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Jethro Tull's Stand Up I picked this one because of the wood cut cover art and the pop-up interior.
The Vinyl Record Day website recently ran a poll to determine the top ten album covers of all time. What is your pick for the single greatest cover, whether it be for an LP, CD, or high-rez audio disc?
I don't know if it is the greatest, but who from my "acid" generation can ever forget the cover of King Crimson's In The Court of the Crimson King? In one of my dorms in college somebody had amazingly faithfully painted a 1o' wide mural of the same in the hallway. But there are so many others to choose from, the wonderous ones from the Yes albums, sensual ones like Al Dimeola's Kiss My Axe. Truly too many to choose from.
Joni Mitchell's Hejira. Hauntingly beautiful black & white photographic images artfully portray the album's quixotic theme of finding freedom, temporary escape, ephemeral romance, and self-discovery by taking to the open roads of the North American continent. A close second, in my opinion, would be Miles Davis's Decoy. This stunning sepia toned, black & white, close-up image of Miles Davis captures not only the beauty of this great jazzman; but also moving is the photographic detail of the keloid-accentuated, embouchure scars on his lips. Such a timeless image.
Jethro Tull's Thick As a Brick. This cover is a fathfull replica of an entire newspaper (with some very entertaining text!). I'm surprised this one didn't rate well. Also noteworthy are some of the Tull's other albums. Stormwatch and Broadsword and the Beast (with its fabulous calligraphy) in particular. Aqualung's pretty striking too. Another one I'm surprised didn't rate more highly is The Small Faces' Ogden's Nutt Gone Flake. Also, any one of Yes' Roger Dean covers could have been in there (my favourite is "Relayer"). Another personal favourite is Joni Mitchell's Hejira (many of her covers are noteworthy too, especially as she does the artwork herself!).