Since forming in 1981, Metallica has become one of the world’s biggest selling bands, with over 50 million albums sold in the US alone. They’ve won 9 Grammy Awards and – from the battle over their first release through to the celebrated packaging for Death Magnetic – have created significant cover art as well.

Kill ‘Em All (1983)

This release was to be called Metal Up Your Ass and the cover was supposed to feature a toilet bowl with a hand clutching a dagger emerging from it. After significant pressure to reconsider, the band settled on Kill ‘Em All as an angry response and used the artwork for tour t-shirts instead.

Ride the Lightning (1984)

Master of Puppets (1986)

One of the most acclaimed metal albums of all time. Many prints of the 1986 release featured a parody of the PMRC “explicit lyrics” warning labels.

And Justice for All (1988)

The cover was made by Stephen Gorman based on a concept by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.

Metallica (1991)

Also popularly known as the Black Album, this is the second best selling album of the Soundscan era. Read a previous Sleevage entry about it here.

Load (1996)

The original artwork on the cover is entitled “Semen and Blood III” and is one of three photos by Andres Serrano, who mixed his own semen with bovine blood between two pieces of Plexiglass. The cover also features a new Metallica logo.   

ReLoad (1997)

Garage Inc (1998)

St Anger (2003)

Brian Schroeder designed the album cover and artwork for St. Anger.  Originally there was meant to be four different limited color variations  but the plans were eventually canceled.

Death Magnetic (2008)

A special edition of this release was packages in a coffin box. Death Magnetic won Best Recording Package at the 51st Grammy Awards.

In a classic Saturday Night Live Sketch in 2000, the show satirised the game show Celebrity Jeopardy – skewering both Robin Williams and Catherine Zeta Jones. But the breakout star of the sketch was comedian Darrel Hammond’s Sean Connery, who introduced the term “anal bum cover” in this memorable exchange:

Alex Trebek: For the last time, that is not a category. Sean Connery, why don’t you pick?

Sean Connery: Well, the game is afoot. I’ll take anal bum cover for 7,000.

Alex Trebek: That’s “An album cover”, not anal bum cover.

Sean Connery: I can read, Trebek. That says Anal bum cover. I’ve spent five years of my life trying to invent an anal bum cover, failing to do so is my greatest regret.

So in tribute to this obscure but resilient meme, we celebrate 7 great covers with backsides on the brain. Bottoms up!

Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA (1984)

The undisputed heavyweight of album covers with bottoms on their front belongs to The Boss.

Born in the USA was the best-selling album of 1985 and shares the record for the most top ten hits from a single release. Springsteen was already a big star but, as one commentator puts it, it wasn’t until he “hit the gym to get buffed up and showed off his rear end in Annie Leibovitz’s famous cover photo for Born in the USA that he became an American pop icon.”

Springsteen’s new image came at just the right moment, as Rambo was hitting cinemas and Reagan was ushering in a period of muscular nationalism.

The irony that underscores this cover is that the vast majority of Springsteen’s new fans radically misinterpreted his lyrics and ideology. The patriots that packed stadiums and cheered on his anthems were blissfully unaware that they may as well have been nuns at a Madonna concert, delighted to see so many crucifixes on stage.

The contradiction was certainly not lost on Springsteen, who had to be convinced to use Leibowitz’s photo for the cover. Ultimately he did and the image was also incorporated in the video for the title track.

Born in the USA is one of the most imitated covers of all time. (The following examples were all found on music site AMiRIGHT)

The 2 Live Crew – As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989)

Rarely was an album so aptly named, or a band so enamored by the backside. This cover is not what you’d describe as a design masterpiece, nor is the photograph anything less than ridiculous. And funnily enough, the bling and bum combo on the cover is the chastest thing about As Nasty As They Wanna Be, which was declared by more than one local court to be “obscene and illegal to sell”.

While their LA contemporaries were terrifying the moral majority with gangster rap, the Miami-based 2 Live Crew achieved it with pure filth. The single “Me So Horny” features a raft of romantic lyrics sure to melt the heart of any young lady:

“I won’t tell your mama if you don’t tell your dad
I know he’ll be disgusted when he sees your pussy busted
Wont your mama be so mad if she knew I got that ass?
I’m a freak in heat, a dog without warning
My appetite is sex, cause me so horny”

In a later verse, Fresh kid ice adds:

“You said it yourself, you like it like I do
Put your lips on my dick, and suck my asshole too”

The band also released a PG-version, As Clean As They Wanna Be, which came with the cute disclaimer “This album does not contain explicit lyrics.”

While the controversy surrounding As Nasty As They Wanna Be contributed to sales of over 2 million units, As Clean As They Wanna Be stayed on the shelves.

With battles over both censorship and copyright issues, The 2 Live Crew is one of the few bands to have their case taken to the Supreme Court.

Echoing their enthusiasm for both pop-culture references and female buttocks, the next release was a cheeky tribute to Born in the USA.

Loverboy – Get Lucky (1981)

Loverboy spent the eighties creating anthems that make you feel like you’re flying down a freeway.  Even the titles of Get Lucky’s hit singles scream epic good times: Working for the Weekend, Lucky Ones, Gangs in the Street and Take Me to the Top.

Get Lucky’s cover, featuring a confusing image from photographer David Kennedy, is striking in its simplicity. There’s something genuinely charming about the crossed fingers, which perfectly bring to life the hopeful optimism of the album’s title.

According to Wikipedia, the famous derriere belongs to the photographer’s daughter Tymara Christen Kennedy, which is not at all creepy.

Various Artists – Ripper ‘76 (1976)

I know very little about this hits compilation, except for the fact that its cover is amazing. It also must have shifted a few copies, as the motif was repeated the following year.

Eagles of Death Metal: Death by Sexy (2006)

They got their name when frontman Jess Hughes heard bandmate Josh Homme describe death metal group Vadar as “The Eagles of death metal”. The striking turn of phrase inspired Hughes to consider what that mix would actually sound like.

This enthusiasm for pastiche continues on the cover of Death by Sexy, the band’s second album. Recognisable influences for this anal bum cover include the Stone’s Sticky Fingers, Too Fast for Love by Motley Crue, Get Lucky and Born in the USA.

In many ways, it’s a perfect companion piece to the cover by The Donnas.

The Donnas – Bitchin’ (2007)

Read a previous Sleevage entry about this cover here

Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (2008)

The latest album from everyone’s favourite Icelandic post-rock band features a photograph by contemporary artist Ryan McGinley. It’s taken from a 2008 series of his called I Know Where the Summer Goes (the title of which was taken from an early B-side by Belle & Sebastian).

