#19 - Sailin' Shoes: Little Feat (1971)

Neon Parks was here once before. And, surprisingly, not for Little Feat!

Indeed, Parks is associated with that band as closely as any artist was with any group. I shared some of those covers back there, but here are a few more:

Though almost everything Park did was for Little Feat, he did do these very similar covers for David Bowie and the Beach Boys (David Bowie and the Beach Boys?!?!).

It may be a little hard to believe, but this cover is saturated with art history. The main inspiration is Fragonard’s The Swing:

The figure on the right is basically Gainsborough’s Blue Boy (but with a cameo from Mick Jagger):

I had some friends who were Little Feat fans. Was never sure what it was really all about (it was definitely a little culty), and consequently never really got into it. I do know they were very eclectic (both band and friends, BTW).

The band were formed all the way back in 1969, by front man Lowell George.Here he is in his Fat Elvis (or perhaps Joe Don Baker) period.

Seeing as George was a former Mother of Invention, as was bassist Roy Estrada, I really should be a fan. Poor Roy is now incarcerated in a Texas prison for child sexual abuse. Here he is in better days:

George would die in 1979, at age 34, of a heart attack (with a little help from cocaine and pizza). The band would then take a very different tack, as a more jazzy, funky kind of group. I believe they’re still around.

This is one of their better-known albums. I’m just not a big enough fan to really say more. Sure do love Neon Park though.

Bill Payne, Richie Hayward, Sam Clayton, Lowell George, Paul Barrer , ???

One parody (robot and death figure?) …

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#20 - The Velvet Underground & Nico: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

Our first Warhol. You can tell by the large, mono-colored, silk-screened, iconic image. Oh, that and the huge “signature” in the corner.

On the plus side, this is a Warhol, the product of probably the most famous artist in the world post-Picasso. And the image is definitely – as I said before – iconic (as is pretty much all his stuff).

On the negative side, it’s just a banana on a white background. Not sure what that has to do with the Velvet Underground, or Nico, or Lou Reed, or anything.

That said, it certainly is phallic. In fact, the original design allowed you to peel it back to show a distinctly flesh-covered “banana.”

Once again, however, though all that is nice and transgressive, I’m not sure what it has to do with the band.

Of course, the image also signals the group’s involvement in the whole Warhol scene. In fact, another version of the album is called Andy Warhol's Velvet Underground Featuring Nico. Indeed, they were something of the house band for Warhol’s “Factory,” the center of New York’s pop culture. Warhol also, of course, had a lot to do with promoting them, and is actually listed as the producer on this, their debut album.

Andy by Andy

Needless to say, this album was a total wash when it was released. Since then, it’s gone on to have a major impact on popular music. I don't think we'd have a New York Scene, American punk, Dolls, Sonic Youth, Strokes, or that totally-cool-super-badass New York attitude without them. Rolling Stone ranked it #13 of all time.

Some of the hits include “Heroin,” “Venus in Furs,” “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties.” Not too surprisingly, all those songs about drugs and sexual deviancy were a bit of a stretch for 1967.

But let’s get back to Warhol. A lot of people don’t realize it, but he had a fairly successful early career as a commercial artist, and produced a number of totally straight-up album covers, almost all for classical and jazz artists. In total, he’s got over 80 credits.

And, yes, there will be one more for this blog. Hold tight.

Nico? She was basically a jet-setting European model who fell in with Warhol’s crowd. She really couldn’t sing, and has only three songs on the album.

Nico and friend

Here are a couple other VU and Lou Reed covers I like:

The band was Sterling Morrison, Lou, Nico, Maureen Tucker, and John Cale:

Parodies & homages? I could only find 30 or so …

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#21 - Some Girls: Rolling Stones (1978)

Mildly transgressive (because mildly transgender), the cover is more cheap, camp, pop fun than anything else. Admit it, though, we all wanted to see what the boys (esp. Mick) looked like in drag.

The fun continues on the back cover, which appears to be something straight out of a Fredericks of Hollywood catalogue.

The artist behind all of this fun was Peter Corriston, who we’ve seen here before. 

He’s got over 120 album cover credits to his name. I shared my faves in that previous post, but here are a few more I like:

Here’s how it all came about … Corriston took an old magazine ad from Valmor Products: 

gave it some garish colors, did a die cut number on the faces, then lined up the cuts with pix of the band and some female celebs on the inner sleeve:

Interestingly, there were a ton of legal issues, with Valmor, Lucille Ball, Raquel Welch, Farrah Fawcett, and the estates of Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland suing for using their  images without permission. This resulted in numerous variants, even for the inner sleeve: 

Some Girls was the band’s best album in quite awhile. Hits include “Miss You” and “Beast of Burden.” It’s actually the best-selling Stones album of all time in the US.

You all know what the boys look like. Here's the most unusual pic of them I could find out there:

I'd show a couple more fave album covers, but we've still got two to go in the top 20!

Definitely a couple of homages out there for this one:

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#22 - Candy-O: The Cars (1979)

The Cars have been here before. That one was pretty cute, but definitely pales in comparison to this one.

The artist behind this bit of cheesecake was no less than Alberto Vargas, probably the greatest pin-up artist of all time. 

Vargas made his name first with Esquire and then with Playboy. Here’s a sampling of his work (suitability for your work in descending order):

 

He’s actually got 8 album credits, including several for the luscious Bernadette Peters:

Once again, the idea was drummer David Robinson’s. He had done a photo shoot of model Nancy Beth at a Ferrari dealership, then – being a huge fan of pin-ups – naturally thought of Vargas. Initially uninterested, Vargas was cajoled to come out of retirement by his great-niece, who was a fan of the band. In an interesting final twist, Beth got cold feet, so actress and soon-to-be Robinson girlfriend Candy Moore was used for the face.

Speaking of beautiful women, I’ve always been amazed that Ric Ocasek somehow got stunning supermodel Paulina Porizkova to marry him. 

Unfortunately, they just split up just two years ago, after 28 years of marriage. And Ric, of course, passed away last year, at age 70.

The band’s second album, Candy-O included the big hit “Let’s Go.” Interestingly, the band’s first album was so popular that Elektra really pushed the group to hold off on releasing Candy-O, but were overruled by Ocasek.

Greg Hawkes (keyboard), Elliot Easton (guitar), David Robinson (drums),
Ocasek (vocals, guitar, face of the band), Ben Orr (bass)

A little surprised I could only find one parody:

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