Rush's four consecutive albums and covers starting with A Farewell To Kings and ending with Moving Pictures really affected my listening experience as a young teen. The printed lyrics, member pic's, and conceptual theme of each album was an intellectual treat. Great period for that band.
This was two of our premiere rock critics exchanging insightful banter and analysis without the pretension, feigned intellect, and arrogance of music magazines who shall remain nameless (Rolling Stone). Thanks. Block the Joe Joes of the world. It only detracts from your project - making SoT the best.
I love the cover art for the Genesis album Trick Of The Tail. The characters depicted link directly to the songs themselves and while the album is not a conceptual as such, the way they interact on the cover gives the album a sense of cohesion. The music is of course absolutely brilliant.
I do agree completely, and not forgetting the inner sleeve, where cleverly the song characters reflect a different aspect of the song. I alway felt W&W could have been as great a cover if they had made it gatefold, the songs give the art huge potential.
Not nuts about the post-PG music, but I think this was the best of all the post Lamb stuff and I agree on the cover art, almost like the Phiz illustrations from Dickens. What annoyed me greatly was I had an inner sleeve of plain paper and I only discovered later from looking at a friend's copy that the inner sleeve should have illustrated as well.
@@stevewhiteside4525 If you still listen to vinyl, you might be able to pick up a second hand copy in acceptable condition. The other thing I like about it is the sort of sepia colours and the lyrics writing. It might even be a favourite cover for me.
David Lee Roth - Eat em and Smile to me is such a perfect hair metal album cover. So completely over the top, weird, silly and absolutely matches the party vibe music contained within.
Adding so much to the music was also Genesis “Lamb”. Not only did you have all the images you look at during the songs but as the album progressed you could read along with the story. Definitely enhanced the overall listening experience! And a definite departure from all their previous albums look.
I still remember seeing a kid's "Destroyer" t-shirt in the 3rd grade. I asked him about it, thinking it was a comic book. He told me it was a music group, which blew my little mind, cuz they didn't look like anything my parents listened to on Hee-Haw. Now I'd heard of Kiss but only slightly and I just knew that they were "hard rock," which I didn't even know what that meant. And obviously I'd never seen them.He told me he'd bring me a record to take home and listen to. He brought "Alive II" but told me his mom wouldn't let me borrow it. I just stared at the gatefold all day thinking it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. I asked my mom to buy it for me but she said she wanted to see my first report card, and that if I got all "As" she would. I did and she did, much to my dad's disfavor. I came home from school and my mom was listening to "Beth". I was not thrilled with what I heard. I was also mad she'd opened it, but she said it was the last copy. I took it downstairs and threw it on. Side one, song one, "Detroit Rock City," and my life changed forever.
As Pete knows, I'm a Wheathead. And early Kansas covers are perfect for the music. The eponymous 1st album, Kansas, has a photo of the John Brown painting that adorns the main wall of the Kansas state capitol. The 2nd, Song for America, has an eagle (America's national bird) with huge wings & extended talons. The 3rd, Masque, has an Arcimboldo painting of a mask composed entirely of sealife. Leftoverture has a da Vinci-like character working on a document w/ a quill pen. Point of Know Return is so cool. A ship about to sail off the end of the world with a huge sea serpent surrounding it. Monolith has Native American/Extraterrestrial creatures in a post-apocalyptic world. Kerry Livgren wrote a great deal about native Americans. And of course, the great double live Two for the Show has 2 post middle age women who are cleaning the auditorium after the show but sitting together reading the show program with profound interest (for a prog band!). They are all wonderful and Phil Ehart was responsible for the covers. Great job Phil!
If we bring live albums into the mix, I really liked Exit Stage Left and Live Evil that were collages of the tunes within, in themes that give you a feel for the tone of the live performances.
Here are my picks for album covers that have affected my listening experience. Positive: 1) The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 2) Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick 3) Electric Light Orchestra- Out of the Blue 4) Elton John- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 5) Meat Loaf- Bat Out of Hell 6) Yes- Tales From Topographic Oceans 7) 10cc- Deceptive Bends 8) Genesis- Nursery Cryme Honorable Mention: Anthony Phillips- The Geese and the Ghost Negative: 1) Elton John- Leather Jackets 2) Roger Waters- Radio K.A.O.S. 3) Steve Hackett- Cured
What is the first thing I do before actually leaning back to listen to another episode of SoT? I press the Like button, then prepare to take it all in. Thanks for the great content, Pete and all the others involved.
Maiden's Somewhere in Time album cover still makes the music of that album the soundtrack of a "robotic-jetson-2000-future" that never came. Also in 1986, I saw Abominog album cover on a magazine. One friend bought it. We were 12 and we didn't know Uriah Heep. Abominog album cover let us think they were as heavy as Maiden or Venom. Well, we learned our lesson; never judge an album by its cover. I mean, I' don't think Replacements' Tim is a great album because of its cover.
Thoughly agree, I thought the same for Abomanog , brilliant cover expect a heavy album but the music was as weak as dish water, Sea of Light was heavy but cover more fitting the Abomanog tracks. I reckon the great Budgie had the best album covers that matched the music.
Three examples of the album art matching the quality of songs: King Diamond's "Abigail," "Them" and "The Eye." The colors of the album covers plus the artwork perfectly sums up the song performances inside, including the lyrics and production value. Great stuff.
I bought two albums for the album covers, and stayed for the music: Kansas: Song For America Supertramp: Crime Of The Century The cool covers (looking at the bird on SFA, the jail cell in space on CoTC, wondering about the meaning)led me to the joys of progressive rock, and they are still my two favorite artists
This show makes me so nostalgic! Takes me right back to my late teens where I was 'discovering' bands every week: rolling a fat one then reading the lyrics or staring at the cover art and trying to work out what it was all about whilst the disc span. It was obligatory! Imagine listening to Close to the Edge for the very first time and opening that gatefold to reveal the Roger Dean science-fiction landscape "...seasons will pass you by".
Marillion and Fish covers always make me want to listen to them. The first three Marillion albums, not only have the references but the theme in the overall picture. Script was Bedsit thoughts when Fish first joined the band. Fugazi was Hotel thoughts when they got big and away from home and MC was home thoughts and the longing that Fish had for returning home and looking back on his relationship with that girl.
Favorite album cover of all time is one Pete mentioned: Alice Cooper`s "Killer" album. For me, nothing tops it. From Alice`s snake, Kachina on the front cover along with the childish scrawl, to one of the best band shots of all time on the back. This also happens to be one of my favorite albums musically. So there you go.
Absolutely agree. I was a freshman in high school when Killer came out and really identified with the back cover as many of us were on some form of Acid at times, and looking at that purple-ish pink tint and the boas wrapped around all of those talented band members. And the music wasn't even psychedelic but hard rock, so that intrigued me even more.
@@haihechina My favorite Cooper album by far. Not as commercial as Billion Dollar Babies. Don’t forget the other photo from Killer that had the neon green highlights & Alice hanging from a noose. Glen Buxton looks spaced out in those photos.
I love album cover art, so much so that I've bought quite a few album cover books over the years (especially those oversized coffee table books). Now that I only stream digital music & sold all of my vinyl those books have become even more important to me...The Hipgnosis covers are almost all really great, many are pieces of art. Smell The Glove has to be right up there with The White Album for "most mysterious" & therefore most tempting without knowing the music contained inside. Don't know if I can single out any particular covers as affecting my actual listening experience though. It's hard to overstate the connection many album covers have with your experience of the music inside but I'm making that connection based on knowing that a particular cover belongs to album 'x'. Not because that particular cover made me like or dislike the music. I don't know that those covers actually AFFECTED my listening experience, there were plenty of covers that weren't that great but the music was fantastic. So to me I'm not sure I've had this experience (or certainly not often), they're almost separate entities as far as I'm concerned that exist independently of each other to some extent. I do know that in the past I used to buy some albums music unknown just for the great cover. I do recall loving that debut Zep cover of the Hindenburg crash. Sticking with Zep, loved the different paper bag sleeves of In Through The Outdoor & the design of their Physical Graffiti cover. The Floyd covers of course, Yes' (Roger Dean), even the Frank Frazetta stuff. Many cite Abbey Road as the best cover ever (or Sgt Pepper's)...
