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Greatest Album Covers: Unknown Pleasures

           

Most of us aren't even sure what we're looking at. Is it a mountain range? Is it a clump of waves? Somebody give us a clue! Whether you know what the design is or not, you ultimately identify the striking image with the post-punk band Joy Division. And that's precisely what makes it a great album cover. 

The bold cover of Joy Division's debut album, Unknown Pleasures, was suggested by drummer Stephen Morris and designed by Chris Mathan and Peter Saville. Saville was the in-house designer of the famed Manchester record label, Factory Records. He was depicted in the 2002 film, 24 Hour Party People, which is based on Tony Wilson and the history of Factory Records. In the film, Saville has a reputation for missing deadlines.

Peter Saville went on to design album covers for New Order, Roxy Music, Ultravox, Suede, Pulp and Peter Gabriel, but he cut his teeth with Unknown Pleasures, a grim and mysterious blueprint that spoke directly to Joy Division's brooding fans.

So what exactly are we looking at? I'm glad you asked.

It’s one hundred successive pulses from the first pulsar ever discovered, PSR B1919+21. Now if you're like me and don't know a thing about astronomy, a pulsar is a "celestial object, thought to be a rapidly rotating neutron star, that emits regular pulses of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation at rates of up to one thousand pulses per second." Got it? Good.

The complete artistic design of Unknown Pleasures is untraditional: the back cover doesn't include a track listing, instead of the customary "side one" and "side two" they are replaced by "outside" and "inside," and the track information and album credits appear only on the inner sleeve.

In the end, when you see this enigmatic image, you don't think pulsar. You think Joy Division.

Greatest Album Covers: Born to Run

The cover of Bruce Springsteen's 1975 album, Born to Run, is one of rock's most iconic photographs. And to think that the photo session almost didn't take place.

Springsteen had been working so intently on the album that he had cancelled several sessions with photographer Eric Meola who nearly quit the project altogether. "One day I got really upset," Meola said. "I called up Mike and said, 'Hey, it's either going to be next time or never.'" Springsteen finally kept his appointment and brought the Big Man, Clarence Clemons, with him. "He wanted Clarence on the cover from the beginning," says Meola, "and the whole thing of isolating them against a white background just worked."

It took Meola 900 images and only three hours to capture the essence of Bruce. The Boss' grin, his laid back posture and the casual way he's leaning on Clarence are what make the photograph so memorable. 

Meola claimed, “Other things happened, but when we saw the contact sheets, that one just sort of popped. Instantly, we knew that was the shot."

Greatest Album Covers: Horses

                  

Horses, Patti Smith's 1975 debut album, established the singer/poet as the Godmother of punk. 

Horses is one of the great albums in music history; it has influenced so many musicians: Morrisey, Johnny Marr, Michael Stipe, The Libertines and Courtney Love (to name a few).

Robert Mapplethorpe, Smiths' friend and roommate, who snapped the iconic photograph, utilized the natural afternoon light in a Greenwich Village penthouse in order to capture the singer's paradoxical stance. Her deep gaze is offset by her refined posture, while the androgyny of her dress is juxtaposed with the gracefulness of her hands.

"I've always taken great pictures of Patti Smith," Mapplethorpe said in a 1987 interview. He described their collaboration as "like taking drugs; you're in an abstract place and it's perfect." 

             

Greatest Album Covers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik

             

It's hard to believe that Blood Sugar Sex Magik is twenty years old. It's also hard to believe that the album cover was designed by filmmaker Gus Van Sant.

The renowned director of such films as Good Will Hunting, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Milk, sketched the black, white and red cover, highlighting all four band members’ faces, their tongues stretching to the middle of the cover, surrounding a red rose. 

In fact, all photography, paintings and art direction for Blood Sugar Sex Magik are credited to Gus Van Sant. The booklet  contains a collage of photos of the band members' various tattoos, individual photographs of the four musicians, and two photographs of the entire band.

                  

Greatest Album Covers: Who's Next

           

Every great album demands a great cover. Well, I'm not sure that statement holds any water today, with iTunes and all kinds of downloading and pirating, but in the 1970's the album cover was an essential part of the record.

A favorite album cover of mine is Who's Next, which just happens to be another album from the 70's.

Ethan Russell took the photograph at Easington Colliery, an old coal mining town in England. And though the band appears to have urinated on the monolithic sculpture apparently nobody actually did. 

Russell's photographs have also appeared on the covers of The Beatles' Let it Be, the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Yas Out and The Who's Quadrophenia.  Pete Townshend has said that "Russell's photographs look ready to put up in the National Gallery. Ethan is the civilized eye of an uncivilized art-form: rock 'n' roll." 

