me), but that’s one great cover – especially if you’re a former art history minor like I am. The original was Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne.

Interestingly, the famous Baroque-era painter gets 58 album credits. Most of those are classical, of course, but he also has a handful of one-off punk, trance, and ”funeral doom metal” albums.

The art director was one Chris Chuckry, with this being his single credit. He’s a Canadian artist, comic book colorist (having worked for DC Comics for the past 20-some years), and community college instructor.

You go, Chuck!

The company he helped create, Digital Chameleon, also gets a credit as well. They have five total, including this interesting one by one of my favorite contemporary classical composers, the very unusual George Crumb.

The band are from Canada, and are generally considered alt/folk rock. They were popular in the 90’s and are still around today.

Benjamin Darvill, Ellen Reid, Brad Roberts, Mitch Dorge, Dan Roberts

This was their best-known and best-selling, and actually garnered three Grammy nominations. It also featured their one big hit, "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm," which had the distinct honor of being parodied by Weird Al.

They do have some other great covers as well:

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#40 - Island Life: Grace Jones (1985)

I was never a fan, but that is definitely one of the most striking poses ever to grace an album cover.

In ballet, it’s actually called an arabesque. This particular version also happens to be anatomically impossible.  Photographer (and partner) Jean-Paul Goude put together a mash of multiple images to create it.

Goude was mostly an advertising guy, with a stint as the art director at Esquire. He has 33 album credits, including lots of Grace:

Interestingly, his other credits are pretty meh. I do like this one though:   

Model, actress, and singer, Jones just wasn’t my cup of tea. Though I had friends who were fans, she was just too much dance club for my tastes. Honestly, that was the part of the 80s I just didn’t like.

This particular album is an early compilation, kind of a greatest hits for the first nine years of her career. Pretty much every album of Jones’s is striking – probably because they all feature this very striking lady. Here are some from the start of her career that I like:

Parodies?  OMG! Are you kidding?!?!

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