Sticking with Floyd, I always felt Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals especially, enhanced the overall enjoyment of listening to the music, not necessarily enhanced the music but just felt perfect for what we were listening too, just great to handle. I was never a fan of Gerald Scarfe’s political cartoon work (pre-Floyd), so while I like The Wall gatefold, it’s not quite the same league as the previous three, although I did like the animation he did for the Show. I think Physical Graffti was one of the most expensive covers in its day? I probably prefer IV and albeit controversial Houses, maybe IV seemed to have a sense of something unknowable and at least initially, the inside gatefold felt perfect unison with Stairway. One of my absolute favourite’s is Joni’s Hejira, which I think fits the album content perfectly. Dean’s Relayer also, I think you can pick up a signed print from his studio, very tempting but short of wall space! Abbey Road is iconic to the point that the zebra crossings and Belisha beacons. It is Grade II listed in 2010 by Government as being of cultural and historical importance. The entry listing says that the photographer Iain MacMillan had 15 mins to take it standing on a step ladder! And yet it passed into history and today there’s even a live video streaming cam. It is probably the best known worldwide and beyond iconic!
Elder is a great example of the artwork working with the music to create an atmosphere. The cover from Reflections on a Floating World made me want to check out the music.
Oh...just a random example. I was a death metal kid in the early 90s, and remember thinking Obituary's cover art to The End Complete with its charred barren wasteland and how the band's logo with its evil menacing presence was hovering over the landscape. The music within emulated that cover perfectly...and made it all the more immersive to listen to.
My uncles had a stack of vinyl 4ft high. I would go through and play the ones I liked the cover too. But when I saw if you want blood you got it by acdc I was scared but had to play it. I was like 5 or 6 when I saw it in 79
LOVE album art discussion! Next, Id love hear what our favorite album packing is. Things like the Sticky Fingers zipper, Physical Graffiti diecut windows, even stuff like Psycho Circus lenticular cover, anything Tool, etc
I love your discussions; the more in--depth, the better. And yes, while you did go way off-topic at the end, I loved that as well. You need to have an episode (or a series) where you guys just have a free-ranging conversation about whatever comes into your heads regarding music, just to see where it goes. I'd really like that a lot.
@@wolf1977 Kind of. I remember as a young child, when my parents would have guests over, and after dinner they'd be sitting in the living room talking about whatever, and I would sit there with them, knowing they were talking over my head, but still fascinated by the conversation anyway. I mean, I knew enough to know and appreciate what they were talking about, but not enough to participate in the conversations. Kind of like that. I know a lot about many of these bands, but I'm still eager to pick up more information, and these guys are constantly dropping more tidbits for me, and usually during spots when they go off the rails, or when Martin tells a story. I love that stuff.
Album covers are so important in my view. They set the tone for the album. Some covers are great but the music is not or vice versa. AC/DC got me into hard rock and metal. And I must agree that they have great covers and lousy ones too. The cover for Back in Black vinyl record is very cool because it is black on black, while the cover for the CD and cassette tape is very basic because the lettering is white. The cover of For Those About To Rock is great in for the black on gold/copper look. It's my favorite one from them. The music is better on Back in Black though.
A cover can affect an album big time for me. It took me YEARS to get over the cover cover of Black Sabbath's Dehumanizer and just accept the music for the quality metal it was (and still is).
I also dislike the cover. It looks video game soundtrack cover. For game castlevania it’s classless. Black Sabbath with album cover looks like box art to video game music inside is not video game ost lol.
Kiss-Alive cover actually made ME come alive! Will forever be the coolest album cover of all time! Like going from black and white to color! Great vid Pete and Martin!
Loved the Grateful Dead discussion. I recently bought back a 1990 concert tshirt with the Aoxomoxoa album image on it. (Vintage concert tshirts are their own market, I discovered.) Anyway, Doin That Rag is not a song you’d expect with such an image… but it’s there and it’s one of my all-time favorites. Great choice, Pete!
SoT does a great job at entertaining and informing people about everything that's going around in the world of (our kind of) music. I guess some people think it just takes no time or effort, but I'm sure it's hard work (even if it's a passion and doesn't feel like it). Thanks to everybody at SoT for their GREAT work. Nevermind the bullies! Cheers.
Familiarity with lots of music makes it harder for me to fall in love with new music. I often hear the influence so apparent from the outset that I am instantly comparing it against the older(better?) original. It's hard turning off the feeling of listening to a 2nd rate cover band and my time is too precious to waste these days. I wish I could return to the early 80's when I discovered Mercyful Fate on week and then TSOL or Fates Warning......Nostalgia is a harsh mistress; as is Gravity.
A lot of YES albums come to mind for this one, particularly DRAMA, Anderson Bruford Wakeman & Howe, The Ladder, Fragile, Going for the one....Basically all of them except TORMATO And of course, Genesis albums a Trick of the tail, Trespass, WInd & Wuthering and Nursery Cryme and Steve Hackett-Spectral mornings
I've learned today that Ken Kelly died last june. He painted iconic covers : Rainbow Rising, Kiss: love gun & destroyer, many Manowar albums ...RIP Ken .
I can appreciate cool album art as much as anyone else, but it in no way sways my impression of the music itself. Steve Perry's last solo album had one of the coolest covers I had seen in ages, but I still wished it had been better musically overall. Evergrey has been very consistent with putting out quality music with great album art.
I never liked the cover of the first album, " Pretties For You". I think when Pete said the first album cover was "Glam" I think he meant the cover of their second album " Easy Action".
I personally love Accept's "Metal Heart" cover and I think it fits perfectly with that album, which is a little bit more mainstream (Midnight Mover, Screaming For A Love-Bite) while still keeping their heavy sound. It kinda works. Plus it's a great t-shirt.
I never got an excessive mainstream feel from it, though. Other Accept albums straight up had ballads. Metal Heart is a great sounding record. Tones are clanky and metallic, so I think it's one of those cases where the cover fits.
Was hoping that you would have touched on Mastodon. I always think they leave nothing to chance when it comes to the album covers. There all really good. If you were still going to the record store you would definitely be purchasing those albums because of the imagery.
Congrats! on 77K + subscribers. Interesting cheers and jeers on Pat Travers. I especially dig the P.T. Band's 1977 - 1979 era. Two albums I bought not knowing anything about the band, and ended up liking were, The Church - 1985 Heyday, while in Olongapo Philippines, in the mid 80's and The Rosemary's - 1993 - Providence, at a record show in Appleton WS, or somewhere in Indiana in the mid 90's. Both great albums, and also I ended up being an avid fan of Australia's - The Church, until Marty Wilson Piper left. All of Robin Trower's album covers, by Funky Paul in the 70's match and enhance the musical experience, especially the debut, 1973, Twice Removed From Yesterday, and 1976's Long Misty Days. Four of my all time favorite rock album covers are Hendrix - Band of Gypsys 69-70., Jeff Beck - Wired 1976., Robin Trower - Live 1976., front and back., and Blue Öyster Cult - Spectres - 1977, front and back. Honorable mention for most disgusting, but a Great Rock album goes to my hometown; Minneapolis's own, your very own, Cain - a pound of Flesh, 1975. Btw., I will expect 1 thumbs up total, if I decide not to delete this comment, because that is my average. Addendum: whose ever thumb that belongs to, I thank you. I will keep my post; for now.
