il Buono, il Brutto, il AlbumArto
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.
Elton John
This is the cover to Elton John's first official live release, titled 17-11-70 (when it was released stateside it was renamed 11-17-70). I'm a fan of sparseness and monochrome coloring where just enough detail exists to outline some sort of context. If you were shown this image without the title you'd be able to discern a figure hunched over, possibly (or possibly not) doing something (or nothing). But tack on the words and you know it's Ol' Reg bangin' away on the keys. And though John and his stage persona were often flamboyantly over-the-top, this cover is pleasantly low-key, yet it doesn't ignore the electricity of his live shows.
Good song. Great album (double disc!). Awful cover. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in 1973, is Elton John's best-selling studio album and features such classics as "Candle in the Wind," "Benny and the Jets", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," and the title track. It also features the image of Elton John in a purple bowling shirt and faaaabulous red platform shoes stepping into a tattered Oz-as-English-countryside picture. Ian Beck is a reputable children's illustrator, and it's too bad that he's mostly known for this cover. It IS imaginitive, yes, but it's also cheese-a-riffic. I don't even know what to make of the tiny wind-up baby grand. However, I do wish I owned this album so I could see what other inane imagery exists on the rear and inside flaps.
This is Caribou, released eight months after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 1974. I've got JC Penney portraits that look exactly like this.
Take a band. Take its album cover highlights. Take its album cover lowlights.
Swish it all around in your mouth. Comment.
Elton John
This is the cover to Elton John's first official live release, titled 17-11-70 (when it was released stateside it was renamed 11-17-70). I'm a fan of sparseness and monochrome coloring where just enough detail exists to outline some sort of context. If you were shown this image without the title you'd be able to discern a figure hunched over, possibly (or possibly not) doing something (or nothing). But tack on the words and you know it's Ol' Reg bangin' away on the keys. And though John and his stage persona were often flamboyantly over-the-top, this cover is pleasantly low-key, yet it doesn't ignore the electricity of his live shows.
Good song. Great album (double disc!). Awful cover. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in 1973, is Elton John's best-selling studio album and features such classics as "Candle in the Wind," "Benny and the Jets", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," and the title track. It also features the image of Elton John in a purple bowling shirt and faaaabulous red platform shoes stepping into a tattered Oz-as-English-countryside picture. Ian Beck is a reputable children's illustrator, and it's too bad that he's mostly known for this cover. It IS imaginitive, yes, but it's also cheese-a-riffic. I don't even know what to make of the tiny wind-up baby grand. However, I do wish I owned this album so I could see what other inane imagery exists on the rear and inside flaps.
This is Caribou, released eight months after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 1974. I've got JC Penney portraits that look exactly like this.