96. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

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It was in a mall sometime in 2002 (or 2003) where I first saw her face on a CD album cover. "She's new," I said to myself without even trying to find out how her songs sound like. Some time later in about
the same year I saw a girl on TV who was driving a car in an empty highway and singing a song I've never heard before. The song was "Come Away With Me." The driver was the girl whose face was on the
cover of the CD album that I saw at the record store. I thought that before this, the last album by a female artist that I really treated seriously enough was by Diane Reeves which was a hit in 1987.

Some more weeks later  (in about the same year)  I was in a record store again looking for some 1970s and 1980s  rock albums  that I thought I've missed.  Of course, I was trying to avoid the new releases
with harsh voices singing the leads in the songs, which I blamed (is this the right word?) on the Rode mic (am I correct?).

After some  minutes  of scanning  through the racks I saw  the face on the cover again.  The salesgirl at the store  offered to let me  sample some tracks  from a promo disc.  It was Norah Jones.  With the
headset still on my ears I signalled the salesgirl to wait until I've finished sampling all the songs in the album. Actually I was only listening to "Don't Know Why" from start to finish. This is the opening track
and it has always  been the song that  makes me  remember my first glimpse of Norah Jones to this day, the face on the cover of Come Away With Me.  And of course, the song "Cold, Cold Heart" which I've
been familiar with since I was a child.

It is July 2016 and I am writing some thoughts to go with my tweak of the album cover for my blog. Surfing the web,  I discovered two things.  The first was that Norah Jones is a daughter of Ravi Shankar,
the Indian exponent of the sitar who became associated with The Beatles. The second was that it was a Neumann M49 mic that Norah Jones used to record the song "Come Away With Me." 


Learning about her father I am glad I that darkened the original album cover photo for the work above. She looks more Indian on the monochrome. 


This is Geetali Norah Jones Shankar on the cover.

No. 52, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time


Design & art direction by Jessica Novod, photo by Joanne Savio. Album produced by Jay Newland, Arif Mardin, Craig Street & Norah Jones. Blue Note 2002.


Norah Jones' debut is a mellow, acoustic pop affair with soul and country overtones,  immaculately produced by the great Arif Mardin.  Jones is not quite a
jazz singer, but she is joined by some highly regarded jazz talent:  guitarists Adam Levy, Adam Rogers, Tony Scherr,  Bill Frisell, and Kevin Breit; drummers
Brian Blade, Dan Rieser, and Kenny Wollesen; organist Sam Yahel; accordionist Rob Burger; and violinist Jenny Scheinman. Her regular guitarist and bassist,
Jesse Harris and Lee Alexander,  respectively, play on every  track and also serve as the chief songwriters.  Both have a gift for melody,  simple yet elegant
progressions, and evocative lyrics.

Jones, for her part, wrote the title track and the pretty but slightly restless "Nightingale." She also includes convincing readings of Hank Williams' "Cold Cold
Heart," J.D. Loudermilk's "Turn Me On," and Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness of You." There's a touch of Rickie Lee Jones in Jones' voice, a touch of Bonnie
Raitt in the arrangements;  her youth and her piano skills  could lead one to  call her an Alicia Keys for grown-ups.  While the mood of this record stagnates
after a few songs, it does give a strong indication of Jones' alluring talents. AllMusic Review by David R. Adler


The album won eight awards (Jones won five of the awards) at the Grammy Awards of 2003,  including Album of the Year, as well as Record of the Year and
Song of the Year for "Don't Know Why".  Although she was happy about her success,  Jones felt bad about sweeping the Grammy Awards.  In an interview for
60 Minutes, Jones told Katie Couric:

"I felt like I went to somebody else's birthday party and I ate all their cake. Without anybody else getting a piece. That's how I felt." wikipedia


(A) Don't Know Why - Seven Years - Cold, Cold Heart - Feelin' the Same Way - Come Away With Me - Shoot the Moon - Turn Me On

(B) Lonestar - I've Got to See You Again - Painter Song - One Flight Down - Nightingale - The Long Day is Over - The Nearness of You

"Don't Know Why" music video from emimusic on YouTube.

                                                                                                                                              

  

www.norahjones.com

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94. Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions

 

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This is one of my first works and  it was because when I started, I chose the cover designs based on the  500 Greatest of All Time  listed by Rolling Stone Magazine. And then I realized there were lots of

interesting album covers that were not included in the list but I chose this  one because I am a fan of Elvis.  He was 20 years old when I was born halfway  across the globe from where,  in 1955, he was

becoming popular. We were both born on January 8.