To add to the Grateful Dead discussion the early psychadelic albums had psychadelic artwork. American Beauty and Workingman's Dead album covers illustrate a move "to the country" like The Band etc and certainly match the music within. Martins Shakedown Street and Terrapin Station show more upbeat covers (dancing turtle, etc) and the music is certainly more in that vein than previous albums. I would say that the artwork is pretty reflective of the music
2 different experiences in seeing YES album covers. When "Going for the One" came out, I saw the cover and thought, "oh no, this is going to suck"... but it was great. Then I saw "Tormato" and thought, "oh no, this is going to suck"... and while it didn't suck, the album was a few notches below everything that came before.
This is a great topic. Like others the best example for me is the Rush / Hugh Syme link. The art added a visual dimension that created a lasting bond with the music. Especially when CD booklets allowed for more artwork the visuals provided even more to ponder.
Great discussion Pete and Martin. And yea the mention to the Grateful Dead and those artwork albums that would suck me in as the early albums did and the sound of the jams mesmerizing. Btw Workingman's Dead like mentioned good points Pete. The album would probably be a number 6 in top 10 yet do like alot about it. Cheers everyone.
Really got back into the Travers catalog again lately (his newest album dropped not long ago but wasn't great due to the weak vocals). I had forgotten his work with Glenn Hughes (Play Me Out), excellent album. Also cut one track with the ex-guitarist from Tesla Frank Hannon ("I'm Alive" off Six String Soldiers). That got me back onto Hannon's solo albums which are very good, even though I really don't like Tesla. But it's like night & day, his first three (Guitarz From Marz, Gypsy Highway & especially Six String Soldiers) are really good records, well worth checking out. His From One Place To Another, Vol. 1 & 2 are just OK
I can totally empathize with your Grateful Dead experience. My favorite album is their sophomore release "Anthem of the Sun," but in retrospect, the production is not very good, yet I was sucked in by the mandala on the cover that promised all kinds of altered state enlightenment.
Guess everyone who watches this channel can remember the amount of time we spent looking at covers while listening to the music almost as important to a degree Great video again 😄
Budgie’s Never Turn your Back on a Friend has an amazing cover (Roger Dean) I remember putting the record on and hearing Breadfan booming from the speakers and thinking yes! Perfect fit! Love that album.
Budgie was a band I skipped over for many years cuz of the album covers. The band was called "Budgie" and they had budgies on the covers. Wasn't cool enough for a young metalhead.
I particularly enjoyed this episode. Could really see Pete getting excited about the Pat Travers conversation and it was great. Glad you brought up Molly Hatchet because to me they exemplify this topic. As a kid I wasn't allowed to listen to "devil music". I always wanted to buy their album b/c of the covers but thought my folks would've killed me! Sure enough as I've gotten older I've learned that my dad liked em a lot and actually had a couple of em. lol. Keep up the great job!
Rainbow and Uriah Heep's covers are the epitome of this for concept for me. You look on the cover and see the fantasy-themed covers, and once you begin listening to the music, it starts taking you to the places on the album covers.
Motorhead is really an interesting case - lot of punk fans like them for their short fast and straight forward songs. Their are definitely metal when it comes to their album covers and in their own words their are "just" a rock'n'roll band!
Great album covers to look at while listening to the vinyl. 1. Pink Floyd-DSOTM, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall (inside) 2. Rush-Farewell to Kings, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures 3. KISS-Alive, Destroyer, Love Gun, Alive II 4. Iron Maiden- (All of them) 5. Judas Preist- Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith 6. Beatles- Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road 7. Van Halen- Debut 8. Journey- Escape 9. Led Zeppelin- Debut 10. Boston- Debut 11. The Who- Tommy, Who's Next
One of the best experiences is sitting down with a vinyl, spinning it and checking out a good album cover with the sleeve while you listen to the music.
I appreciate Martin’s view on how boring AC/DC album covers have become, but the biggest repeat offender of Boring ass album covers just HAS to be Whitesnake. Since 1987, (with the exception of The Early Years compilation), they have given us essentially the same album cover for everything they have ever released since, even the re-release of Restless Heart has resorted to the same format. The name at the top, the WS ‘medallion’ in the middle and the album name at the bottom. Given that this is the same band that gave us ‘Lovehunter’, there’s an argument to say that they definitely became more and more complacent as the years went by. Lazy, lazy, lazy.
The first 4 Australian version covers are a million times better t h am the terrible US ones, They did bring the original ones out again back in 1995, i have those ones, but latter reissues have the woefull US ones, the High Voltage and Dirty Deeds ones are particularly naff.
Knowing Pete's love of Whitesnake, I'll say: (a) for such BLASPHEMY, I'm surprised he hasn't covered you in David Coverdale's chest wax and lit you up like a Rammstein show. (b) Totally spot on dude, I can't agree more!
I watch all of your videos, but I had to comment on this one. The notion of the cover affecting the listening experience is the exact reason why I am producing a comic book to accompany the upcoming Jag Panzer concept album. Producing a comic is expensive, it certainly won’t be turning a profit. But it will offer the listener a unique listening experience. I hope it works out as I have planned - Mark
For me the run of The Roaring Silence, Watch and Angel Station by Manfred Mann's Earth Band is an excellent example of great covers that reflect the feeling of the albums as well.
Mention of Alice Cooper brought back memories. I was 11 or 12. My family went to the Zellars department store to buy clothes for us kids. I would always check out the small record department. That’s where I saw an Alice Cooper record for the first time, Love It To Death. This was around the time the record came out. They totally unknowns. “I’m 18” would get some radio play later on, but at that point, the radio where I lived had nothing to do with them. I had only that album cover to go on. They were the strangest people I’d ever seen. I didn’t know what to make of them. I remember staring at the front and back cover thinking, “what on earth!” It wasn’t until “School’s Out” was a hit on the radio that I heard them. Love the song. I bought the album. The music was every bit as strange and out of my experience as that earlier cover was.
Never liked the Exile cover, the (Warhol) Sticky Fingers zipper cover was cool but I recall it caused issues with damaging the vinyl. The Let It Bleed cover I thought was pretty good
TEN YEARS AFTER always had real trippy album covers, and they were really a Blues/Rock 'n' Roll band at their core. it was the '60's ,so that explains that.
I like albums that have good artwork on the covers. AC/DC did the excellent Highway to Hell cover, and since then, like Martin said, they have been really simple and sometimes downright crappy. Lately they've picked it up a little bit. Marillion's covers are totally brilliant, as are Fish's albums too. Certain albums mean more to me because of the covers, such as "Argus" by Wishbone Ash, or even their debut, with the burnt wishbone on it. Black Sabbath has had a lot of crappy album covers. Canada's Saga have had excellent art on their covers, which I think adds to the enjoyment of the music. Hugh Syme always does a fantastic job on any album covers he works on - Rush, Megadeth, and many others. King's X has had some excellent covers. And what happened to Deep Purple? They barely try to make a decent cover these days. And I agree with you, Pete, that those Alice Cooper albums really personify the music that you are going to find inside.
1:08:47 I agree on repetition/familiarity but a huge aspect of that is associating the music with life experiences. e.g. Early romance of the teen years, enormous highs (e.g. in sports) where music celebrates with us, and crushing lows where music consoles us. On a visceral level, no new music has a chance to compete, so it certainly takes some cerebral detachment/awareness.
One album that had a striking difference as far as it’s cover presentation for me was Living Colour’s Stain. It wasn’t so much the cover art as it was the jewel case. It was red whereas normal jewel cases are clear and colorless. That might not sound like much in and of itself but the album also had some crazy ass futuristic production from Ron St. Germain. They were trying to do things that just weren’t normal for their time.