McGinley’s primary artistic focus is youth and for this series he traveled America with a troupe of models. He photographed them sometimes clothed and sometimes naked, frolicking across vast, sunlit landscapes. The cover image evokes a feeling of freedom and joy, which is perhaps why the band chose it for an album titled (in English) “With A Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly”.

Strokes: Is This It (2001)

Yes, this is it. This is the sexiest Anal Bum cover in the history of mankind. The Stroke’s debut was that rare beast – an album that exceeded its considerable hype musically and then matched its sonic genius with an iconic cover.

The image was the result of an impromptu photo shoot by photographer Colin Lane. His girlfriend at the time possessed the fetching figure you see on the cover. As she tells it: “I walked out of the shower and I was completely naked,” she recalls. “I was walking around the house – he was like, put this glove on. I walked over, boom, that was the shot.”

Lane told NME that “a stylist left the glove in my apartment. I begged my girlfriend at the time to do it. We did about 10 shots. There was no real inspiration, I was just trying to take a sexy picture.”

He succeeded and, he says, his “ex-girlfriend was thrilled – she was a very rock ‘n’ roll girl so it’s a big feather in her cap to have her ass on The Strokes’ cover.”

She tells the story herself in this video, originally posted by Goldenfiddle.

Is This It from Goldenfiddle on Vimeo.

Call out: If you know of any Anal Bum Covers we’ve missed out on, please let us know. It’s important this list grows.

Not a fan of the rear? Check out the flipside here

But in the last few years I’ve been rediscovering the music of my teenage years and also how kickass the album covers were. It took me a while to whittle down my list to my favourite top 10. I’m sure I’ll come across a few later and wish I included them, but for now this is my definitive list in no particular order.

Warlock – Triumph & Agony
- Awesome painted cover: check.
- Chrome logo: check.
- Foxy blonde woman in leather being fondled by a demon: check.

Vinyl was king in the 80′s and hard core audiophile metal fans still prefer this format. The beauty of the large dimensions of vinyl covers is you can appreciate the detail and work put into painted artworks like this cover. This would look great on the side of a panel van.

Motorhead – The Bomber
This cover appeals to the plane spotter in me. Apparently there was a slight uproar that an English band would choose a German bomber, a Heinkel 111, over the English Lancaster bomber. Lead singer & bassists defended this decision: “Sure, it’s a filthy memory – but the fact is the bad guys make the best shit.” The scale of the band member to the aircraft is all wrong but I think it adds a comical air to the setting.

The Cult – Electric
The photo of the band is the only weak part of this cover and feels like a last minute add in. Sorry Ian Astbury, I’m sure that is your best raccoon hat.

But metal bands have the best logos, and creative use of typography and i think this cover is a great example of that. Metal band logo designs always seem to embody the nature of the group it is representing.

Def Leppard – Hysteria
This cover design is actually pretty cheesy and a good indicator of late 80′s graphix and that’s why i like it. The album is called ‘Hysteria’ so lets have a badly painted morphing of faces screaming. Overlay it on the plans to the Death Star from Star Wars IV and have a paint splattered album title, job done.

Judas Priest – British Steel
I’ve never understood the appeal of ‘The Priest’ but I’ve wanted to like them based on my fondness for some of their covers, which include Screaming for Vengeance & Turbo Lover. British Steel is my favourite.
This cover couldn’t be any more metal. A leather studded arm firmly gripping an oversized razor blade, all set on a “how more black could this be? and the answer is none – none more black” background. And their logo is just kick ass.

Kiss – Rock and Roll Over
I remember flicking through my friend’s extensive Kiss album collection for the first time and coming across this cover. It stood out in stark contrast to the direction of their other covers, and even other fellow metal groups cover designs at the time (1976). It feels like more of a designed cover then some artistic piece with it’s symmetry and very poppy japanese influence.

Poison – Open Up and Say.. ahh!
For me, this is the quintessential 80′s Hair Metal album cover. Day-glow colours, a Gene Simmons inspired tongue, big hair and a ridiculously unsubtle and misogynistic album title.

Aerosmith – Permanent Vacation

I love this for the great Sailor Jerry Tattoo inspired illustrations and the way they are placed in a repetitive wallpaper pattern. The red illustrations on black also balance really well with the yellow Aerosmith logo.

Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time
It would be sacrilegious to not have a Maiden cover in this list. They’ve had some great covers but I guess this one stands out for me due to the fact it reminds me of Blade Runner. It came out around the time I started getting interested in metal, making this the first Maiden cover I came across. It also features one of my favourite incarnations of Eddie.

Van Halen – Fair Warning
This cover

I’ve loved Van Halen from the day I first listened to Van Halen 1. They’ve had a few interesting album covers after their first two releases, with Fair Warning being the standout for me. This cover is a little disturbing, which is fitting for what was hailed as Van Halen’s darkest album. But it wasn’t until I researched this cover that I discovered the complete painting “The Maze” created by the Canadian artist William Kurelek. The painting is a depiction of the artist’s  tortured youth and makes for a very bold and interesting choice for a so-called “hair band”. Then again, as fans of the band already know know, they were always so much more than that.

“One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting.”
Gerhard Richter 1973

The same could probably be said of music.

When Sonic Youth went into a modest New York basement studio in 1988 they baulked at the $1,000 a day fee. Although they’d previously recorded four other albums, they had yet to achieve a national profile and only had limited means. To keep the budget under $30,000 the band worked through the night and rushed some of their takes.

Despite these limitations, it seems they had some inkling that down in their basement they were building a monument. Everything about the finished result announced a bold intent, from the double album format through to its suggestive title. And the cover became central to its iconic status. As Jutta Koether, a German artist and critic, wrote in the liner notes to the 1993 Reissue, “With the inclusion of “high-art” cover-art, it became visually and musically a description of loss and self-doubt.”

After 8 years of Reagan, the candle represents a lone spark of hope and optimism, one that is albeit vulnerable and lonely. Depending on whether you are a “half glass full” or “half glass empty” kind of person, it could either represent the undying hope that Obama evoked or the dwindling remainder of once-great aspirations.

The featured artwork is “Kerze” (candle), a painting by German artist Gerhard Richter.

Facing the complicated question of what to paint at the beginning of his career, Richter instead decided to amass thousands of images taken from photos and clippings. He would pick one, project it onto the canvas and then recreate it in a photo-realistic manner. The distinctive touch that brought him a worldwide following is the “Blur” – the smudging he applies that disrupts the image.

He also went on to create a body of abstract work.

He’s an amazing artist. But by the late 80’s he was also an artist of the establishment, so the band’s decision to use his image was as unexpected as it was inspired. The inside-fold of the sleeve features a portrait of Sonic Youth circa 1988 and they don’t exactly look like they’re on the best galleries’ opening night invite lists yet.