I could not find the proper credits for the photo although I found that this album has other cover designs too.  I chose to work on this one because it is the King in action in his early days. The image of a

record on top of a turntable disc with the tone arm on it and the album sleeve leaning on the upright turntable cover - which I gazed as I listened to the music - this is exactly what I was doing at home. 

On this work the original image is at right. There are seven images in each of the four columns at left, but only one image in each column is a whole. The reproductions of the upper and lower halves of

the image above and below the whole are meant to give the impression of several Elvises dancing in sync, and perhaps deceive the looker that one of the pairs of legs out there is out of sync.

The Pelvis alone is in sync with Elvis.

No. 11, Rolling Stone,  The 500 Greatest  Albums of All Time;  No. 15,  Rate Your Music,  The 100 Greatest  Albums of All Time.

Art direction by Ria Lewerke, design by Pietro Alfieri, hand tinting by Theresa Alfieri-Weinberg.

Album produced by Sam Phillips from recordings at the Sun Studios, 1954-55. RCA 1976. albumlinernotes.com 

The album  features most of the tracks  recorded at  Sun studio by Sam Phillips,  the head of Sun Studios.  Phillips  signed Presley
after hearing a song that he had  recorded for  his mother on his birthday. It includes  "That's All Right" one of the few recordings
regarded as "the first rock and roll record." wikipedia

Many believe  rock & roll was born on July 5th, 1954,  at Sun Studio in Memphis.  Elvis Presley,  guitarist  Scotty Moore and bassist
Bill Black were  horsing  around with "That's All Right, Mama,"  a tune by  bluesman  Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup,  when producer Sam
Phillips stopped them and asked, "What are you doing?" "We don't know," they said. Phillips told them to "back up and do it again."

The A side of Presley's first single (backed with a version of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky"), "That's All Right" was issued by
Sun on July 19th. It may or may not be the first rock & roll record. But the man who would be King was officially on wax. Bridging
black and white,  country and blues, his sound was playful and revolutionary,  charged by a spontaneity and freedom that changed
the world.  "It's the blues,"  critic Greil Marcus  wrote in his classic book Mystery Train. "But free of all worry,  all sin;  a simple joy
with no price to pay." Rolling Stone


(A) That's All Right (Mama) - Blue Moon of Kentucky - I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine - Good Rockin' Tonight - Milkcow Blues Boggie -
You're a Heartbreaker - I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone - Baby, Let's Play House

(B) Mystery Train - I Forgot to Remember to Forget - I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') - I Love You Because (First Version) -
Tryin' to Get to You - Blue Moon - Just Because - I Love You Because (Second Version)



"I Love You Because" music video from Frances (kindhearted) on YouTube


    

www.elvis.com

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93. The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land

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The crab is in the attack mode and the blurs suggest it is moving and ready to strike. We don't see animals, let alone crabs on album covers as often as we see people
or something else - and this makes this album cover art one of its kind. 

Having lived by the sea,  I've been familiar with crabs since I was a small boy and I know that even if its claws are raised,  which means that it is  being aggressive, it
does move backward as well as forward,  depending on the situation, or its perception of the predator or the prey.  Sand crabs are lightweight, light-coloured and can
run fast; mud crabs are heavier,  look more calculating and some have bright colours like the one on the album cover.  Looking aggressive may just be a bluff for crabs
can turn sheepish when cornered, but crabs are ambivalent all the time and their claws are always raised when they feel threatened.

Talking of colours,  crabs, like most, if not all crustaceans,  turn orange when heated or cooked.  Crabs that live in hot springs are orange-coloured even when they're
still alive. Talking of cooking,  crabs do remind us of tasty food, and it's the claws, the part that looks most menacing to us that is the fat of the land.  But most crabs
are omnivorous although some are scavengers.  It has been said that it's the  scavenger kind that cleans up the sea of dead matter.  

The album title comes from the old English phrase 'living off the fat of the land', which means living well or being wealthy. wikipedia


So,  who's  living  off the  fat of  the land?


Here's the original album cover art design.

No. 269, The Virgin all-Time Album Top 1000


Art direction, design and photography by Alex Jenkins. Album produced by Liam Howlett. XL, Maverick 1997. 

It’s a particularly well done piece of graphic design done by Alex Jenkins, the man who worked with Prodigy
founder Liam Howlett to design the cover.  With some Photoshop voodoo and a little work on the perspective
of the photo, Jenkins made it look like the viewer is being  attacked by an oncoming predator (which was, in
fact, only four inches long).

