Few sorts of music are extra inherently visible than progressive rock. The music lends itself to elaborate flights of fantasy, which is why prog rock album covers are an artwork type on their very own. To this present day, it’s inconceivable to think about prog music with out imagining the manic Schizoid Man, ELP’s mummified goddess, or your favourite Roger Dean fantasy kingdom. In some circumstances, like Hugh Syme’s work with Rush, Dean’s with Sure, or Kim Poor’s with Steve Hackett, the duvet artwork was the continued visible translation of themes within the music.
The likes of Dean, Paul Whitehead, and the Hipgnosis workforce additionally labored in different musical genres, however it was largely their prog-related albums that made them family names. Most of the finest prog rock album covers change into iconic because the albums themselves; together with a number of visible masterstrokes that adorn the covers of much less celebrated albums.
Listed here are the tales behind a number of the biggest prog rock album covers.
Camel – Mirage
(1974, Illustrated by Phil Smee)
There was no means the unique cowl for Camel’s 1974 Mirage album was ever going to fly in America. The album’s authentic jacket was designed after the Camel cigarettes package deal by artist Phil Smee (of Motörhead brand fame) however rendered out of focus, as to resemble a mirage. Stateside, the cigarette people threatened to sue, so the U.S. label got here up with a cartoon camel on the moon as a fast substitute. At dwelling within the U.Ok., the response was fairly totally different. The European cigarette firm beloved the duvet and launched album-themed packs as a tie-in. They even urged that the band rename a few of its instrumentals to bolster the connection. Bother was, not everybody within the band smoked, so when keyboardist Peter Bardens proposed a observe known as “Twenty Sticks of Cancer,” that was the top of that.
Gong – Gazeuse!
(1975, Illustrated by Jacques Moitoret)
Gazeuse! was an necessary transitional album for Gong, who’d misplaced visionary chief Daevid Allen an album earlier and have been now dishing out with vocals altogether. The brand new sound was steeped in hipster jazz, so in Europe, the 1975 album was given a full of life, pop-art cowl by artist Jacques Moitoret that harked again to the hippest corners of the early 60s. It additionally tied in with the European title, which accurately meant “fizzy!” however seemingly had a colloquial that means as properly (It’s a fuel!). The Seattle native Moitoret created related surrealist designs for Helix, Seattle’s first “underground” newspaper within the 60s. In America, the album was renamed Expresso and given an alternate cowl designed by John Thompson that was equally whimsical however lacked the colourful pop-art parts.
Renaissance – Scheherazade & Different Tales
(1975, Illustrated by Hipgnosis)
The Hipgnosis workforce could have made its title with outlandish visions, however they may do one thing easy and beautiful when an album known as for it. Renaissance’s traditional 1975 album Scheherazade & Different Tales was given an applicable storybook-like cowl, exhibiting a number of the characters that sprang from its heroine’s creativeness. Although the impact is fairly, there’s additionally a little bit of stylized violence – she was marrying a bloodthirsty sultan in spite of everything. The theme was carried over properly on the band’s subsequent album, Stay at Carnegie Corridor, the place the sultan and Scheherazade are attending the present.
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
(1973, Illustrated by Trevor Key)
The album cowl for Mike Oldfield’s 1973 debut album Tubular Bells is a type of circumstances the place the only picture was essentially the most iconic one. Trevor Key’s cowl reveals the bells floating above a seascape, just like the music itself, it calls in your creativeness so as to add no matter it likes. It additionally gave Oldfield a picture to return to for many of his profession: The bells would reappear in his many sequel albums. On The Millennium Bell, they have been actually the middle of the universe. The stormy seascapes would additionally come to replicate Oldfield’s way of thinking, because the reflective shot within the cowl of Incantations.
Nektar – A Tab within the Ocean
(1972, Illustrated by Helmut Wenske)
There was all the time a skinny line between prog and psychedelia, particularly on this early, 1972 Nektar disc; however the cowl for A Tab within the Ocean was full-on psych. German artist Helmut Wenske gave a visible reply to a query that was on the band’s thoughts on the time: What would occur if somebody dropped a tab of acid into the Atlantic Ocean? As envisioned right here, the reply is {that a} majestic spaceman-like creature would rise from the water, with an orb at his head and a take a look at tube by his aspect, able to work his magic on the world. In actuality, after all, the tab would in all probability simply dissolve, and no person would get excessive, however who wants actuality anyway?
