#55: Axis: Bold as Love - Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)

And now it’s back to Jimi Hendrix and Karl Ferris. Painter Roger Law used this photo by Ferris to come up with the final artwork: 

Roger Law only has 5 covers to his credit, but this one by The Who has always been one of my favorites. 

Law later went on to do the TV puppet show Spitting Image:

Interestingly, there was some controversy about this one. Not too surprisingly, Hindus protested. At the same time, it was also not very popular with the band. Hendrix himself had wanted something that would have expressed his own Indian (i.e., Native American) heritage. A poster by the Hapsash graphic design firm would actually honor that request.

Personally, I think there is nothing cooler than Hindu devotional art, and actually started collecting it while I was still in my teens.

A:BAL was a bit of a comedown from the band’s debut (but, heck, so would any band’s effort). Indeed, the album was one of those contractual deals – the band was supposed to do two albums in 1967, and this is that second one. That said, it did make Rolling Stone’s Top 100. I’m afraid there really aren’t any big hits on it.

Couple of other decent Hendrix covers

Always liked this pic of the group:

God, Jim Henson was a genius:

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#56 - Rubber Soul: The Beatles (1965)

I am a true Beatlemaniac, so do bear with me – you’ll be seeing a lot more of them in this blog. Now, that’s not really the only reason why, of course. They were indeed groundbreakers, with their music, their attitudes, and their album covers.

Take this one, for example. By today’s standard, it’s nothing super special. Back in 1965, though, this was really out there.

First, you’ve got the tilted and elongated photo, plus all those dark, broody colors. Then, there’s the psychedelic title, the first I’m really familiar with. Finally, there’s no band name (pretty much unheard of at the time).

Just to give you some idea of what the standard fare was back then, here are some pretty lame offerings from some actually pretty cool groups:

Though Bob Freeman (photography) and Charles Front (typography) are credited with the art on this one, it’s really the first cover where the boys took over, directing the whole effort. Freeman did some other work for group. You may be seeing some more of him here.

The album itself was also the band’s first venture into being something more than just the lads from Liverpool. In it, they introduced a more folk feel, with a real emphasis on more meaningful lyrics. It’s also a wonderful example of the things that can be accomplished in the studio, as well as one of the first albums that wasn’t just a string of singles, but had a real feel and theme of its own.

It was actually pretty transitional, not only for the Beatles, but for rock and pop music in general. It is invariably ranked between 5 and 10 on numerous greatest album lists. / The hits of course were many – “Nowhere Man,” “Norwegian Wood,” “Michelle” ... On a personal note, my first record ever was a 45 of that last one.

A couple more nice covers from that era (and both Freemans as well):

Yes, he did so some stuff for people other than the Beatles:

All great covers invariably generate parodies:

This one, though, is real (and is a ukulele version of the album to boot):

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#57 - The Best of the Doors: The Doors (1985)

Let’s face it. The Doors were basically Jim Morrison. 

Yeah, they had some great songs (mostly written by Robby Krieger, by the way), but it was really all about this guy. He was handsome, charismatic, a decent poet, and something of a modern day Rimbaud. 

Hence, any Doors album cover worth its salt is going to feature The Lizard King front and center. This one was the most effective, by far. In fact, this one is actually pretty terrible.

Interestingly, both were done by Joel Brodsky. 

Overall, Brodsky did an incredible 450-some album covers. With numbers like that, it’s not surprising that he did work for acts as diverse as Isaac Hayes, KISS, The Ohio Players, Country Joe & the Fish, Percy Sledge, and The Stooges.

And then there's this:

The Doors were extremely popular, selling over 100 million albums. They were quite creative, and covered a lot of ground – art-rock, jazz-influenced pop, blues …

It really was all about Jim though. I highly recommend the bio No One Here Gets Out Alive (hmm, does that pic look familiar?).

Here's the whole band - John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, and that other guy:

And here’s a nice parody by John C. Reilly (AKA Dewey Cox)

And some more, from this pretty funny Muppets site:

And this pretty silly Bored Panda post:

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#58 - Horses: Patti Smith (1975)

It’s super simple, but super effective. And that’s probably because the photographer was no less than Robert Mapplethorpe. He and Patti just so happened to be roommates, meeting for the first time on Patti’s first day in NYC.

Another thing I like about this cover is the punk theme – the black & white, the minimal titles, the skinny tie … There are interesting – and pretty sophisticated – themes of androgyny and confidence/reticence going on too. It was actually done on a Polaroid, in natural light, at a friend’s apartment.

Surprisingly, Mapplethorpe actually did no less than 43 covers, with several more of Patti’s, as well as ones for Joan Armatrading, Phillip Glass, and Peter Gabriel. 

He is, of course, mostly known for his very transgressive and controversial homosexual – well, let’s call it what it is – pornography (I won’t be showing any of that here).

How to describe Patti Smith? She’s kind of one of those artists who no one listens to, but everyone acknowledges their importance. Indeed, she was more of a poet than a musician (and a little famous for being famous to boot). All that said, she is in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and made it onto Rolling Stone’s Top 100 … but also won a National Book Award and received a medal from the French.

Horses was Patti’s first album, and probably her best. Critics loved it, and it has been cited by acts such as The Smiths, REM, Courtney Love, and PJ Harvey.

Patti doesn’t really have any other great covers - most were just other portraits:

Here, though, are those that are not. I rather like the first one, and have always been fascinated the second:

That’s her dad, by the way.

Hard to believe, but even Patti gets a send up:

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#59 - In Utero: Nirvana (1993)

Hard to believe, but this won’t be Nirvana’s only album cover here. Stay tuned, m’kay?

This one’s actually pretty simple. It’s basically one of those weird anatomical models little boys would see in a museum and giggle over, plus some wings. Heck, you could probably add wings to anything and make it look a little like the Victory of Samothrace, right?

That image (from In Utero, not the Victory of Samothrace) has inspired a lot of tattoos and merchandise, and even some parodies and crafts as well.

The art director was Robert Fisher, who simply ran with some ideas from Kurt Cobain.

Fisher was responsible for a lot of Nirvana’s stuff, and has no fewer than 126 credits to his, uh, credit. In addition to Nirvana, he’s also done a fair amount of stuff for Beck, Blondie, and No Doubt.

The back cover was basically some crazy shit that Kurt came up with on his own. 

Before and after art direction

The photographer was Charles Peterson, basically the court portraitist of Grunge.

The original title of this album was I Hate Myself and I Want to Die, but the lawyers talked ‘em out of it. Too bad – it’s kinda catchy.

In Utero was the band’s last studio album. The goal was to create the anti Nevermind, going for a much more unpolished, genuine sound (!?!?). It sold 15 million copies.

Do I really need to say anything about these guys? One word then … Grunge.

Kurt, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl

The one (?!?!) parody I could find out there:

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