The gap between the value of the Richter’s painting and the income of the “Daydream Nation” was only underscored when “Kerze” went under the hammer at 2008 Sotheby’s auction. Sonic Youth fans watched on gob-smacked as members of Europe’s high society rapidly drove the price up with every bid. It eventually went for over 7 million pounds.

But who needs the painting anyway? For less than $50 you can score a Daydream Nation poster for your wall and the soundtrack to go with it. You’ll find it still sounds pretty relevant.

From the hard to make out lyrics (“They called the clip a two-headed cow / Your hate clipped and distant, your luck, pilgrimage,”) through to the murky, unattractive cover art – nothing is made too easy on R.E.M.’s debut album.

R.E.M. were clearly not interested in perfection but rather the interesting tensions that came from ambiguity, originality and raw energy. The producer was to be Stephen Hague but the band successfully fought to have him fired after they found his obsession with technical perfection stifling.

When Murmur was released, it was praised by critics as an instant classic and reinforced Athens as one of the most exciting music scenes in the country. Only the fifth largest city in Georgia, Athens was a student town experiencing a creative explosion. As Josh Jackson writes in Paste Magazine, while “Athens wasn’t a one-horse town, neither was it Greenwich Village or San Francisco…But there’s something about a college town nestled in some small corner of rural America that ignites creativity in kids who grow up in towns like Macon, Ga., or Collinsville, Ill., and discover that there actually are others out there who share their passion for music, film or art.”

“Other college towns… would eventually get their moment. But in 1983, the spotlight was on Athens, thanks to R.E.M.’s full-length debut, Murmur.” Bands to have come out of Athens include the B-52’s, Indigo Girls, The Whigs and Drive-By Truckers.

Murmer’s cover art is a grainy tribute to the Southern landscape – one that is slowly being swallowed by kudzu, the agricultural nuisance you see on the cover. Imported from Japan, kudzu was originally considered exotic until it took on the qualities of an indestructible weed.

On the back cover of the record, we see a sepia-toned photo of a disused trestle, which was once part of the Georgia Railroad line into downtown Athens.

Before long, it was referred to as the “Murmur Trestle” by proud locals and, much like other landmark covers we discussed recently, became a point of pilgrimage for loyal fans.

In 2000 moves were made demolish it. But after a public outcry, which stressed not only the trestle’s importance in pop culture but also heritage value, the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission voted to save the trestle in October 2000.

If R.E.M.’s portrait of its hometown is far from flattering, depicting a milieu riddled with overgrowth and crumbling infrastructure, it also originated the band’s policy of avoiding their own portraits on sleeves. As Pitchfork notes, the “group pointedly didn’t appear on its album covers or inner sleeves; instead, R.E.M. remained confident that a kudzu-covered ravine or a folk-art painting could speak more strongly about their music than their own presence ever could.”

Murmur was considered a commercial disappointment upon release and to date has only been certified gold (500,000 units). At the same time, it was named by Rolling Stone as the Best Album of 1983, pulling ahead of competition that included Thriller and U2’s War.

In 1996 R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported $80 million in one of the biggest recording deals ever. In 2007 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Starting out small and exotic worked for the band, whose eventual dominance proved as irresistible as the kudzu claiming their homeland.

It’s always good to see the designers behind classic album covers getting critical and commercial recognition. And few designers could boast of a career as celebrated and prolific as Storm Thorgerson.

Taken By Storm: The Album Art of Storm Thorgerson was published by Vision On in 2007. It’s a selection of some of his best work from the past 30 years. The book also spawned a traveling exhibition of the same name.

Sleeve lovers in Brisbane can still catch Taken by Storm, which is showing at Artisan Gallery until August 1.

The same show toured to Sydney at the Global Gallery last December. For more information about this legend of cover art, there’s a nice article in the Courier Mail and an interesting interview that featured in in Time Out Sydney from late last year.

In no particular order, we’re taking a look at the select few albums that are not only referred to as “landmarks” but have actually created new landmarks. For the passionate fans that love these albums, the places depicted on these sleeves have become sites of pilgrimage.

Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique

Music journalist Dan LeRoy’s description of the making of Paul’s Boutique is an amazing read. In summary, the boys pocket a big payday from Capitol Records before decamping to various LA hotel rooms, which they proceed to trash and terrorise. Songwriting is aided by copious amounts of booze and an endless supply of grass. When concerned record executives arrive in LA, they are subjected to juvenile and hilarious pranks. By all appearances it would seem that they simply don’t give a fuck.

It sounds fantastic. By the time they’ve rented an antique-filled Hollywood mansion to record and party in, you’re convinced you know the story. The story where young geniuses get blinded by the fame, cash and drugs and ruin it all by releasing a self-indulgent piece of shit. And that is the exact narrative – except for the part where they release a self-indulgent masterpiece. Paul’s Boutique transformed the Beastie Boys from hip hop’s enfant terribles, dismissed by many as one-hit “frat hip hop” wonders, into respected artists.

The enduring success of Paul’s Boutique is evidenced by the impact of its record cover. The album title is taken from the very short Track 14, Ask for Janice:

…the best in men’s clothing. Call Paul’s Boutique and ask for Janice and the number is (718) 498-1043. That’s Paul’s Boutique and they’re in Brooklyn.

If there ever was a Paul’s Boutique in Brooklyn, there wasn’t by the time the record was recorded. The corner we see on the cover is in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, on the intersection of Rivington and Ludlow Streets. The shop is Lee’s Sportswear but the Beastie Boys attached the sign for Paul’s Boutique on the side for the shoot.

It’s not clear what drove them to celebrate this particular intersection but the cover folds out to reveal a very cool 360 degrees panorama of the area.

As the album became more popular, the corner started to attract tourists who took snaps of themselves in front of “Paul’s Boutique”. The online Beastie Museum has a fascinating page dedicated to the evolution of the neighbourhood.

A small eatery was eventually opened where Lee’s Sportswear used to be and, until early 2007, it was called Paul’s Boutique in honour of the album (it has since been renamed Three Monkeys).

The Beatles: Abbey Road

The most famous example of this genre must be Abbey Road by The Beatles.

The album was originally going to be called Everest and there were ambitious plans for a shoot in the Himalayas. In the end, they named the album Abbey Road after the studios where they recorded much of their music. Photographer Iain MacMillan was allowed all of 10 minutes to capture the Fab Four walking across the zebra crossing. Today the crossing is a major tourist destination and it’s fun to check out the 24 hour webcam, which at the right time of day captures keen fans trying to recreate the cover.