Rush – Everlasting Waves
(1980, Illustrated by Hugh Syme)
Rush’s visible type actually blossomed with the duvet of their 1980 album, Everlasting Waves, which shifted from the sci-fi themes of earlier albums to extra complicated and surreal concepts. Whereas the album title was partly Rush’s response to the New Wave motion, designer Hugh Syme went for the phrase’s different meanings. He additionally mirrored the stress the band was below by exhibiting a 50s-style mannequin (an homage to Donna Reed and her trademark hairdo) strolling away from a hurricane. As regular, there have been a number of hidden jokes, together with Syme himself waving to the viewer.
Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives of Henry VIII
(1973, Artwork Directed by Michael Doud)
Rick Wakeman’s album covers would get greater and splashier as his idea albums did, however the cowl of his 1973 solo debut The Six Wives of Henry VIII was extra refined. With {a photograph} of a serious-looking Wakeman strolling among the many figures of Henry VII and his wives at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, it underlined the historic nature of the album. The whole lot concerning the cowl was quintessentially English. Besides after all for Richard Nixon, who’s there within the background when you look intently; the Tussaud’s people had failed to maneuver his determine all the way in which out of vary.
Genesis – Foxtrot
(1972, Illustrated by Paul Whitehead)
Charisma Information employees artist Paul Whitehead was proper in tune with the marginally sinister fantasy sensibility of early Genesis. His cowl for his or her 1972 album Foxtrot labored off the apocalyptic theme of the album’s epic “Supper’s Ready,” however it was Whitehead’s concept to make the theme somewhat extra fanciful, therefore the red-dressed lady with the fox head, which was additionally impressed by Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady.” Whitehead even got here up with the album’s title to tie in with the portray he’d finished. And when you look intently, the croquet scene from the earlier album Nursery Cryme might be seen on the again, one other traditional prog rock album cowl.
Van der Graaf Generator – Pawn Hearts
(1971, Illustrated by Paul Whitehead)
Paul Whitehead strikes once more, with an much more outlandish imaginative and prescient. For Van der Graaf Generator’s 1971 album Pawn Hearts, he labored off the essential concept of the album title – that everyone is a pawn in a cosmic chess recreation – nevertheless lofty their place in life. So he designed a chessboard hovering above the earth, populated by all types of figures: Jesus, Shakespeare, and Napoleon are all there, together with an alien determine that was impressed by the Mekon (not the later punk/roots band, however a personality within the U.Ok. caricature Dan Dare). Alien life and chess have been two of the numerous pursuits shared by Whitehead and Van der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill, and Whitehead got here up with an identical cowl for Hammill’s solo debut Idiot’s Mate.
Mild Big – Civilian
(1980, Designed by Nancy Donald and Ginger Canzoneri)
There was a pleasant little bit of serendipity concerning the cowl of Civilian, Mild Big’s 1980 LP. The album didn’t have a title when it was produced, so Mild Big’s title was painted with some crimson shading towards the underside, which inadvertently spelled out the phrase. Reportedly, the band noticed the duvet and questioned who “Civil Ian” was. However coupled with the picture of a faceless crowd, it ties in with the album’s idea a few 1984-type world as seen by an on a regular basis civilian. And right here’s the actual eyebrow-raiser, co-designer Ginger Canzoneri (who additionally did Mild Big’s dwell album Enjoying the Idiot) would quickly change into famend for her different gig, managing the Go-Go’s.
Triumvirat – Spartacus
(1975, Artwork directed by Roman Rybnikar)
This 1975 Triumvirat album cowl was a little bit of a shock, however a memorable one. Spartacus was a real idea album, however the cowl didn’t relate to the idea. As a substitute, Triumvirat’s artwork director Roman Rybnikar carried over the band’s white-rat mascot, which first appeared on their earlier album Illusions on a Double Dimple. This time the rat was positioned inside a lightweight bulb, showing to drag a lever, that was meant to indicate the band was a wellspring of concepts.
Steve Hackett – Voyage of the Acolyte
(1975, Illustrated by Kim Poor)
Issues didn’t finish properly between Steve Hackett and Brazilian artist Kim Poor, who was his longtime album artwork designer in addition to his spouse for 32 years. However Poor’s designs have been a vital a part of Hackett’s landmark albums, illuminating the otherworldly nature of his music. Considered one of her most stunning prog rock album covers, Voyage of the Acolyte, was finished when each companions have been turning to the Tarot deck and their very own relationship for inspiration. The duvet’s theme attracts from two of the tune titles – “Hands of the Priestess” and “The Lovers ” – underscoring the romantic nature of Hackett’s music.
