Controversial
8 Blind Faith: 'Blind Faith' - Yeah, give a young girl a horse (it is reported that was her compensation for posing for the cover), and put her image on the album cover.
Blind Faith were an English blues-rock band that consisted of Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds, Cream), Ginger Baker (Graham Bond Organisation, Cream), Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic) and Ric Grech (Family). The band, which was one of the first so-called supergroups, only released one album, Blind Faith, in August 1969. They were stylistically similar to the bands in which Winwood, Baker, and Clapton had most recently participated (Traffic and Cream).
Upon its release, Blind Faith topped Billboard's charts at the No. #1 spot for Pop Album in both America and the United Kingdom, and peaked at #40 on the Black Albums chart — an impressive feat for a British rock quartet. The album sold more than half a million copies within the first month of its release and was a huge profit-making device for both Atlantic Records (on their Atco label) and for Clapton & Baker (Blind Faith sales were helping to stimulate demand for Cream albums as well).
The release of the album provoked controversy because the cover featured a topless pubescent girl, holding in her hands a silver space ship designed by Mick Milligan, a jeweller at the Royal College of Art. Some perceived the ship as phallic. The U.S. record company issued it with an alternative cover which showed a photograph of the band on the front.
The cover art was created by photographer Bob Seidemann, a personal friend and former flatmate of Clapton who is known primarily for his photos of Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. Bizarre rumours both fuelled and were fuelled by the controversy, among them that the young girl was Baker's illegitimate daughter or, alternatively as a fantasy, was a groupie kept in the meadowlands as a slave by the band members. Actually, the young lass was a London suburbanite, who posed upon consent by her parents and for a handsome fee, as described in Seidemann's mini essay about the origins of the Blind Faith album cover artwork.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Weird
8. Moving Gelatine Plates: 'The World Of Genius Hans' OK, a dead cow head, in a leather jacket, no less- I would agree that is belongs in the weird category.
Easily one of the most interesting group to come out of France in the early 70's along with Magma and the GonG galaxy , MGP's second album is certainly impressive having gained in writing ability what they have lost in enthusiasm. The ever-excellent Musea booklet explains the whys and hows of their relative success (and the lack of greater success), but these guys missed the golden opportunity to strike it big! Bankrupted right from the start (the bassist never even owned his bass and the drummer and KB player were forced to sell their instruments afyter the release of this album) , the lack of finances was probably the only reason for their failure because, talent they certainly had!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Worst
8. The Rolling Stones – ‘Dirty Work’ - Love the colors, I guess they did too. But Mick with the bright yellow pants- don't those belong on the golf course?
Dirty Work is The Rolling Stones' 18th studio album (or the 21st, counting their US releases). It was released on March 24, 1986 on the Rolling and Stones label by CBS Records. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album was recorded during a period when relations between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards soured considerably, and is often regarded as a low point for the band.
The album produced a hit for the Rolling Stones - their cover of "Harlem Shuffle" - and features a number of guest appearances, including contributions by Tom Waits, Jimmy Page, Patti Scialfa and Bobby Womack.
Breaking with Rolling Stones tradition, Dirty Work was the first of their studio albums to contain a lyric sheet in the U.S., apparently at the insistence of then-distributor CBS Records, who also pushed for the atypical colourful band-photo cover. The album was also noteworthy as the first major release to be issued simultaneously on compact disc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Best
8. Roxy Music: ‘Country Life’ We have seen this before on the Gigwise list, they must be in love. Sex sells, always has and always will.Country Life is the fourth album by British rock band Roxy Music, released in 1974 and reaching #3 in the UK charts. It also made #37 in the United States, their first record to crack the Top 40 there. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent. Ferry took the album's title from the British rural lifestyle magazine Country Life.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 387 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was one of four Roxy Music albums that made the list (For Your Pleasure, Siren and Avalon being the others).
The cover features two scantily-clad models, Constanze Karoli (reportedly the sister of Can's Michael Karoli) and Eveline Grunwald. Bryan Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo shoot as well as to help him with the words to the song "Bitter-Sweet". Although not credited for their photos they are credited on the lyric sheet for their German translation work.
The cover image was considered controversial in some countries such as the United States, Spain, and The Netherlands, where it was censored for release. As a result, a later American LP release of Country Life (available during the years 1975-80) featured a different cover shot. Instead of Karoli and Grunwald posed in front of some trees, the reissue used a photo from the album's back cover that featured only the trees. Author Michael Ochs has described the result as the "most complete cover-up in rock history".
No comments:
Post a Comment