Madness: Absolutely

A ska band from the 80′s, Madness shares with UB40 the record for the most weeks spent in the UK singles charts during the 80′s (214). This album peaked at #2 on the charts and was awarded 1 star by The Rolling Stones. You might remember the album’s breakout hit “Baggy Trousers”. Or not. So why was this location included in a recent London map for rock fans as a historic location to visit? For the same reason that the band continues to tour today with pretty much it’s original lineup, despite not charting since the eighties. Some bands attract the kind of loyal, die-hard fans that more successful or critically acclaimed musicians can only dream of.

Oasis: What’s the Story (Morning Glory)

In transforming a London street into a rock landmark, Oasis once again mirrored the success of The Beatles. Berwick Street is a vibrant location that features an open air market and old record shop, along with some sex shops.

To date What’s the Story (Morning Glory) is Britain’s fourth biggests selling album of all time.

Pink Floyd: Animals

The dramatic industrial setting for Pink Floyd’s The Animals is the Battersea Power Station, a now unused coal-fired power station located on the River Thames.

It’s an amazing building that has achieved worldwide fame largely due to this memorable sleeve. This was before Photoshop, so the inflatable pig in the sky was actually created for the shoot and tied to one of the giant chimneys. Believe it or not, the pig broke free, surprising pilots on the way to Heathrow, who were greeted by the sight of a giant, pink pig flying through the air. Police helicopters had to track it until it eventually landed safely in Kent.

The cover has been extremely influential and the Battersea Power Station subsequently used as a location by other artists including Morrissey, Tori Amos and Hanson.

DJ Shadow: Endtroducing

Something about this sleeve always reminds me of Paul’s Boutique – I’m not sure why. Either which way, both records are important contributions to the art of sampling. We’ve discussed this cover before but it’s interesting as an example of an indoor landmark.

The cover shows Chief Xcel and Lyrics Born in Records, an aptly named record store at 710 K Street in Sacramento, California. In December 2006, it relocated to the former Tower Records location at the corner of Broadway and South Land Park Drive. It’s DJ Shadow’s favourite record store and is equally as famous for being one of the last shops where the mountain of records still dwarf the CD selection. One more piece of trivia – the logo for Records was designed by Robert Crumb.

U2: The Joshua Tree

Famed photographer Anton Corbijn was responsible for the 1986 shoot featuring U2 in California’s Death Valley.  He said of the shoot: “It was taken with a panoramic camera to take more of the landscapes in which was the main idea of the shoot: man and environment, the Irish in America.”

It’s  testament to both the achievement of the band and the dedication of the fans that this forbidding, desert landscape still attracts visitors inspired by the album.

The actual tree from the  cover died more than seven years ago. I could go on about this very interesting cover but instead I recommend you take a few minutes to read the description of “The Search For u2′s Joshua Tree” by Tom Goller.

Eagles: Hotel California

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here

Here’s an interesting fact: Time Magazine still maintains that the Eagle’s Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) compilation has outsold Thriller and is actually the biggest selling album of all time. Whatever the case, there’s no doubt that the Eagles’ sold records like they were made from crack. Hotel California has moved 16 million copies in the US alone.

For the cover of this album Don Henley wanted to convey: “Faded loss of innocence and decadence. I was trying to use California as the microcosm for the rest of the nation.”  The building they used as the Hotel California is The Beverly Hills Hotel, which is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. A luxurious grand dame, since opening in 1912 it’s welcomed everyone from Fred Astaire to the Clintons to Courtney Love.

The evocative photography is by David Alexander and while the cover looks quite straightforward, it actually cost US $60,000 to produce – a fortune by 70′s standards. This was due to the difficulty of getting over the palm trees and shooting the hotel with the sun behind it, a feat that necessitated a cherry picker and some degree of derring-do.

You could say that this fine hotel was already a monument or icon before the Eagles snapped it. But given the sheer beauty with which they mythologise and recontextualise the building, it’s hard to believe that any one of the Eagles’ multitude of fans could view this building as anything other than the Hotel California.

Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti

These two 5-story buildings can still be found today at 96 and 98 St Marks Place in New York. However, they look a little different in the flesh – in order to fit the buildings on the cover, they cropped and altered the photo to make it a 4-story building. The cover features die-cut windows on the building, so that, according to Wikipedia, “when the middle cover is wrapped around the inner covers and slid into the outer cover, the title of the album is shown on the front cover, spelling out the name “Physical Graffiti”.” Amazing concept, design and execution from Mike Doud, one of the true legends of sleeve design who’s work we’ve discussed before.

Much like the Battersea Power Station, the building was used again by other iconic artists, in this case The Rolling Stones. The video for Waiting on a Friend features Keith Richards and Mick Jagger hanging out the front.

As a popular tourist spot, the building also echoes the story Paul’s Boutique. On the first floor of 98 St. Mark’s Place you’ll find the Physical Graffiti thrift boutique store.

Bob Dylan: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

This is Dylan’s second album and it features the classic Blowin’ in the Wind (the man was averse to “g’s” at the time). Much like The Beatles just walked outside of their studio in Abbey Road and the Beasties simply picked a corner from a nearby neighbourhood, the location for this charming cover was seemingly determined by proximity. It was taken on the corner of Jones Street and West 4th street in Greenwich Village, only a few metres from where Dylan lived. The photo, taken by CBS photographer Don Hunstein, shows Dylan contentedly walking with girlfriend Suze Rotolo, the two of them huddling for warmth and sharing a private joke. Young, in love and extraordinarily talented, Dylan has every reason to be freewheelin’. Without the weight of his musical talent, it could be dismissed as a twee happy snap devoid of creativity. As it is, the cover is a much imitated icon.

Today, Jones Street is described as a tranquil one-block haven that feels a little like a cul-de-sac because it hits the mid block of both of its intersecting streets. I wonder if the 22 year old Dylan had any idea that one day this tranquility would be regulalry punctuated by tourists seeking to commemorate and pay tribute to his achievments.

 Well, that’s our ten

We also recommend you check out the fantastic Album Covers Map by World Magazine which, with the help of contributing readers, shows where iconic album cover photographs were taken.

And please let us know which covers and landmarks we missed.

True Blue was released in 1986 and to this day remains the best-selling Madonna album. I remember my older sister buying it and listening to it constantly. Shortly afterwards she got into The Smiths and informed me that Madonna “was shit”. True Blue spawned a bundle of top-ten hits and boasted the pop star’s first famous reinvention, from lace-covered “boy-toy” to a platinum blonde, toned man-eater. Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine called it “the supreme archetype for late ’80s and early ’90s pop music” and said that with this album “Madonna made the transition from pop tart to consummate artist, joining the ranks of ’80s icons like Michael Jackson and Prince.”