Earlier cover designs included photographs of obese nude women and Keith Moon dressed in black lingerie, holding a whip and wearing a wig. Can you imagine if The Who had gone with one of those designs? Would their 1971 masterpiece still have been a masterpiece? I think the band chose wisely. Don't you?

Greatest Album Covers: The Slider

In 1972, Marc Bolan was a Glam God! 

His music, charisma and fashion style - glitter and top hats - helped establish glam rock. Bolan and T. Rex followed up their highly successful 1971 record Electric Warrior,  with their second glam album, The Slider.

The iconic photograph on the album's cover has been credited to Ringo Starr who was directing a documentary on Marc Bolan and T. Rex, Born to Boogie. However, producer Tony Visconti has claimed to have taken the photograph: "Marc handed me his motorized Nikon and asked me to fire off two rolls of black and white film while we were on the set of Born To Boogie. Ringo, the director of the film, was busy all day lining up shots. But Marc apparently saw a photo "credit" opportunity and gave Ringo the credit for the photos."

Whether it was Ringo or Tony Visconti who snapped the out of focus photograph, the picture truly captures Marc Bolan at the peak of his glam power, and yet underneath that top hat the singer's vulnerability is clearly visible.

Greatest Album Covers: Kiss Alive!

Whether you appreciate their music or not you can't argue with the greatness of the Kiss Alive! album cover. Well you can, but why would you?

It has everything a great cover needs: guitars, smoke, make up, bright lights, the band's name in neon, costumes and platform boots - everything that can captivate the imagination of a young boy. Along with their album Dressed to Kill, I stared at this cover for hours on end, pretending to be Ace Frehley with a Gibson guitar in my hands. Years later, the album still piques my imagination. 

Even though there has been speculation of overdubbing to correct mistakes, Alive! is still quite possibly Kiss' greatest album - maybe their most impressive musical statement - and it's certainly considered to be one of the band's most compelling covers.

Greatest Album Covers: The Ramones

             

It's simple, really. Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee: decked out in their black, leather jackets, ratty Levis and white boat shoes, standing upright against a brick wall, staring at the camera with stoic faces.

The Ramones' posture, body language and attitude of their first album cover influenced the design of several of their album covers to follow. Legs McNeil states that "Tommy [is] standing on his tip-toes and Joey [is] hunched over a bit."  

Originally, the band wanted an album cover similar to Meet The Beatles! They paid $2,000 for photographs that their record label, Sire, was dissatisfied with. Eventually, Roberta Bayley, a photographer for Punk magazine, snapped the legendary photograph which was also featured in an issue of Punk.

The Ramones cover was ranked number fifty-eight on Rolling Stone's 1991 list of 100 Greatest Album Covers. 

Greatest Album Covers: The Velvet Underground & Nico

                        

The Velvet Underground's 1967 debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, might have sold all of three copies, but as Brian Eno and Peter Buck claimed, "everybody who bought one started a band." 

The classic album cover features an Andy Warhol print that came with instructions: "peel slowly and see." After peeling the banana, underneath a flesh-colored banana is revealed. A special machine was needed to manufacture these covers, delaying the album's release, but MGM paid for costs, thinking that the band's ties to Warhol would boost sales. 

At first, the album's art displayed only Warhol’s signature and didn’t feature the band’s name, but the group’s name was added to later pressings, and early copies became extremely rare collectors’ items. 

The record has since become one of the most influential and critically acclaimed albums in history. The Velvets' have influenced several movements: punk, alternative, noise rock, grunge and indie. The Velvet Underground & Nico appears at #13 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

What is your favorite album cover? Drop us a note!

                      

Greatest Album Covers: The Clash's "London Calling"

              

When Pennie Smith snapped a photograph of an infuriated Paul Simonon, smashing his bass, she considered the unfocused picture to be of little use to the band; however, Joe Strummer and designer Ray Lowry thought it was ideal for the cover of The Clash's third album, London Calling (1979). 

After the historic Palladium gig, Simonon said, "The show had gone quite well, but for me inside, it just wasn't working well, so I suppose I took it out on the bass. If I was smart, I would have got the spare bass and used that one, because it wasn't as good as the one I smashed up." Other than smashing his favorite bass, Simonon has another regret about the photograph: "When I look at it now," he says, "I wish I'd lifted my face a bit more."

                                            
While Smith's photograph recalls a young, angst-ridden Pete Townshend, Ray Lowry's design is an homage to Elvis Presley's first album. "When that Elvis record came out, rock & roll was pretty dangerous," exclaimed Simonon. "And I suppose when we brought out our record, it was pretty dangerous stuff, too."

In 2002, Pennie Smith's photograph was named the best rock and roll photograph of all time by Q Magazine. The magazine also named it the ninth best album cover of all time.

As of May 2009, the remnants of Simonon's infamous bass has been on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.