Yes, really dug the red jewel case, and it led me to believe that Living Color was trying to be different from other bands-which they certainly were! Great band! Nice post!
3 of my favorite Pendragon albums: Masquerade Overture, The Window of Life, and Not of This World: Covers depict exactly what you get>Brilliance!...definitely add to my listening experience.
Two albums that I bought because of the covers that came to my mind immediately were "I Robot" by The Alan Parsons Project, and "War" by U2. Granted, I was somewhat familiar with the music on both of these albums before I actually purchased them, but I absolutely love both of these album covers. I Robot is simply cool-looking, and I like the cover for War because of the child's intense stare and his cut lip, signifying the horrors of war and how it can traumatize young, impressionable minds. At least, that's how I always interpret it.
Three albums I bought without even knowing the music or the band that I have great memories of; Judas Priest-Sin after Sin, Starz-Starz Debut, and Angel- On Earth as it is in Heaven. Killer covers and great music. I still listen to them and I turn 60 in December.
Not sure I understand what the concept is... but anyway, here's my take : Queen II by Queen ( the "regalia" of the cover matches what the music transmits ) A Wizard/A true Star by Todd Rundgren ( the detailed weirdness of the cover matches the sonic weirdness of the music ) Rattus Norvegicus by the Stranglers ( The vaguely disturbing cover, hard to say why but it is vaguely disturbing, matches the whole album atmosphere ) Eli & the Thirteenth Confession by Laura Nyro ( That album musically epitomizes the genius of feminity and the cover aptly ilustrates feminity )
Apologize if this is wrong venue for this message - totally unrelated to the video (I didn't listen) but I just saw the cover band Get the Led Out; not sure if you've dealt / discussed cover bands elsewhere or if I've broken unwritten rule. This one did a darn fine job on Led Zep tracks such as Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven, When the Levee Breaks, Thank You, Dazed and Confused, etc; as well as "deep tracks". I never saw Led Zep live since I was too young, but this cover band did an amazing job. Have you ever heard of, or commented on cover bands?
The name "Captain Beyond" was mentioned toward the end and it hit me...their first record cover is the most PERFECT example of a cover influencing you to purchase it because of an eye-catching piece of art, and THAT one, literally sucks you into another dimension with its spacey 3D artwork that so perfectly represents the music inside...probably the coolest cover ever with space/jazz/rock fusion music inside before it had even really existed which is STILL futuristic sounding...and I would never have known about it if I hadn't seen that cover in a record store when I was 15 and taken a leap of faith....and there's no mention of THAT or anything else that deserves mentioning except the Grateful Dead (who suck) artwork and a handful of Roger Dean covers, although NOTHING about his Yes covers on records that are GREATLY enhanced by his artwork, which is as brilliant as the music inside them...but nope, a lot of cheesy, tasteless metal crud for kids exhaustively analyzed, as usual...huge waste of time. Thanks.
Pink Floyd - especially DSOTM and Wish You Were Here. Striking and mysterious and enhanced the material in many ways. They were really lucky to get in with Hipnogsis gang, not to take away from the music but they really had some that enhanced the listening experience and add to the replay value
I have to say that album covers have never influenced the way I listen to the music inside. They may have made me decide not to buy the album, but that is a different discussion. I usually have heard a song or two from an album before I will buy it.
I’m completely with Pete on the Marillion and Dead album covers aligned with the music. I am a big fan of the Fish era and those album covers absolutely drew me to the music and totally represented the music. Blues for Allah is my favorite Dead album as well and the cover is a total classic. Workingman’s Dead…not so much. I also love Aoxomoxoa and Terrapin Station and the covers as well.
This might sound psychotic, but bear with me: 1. albums to listen to during thunderstorms: - TNT- Knights of the New Thunder - Manilla Road- The Deluge - Jethro Tull- Stormwatch, Broadsword & the Beast or Rock Island - any marine or naval-themed album, for that matter... 2- albums to listen to while driving by corn fields: - UFO- Phenomenon - Thin Lizzy- Fighting - Any Fleetwood Mac, as long as it's Stevie and not the 80's stuff - Tom Petty, but the more acoustic stuff 3- At the Beach: Van Halen 4- If it's cold out: Rush 5- Now rearrange every band's songs on the phone so that night vibe songs are played at night and the daytime ones during the day, unless it's ambiguous like Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days by Judas Priest. Make sure Living after Midnight doesn't play at 10:30 p.m. otherwise you're a failure.Type O Negative is strictly forbidden during the day. 6- If it's Labor Day you have to listen to Men at Work 7- If Easter, then Echo & the Bunnymen 8- Halloween needs King Diamond, NOT Helloween because that sounds too happy 9- Valentine's Day is glam metal only 10- If nothing applies you can only hear instrumentals. My boy Zappa has you covered with 2 hrs of Inca Roads theme if you happen to be in Peru.
Amazing that smaller lesser known bands especially in the Melodic death metal genre the covers reflect the country Finland Norway and Sweden lots of snow ❄️ ice and trees 🌳 fantastic
Glad Martin brought up y favorite band of all time (Voivod). Every single album cover up to The Outer Limits is classic in my book. Being a huge Death Metal fan from the early days I would stare at the work of Dan Seagrave while listening to those early Entombed, Unleashed, Grave, Dismember,... I would also wanna add that from the mid 90's and up to the mid 2000's we had the crappy digital era for album covers and most of them were garbage. But things are getting much better with labels like Dark Descent, 20 Buck Spin.
Rush's four consecutive albums and covers starting with A Farewell To Kings and ending with Moving Pictures really affected my listening experience as a young teen. The printed lyrics, member pic's, and conceptual theme of each album was an intellectual treat. Great period for that band.
This was two of our premiere rock critics exchanging insightful banter and analysis without the pretension, feigned intellect, and arrogance of music magazines who shall remain nameless (Rolling Stone). Thanks.
Block the Joe Joes of the world. It only detracts from your project - making SoT the best.
I love the cover art for the Genesis album Trick Of The Tail. The characters depicted link directly to the songs themselves and while the album is not a conceptual as such, the way they interact on the cover gives the album a sense of cohesion. The music is of course absolutely brilliant.
I do agree completely, and not forgetting the inner sleeve, where cleverly the song characters reflect a different aspect of the song. I alway felt W&W could have been as great a cover if they had made it gatefold, the songs give the art huge potential.
Not nuts about the post-PG music, but I think this was the best of all the post Lamb stuff and I agree on the cover art, almost like the Phiz illustrations from Dickens. What annoyed me greatly was I had an inner sleeve of plain paper and I only discovered later from looking at a friend's copy that the inner sleeve should have illustrated as well.
@@stevewhiteside4525 If you still listen to vinyl, you might be able to pick up a second hand copy in acceptable condition. The other thing I like about it is the sort of sepia colours and the lyrics writing. It might even be a favourite cover for me.
David Lee Roth - Eat em and Smile to me is such a perfect hair metal album cover. So completely over the top, weird, silly and absolutely matches the party vibe music contained within.
Adding so much to the music was also Genesis “Lamb”. Not only did you have all the images you look at during the songs but as the album progressed you could read along with the story. Definitely enhanced the overall listening experience! And a definite departure from all their previous albums look.
I agree with you 💯 Thomas. The Lamb’s album cover definitely compliments/accentuates the music/concept for me.
I don't care what Lemmy said. Motorhead was one of the heaviest bands early on, they inspired so many metal bands.
