25. David Bowie - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders from Mars

Flickr  Download DeviantArt

It's not difficult to find the original album cover art design on this work. It is mirrored at right and partially reproduced at left. The mirroring doubled up what looks like a heap of radioactive garbage but
it has to be left lying there. The mirroring also inverted K. West so the original had to be cut and pasted and tilted and positioned where it should be. 

Here's David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust posing at 23 Heddon Street, London on a rainy night in January 1972.

No. 27, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000; No. 30, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 34, Entertainment Weekly, 100 Greatest Albums Ever; 
No. 35, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Design by Terry Pastor of George Underwood's company, Main Artery, photo by Brian Ward. Album produced by David Bowie and Ken Scott. RCA 1972.


The album cover photograph was taken outside furriers K. West at 23 Heddon Street, London, looking south-east towards the centre of the city. Bowie said of the sign,
"It's such a shame that sign was removed. People read so much into it. They thought 'K. West' must be some sort of code for 'quest.' It took on all these sort of mystical 
overtones." The cover was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010. Full article

Right where the Starman touched down: From left, Spiders from Mars members Trevor Bolder and
Mick Woodmansey join Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp to unveil a plaque where Bowie's creation was
once photographed in Heddon Street, London. The Crown Estate, which runs a £7 billion property
portfolio on behalf of the Queen and the public estate, installed the plaque 28 March 2012. Article


(A) Five Years - Soul Love - Moonage Daydream - Starman - It Ain't Easy

(B) Lady Stardust - Star - Hang On to Yourself - Ziggy Stardust - Suffragette City - Rock n' Roll Suicide

"Five Years" live for BBC from sante3d on YouTube.

            

  

www.davidbowie.com

Previous: Don McLean - American Pie

Next: Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols

Back to Gallery 1

4. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Flickr Download DeviantArt

The basis of this work is not the original album cover art design, but the altered version, shown below. The alteration was done by extending the sides to form a rectangle out of a square and transferring the calligraphy from top right to where it is now. The altered album cover art design was further extended by adding the margins of darker yellow; wider at the sides to fit an 18 x 10 resolution screen,
shown above.  

This is the extended album cover art design. See the original.

No. 10, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time; No. 26, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 29, Entertainment Weekly, 100 Greatest Albums Ever; 
No. 31, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000; No. 44, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time.

No. 27, Music Radar, The 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time; No. 87, Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Album Covers.


Art design by Desmond Strobel, photo by Herbert Worthington, calligraphy by Larry Vigon. Album produced by Fleetwood Mac, Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut. Warner Bros. 1977.

Rumours is a tangled web of neuroses as it is, but the cover, which features Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks (who were not yet lovers) engaging in something resembling old-fashioned courtship, seems designed to stretch relationships to breaking point. This cover is very simplistic, featuring only two characters on a plain, off-white background. The composition of the image reinforces the title of the album as it’s as if the characters are conveying rumours to each other and then by having one of the characters facing the viewer, as if they’re then conveying the rumour to us.

The use of black highlights the mournful meaning behind the creation of the album, yet also makes the characters stand out against the background.
Yet despite the fact that this album is about the falling apart of Fleetwood Mac, by having the female member having her leg
over the male member also indicates some sort of together-ness which the listeners of Fleetwood Mac would crave for
(or was it just about legovers in general and the impending one between Fleetwood and Nicks in particular!). More


(A) Second Hand News - Dreams - Never Going Back Again - Don't Stop - Go Your Own Way - Songbird

(B) The Chain - You Make Loving Fun - I Don't Want to Know - Oh Daddy - Gold Dust Woman

  "Dreams" with lyrics from Peruven on YouTube.




     

www.fleetwoodmac.com

Previous: Nirvana - Nevermind

Next: Eagles - Hotel California

Back to Gallery 1

6. U2 - The Joshua Tree

Flickr Download DeviantArt


This one was quite simple. The original album cover art design was pasted at left. That left a 8X10 space at right. Part of the original image that was pure landscape was then flipped and then pasted on that space. That still left a 3.4x10 space at right. The flipped image was then reverted and used to cover that remaining space. At last, the band's image was cropped, flipped and pasted at bottom right.

Extending the desolate landscape in this work is the main point. The interesting part lies in discovering that the mirroring of images produced mounds of earth where once
there were none and they seem to add a bit of symmetry on the craggy terrain. There is still no tree in sight, and no prophet. You just have to believe.

Here's the original album cover art design.

No. 10, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 25, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000;
No. 27 Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time;No. 28 Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time.

No. 97 Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Album Covers.

Art design by Steve Averill, photo by Anton Corbijn. Album produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. Island 1987.

The initial concept for the sleeve was to represent where the desert met civilisation. From 14-16 December 1986, the band travelled with Corbijn and Averill on a bus around the Mojave Desert in California for a three-day photo shoot, beginning at the ghost town of Bodie before moving to locations such as Zabriskie Point and other sites on Death Valley. Lack of experience with a panoramic camera led Corbijn
to focusing on the background leaving the band slightly out of focus. He later recounted that the main idea of the shot was to juxtapose "man and environment, the Irish in America." 

On the evening after the first day's shooting, Corbijn told the band about Joshua trees, hardy and twisted plants in the deserts of the American Southwest. Bono was
pleased to discover the religious significance of the plant's etymology; early settlers, according to Mormon legend, named the plant
after the prophet Joshua, as the tree's stretching branches reminded then of Joshua raising his hands in prayer.
The following day, Bono declared that the album should be titled The Joshua Tree. More

(A) Where the Streets Have No Name - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - With or Without You - Bullet the Blue Sky - Running to Stand Still

(B) Red Hill Mining Town - In God's Country - Trip Through Your Wires - One Tree Hill - Exit - Mothers of the Disappeared


"With or Without You" official music video from U2Vevo on YouTube.

   

visit www.u2.com

Previous: Eagles - Hotel California

Next: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

Back to Gallery 1