Of course, Madonna never had the musical talent to rival her 80’s contemporaries Michael Jackson and Prince. Her gift is in picking the right producer and tune for the moment and repackaging herself to suit the times. As Joni Mitchell would snarkily have it, she’s “hit talent out of the ballpark. She’s become the most famous person in the world by hiring the right people.”

One of those people was the late Herb Ritts, the photographer behind this cover. He began his career in the late 70’s and would eventually become the leading celebrity and fashion photographer of his time.

Ritts’ work became short code for high gloss, commercial photography. In the advertising industry there was a joke that lazy or desperate art directors would say: “I’ve got an idea, Herb Ritts!”, when they couldn’t come up with anything original. He was also an accomplished fine arts photographer and when his work was displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1997, more than 250,000 attended the show.

As is so often the case with Madonna, she managed to spot him on the way up.

“I met Madonna in ’83 or ’84, when I was commissioned to do an ad for a movie called Desperately Seeking Susan” he recalled. “I remember that day. I was in New York City in an old factory loft with lots of windows. She arrived early and marched into the studio with all her “boy-toy” belts and black lace, very definite. She opened a cigar box with all of her jewelry, mainly little silver crosses. She said, “I’ve seen all your work in Lei magazine. You’re good.” She knew who I was, though I’d only been shooting for a couple of years.”

The True Blue cover is the most recognizable and sensual picture he took of her. The cassette tape and poster version is even sexier.

It’s a perfect example of what a post-modern operator she is – the hair Monroe’s, the jacket James Dean’s, the eyebrows Frida Kahlo’s. The images from the shoot are also a reminder that at her career zenith she was just, well, incredibly rootable.

Yet as Nathan Rabin – for my money the best writer on the web – points out in the AV Club, “there’s nothing particularly natural about Madonna’s sex appeal. It’s largely a matter of attitude and lighting, iconography and shrewd calculation, exhibitionism, and a finely honed gift for provocation. It’s telling that many of Madonna’s most fruitful artistic collaborations are with photographers and music video directors. Depending on the angle and the outfit, Madonna can look like Marilyn Monroe reborn or the boogeyman’s grandma.”

On this cover she gets the angle and the outfit just right.

Postscript:  One of our readers crack_ho pointed us in the direction of a fascinating interview with Jeri Heiden, the Art Director who worked on a number of Madonna covers including Like a Virgin, True Blue and Like a Prayer. Well worth checking out.

Seminal British band The Stone Roses released their self titled debut album in 1989. The cover features artwork by band member John Squire, who was largely responsible for the band’s visual identity.

Squire is an accomplished visual artist who at the time was heavily influenced by Jackson Pollock.

The painting featured on the cover of The Stone Roses is titled Bye Bye Badman, as is one of the songs on the record. Both the song and the painting are about the May 1968 riots in Paris, which explains why the tri-colours of the French flag are featured on the cover.

“Ian (songwriting partner Ian Brown) had met this French man when he was hitching around Europe, this bloke had been in the riots, and he told Ian how lemons had been used as an antidote to tear gas” Squire told Q magazine. “Then there was the documentary – a great shot at the start of a guy throwing stones at the police. I really liked his attitude.”

The riots were the largest general strike to stop an advanced industrial country and it’s amazing how quickly their impact have faded from the public consciousness. Less than 50 years after revolutionaries overthrew the monarchy in Russia, students and workers looked for a moment as though they might overthrow the de Gaulle government. It was a revolt against the modern consumer society, with a utopian left-wing fervour that was as critical of Stalin as it was of capitalism.

It’s hard to imagine such a popular wave of discontent and civil disobedience today, which is probably why The Stone Roses sought to evoke the fury and defiance of that fleeting period. The rioters were not louts or thugs, rather Parisian students that found a poetry amid the aggression. As they ripped up paving stones to throw at police, they saw sand underneath, giving birth to a memorable chant that translates as: “Under The Paving Stones – The Beach”. You’ve got to hand it to French people.

The song Bye Bye Badman features incendiary lyrics.

I’m gonna make you bleed
Gonna bring you down to your knees
Bye bye badman
Ooh bye bye

Choke me smoke the air
In this citrus sucking sunshine
I don’t care you’re not all there

Ian Brown explained: “Imagine a protester singing in a policeman’s face during the Paris riots. Then you’ll get some idea what it’s about.” I really like the final verse.

I’ve got bad intention
I intend to knock you down
These stones I throw
Oh these French kisses
Are the only way I’ve found

It’s amazing how finding out the story and inspiration behind any piece of art or design can suddenly make you love it. When I first saw this I just assumed it was a playful and kind of unattractive pastiche – some lemons casually chucked on a post-modern artwork. Now I can see the way that Squire has once again found some poetry in the chaos and anger. “Under The Paving Stones – The Beach”.

This record cover from 1981 is a homage to Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (“The Lunch on the Grass”).

The large scale oil on canvas painting by Edouard Manet was finished in 1863 and caused instant controversy, due to the scandalous combination of a naked women next to two fully dressed men. Their casual, relaxed demeanor underscores the pervading sense of weirdness the canvas exudes – particularly for its era. While today it looks like a relatively tame juxtaposition, at the time it was a provocation to say the least. Of course, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe can now be found in the venerable Musée d’Orsay in Paris and is an important part of any syllabus discussing the modern art period.

Bow Wow Wow, meanwhile, are now little more than a footnote of the 1980’s New Wave movement. They were founded by Malcolm McLaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols and New York Dolls, to promote the New Romantic fashion lines he released with partner Vivienne Westwood. McLaren must be one of the great post-modern operators of the last fifty years, an artist and promoter that combined aggressive opportunism with a sharp eye for the next big thing. To put together this band he stole most of the lineup from Adam Ant and then auditioned vocalists to join as the lead singer. After many fruitless months he eventually discovered his vocalist in 14 year old Annabella Lwin, who was working behind the counter at a dry-cleaning shop. The band would go on to create an eccentric and noisy combination of 80’s pop and world music and today they are most remembered for their amazing cover version of “I Want Candy”.

Note Lwin’s nudity in the single cover above, because it was McLaren’s enthusiasm for showing his lead singer in the buff that would land the band in trouble. She was only 15 years old when the photography for the cover of See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy. was taken. Her outraged mother cried exploitation and involved Scotland Yard in an attempt to keep her daughter from leaving the country with McLaren. After all, who would let their underage child be sexualised just to sell records?

McLaren’s powers of persuasion resulted in a compromise, with Lwin able to remain in the band on the condition that she was not marketed as a “sex kitten”. An alternate cover was issued in the US and UK (while the offending cover art was still released in many major European markets).