The Moody Blues – Seventh Sojourn
(1972, Illustrated by Phil Travis)
Phil Travis was the duvet artist for many of The Moody Blues’ traditional stretch, and although he by no means received the identical fame as Hipgnosis or Roger Dean, his covers proved equally iconic. By no means placing the band itself on the duvet, he different his pictures to go well with the album, from the colourful house scene on On the Threshold of a Dream to the storybook of Each Good Boy Deserves Favour. For Seventh Sojourn, he got here up with a panorama of desolate magnificence, which mirrored the unrest in most of the songs, in addition to throughout the band, which might break up up for a time afterward.
Utopia – Swing to the Proper
(1980, Illustrated by Lisa Arnoitz)
Utopia’s political idea album Swing to the Proper spoke to the creeping conservatism of the Reagan years. The duvet made a “the more things change…” level by reprinting (and subtly altering) a well-known photograph from the Beatles record-burnings of 1966, which occurred in response to John Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” feedback. The duvet was high-concept in a number of other ways. It not solely referenced Utopia’s earlier album Deface the Music – which served as a Beatles homage/parody – however changed the unique photograph’s Beatles album with the Utopia album, making the image an infinite loop.
Uriah Heep – The Magician’s Birthday
(1972, Illustrated by Roger Dean)
With its dayglo splashes of blue and crimson, the duvet of Uriah Heep’s The Magician’s Birthday is arguably Roger Dean’s biggest prog rock album covers (Sure covers however), and some of the vivid fantasies ever to adorn an album. It was the proper match for an album that performed a notable half in inventing prog metallic. Successfully an illustration of the album’s epic title observe, it’s a few good and evil magician in a spell-casting event, and what fantasy artist might resist illustrating that?
Household – Fearless
(1971, Designed by John Kosh)
In 1971, John Kosh was one of many hottest British designers who took a cue from the promoting world, designing the sorts of pictures that may bounce out of {a magazine}. He was already an enormous title, having shot the Beatles crossing Abbey Street and the monolith shot on Who’s Subsequent. The duvet of Household’s Fearless cowl was an early laptop graphic, including collectively the band’s 5 particular person images till they grew to become a blur. There have been additionally a number of foldouts to make it fancier. After designing the Bandstand cowl for Household, he crossed the Atlantic and have become synonymous with the California soft-rock visible type of The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and James Taylor.
Site visitors – The Low Spark of Excessive Heeled Boys
(1971, Illustrated by Tony Wright)
Much less was undoubtedly extra within the cowl design for Site visitors’s 1971 album, The Low Spark of Excessive Heeled Boys. By slicing off the higher proper and decrease left corners of the album sleeve, artist Tony Wright created a three-dimensional impact, with a checkerboard tiled ground main right into a room stuffed with open sky. Relying on how your eyes landed, the picture both got here out at you or stretched away into infinity. It urged countless chance, which is precisely what Site visitors’s music was all about on the time.
Pink Floyd – Animals
(1977, Illustrated by Roger Waters and Hipgnosis)
The Hipgnosis workforce spared no expense when it got here to Pink Floyd covers. However the concept for the Animals cowl got here from Roger Waters, who hated the unique cowl Hipgnosis proposed (a mock-storybook drawing of a kid witnessing his mother and father copulating). Waters envisioned an enormous inflatable pig flying over the awful city setting of Battersea Energy Station in London. It took three tries to get the 40-foot creature aloft; within the second try, it got here unfastened and invaded the Heathrow Airport flight path, a lot to the British press’s amusement. They received it proper the third time, although there was one drawback: It was a good looking sunny day, fully the incorrect temper for this album; in order that they swiped the pig right into a stormier scene from the primary try.
Caravan – Crafty Stunts
(1975, Designed by Hipgnosis)
The Hipgnosis crew all the time loved a surreal gag, and if an album title had an apparent double that means (significantly sexual in nature), they’d often ignore it and go for one thing much less apparent. So for Caravan’s Crafty Stunts file, they offer you an precise crafty stunt, a go well with whose design renders the wearer invisible. In addition they could have been working off the album’s authentic title, Toys within the Attic, which Caravan gave up when a extra well-known band claimed it.
Curved Air – Air Conditioning
(1970, Illustrated by Mark Hanan)
One of many final eye-grabbers and biggest prog rock album covers, Curved Air’s U.Ok. debut Air Conditioning was – so far as anybody can keep in mind – well-liked music’s first 12-inch image disc. Packaged in a transparent sleeve, Mark Hanan’s gentle and darkish kaleidoscopic designs integrated the credit and tune titles, and was designed to look particularly hypnotic when spinning on a turntable. The U.S. viewers received shorted on this one; getting a traditional cardboard cowl till the pic-disc was reissued in 2018.
Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick
(1972, Designed by Jethro Tull and Roy Eldridge)
Jethro Tull’s well-known newspaper cowl for Thick As A Brick was maybe the primary album sleeve {that a} non-stoned particular person might spend many hours perusing. Certainly, the 12-page newspaper was so properly finished that many patrons fell for its preposterous backstory of eight-year-old Gerald Bostock and his epic poem (the fictional Bostock was formally credited because the album’s co-writer). Bandmembers Ian Anderson, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, and John Evan wrote many of the textual content, with assist from Chrysalis staffer and former newspaperman Roy Eldridge. The type of writing owes loads to Monty Python, with its sustained surreal gags, puns and wordplay, and no scarcity of winking sexual humor. There’s even a pretend evaluate of the album, written by one Julian Stone-Mason B.A., who wasn’t that impressed.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Mind Salad Surgical procedure
(1973, Illustrated H.R. Giger)
When Keith Emerson was launched to the famed artist H.R. Giger by Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s European tour promoter, he discovered simply the car for the form of imagery he was after. At that time, the album was to be known as Whip Some Cranium on Ya, and Giger’s creativeness went to work on the phrase’s mixture of skulls and sexuality. The duvet wasn’t modified when ELP got here up with the ultimate title Mind Salad Surgical procedure (which like the unique one, referred to a intercourse act) however it was toned down only a bit. The shaft of sunshine was initially one thing extra express. One shocking little bit of trivia: When Emerson visited Giger he noticed an early model of the “penis landscape” portray that may get the Useless Kennedys into massive hassle once they included it of their Frankenchrist album.
King Crimson – Within the Court docket of the Crimson King
(1969, Illustrated by Barry Godber)
The artist behind one of many biggest prog rock album covers was not knowledgeable artist. Barry Godber was an art-school pal of King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield and was then working as a pc programmer. Recruited by Sinfield to create a canopy for his or her 1969 album, Within the Court docket of the Crimson King, Godber received knocked off his ft by “21st Century Schizoid Man,” and painted precisely what he noticed. Robert Fripp specifically beloved the dramatic nature of the portray. It was Fripp’s concept to place no artist or title on the entrance or again cowl, a radical concept on the time (and a dangerous one for a debut). Sadly, Godber had a deadly coronary heart assault quickly after its launch; the portray is now owned by Fripp.
Sure – Relayer
(1974, Illustrated by Roger Dean)
Although Roger Dean did the paintings for dozens of bands, he’s most intently aligned with Sure, whose brand he additionally created. And the hyperlink between Sure’ musical and Dean’s visible imagery is not any coincidence. “I felt that if the band was making an effort to reinvent music, that there was an obligation to have this product look like it came from the place where the music allegedly came from,” he defined. His most placing Sure cowl, 1974’s Relayer, could be the one most intently keyed to the music. The war-and-peace themed album is Sure’ most dramatic, and Dean departed from his regular splashes of shade to create a forbidding wintry panorama with marching troopers and a guard snake (Dean was working off the album’s authentic title, The Gates of Delirium). The duvet additionally has a hidden secret: It kinds a steady scene whenever you put its entrance cowl to the left of the again cowl of Sure’ earlier album, Tales From Topographic Oceans.
Rush – Shifting Footage
(1981, Designed Hugh Syme, photographed by Deborah Samuel)
Longtime designer Hugh Syme was proper in tune with Rush’s cerebral humorousness, which discovered its most interesting expression on one in every of their best-loved albums, Shifting Footage. The 1981 cowl makes a triple visible pun on the title, with a crew shifting work out of a museum, teary onlookers being moved by the scene, and a film crew filming it. There are subtler jokes too: What number of museums would have a chilling portray of Joan of Arc’s loss of life proper subsequent to one in every of canines taking part in poker? (There’s an infinite loop right here too: Joan is performed by the duvet’s photographer Deborah Samuel). Mates of the band are within the crowd, together with Crowbar lead singer Kelly Jay as one of many movers; and it was shot on the three-arched Ontario Legislative Constructing in Toronto. And this beloved cowl virtually didn’t occur: The label felt that Rush’s idea would value an excessive amount of, so the band shelled out the bills itself.
On the lookout for extra? Uncover the 25 Best Prog Rock Albums of all time.