I still remember seeing a kid's "Destroyer" t-shirt in the 3rd grade. I asked him about it, thinking it was a comic book. He told me it was a music group, which blew my little mind, cuz they didn't look like anything my parents listened to on Hee-Haw. Now I'd heard of Kiss but only slightly and I just knew that they were "hard rock," which I didn't even know what that meant. And obviously I'd never seen them.He told me he'd bring me a record to take home and listen to. He brought "Alive II" but told me his mom wouldn't let me borrow it. I just stared at the gatefold all day thinking it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.
I asked my mom to buy it for me but she said she wanted to see my first report card, and that if I got all "As" she would. I did and she did, much to my dad's disfavor. I came home from school and my mom was listening to "Beth". I was not thrilled with what I heard. I was also mad she'd opened it, but she said it was the last copy. I took it downstairs and threw it on. Side one, song one, "Detroit Rock City," and my life changed forever.
Cool KISS story.....thanks for sharing. Not too far off my own.
As Pete knows, I'm a Wheathead. And early Kansas covers are perfect for the music. The eponymous 1st album, Kansas, has a photo of the John Brown painting that adorns the main wall of the Kansas state capitol. The 2nd, Song for America, has an eagle (America's national bird) with huge wings & extended talons. The 3rd, Masque, has an Arcimboldo painting of a mask composed entirely of sealife. Leftoverture has a da Vinci-like character working on a document w/ a quill pen. Point of Know Return is so cool. A ship about to sail off the end of the world with a huge sea serpent surrounding it. Monolith has Native American/Extraterrestrial creatures in a post-apocalyptic world. Kerry Livgren wrote a great deal about native Americans. And of course, the great double live Two for the Show has 2 post middle age women who are cleaning the auditorium after the show but sitting together reading the show program with profound interest (for a prog band!).
They are all wonderful and Phil Ehart was responsible for the covers. Great job Phil!
Agreed!!
If we bring live albums into the mix, I really liked Exit Stage Left and Live Evil that were collages of the tunes within, in themes that give you a feel for the tone of the live performances.
Here are my picks for album covers that have affected my listening experience.
Positive:
1) The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2) Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick
3) Electric Light Orchestra- Out of the Blue
4) Elton John- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5) Meat Loaf- Bat Out of Hell
6) Yes- Tales From Topographic Oceans
7) 10cc- Deceptive Bends
8) Genesis- Nursery Cryme
Honorable Mention: Anthony Phillips- The Geese and the Ghost
Negative:
1) Elton John- Leather Jackets
2) Roger Waters- Radio K.A.O.S.
3) Steve Hackett- Cured
Good choices. I would add Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road (The Beatles) and Relayer (Yes).
Maidens Killers, powerslave and Somewhere in time have covers that link beautifully to the songs
What is the first thing I do before actually leaning back to listen to another episode of SoT? I press the Like button, then prepare to take it all in. Thanks for the great content, Pete and all the others involved.
Lol. I do as well MetalMan73100. Love Pete and Martin. They always present us with great content.
Maiden's Somewhere in Time album cover still makes the music of that album the soundtrack of a "robotic-jetson-2000-future" that never came. Also in 1986, I saw Abominog album cover on a magazine. One friend bought it. We were 12 and we didn't know Uriah Heep. Abominog album cover let us think they were as heavy as Maiden or Venom. Well, we learned our lesson; never judge an album by its cover. I mean, I' don't think Replacements' Tim is a great album because of its cover.
Thoughly agree, I thought the same for Abomanog , brilliant cover expect a heavy album but the music was as weak as dish water, Sea of Light was heavy but cover more fitting the Abomanog tracks. I reckon the great Budgie had the best album covers that matched the music.
Love love Somewhere in Time, the music matches the cover because the synths and melancholic tone
But Tim is great too!
Somewhere first album that came to mind
Three examples of the album art matching the quality of songs: King Diamond's "Abigail," "Them" and "The Eye." The colors of the album covers plus the artwork perfectly sums up the song performances inside, including the lyrics and production value. Great stuff.
I bought two albums for the album covers, and stayed for the music:
Kansas: Song For America
Supertramp: Crime Of The Century
The cool covers (looking at the bird on SFA, the jail cell in space on CoTC, wondering about the meaning)led me to the joys of progressive rock, and they are still my two favorite artists
Monolith and Point of Know Return for me, I think they had classy covers, like classic metal but without being too over the top
I LOVE the cover for SFA. Then throw in Masque, Leftoverture, Point of Know Return, and Monolith. All great covers from a great band!
@@gabriellarrubia1006 Absolutely.
I was drawn to Kansas through their album covers. Luckily the music matched the quality of the covers.
Yes - Tales from a topographic ocean, yessongs, Relayer, many of the Roger Dean cover art always catches your eye, and often make you buy an album.
This show makes me so nostalgic! Takes me right back to my late teens where I was 'discovering' bands every week: rolling a fat one then reading the lyrics or staring at the cover art and trying to work out what it was all about whilst the disc span. It was obligatory! Imagine listening to Close to the Edge for the very first time and opening that gatefold to reveal the Roger Dean science-fiction landscape "...seasons will pass you by".
Can't wait for this! Your work and output has really been helping me through a rough time, thank you!
Marillion and Fish covers always make me want to listen to them. The first three Marillion albums, not only have the references but the theme in the overall picture. Script was Bedsit thoughts when Fish first joined the band. Fugazi was Hotel thoughts when they got big and away from home and MC was home thoughts and the longing that Fish had for returning home and looking back on his relationship with that girl.
I bought Script on the quality of the cover
Favorite album cover of all time is one Pete mentioned: Alice Cooper`s "Killer" album. For me, nothing tops it. From Alice`s snake, Kachina on the front cover along with the childish scrawl, to one of the best band shots of all time on the back. This also happens to be one of my favorite albums musically. So there you go.
Absolutely agree. I was a freshman in high school when Killer came out and really identified with the back cover as many of us were on some form of Acid at times, and looking at that purple-ish pink tint and the boas wrapped around all of those talented band members. And the music wasn't even psychedelic but hard rock, so that intrigued me even more.
@@haihechina My favorite Cooper album by far. Not as commercial as Billion Dollar Babies. Don’t forget the other photo from Killer that had the neon green highlights & Alice hanging from a noose. Glen Buxton looks spaced out in those photos.
"Number of the Beast" and "Screaming for Vengeance" are the first two albums I ever bought........and the albums covers matched the music perfectly
Totally agree Pete on Marillion those covers were/ amazing.
I think being collectors it has a huge impact Cheers.
Hey Pete, wonderful shirt! Classic motive of a classic band, I wear mine with pride :)
I love album cover art, so much so that I've bought quite a few album cover books over the years (especially those oversized coffee table books). Now that I only stream digital music & sold all of my vinyl those books have become even more important to me...The Hipgnosis covers are almost all really great, many are pieces of art. Smell The Glove has to be right up there with The White Album for "most mysterious" & therefore most tempting without knowing the music contained inside.
Don't know if I can single out any particular covers as affecting my actual listening experience though. It's hard to overstate the connection many album covers have with your experience of the music inside but I'm making that connection based on knowing that a particular cover belongs to album 'x'. Not because that particular cover made me like or dislike the music. I don't know that those covers actually AFFECTED my listening experience, there were plenty of covers that weren't that great but the music was fantastic. So to me I'm not sure I've had this experience (or certainly not often), they're almost separate entities as far as I'm concerned that exist independently of each other to some extent. I do know that in the past I used to buy some albums music unknown just for the great cover. I do recall loving that debut Zep cover of the Hindenburg crash. Sticking with Zep, loved the different paper bag sleeves of In Through The Outdoor & the design of their Physical Graffiti cover. The Floyd covers of course, Yes' (Roger Dean), even the Frank Frazetta stuff. Many cite Abbey Road as the best cover ever (or Sgt Pepper's)...