Bow Wow Wow would attract further controversy for “referencing” African music a little too closely – with many suggesting that it came closer to plagiarism. And in more than one case you could accuse them of unoriginiality.

But the cover for See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy. is still considered a classic today. The composition and photography are beautiful and the performances and fashion perfectly update Manet’s iconic image. It also neatly encapsulates McLaren particular genius – in updating a once reviled but now canonised painting, he succeeds in refreshing its controversy. The viewer is again shocked at the woman’s presence in the picture, only this time because of her age.

Is it creepy? Brilliant? Both? Would it even raise eyebrows today?

Holy god. The first thing that I thought when I saw this cover was: “what a fearsome thoroughbred.”

Photographer Jean Paul Goude took this photo in 1978 for a New York Magazine profile of model Grace Jones. The article (and the accompanying photographs) would help to transform her into a pop singer and gay icon. When Island Life – the punnily-titled compilation of her biggest singles for Island Records – was released in 1986, this image was pulled out of the bottom draw and dusted off to create a classic album cover.

Some more background on the original image has emerged with the release (the puns continue) of So Far So Goude, by Jean-Paul Goude with Patrick Mouries. At the time of the photo Goude was Jones’ lover and she was his muse. Before they fell out, they furthered each other’s career in a way neither could have imagined.

“Initially, she was flattered by all of my attention,” says Goude. “And she’s no dope – Grace is an opportunist and she knew my vision was good for her career. Initially, she let herself be taken over, but then she suspected that I had only fallen in love with her image.”

If you’re wondering how Jones’ body can do this pose, the simple answer is that it can’t. Goude employs what is technically referred to as “visual trickery”. Here’s how it was done:

Here’s a picture of somebody else trying the pose:

Describing the concept, Goude says “…unless you are extraordinarily supple, you cannot do this arabesque” (the ballet pose in the picture). “The main point is that Grace couldn’t do it, and that’s the basis of my entire work: creating a credible illusion.”

Apart from this album cover the only thing I previously knew about Jones was that she was good friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 80’s. It kind of makes sense – they both look as if they have emerged from an alternate reality where infants are breastfed steroids and the puny are used as toothpicks. 25 years later he’s the conservative Governor of California while she’s still drunkenly touring the world and releasing albums with cover art like this (2008’s Hurricane):

I was told about this album from someone I had just met via email. I dropped into the conversation that I ran Sleevage and he mentioned this was his favourite album sleeve. I should add Sleevage to my email footer as crowd sourcing sleeves to post about is much easier than real research.
I was happy enough that the sleeve was constructed out of sandpaper as that seems both impractical and expensive. However to find out it was a Factory Records design and actually assembled by Ian Curtis of Joy Division (who needed the extra cash) while the rest of the band watched porn in the same room. (source) made the sleeve even more interesting. Even if this last story is untrue it shows that an album with a story is much more interesting that one without.

Here’s the back cover which is also devoid of information.

FACT 14 refers to the Factory records number system which you can read about here. There were two FACT 14s the other being Martin Hannett’s “Testcard”.

The first edition on sandpaper was limited 2000. The sandpaper sleeve comes in various editions: Some with spray-painted FACT 14 in black or in white, some without spray-paint. This makes for a very rare collectors item. Sadly The Durutti Column isn’t as “cult” as Joy Division so don’t expect to pay off the mortgage with it.

If you were to buy the album from Amazon now sadly this is what you’ll get. An ugly interpretation of the sandpaper.

The official TDC site has this on the album’s page. I’m not sure if this is a photo of a limited edition re-packaging or the album itself was a photo. Anyone know for certain?

The credit for designer was hard to track down. Each site I went to credited different people. Discogs has Steve Horsfall, while Wikipedia has Peter Saville and Tony Wilson and the official The Durutti Column site has the designers as Dave Rowbotham and Anthony Wilson credited with the sandpaper sleeve concept.

So Peter if you’re reading this please set the records straight. For now I won’t credit anyone individually until I hear otherwise.

The one thing we do know for certain is that the cover was inspired by the 1959 bookMémoires by Guy Debord a Marxist theorist, French writer, filmmaker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International. Cover is below.

With a Wikipedia entry like that you can imagine what kind of dinner conversation Guy would have had. You don’t see ideas like hypergraphist or Psychogeography being theorised any more. I understand these concepts properly you could say Tomato’s work fits into this nicely. Especially projects like mmm… Skyscraper I Love You.

Compare this to a double page spread from Mémoires.

While I like to think my music knowledge as expansive, I’d be lying if I said I knew of The Durutti Column before this. It seems I say the same thing for almost every album that get reviewed here :) I’ve sampled some tunes on the official Myspace page and a fan page and it’s nothing like I expected. It’s quite chilled. I’m not sure if this is the same sound as they had 30 years ago though.

What I love about the cover and the idea behind the original Memoires is that the sleeve would leave it’s mark and potentially ruin other albums it sits next to. Like Stick Fingers, with the zipper that ruined the record, these impractical design solutions were created back in a period where experimentation in music and design for music was encouraged instead of feared.

Final Useless Fact: The Durruti Column was the most famous column of anarchist fighters during the Spanish Civil War. The band intentionally spelt it incorrectly.

Thanks Jon for the info on the sleeve.

The simplicity and humor of this albums cover reminds me of XTC’s Ten Feet Tall. The brief must have come in with the album name and then it would have been “You know what let’s whack a sandwhich on the cover” then they went out and got wasted.

It was extremely hard to find good imagery for this album. The one used here is from this person’s Flickr and the back I’ve grabbed from here along with all the info on the designer and photographer.

After researching Peter Wagg’s other works I found out he also did art direction on Koo Koo which I didn’t know before.

The photographer Trevor Key also worked on many Chrysalis Records covers as well and also a few New Order covers, such as True Faith, Fine Time & Round & Round for Factory Records.

Robin Trower is still alive and kicking and just finished a US tour. And had this message for Aussie fans “For all the Australian Fans who have been emailing, I am sorry to report that although we have investigted the possibiity of a tour down under, the expenses vastly outweigh the possible income.” It’s about the music man not the money :)

Of other two musicisns featured on the cover Bill Lordan has a myspace page as his domain name expired, while Jack Bruce was smart enough to snap up his own URL.

It would have been awesome to have the back of the sandwhich on the back of the sleeve but they went with a different photo. Still it’s an interesting cover and makes you feel kind of hungry.

Rocking Tunes: Check
Kicking type treatment: Check
Iconic Characters: Check
Merchandise coming out of their asses: Check
Band members not dead: Check
Business Savvy: Check

No, it’s not KISS it’s Iron Maiden. Up the Irons!