“I loved this cover,” Howlett is quoted as saying,  “because I thought the picture had real attititude. It looks
like the crab is saying,’ This is my beach.'” Jackontheweb

The Fat of the Land was touted as the album that would bring electronica/techno to a worldwide audience (Of course, in Britain, the group already had a staggeringly
large following that was  breathlessly awaiting the album.)  The Fat of the Land  falls short of masterpiece status,  but that isn't because it doesn't deliver.  Instead, it
delivers exactly what  anyone would expect:  intense hip-hop-derived rhythms,  imaginatively  reconstructed samples,  and meaningless  shouted lyrics from Keith Flint
and Maxim. Half of the album does sound quite similar to "Firestarter," especially when Flint is singing.

Granted, Liam Howlett is an inventive producer,  and he can make empty songs like "Smack My Bitch Up"  and "Serial Thrilla" kick with a visceral power,  but he is at his
best on the  funky hip-hop of  "Diesel Power" and "Funky Shit,"  as well as the mind-bending  neo-psychedelia of "Narayan"  and the blood-curdling  cover of L7's "Fuel My
Fire." "Firestarter" and all of its  rewrites capture the fire of the Prodigy at their peak, and the remaining  songs have imagination  that give the album weight. The Fat
of the Land doesn't have quite enough depth or variety to qualify as a flat-out masterpiece, but what it does have to offer is damn good. Stephen Thomas Erlewine for AllMusic

(A) Smack My Bitch Up - Breathe

(B) Diesel Power - Funky Shit

(C) Serial Thrilla - Mindfields - Narayan

(D) Firestarter - Climbatize - Fuel My Fire

"Fuel My Fire" live from Nick Machiavelli on YouTube.

            

 

www.theprodigy.com

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90. Michael Jackson - Dangerous

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On this work, the original album cover art design is at centre. Parts of it are mirrored on the left and on the right. The main idea to give emphasis to the eyes in the finished work is manifest
with the addition of the  eyes on both sides of the album cover art.  The whole work was finished with craquelure.


Artist Mark Ryden went all out on the symbolism for the album cover of Michael Jackson’s 1991 album, Dangerous.
The cover features Jackson peering from  behind a circus-inspired foreground.  On the right sits a dog wearing the
crown and robe of Napoleon on His Imperial Throne, while a bird king sits on the left.

Possible Illuminati symbols include the all-seeing eye above exit of the Old Mill-type ride.  The animals who enter
the ride between two Masonic columns with a pirate skull and bones above emerge dead on the other side while a
young Michael and another kid with a ‘M’ on his t-shirt survive.  The world is depicted upside down from how it is
usually represented.

The elephant has a ‘9’ on its  forehead.

The ringmaster has a ‘7’ on his top hat.

It’s difficult to interpret  all the meanings of all the symbols  used on the cover of Dangerous,  especially since the
artist routinely uses tons of symbolism in his work.

The old  man at  the bottom  had been  identified  as PT Barnum,  Aleister Crowley,  and Adam Weishaupt.  In my
opinion,  he definitely looks like Barnum. Illuminati Symbols


Paris Jackson gets her dad's album cover tattooed on her arm.  She was only 11 years old when her father died in
2009. Vanity Fair

This is the original album cover art design.

No. 20, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time; No. 325, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.


Original album cover artwork by Mark Ryden.  Album produced by Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley, Bill Bottell
and Bruce Swedien. Epic, Sony 1991.


Robert Christgau gave Dangerous a grade of A-, saying it was Jackson's "most consistent album since Off the
Wall". Alan Light of Rolling Stone described Jackson as "a man, no longer a man-child, confronting his well-
publicized  demons  and  achieving  transcendence   through  performance."   Stephen  Thomas  of  AllMusic
described  the  album  as  "a much  sharper,  riskier  album  than  Bad."  Dangerous  received  four  Grammy
nominations including  three for Jackson including  Best Pop Vocal Performance  for 'Black or White', as well
as Best R&B Vocal Performance  and Best R&B Song for  'Jam',  while Teddy Riley and Bruce Swedien won the
Grammy for Best Engineered Album - Non Classical. wikipedia

(A) Jam - Why You Wanna Trip on Me - In the Closet

(B) She Drives Me Wild - Remember the Time - Can't Let Her Get Away - Heal the World

(C) Black or White - Who is It - Give in to Me 

(D) Will You Be There - Keep the Faith - Gone Too Soon - Dangerous

"Heal the World" from michaeljacksonVEVO on YouTube.

                                                                                                                                               

   

www.michaeljackson.com

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89. Traffic - The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys

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This 'paste-over' work was done with in the intention of making a three-dimensional image look flat. This looks arresting, but to me, it doesn't look three-
dimensional at all.  It does feel spacey and seems  to float over the black background, and the only space it will occupy would be  the space on your 18X10
resolution screen.  The purpose is to not attain  anything in spite of the effort,  to not feel the joy in spite of the cheer and to show the bleakness without
the frustration.