Sticking with Floyd, I always felt Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals especially, enhanced the overall enjoyment of listening to the music, not necessarily enhanced the music but just felt perfect for what we were listening too, just great to handle. I was never a fan of Gerald Scarfe’s political cartoon work (pre-Floyd), so while I like The Wall gatefold, it’s not quite the same league as the previous three, although I did like the animation he did for the Show. I think Physical Graffti was one of the most expensive covers in its day? I probably prefer IV and albeit controversial Houses, maybe IV seemed to have a sense of something unknowable and at least initially, the inside gatefold felt perfect unison with Stairway. One of my absolute favourite’s is Joni’s Hejira, which I think fits the album content perfectly. Dean’s Relayer also, I think you can pick up a signed print from his studio, very tempting but short of wall space! Abbey Road is iconic to the point that the zebra crossings and Belisha beacons. It is Grade II listed in 2010 by Government as being of cultural and historical importance. The entry listing says that the photographer Iain MacMillan had 15 mins to take it standing on a step ladder! And yet it passed into history and today there’s even a live video streaming cam. It is probably the best known worldwide and beyond iconic!
Elder is a great example of the artwork working with the music to create an atmosphere. The cover from Reflections on a Floating World made me want to check out the music.
Oh...just a random example. I was a death metal kid in the early 90s, and remember thinking Obituary's cover art to The End Complete with its charred barren wasteland and how the band's logo with its evil menacing presence was hovering over the landscape. The music within emulated that cover perfectly...and made it all the more immersive to listen to.
Definately should do a top ten album covers of all time
I love the Supertramp album covers of the 7os. They are clever and fit the feel of the music inside. Definitely enhances my listening experience.
My uncles had a stack of vinyl 4ft high. I would go through and play the ones I liked the cover too. But when I saw if you want blood you got it by acdc I was scared but had to play it. I was like 5 or 6 when I saw it in 79
LOVE album art discussion! Next, Id love hear what our favorite album packing is. Things like the Sticky Fingers zipper, Physical Graffiti diecut windows, even stuff like Psycho Circus lenticular cover, anything Tool, etc
Martin’s Pat rant was hilarious. The whole hot, sweating, melting album covers had me dying. Another great show you guys never miss 🔥 Sot rocks
So correct. I was dying at his rant about those albums. Hilarious!
I love your discussions; the more in--depth, the better. And yes, while you did go way off-topic at the end, I loved that as well. You need to have an episode (or a series) where you guys just have a free-ranging conversation about whatever comes into your heads regarding music, just to see where it goes. I'd really like that a lot.
Kinda like "Free Pardo", SoT's version of free jazz? Someone else would need to moderate as I could easily see that getting out of hand🤦♂
@@wolf1977 Kind of. I remember as a young child, when my parents would have guests over, and after dinner they'd be sitting in the living room talking about whatever, and I would sit there with them, knowing they were talking over my head, but still fascinated by the conversation anyway. I mean, I knew enough to know and appreciate what they were talking about, but not enough to participate in the conversations. Kind of like that. I know a lot about many of these bands, but I'm still eager to pick up more information, and these guys are constantly dropping more tidbits for me, and usually during spots when they go off the rails, or when Martin tells a story. I love that stuff.
Album covers are so important in my view. They set the tone for the album. Some covers are great but the music is not or vice versa. AC/DC got me into hard rock and metal. And I must agree that they have great covers and lousy ones too. The cover for Back in Black vinyl record is very cool because it is black on black, while the cover for the CD and cassette tape is very basic because the lettering is white. The cover of For Those About To Rock is great in for the black on gold/copper look. It's my favorite one from them. The music is better on Back in Black though.
A cover can affect an album big time for me. It took me YEARS to get over the cover cover of Black Sabbath's Dehumanizer and just accept the music for the quality metal it was (and still is).
@@TotalMeltdown2 It looks like a 14 year drew it during study hall.
I also dislike the cover. It looks video game soundtrack cover. For game castlevania it’s classless.
Black Sabbath with album cover looks like box art to video game music inside is not video game ost lol.
@@noneya237 It looked so blah that I actually didn't even notice until recently how truly cheesy it was.
@@TotalMeltdown2 i was going to say castlevania artwork from that time was amazing
Kiss-Alive cover actually made ME come alive! Will forever be the coolest album cover of all time! Like going from black and white to color! Great vid Pete and Martin!
Loved the Grateful Dead discussion. I recently bought back a 1990 concert tshirt with the Aoxomoxoa album image on it. (Vintage concert tshirts are their own market, I discovered.) Anyway, Doin That Rag is not a song you’d expect with such an image… but it’s there and it’s one of my all-time favorites. Great choice, Pete!
SoT does a great job at entertaining and informing people about everything that's going around in the world of (our kind of) music. I guess some people think it just takes no time or effort, but I'm sure it's hard work (even if it's a passion and doesn't feel like it). Thanks to everybody at SoT for their GREAT work. Nevermind the bullies! Cheers.
Familiarity with lots of music makes it harder for me to fall in love with new music. I often hear the influence so apparent from the outset that I am instantly comparing it against the older(better?) original. It's hard turning off the feeling of listening to a 2nd rate cover band and my time is too precious to waste these days. I wish I could return to the early 80's when I discovered Mercyful Fate on week and then TSOL or Fates Warning......Nostalgia is a harsh mistress; as is Gravity.
the best album cover moody blues in search of the lost chord
A lot of YES albums come to mind for this one, particularly DRAMA, Anderson Bruford Wakeman & Howe, The Ladder, Fragile, Going for the one....Basically all of them except TORMATO
And of course, Genesis albums a Trick of the tail, Trespass, WInd & Wuthering and Nursery Cryme
and Steve Hackett-Spectral mornings
I've learned today that Ken Kelly died last june. He painted iconic covers : Rainbow Rising, Kiss: love gun & destroyer, many Manowar albums ...RIP Ken .
Album covers are so important. When someone mentions an album, I immediately hear it...but also think of the cover.
I can appreciate cool album art as much as anyone else, but it in no way sways my impression of the music itself. Steve Perry's last solo album had one of the coolest covers I had seen in ages, but I still wished it had been better musically overall. Evergrey has been very consistent with putting out quality music with great album art.
Loved the breakdown of those Alice Cooper album covers. Never put together the serial killer handwriting aspect.
I never liked the cover of the first album, " Pretties For You".
I think when Pete said the first album cover was "Glam" I think he meant the cover of their second album " Easy Action".
I personally love Accept's "Metal Heart" cover and I think it fits perfectly with that album, which is a little bit more mainstream (Midnight Mover, Screaming For A Love-Bite) while still keeping their heavy sound. It kinda works. Plus it's a great t-shirt.
I never got an excessive mainstream feel from it, though. Other Accept albums straight up had ballads. Metal Heart is a great sounding record. Tones are clanky and metallic, so I think it's one of those cases where the cover fits.
Was hoping that you would have touched on Mastodon. I always think they leave nothing to chance when it comes to the album covers. There all really good. If you were still going to the record store you would definitely be purchasing those albums because of the imagery.
Good call!
VOIVOD!!!!!!
Great choice, Martin! Those covers have always added to their mystery and fantasy.
Congrats! on 77K + subscribers. Interesting cheers and jeers on Pat Travers. I especially dig the P.T. Band's 1977 - 1979 era. Two albums I bought not knowing anything about the band, and ended up liking were, The Church - 1985 Heyday, while in Olongapo Philippines, in the mid 80's and The Rosemary's - 1993 - Providence, at a record show in Appleton WS, or somewhere in Indiana in the mid 90's. Both great albums, and also I ended up being an avid fan of Australia's - The Church, until Marty Wilson Piper left. All of Robin Trower's album covers, by Funky Paul in the 70's match and enhance the musical experience, especially the debut, 1973, Twice Removed From Yesterday, and 1976's Long Misty Days. Four of my all time favorite rock album covers are Hendrix - Band of Gypsys 69-70., Jeff Beck - Wired 1976., Robin Trower - Live 1976., front and back., and Blue Öyster Cult - Spectres - 1977, front and back.