You have to hand it to Iron Maiden and their dedication to their mascot Eddie. He’s gotta be second to McDonald’s Ronald McDonald in terms of mascot power and if they met in the Thunderdome you know the ginger clown wouldn’t be coming out.

With their 2008 tour coming to a close, a new DVD and best of album out there is no better time to do an Iron Maiden feature.

I want to preface this feature to say I’m not a major Iron Maiden fan. In fact, if a gang of fans surrounded me and told me to whistle a Maiden tune I’d be screwed. Chalk this up to my age and the fact I was a Sepultura fan during my metal days of the 90′s. I have however had this feature ordained by the two official metal fans in the office.

I was initially going to feature all the covers of Iron Maiden and showcase Eddie’s 27+ year career. Little did I know that there is almost a hundred covers and thousands of pieces of merchandise sporting his face. So I’ve taken the easy way out and just focused on the studio albums. Well I added the few extra ones the band features on their official website too.

The majority of Iron Maidens artwork from 1980 were created by Derek Riggs. He’s just released a book titled “Run for Cover the art of Derek Riggs” which not only has hundreds of full page illustrations but sketches and back story to each cover. Including info about deadlines, egos, falling out and other juicy bits. I’m still getting through it. So rather than rewrite all of this I encourage any fan to pick up a copy.

One interesting point Derek makes is that albums could have up to 15 different pieces of artwork covering posters, mag covers, tickets, singles and what not. It was this mass saturation he attributed to the success of the albums and pity’s those bands that tried to do the same with just one piece of art.

The album cover also becomes part of the stage show for the band. Whether it be props or costumes the members where. They really put their all into an albums concept. No live show would be complete without an entrance from Eddie.

Other artists such as Melvyn Grant, Tim Bradstreet, David Patchett, Mark Wilkinson and Hugh Syme have contributed to Iron Maidens covers, although only Derek can lay claim to creating Ed the Head.

I’d also like to point out that the Iron Maiden logo has stayed the same throughout the years and is just as iconic as Eddie. Other bands have optimised and adapted theirs with times but Iron Maiden’s has remained true to it’s original form.

Ok down to the albums + other odds and ends.

Note: I did this kind of feature before with Cannibal Corpse. Which is still one of the most popular posts on the blog. I’m not rating these covers on their “design athetics” I’m rating them on their importance to the band and genre. Some bands create well designed covers but few create iconic images. In an industry where touring and merchandise are so important it helps to have a style that can easily be translated across all mediums and will be lapped up by fans.

Note2: Many of the covers I found were of bad quality. If you have a better version of any of these albums in a 500px or wider format please contact us.

Iron Maiden
1980

The first Iron Maiden cover. Although this wasn’t the first commissioned piece by Derek Riggs. The first piece produced for the band was this one for Running Free.

In 1998 the album was remastered as was the cover art. A bit of botox and polish for Eddie.

Killers
1981

The Number Of The Beast
1981

Piece Of Mind
1983

This cover not only generated a cool looking desk toy but also many spoofs.

Powerslave
1984

I also found this Sponge Bob mashup. I love these!

Live After Death
1985

This was the tour that was filmed for the recent Live After Death DVD.

Somewhere in Time
1986

Here’s a look at the full wrap around cover. Many of their albums featured full covers like this but it’s hard to track down good scans.

For an in depth look into the hidden messages of this cover check this article here. Obsessive fan alert!! :)

This cover has also been made into an action figure. Anyone with some better photos of this please let us know.

I also found this funny mashup with Christina Aguilera.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
1988

No Prayer For The Dying
1990

This was the original 1990 cover. The 1998 remastered version was sans old dude, which I feel works better. The old dude was a little too comical and the cover has more impact without him.

The plaque on the tombstone also has the inscription “After the Daylight, The Night of Pain, That is not Dead, Which Can Rise Again”. Deep man…

Fear of the Dark
1992

This is the first Iron Maiden cover not to feature the artwork of Derek Riggs. It’s also the only cover to feature the bands name on it’s side. The cover was painted by Melvyn Grant, the second most popular Iron Maiden artist. Determined by the number of covers painted, not a recent show of hands in the bands green room.

Wikipedia says that three artists were commissioned to design a cover and this was chosen but according to Derek Riggs in his book the band pretty much shafted the artist after changing their mind twice (“we want a warewolf Eddie, no make that a vampire Eddie”) and he eventually gave up and said to get someone else to do it.

A Real Live Dead One
1998

This was originally released as 2 albums – ‘A Real Live One’ and ‘A Real Dead One’. A quick tweak to the cover and you got yourself another CD pulling in the dosh. Sneaky.

Live At Donington
1993

WTF an Iron Maiden cover without Eddie? It was originally only released as a limited edition triple vinyl set, but became a regular part of the band’s CD catalogue with the 1998 reissues.

Below is the 1998 re-released version which featured a cover created from an original tour poster by Mark Wilkinson.

I really like the stamp treatment the logo received on this album. But I guess it’s not classic Maiden and less iconic.

You’ll notice a lot of albums were re-released in 1998. I’m not sure what happened in 1998 but the guys must have made a packet that year or EMI decided to call in their loans. 1999 saw the return of Bruce Dickinson so you’d hope he saw a piece of this action.

X Factor
1995

This was the first non painted cover for Iron Maiden. This time Eddie was created as a diorama by Hugh Syme. It was the first, and only, time the band faced censorship over their cover and had to release the alternate version below in some areas. This was just the artwork used on the back of the original album.

Compared to the Cannibal Corpse stuff this is tame.

Luckily this is the bands tenth album. Because their description on Wikipedia on how they came up with the album name (and the name itself) is lame.

According to producer Nigel Green:

“We all felt that the way things were progressing – the songs, Blaze’s new involvement, the sound, the commitment – the new album really would have that extra quality, that bit of magic, that X Factor. This became the working title for the album and we liked it…”

This sounds about right coming from a man named Nigel Green.

Best of the Beast
1996

This is poster fodder. No wonder Derek Riggs explains that Iron Maiden had the top 3 selling posters, when posters were big. It’s like a high school reunion for burn victims.

Virtual XI
1998

This is the one cover I can’t seem to track down who created it. Any help from fans?

One note about the album’s cover is that 1998 is way to late in the game to be using the word “virtual”. It’s about as cool as these two guys with their VR helmets.

Or this couple playing that VR game of 1995.

Anyway it seems this album wasn’t their best one and they regrouped with Bruce for the next one.

Ed Hunter
1999

If you need any proof that the success of Iron Maiden and Ed had gone too far, then feast your eyes on Ed Hunter. This was a on rails first person shooter game and album in one.