The traffic is stalled and no new heights are reached. And as the song goes, "Don't worry too much, it'll happen to you; we were children once playing with
toys." The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys

This was the first album cover ever  designed by artist Tony Wright.  It has been said that this art "looks like

Traffic's music sounds",  and we  heartily agree.  The different shapes  and textures are very  similar to how

the music of Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi sounds. As most people who own this record know, the corners

are chopped off.  This was done to  create  the cube effect that the art was designed to portray.  It worked

brilliantly! Visual Gallery

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys' cover is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

No. 625, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.

No. 76, Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Album Covers.


Cover design by Tony Wright, photography by Richard Polack. Album produced by Steve Winwood. Island 1971.


An incredible  collection of talent made  up this band and it shows  through on  both sides of this record.  The
voices,  instruments and arrangements  seem to be unique to this place and time.  Who else besides could pull
off a 12:10 "Low Spark"  and  make you want  more when it finishes?  And the record  still sounds  fresh today.
Jazz inflections, world-beat percussion and that voice of Steve Winwood plaintive yet strong at the same time.
And you get the die-cut cover to top it all off. Who could ask for more? tralfaz-archives.com


(A) Hidden Treasure - The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys - Light Up or Leave Me Alone

(B) Rock and Roll Stew - Many a Mile to Freedom - Rainmaker

"The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" live from Jam & Psych on MV on YouTube.

              

    

www.stevewinwood.com

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84. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

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This image is a collage of the original album cover art design (at centre) and reproductions of the image from the inside of the album and their negatives

(on the sides).  The whole original image has been  converted to monochrome and tinted with purple and the skull has been modified with the addition of

the eyes one of which has been intentionally  misplaced in order to add expression to the face (or whatever is left of it). The meaning of the expression is

left to the beholder. The eye is borrowed from pngimg.com.

Emerson Lake and Palmer’s  logo is actually the most reputed  anagram in rock music.  This work is  an excellent  example of how to make  a long name  fit into a simple  and effective logo.

Giger found a clever way to  make the anagram work by  balancing the circles in the letters 'E' and 'P' to encircle the whole thing.  He also balanced  the rest with a long vertical centre spinal

formed by 'L' and 'P'.  This is a wonderful lesson of balance and economy in logo design. The ELP logo has been used practically ever since.  T-Shirts, prints, posters, backdrops, tons of reissues

and one of the most frequent images was painted on the side of vans and motorcycles.

Giger’s images have  stood the test of time  and this album cover has became  one of the greatest album covers of all time.  Hans Rudolf Giger went on to

become a world famous artist and designer, his paintings and prints are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He won an Oscar for his  spectacular work

for the movie "Alien" and he has contributed works for the films "Species", "Poltergeist" and others.

The album cover is considered one of the most memorable (and often disturbing) of its time.  It features the  distinctive Giger monochromatic biomechanical artwork, integrating an industrial

mechanism with a human skull  and the new ELP logo. The lower part of the skull's face is covered by a circular screen, which shows the mouth and lower face in its flesh-covered state. In the

original LP release, the front cover was split in half down the centre, except for the circular screen section  which was attached to the right half. Opening the halves revealed a painting of the

complete face:  a human female  (modelled after Giger's wife),  with 'alien' hair and multiple scars,  including the  infinity symbol  and a scar from a frontal lobotomy.  The two images of the

woman are very similar, but the outer image (in the circle) contains what appears to be the top of a phallus below her chin, arising from the 'ELP' column below (the second painting originally

had the complete phallus, but this was removed at the insistence of the record company). The back cover was solid black with the album title in plain white lettering.

Image from Sacred Metal Board

According to a book written by Giger, the band never paid his bill for the artwork,  even though the imagery has become part of the band’s overall brand.

www.brainsaladsurgery.de

These are the original album  cover art design and the image from the inside of the album cover.  "Work No. 217 ELP I" (left) and "Work No. 218 ELP II" (right),

are acrylic-on-paper paintings by H. R. Giger, done in 1973. 

The paintings were last seen at the artist's 2005 retrospective at the National Technical Museum of Prague in the Czech Republic. A reward of $10,000 is being

offered for information leading to the recovery of these two world famous paintings. www.hrgiger.com 

No. 56, Music Radar, The 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time


Album produced by Greg Lake. Manticore 1973.


(A) Jerusalem - Toccata - Still. . . You Turn Me On - Benny the Bouncer - Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 1

(B) Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2 - Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression, Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression

"Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 1" live cover by the Morgaua Quartet from edamame365 on YouTube.

              

    

emersonlakepalmer.com

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