Honorable mention for most disgusting, but a Great Rock album goes to my hometown; Minneapolis's own, your very own, Cain - a pound of Flesh, 1975. Btw., I will expect 1 thumbs up total, if I decide not to delete this comment, because that is my average.
Addendum: whose ever thumb that belongs to, I thank you. I will keep my post; for now.
To add to the Grateful Dead discussion the early psychadelic albums had psychadelic artwork.
American Beauty and Workingman's Dead album covers illustrate a move "to the country" like The Band etc and certainly match the music within.
Martins Shakedown Street and Terrapin Station show more upbeat covers (dancing turtle, etc) and the music is certainly more in that vein than previous albums.
I would say that the artwork is pretty reflective of the music
I think I've heard of dancing turtles at Dead shows...but only after certain substances made the rounds😁
2 different experiences in seeing YES album covers. When "Going for the One" came out, I saw the cover and thought, "oh no, this is going to suck"... but it was great. Then I saw "Tormato" and thought, "oh no, this is going to suck"... and while it didn't suck, the album was a few notches below everything that came before.
Agree on Tormato & Going for the One as below-average album covers
Always looked forward to Robin Trower’s albums in 70’s for the music and album covers
This is a great topic. Like others the best example for me is the Rush / Hugh Syme link. The art added a visual dimension that created a lasting bond with the music. Especially when CD booklets allowed for more artwork the visuals provided even more to ponder.
What a fantastic show guys as always.
Great discussion Pete and Martin. And yea the mention to the Grateful Dead and those artwork albums that would suck me in as the early albums did and the sound of the jams mesmerizing. Btw Workingman's Dead like mentioned good points Pete. The album would probably be a number 6 in top 10 yet do like alot about it. Cheers everyone.
Good discussion guys, love the stuff about Voivod, I can't get enough of them lately. Thanks for posting!
Great episode Pete; LOVE the take on Pat Travers )
Really got back into the Travers catalog again lately (his newest album dropped not long ago but wasn't great due to the weak vocals). I had forgotten his work with Glenn Hughes (Play Me Out), excellent album. Also cut one track with the ex-guitarist from Tesla Frank Hannon ("I'm Alive" off Six String Soldiers). That got me back onto Hannon's solo albums which are very good, even though I really don't like Tesla. But it's like night & day, his first three (Guitarz From Marz, Gypsy Highway & especially Six String Soldiers) are really good records, well worth checking out. His From One Place To Another, Vol. 1 & 2 are just OK
I can totally empathize with your Grateful Dead experience. My favorite album is their sophomore release "Anthem of the Sun," but in retrospect, the production is not very good, yet I was sucked in by the mandala on the cover that promised all kinds of altered state enlightenment.
King Diamond's album covers are incredible
Yes. And the music fits the covers.
Guess everyone who watches this channel can remember the amount of time we spent looking at covers while listening to the music almost as important to a degree
Great video again 😄
Budgie’s Never Turn your Back on a Friend has an amazing cover (Roger Dean) I remember putting the record on and hearing Breadfan booming from the speakers and thinking yes! Perfect fit! Love that album.
Budgie was a band I skipped over for many years cuz of the album covers. The band was called "Budgie" and they had budgies on the covers. Wasn't cool enough for a young metalhead.
Budgies album covers were great! Similar to Iron Maiden album covers. Nightflight had the same artist. (Riggs) maybe more.
I particularly enjoyed this episode. Could really see Pete getting excited about the Pat Travers conversation and it was great. Glad you brought up Molly Hatchet because to me they exemplify this topic. As a kid I wasn't allowed to listen to "devil music". I always wanted to buy their album b/c of the covers but thought my folks would've killed me! Sure enough as I've gotten older I've learned that my dad liked em a lot and actually had a couple of em. lol. Keep up the great job!
My cd covers definitely affected my listening experience when I stored them on shelves (like Pete's) in my music room.
Rainbow and Uriah Heep's covers are the epitome of this for concept for me. You look on the cover and see the fantasy-themed covers, and once you begin listening to the music, it starts taking you to the places on the album covers.
Motorhead is really an interesting case - lot of punk fans like them for their short fast and straight forward songs. Their are definitely metal when it comes to their album covers and in their own words their are "just" a rock'n'roll band!
Great album covers to look at while listening to the vinyl.
1. Pink Floyd-DSOTM, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall (inside)
2. Rush-Farewell to Kings, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures
3. KISS-Alive, Destroyer, Love Gun, Alive II
4. Iron Maiden- (All of them)
5. Judas Preist- Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith
6. Beatles- Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road
7. Van Halen- Debut
8. Journey- Escape
9. Led Zeppelin- Debut
10. Boston- Debut
11. The Who- Tommy, Who's Next
great show guys
One of the best experiences is sitting down with a vinyl, spinning it and checking out a good album cover with the sleeve while you listen to the music.
I appreciate Martin’s view on how boring AC/DC album covers have become, but the biggest repeat offender of Boring ass album covers just HAS to be Whitesnake. Since 1987, (with the exception of The Early Years compilation), they have given us essentially the same album cover for everything they have ever released since, even the re-release of Restless Heart has resorted to the same format. The name at the top, the WS ‘medallion’ in the middle and the album name at the bottom. Given that this is the same band that gave us ‘Lovehunter’, there’s an argument to say that they definitely became more and more complacent as the years went by. Lazy, lazy, lazy.
I quite liked the original Australian cartoon drawn cover of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. I don't know why they changed it.
The first 4 Australian version covers are a million times better t h am the terrible US ones, They did bring the original ones out again back in 1995, i have those ones, but latter reissues have the woefull US ones, the High Voltage and Dirty Deeds ones are particularly naff.
Knowing Pete's love of Whitesnake, I'll say: (a) for such BLASPHEMY, I'm surprised he hasn't covered you in David Coverdale's chest wax and lit you up like a Rammstein show. (b) Totally spot on dude, I can't agree more!
Armored saint's raising fear is a great cover ! Screams - heavy metal
A Friday must watch. 👍
I watch all of your videos, but I had to comment on this one. The notion of the cover affecting the listening experience is the exact reason why I am producing a comic book to accompany the upcoming Jag Panzer concept album. Producing a comic is expensive, it certainly won’t be turning a profit. But it will offer the listener a unique listening experience. I hope it works out as I have planned - Mark
For me the run of The Roaring Silence, Watch and Angel Station by Manfred Mann's Earth Band is an excellent example of great covers that reflect the feeling of the albums as well.
Mention of Alice Cooper brought back memories. I was 11 or 12. My family went to the Zellars department store to buy clothes for us kids. I would always check out the small record department. That’s where I saw an Alice Cooper record for the first time, Love It To Death. This was around the time the record came out. They totally unknowns. “I’m 18” would get some radio play later on, but at that point, the radio where I lived had nothing to do with them. I had only that album cover to go on. They were the strangest people I’d ever seen. I didn’t know what to make of them. I remember staring at the front and back cover thinking, “what on earth!” It wasn’t until “School’s Out” was a hit on the radio that I heard them. Love the song. I bought the album. The music was every bit as strange and out of my experience as that earlier cover was.
Let it bleed, Sticky fingers and Exile On Main St. promise a lot as covers and fulfill more.
Never liked the Exile cover, the (Warhol) Sticky Fingers zipper cover was cool but I recall it caused issues with damaging the vinyl. The Let It Bleed cover I thought was pretty good
TEN YEARS AFTER always had real trippy album covers, and they were really a Blues/Rock 'n' Roll band at their core. it was the '60's ,so that explains that.