You may think that this was 9 years ago and games then weren’t that good but Quake was released 3 years earlier! So just like with the use of the word “Virtual” the band should been slapped and told to stop trying to be cool.

Brave New World
2000

Here we see the return of Derek Riggs, well almost, he painted the face in the sky and then they added the 3D world under it. This was his last new artwork to grace an Iron Maiden cover. The story of this cover is similar to the previous one. I think Derek just stopped answering their calls.

The album was originally to be called Wicker Man but this eventually become the name of the first single off the album. While I haven’t shown any other singles in this feature I have to point of this one. It covers both one of my fav pieces and one of the worst.

First up is one of my favs the limited edition cover by Mark Wilkinson.

Mark has even gone through his process on his site with a tutorial on this piece which details his process and the bands.

Even his initial sketch is great.

His final piece in it’s full glory.

And what did the band use as the official single cover? It must be great to top the other two pieces?!

Yep this photo of Bruce waving his big flaming dick around with a mopey look on his face.

I can forgive the 3D world, the crappy PC game and even the use of the world “virtual” but any hard core Iron Maiden fan must have felt sharp stabbing pains in their eye when they saw this. Sadly it wasn’t the last time the band felt they could give Eddie a break.

Here’s one of the rejected artworks from Derek Riggs (the other two are in his book). You can see they ended up just using the Eddie head in the sky above the awful 3D city. This futuristic city might have been cool in a 1960′s kids book but for an album in 2000 it’s just try hard.

Dance of Death
2002

Someone fell asleep on the approval train when this one went through. The artist David Patchett asked for his named not to be credited as the band had decided to use a prototype image as the final image. While there is little talk about the Wicker Man single this cover caused a huge stir when it was initially shown online. Fan’s thought it was a joke and rightly so. Maiden-World.com has gone through and found all the mistakes in the cover for you. Let’s move on quickly.

BBC Archives
2002

I can’t find any official credit info for this album. It feels like a Derek Rigg’s piece though.

Eddies Archives
2002

You’d have to be allergic to metal to not want to get your hands on this box set. This almost makes up for the lack luster covers of the past few albums.

They are going for around $200 USD on Amazon these days. More info on what’s inside here on Wikipedia.

Best Of The B-Sides
2004

Another Mark Wilkinson piece. This one with a sense of humor. “Up the Irons” is a Iron Maiden catch phrase.

A Matter Of Life And Death
2006

This seems like a return to form for not just the band in terms of success but also in cover art. Painted by Tim Bradstreet its the first time the band has tried to be timely with their imagery (this time war) and not look try hard. Tim is best known for his work ont he Marvel comic Punisher among others.

Somewhere Back In Time: The Best of: 1980 – 1989
2008

Ok it’s another “best of” complication but this shows you the progression of Eddie. The level of detail has increased significantly.

The album cover features the Pharaoh Eddie monument from Powerslave and Cyborg Eddie from Somewhere in Time. In addition, the Iron Maiden logo is colored blue with a gold outline – the same colours used on the cover of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

I pity any person who is trying to collect all the Eddie merchandise they can. Give up now. A quick check of Google Images will show you the scale of which Eddie has become an icon. Oh an Eddie tattoo would be cool though…. mmmm.

There is so much more Eddie stuff to show but I’ll leave it up to you to seek them out. These even include the Iron Maiden private plane Ed Force One. I’m not kidding.

You can download the Iron Maiden font Metal Lord here. Sweet!

Everything looks cool when set in Metal Lord.

P.S. Derek’s personal site seems to be down now.

No one belongs together in unholy 80′s union more than Duran Duran and Patrick Nagel. One look at a Nagel print I think of Andrew McCarthy knocking back a Chi Chi after a solid game of Frogger wondering whether to go with the white denim or white sports jacket with the pastel polo…or maybe the pink tee?…

Patrick Nagel designed the cover to Duran Duran‘s American top ten (Australian #1) album RIO in his innovative trademark fashion – commonly described as a distinctive mix of art-deco and Japanese style woodblock.“The Nagel Woman” became something of a phenomenon in the 1980′s, primarily from Nagel’s work being regularly featured in Playboy magazine and patronage by film studios, fashion/music magazines and corporate clients like IBM.

Nagel’s process is one of creating more with less. He is often said to have started with a line drawing of a photograph then taken out elements he found unnecessary (Nagel figures often lack detailed digits and extremities) then adding large blocks of matte pastel and cropping the frame at a slightly skewed angle.

An alternate Nagel cover for a 2001 re-issue.

Nagel was something of a contemporary art phenomenon in the 80′s – if you grew up in this era chances are you came across his art, or a derivative of it, without even knowing it. The squared eyes, pinks, puces, mauves (I swear to God he never used a primary colour – apparently Nagel used more Paynes grey than any other painter – for an excellent recollection of Nagel’s practices head over to The Art History Archive) off the shoulder poses, Brigitte Nielsen haircuts – it’s all Nagel.

If you want something to look like the 80′s, chances are you’ll borrow from Nagel – those of you who are familiar with the GTA Vice City artwork (you’re reading a blog about album covers, you’re probably supposed to be working, I’m sure you’ve never played a computer game) will notice Stephen Bliss’s homage in the awesome cover/booklet art from the game.

In a tragic, but morbidly humorous turn, Nagel (who apparently enjoyed his fair share of booze, cigs and fast food and hated exercise) suffered a fatal heart attack after a celebrity ‘aerobathon’. Thankfully he didn’t associate with the type of folks who might prop him up with sunglasses and run around pretending he was still alive, slamming his nuts into poles and pushing him from speedboats.

So who better to pair up with the 80′s biggest coke/glam mullet-fringe titans than the Toulouse Latrec of the skinny ties? Even Russel Mulchahy pulled a few Nagel moves in the video for Rio (pre – Highlander).

For those of you who really want to live like ’80′s guy’ – here is what I believe to be a reliable Chi Chi recipe – now go and conquer wall street.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup ice
2 oz vodka
1/2 oz blue curaçao
1/2 oz cream of coconut
1/2 cup fresh or canned pineapple
scoop of vanilla ice cream
chunk of pineapple for garnish
PREPARATION:
Pour all ingredients into a blender.
Blend until smooth.
Pour into a chilled margarita or highball glass.
Garnish with the pineapple.
If the mix turns out too thick add juice; too thin add ice or ice cream.

The artwork was also used for the single cover of “Hungry Like The Wolf”

Here’s a recent 2007 interview with Malcolm.

Design of the sleeve was done by Malcom Garrett of Assorted Images who also studied at the same school as Peter Saville.

I’ll leave you all with this Professor Farnsworth mashup.