O.k. I know the two-tone burning Zeppelin image is the Zep equivalent of the Stones’ tongue logo but when I think of Bonzo and co. album covers – I think of Richard Drews’ novelty rotating disc sleeve for Led Zeppelin III,

Peter Corristons‘ Physical Grafitti,

and 1973′s Houses of the Holy, designed by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson.

To be honest I’m not a huge fan personally of the art for Zeppelin 1 and 2. The fourth album was branded with the cool zep-occult symbols and gave us the straw carrier and the torch bearer but I find them a little too closely related to the billions of shithouse druid-loving fantasy art metal album covers that came after them. CODA has to be one of the worst album covers of all time (and not in a Millie Jackson way). Presence had some great photography accompanying the record (also by Storm Thorgerson) and may well be the classiest zep cover but for me, Houses of the Holy is direct, efficient (in a long-winded, fantasy-art way) and a great representation of a band turning from ye olde metal/folk blues into something more universal .

Like the band themselves (and I love Zeppelin) the ‘Houses of the Holy’ cover art is all grand ingredients; pompous, epic nonsense – juvenile fantasy – innocence/sexuality (see Blind Faith post for a more direct example of nudie kids in rock art history) conceptual mysticism, dynamic contrasts, big effects (for the time) and, ultimately, more depth than a concept that is potentially lacking ‘seriousness’ (again, like the band) might have achieved.

Thorgerson, Powell and (later) Peter Christopherson were the core of London-based Hipgnosis (not the polish electronica outfit), something of a popular choice for 70′s rockers, having also done Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Yes, Styx and other contemporary album covers.
Wikipedia claims Thorgerson was fired after getting on the wrong side of the band with an idea involving an electric green tennis court – but Aubrey Powell’s account implies the band simply opted for one of two ideas from the design team.

The design itself was inspired by an Arthur C. Clarke sci-fi story that contained a final act where loads of semi-formed human children run, like lemmings, off the edge of the earth (I always found the fact that no children are facing the camera a little ominous and this backstory makes them even creepier).

Powell explains the shooting conditions at Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland at superseventies.com

- “I shot the whole thing in black and white on a totally miserable morning pouring with rain.” Though the cover appears to be one wide-frame photograph, it is actually a collage of thirty different shots; only two children posed for the shoot. “Originally,” says Powell, “I’d intended the children to be gold and silver. Because I shot in black and white and it was a gray day, the children turned out very white. So when we hand-tinted it, the airbrush artist, by accident, put a kind of purple tinge onto them. When I first saw it, I said, ‘Oh, my God.’ Then we looked at it, and I said, ‘Hang on a minute — this has an otherworldly quality.’ So we left it as it was.”

It’s definitely a side effect of living in an age that plunders the past for modern ideas but the fact these images could still sit comfortably (apologies to anyone noting the cart before the horse) underneath a Wolfmother or Priestess logo gives creedence to clarity of the concepts and the contribution Powell/Thorgerson made to setting a standard for contemporary 20th century album art design.

Originally, the album was released with a thin paper cuff, featuring the bands name and album title, which covered the little phosphorous asses of the kids.
Unfortunately, just like 2 years earlier, the Spanish government went a bit pink in the cheeks and banned the album (apparently some southern states in the U.S. did the same) and the familiar image is now the one with Atlantics’ contribution to ‘functional’ design.

The almost hand-drawn, thin-lined, b&w font actually looks great with the photo, complementing the big chunks of colour and soft edges of images – but it’s in the wrong spot innit?

Zeppelin excelled the way a talented athlete does – by moving, running, jumping, sweating – and attacks on their contributions to ‘serious’ art/music are like chiding a football team for not knowing how to long divide without a calculator.
So to me, even tho’ some of Led Zeppelins’ artwork may seem a little hokey, including this one – Houses of the Holy remains the perfect banner for it’s team at the time. Confident, epic, menacing, naive and (sorry about the poor pun) cheeky…

I showed my lack of music knowledge (or is that age) when I posted Justice’s † album. Little did I know it was ‘inspired’ from another classic Hipgnosis cover, T.Rex’s Electric Warrior.

Looking at this cover it doesn’t feel like its 36 years old. It feels as fresh today as it must have been back in 1971. Well maybe the shoes give it away.

The powerful stance of Marc Bolan and his electric aura just makes you want to rock out with an air guitar.

The album was remastered in 2003 and contains extra tracks and studio photos.

This is probably your best bet if you need to track this classic album down.

Beck actually named this in his top 50 favorite album covers and I’ll have to agree with him there, it’s iconic and original. See the full list here.

What makes this cover for XTC’s Go 2 interesting is that it was from Hipgnosis, the same UK design group that brought us some of the most original and memorable covers for bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Black Sabbath.

Hipgnosis’s trademark story like imagery is replaced by copy poking fun at the art form that’s made them famous. It’s unlike any of their work before or after. I’d also say there was nothing like it at record shops back in 1978, this is same year Saturday Night Fever was released.

The back cover continued where the front left off.

Both the album and the cassette had slightly different text. Obviously due to the size limitations of the cassette.

As with all good ideas the temptation to copy them was too great for a few other designers. Hey, for an album released in 1978 who’s gonna know right? While the art direction may be different the idea is the same. The following all are interesting covers but I feel as XTC was the first it deserves the credit.

First up was Flipper’s Generic Flipper from 1982.
Here the execution was condensed down to just one word.

Public Image Ltd.’s 1986 Compact Disc gave people browsing the local record store no doubt what they were buying. With the Album, CD and cassette versions all displayed their literal name.

P.I.L were actually called out by Generic Flipper for ripping off their idea. See WIKI entry for more details.

The Designers Republic used a similar treatment in 1997 for the 2nd print of Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy.

And most recently Hard-Fi have been patting themselves on the back for “breaking the rules” for their 2007 Once Upon A Time in the West release. Read this article on NME if you need a dose of ego driven BS.

The Times have a better article regarding this found here.

And the same treatment for the single Suburban Knights.

There also the System of the Down’s 2002 ‘Steal This Album’, however I feel this is different enough (and inspired by book) to warrant it’s own feature and will post up soon.

Final Analysis:
While the more latter examples are bolder, XTC’s long form copy actually draws you in and compels you to pick it up and read it. (Well it would if it was still in print) I doubt many of you skipped over what was actually written on the cover and very few didn’t find it a refreshing read.

P.S: I wonder if Hipgnosis charged the same amount for this as their other more elaborate covers?