I like albums that have good artwork on the covers. AC/DC did the excellent Highway to Hell cover, and since then, like Martin said, they have been really simple and sometimes downright crappy. Lately they've picked it up a little bit. Marillion's covers are totally brilliant, as are Fish's albums too. Certain albums mean more to me because of the covers, such as "Argus" by Wishbone Ash, or even their debut, with the burnt wishbone on it. Black Sabbath has had a lot of crappy album covers. Canada's Saga have had excellent art on their covers, which I think adds to the enjoyment of the music. Hugh Syme always does a fantastic job on any album covers he works on - Rush, Megadeth, and many others. King's X has had some excellent covers. And what happened to Deep Purple? They barely try to make a decent cover these days. And I agree with you, Pete, that those Alice Cooper albums really personify the music that you are going to find inside.
1:08:47 I agree on repetition/familiarity but a huge aspect of that is associating the music with life experiences. e.g. Early romance of the teen years, enormous highs (e.g. in sports) where music celebrates with us, and crushing lows where music consoles us. On a visceral level, no new music has a chance to compete, so it certainly takes some cerebral detachment/awareness.
An entertaining discussion on an interesting topic .
Thanks !
Good criticisms to totally agree on Accept and AC/DC
One album that had a striking difference as far as it’s cover presentation for me was Living Colour’s Stain. It wasn’t so much the cover art as it was the jewel case. It was red whereas normal jewel cases are clear and colorless. That might not sound like much in and of itself but the album also had some crazy ass futuristic production from Ron St. Germain. They were trying to do things that just weren’t normal for their time.
Yes, really dug the red jewel case, and it led me to believe that Living Color was trying to be different from other bands-which they certainly were! Great band! Nice post!
@@treff9226 Thanks for the kind words.
Although simple, every character on Genesis “Trick of the Tail” cover represented a song on the album.
3 of my favorite Pendragon albums: Masquerade Overture, The Window of Life, and Not of This World: Covers depict exactly what you get>Brilliance!...definitely add to my listening experience.
Spot on about the Marillion covers and albums.
Those were the days, going over everything and reading the vinyl cover...
Two albums that I bought because of the covers that came to my mind immediately were "I Robot" by The Alan Parsons Project, and "War" by U2. Granted, I was somewhat familiar with the music on both of these albums before I actually purchased them, but I absolutely love both of these album covers. I Robot is simply cool-looking, and I like the cover for War because of the child's intense stare and his cut lip, signifying the horrors of war and how it can traumatize young, impressionable minds. At least, that's how I always interpret it.
Three albums I bought without even knowing the music or the band that I have great memories of; Judas Priest-Sin after Sin, Starz-Starz Debut, and Angel- On Earth as it is in Heaven. Killer covers and great music. I still listen to them and I turn 60 in December.
So true on the Molly Hatchet art.
Not sure I understand what the concept is... but anyway, here's my take :
Queen II by Queen ( the "regalia" of the cover matches what the music transmits )
A Wizard/A true Star by Todd Rundgren ( the detailed weirdness of the cover matches the sonic weirdness of the music )
Rattus Norvegicus by the Stranglers ( The vaguely disturbing cover, hard to say why but it is vaguely disturbing, matches the whole album atmosphere )
Eli & the Thirteenth Confession by Laura Nyro ( That album musically epitomizes the genius of feminity and the cover aptly ilustrates feminity )
Apologize if this is wrong venue for this message - totally unrelated to the video (I didn't listen) but I just saw the cover band Get the Led Out; not sure if you've dealt / discussed cover bands elsewhere or if I've broken unwritten rule. This one did a darn fine job on Led Zep tracks such as Kashmir, Stairway to Heaven, When the Levee Breaks, Thank You, Dazed and Confused, etc; as well as "deep tracks". I never saw Led Zep live since I was too young, but this cover band did an amazing job. Have you ever heard of, or commented on cover bands?
The name "Captain Beyond" was mentioned toward the end and it hit me...their first record cover is the most PERFECT example of a cover influencing you to purchase it because of an eye-catching piece of art, and THAT one, literally sucks you into another dimension with its spacey 3D artwork that so perfectly represents the music inside...probably the coolest cover ever with space/jazz/rock fusion music inside before it had even really existed which is STILL futuristic sounding...and I would never have known about it if I hadn't seen that cover in a record store when I was 15 and taken a leap of faith....and there's no mention of THAT or anything else that deserves mentioning except the Grateful Dead (who suck) artwork and a handful of Roger Dean covers, although NOTHING about his Yes covers on records that are GREATLY enhanced by his artwork, which is as brilliant as the music inside them...but nope, a lot of cheesy, tasteless metal crud for kids exhaustively analyzed, as usual...huge waste of time. Thanks.
Pink Floyd - especially DSOTM and Wish You Were Here. Striking and mysterious and enhanced the material in many ways. They were really lucky to get in with Hipnogsis gang, not to take away from the music but they really had some that enhanced the listening experience and add to the replay value
I have to say that album covers have never influenced the way I listen to the music inside. They may have made me decide not to buy the album, but that is a different discussion. I usually have heard a song or two from an album before I will buy it.
Love your videos, long live Prog
I’m completely with Pete on the Marillion and Dead album covers aligned with the music. I am a big fan of the Fish era and those album covers absolutely drew me to the music and totally represented the music. Blues for Allah is my favorite Dead album as well and the cover is a total classic. Workingman’s Dead…not so much. I also love Aoxomoxoa and Terrapin Station and the covers as well.
This might sound psychotic, but bear with me:
1. albums to listen to during thunderstorms:
- TNT- Knights of the New Thunder
- Manilla Road- The Deluge
- Jethro Tull- Stormwatch, Broadsword & the Beast or Rock Island
- any marine or naval-themed album, for that matter...
2- albums to listen to while driving by corn fields:
- UFO- Phenomenon
- Thin Lizzy- Fighting
- Any Fleetwood Mac, as long as it's Stevie and not the 80's stuff
- Tom Petty, but the more acoustic stuff
3- At the Beach: Van Halen
4- If it's cold out: Rush
5- Now rearrange every band's songs on the phone so that night vibe songs are played at night and the daytime ones during the day, unless it's ambiguous like Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days by Judas Priest. Make sure Living after Midnight doesn't play at 10:30 p.m. otherwise you're a failure.Type O Negative is strictly forbidden during the day.
6- If it's Labor Day you have to listen to Men at Work
7- If Easter, then Echo & the Bunnymen
8- Halloween needs King Diamond, NOT Helloween because that sounds too happy
9- Valentine's Day is glam metal only
10- If nothing applies you can only hear instrumentals. My boy Zappa has you covered with 2 hrs of Inca Roads theme if you happen to be in Peru.
Amazing that smaller lesser known bands especially in the Melodic death metal genre the covers reflect the country Finland Norway and Sweden lots of snow ❄️ ice and trees 🌳 fantastic
Travis Smith's art really sets the mood for those doom and gloom metal bands like Katatonia.
I always bought Maidens albums for the music, the cover art was just an added bonus apart from Virtual X1 and The Final Frontier.
Glad Martin brought up y favorite band of all time (Voivod). Every single album cover up to The Outer Limits is classic in my book. Being a huge Death Metal fan from the early days I would stare at the work of Dan Seagrave while listening to those early Entombed, Unleashed, Grave, Dismember,... I would also wanna add that from the mid 90's and up to the mid 2000's we had the crappy digital era for album covers and most of them were garbage. But things are getting much better with labels like Dark Descent, 20 Buck Spin.
Hey Pete regarding the drop kick I wouldn’t give them the oxygen block ‘‘em and forget ‘em