10 of the weirdest Classic Rock album covers

7 November 2024, 14:18

Radio X Classic Rock takes a look at some of the strangest, freakiest and sometimes most alarming examples of album artwork in history... from Pink Floyd to Queen and more!

1. Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (release date: 7th November 1969)

   A never-ending recursive image of the Floyd lounging around a patio in Cambridge formed the cover of this eccentric double set from 1969. This was an early design by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell's group Hipgnosis, who would achieve everlasting fame with the sleeve for Dark Side Of The Moon by the same band. It's called a droste effect. Fancy that!

   

2. Queen - The Miracle (release date: 22nd May 1989)

   The British band had previous form with unsettling album covers (we're thinking News Of The World, specifically), but this late-period entry is a grotesque classic. Morphing the four members - John Deacon, Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury and Brian May - into a four-faced gestalt being was no easy feet in the pre-Photoshop 1980s and the hugely expensive Quantel Paintbox was drafted in. The back cover is even more horrible - a fleshy wall of eyes. Eeew.

   

3. Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me (release date: 15th October 1973)

   Before the understated elegance of Rumours, Fleetwood Mac went through a number of changes of image. This early 70s album takes the biscuit: the graphic design company Modula employed a local student from Liverpool University called Thomas Eccles to come up with this odd monkey/cake montage. The image wraps onto the back cover, featuring an equally grotesque robed human figure reading a great big book. What does it all mean?

   

4. Percy "Thrills" Thrillington - Thrillington (release date: 29th April 1977)

   Percy was actually superstar Paul McCartney and the curious sheep-human hybrid on the cover was meant to be a clue as to the content of the record: an orchestral version of the former Beatle's album Ram. Macca kept his involvement in the production secret for a decade, although artist Jeff Cummins painted a scence for the back cover depicting him gazing through a studio window at another sheep-headed being conducting a group of classical musicians. Cummins had done the honours for McCartney's impressive Wings Over America triple album the previous year.

   

5. Led Zeppelin - Presence (release date: 31st March 1976)

   The enigmatic sleeve from the band's seventh album features the mysterious Zeppelin "object" (inspired by 2001), a weirdly retro-looking staged photo of a family as the main focus and a shot of the marina at Earl's Court boat show in the background.

   

6. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel II (release date: 2nd June 1978)

   Gabriel's first four solo albums - released after he left Genesis in 1975 - were all untiled, meaning the Hipgnosis artwork was a useful way of differentiating them, hence the informal titles Car, Scratch, Melt and Security. Melt is the most startling, but Scratch has an agressive surrealism all of its own.

   

7. John Lennon - Mind Games (release date 29th October 1973)

   A cartoony-looking Lennon take a trip into the Yoko foothills on this trippy solo outing from the former Beatle. Weird.

   

8. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (release date: 16th June 1969)

   A famously eccentric album cover photo from the late great Don Van Vliet.

   

9. Black Sabbath - Born Again (release date: 9th September 1983)

   Steve Joule later claimed he designed the art for this 1983 Sabbath album with a view to it getting rejected immediately as he wanted to keep on good terms with former vocalist Ozzy Osbourne who was also giving him work. However, to Joule's surprise, manager Don Arden loved the cover and thought it was badass enough to give Ozzy a run for his money. New singer Ian Gillan reportedly threw up when he first saw it.

   

10. Rainbow - Straight Between The Eyes (released April 1982)

    Another notable sleeve from the talented brush of artist Jeff Cummins for this post-Deep Purple project featuring Ritchie Blackmore and Roger Glover. Apparently, the band's stage show to accompany this album featured a giant pair of mechanical eyes peering out at the audience.

    

11. Debbie Harry - KooKoo (release date: 27th July 1981)

    The Blondie star's first solo album featured this incredible photo montage from Swiss artist H. R. Giger, then best known for his design work on the film Alien. The image of Harry's skewered face was deemed too disturbing by the London Underground management, who banned a poster campaign on the tube.

    

12. Alice Cooper - Raise Your First And Yell (released: October 1987)

    Artist Jim Warren conducted the visual nightmare that appears on the cover of Cooper's 1987 album, which is actually more frightening than the appearance of Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund on one of the tracks.

    

13. Uriah Heep - ...Very 'Eavy ...Very 'Umble (released: June 1970)

    The hard rock pioneers frightened the nation with this genuinely creepy cover for their debut album. It's actually a photo of frontman David Byron, covered in cobwebs.

    

14. Sparks - Propaganda (release date: 11th November 1974)

    The Mael brothers' fourth album features a typical mini-drama played out across the entire package. The front sleeve image is actually titled "Welcome On Board" and was shot by fashion photographer Monty Coles, while the tale of Ron and Russell's "kidnapping" continues on the back cover: the other members of Sparks look shfty as the brothers struggle against their bonds in the back seat of a vintage car. Oh no!

    Thankfully the inner sleeve provides a resolution as the pair are pictured tied up on a bed (as can be seen on the front cover sticker), with Russ seemingly free and phoning for help. Tune in next week to find out what happens!

    

15. Crosby, Stills & Nash – Live It Up (release date: 26th June 1990)

    A baffling photo-montage adorns this 90s album from the folk-rock trio. Artist David Peters also worked on albums by Devo and "Weird" Al Yankovic, as well as CS&N's 1983 LP Allies, which is a lot more sensible.

    

16. Yes - Going For The One (release date: 15th July 1977)

    The prog band swapped long term artistic collaborator Roger Dean to come up with the cover of their 1977 album with the Hipgnosis team, who came up with a nude bloke looking at the Century Plaza Towers in California.

    

17. King Crimson - In The Court of The Crimson King (release date: 10th October 1969)

    This is apparently a "self-portrait" by the artist Barry Godber, who sadly died of a heart attack aged just 24, four months after the album was released. The band's Robert Fripp now owns the painting, and says that the character represents the song 21st Century Schizoid Man.

    

18. David Bowie - Lodger (release date: 25th May 1979)

    What's going on here? Toilet mishap? Too much Columbian marching powder? Is something happening to that bathroom that's causing Dave to look like he's been run over by a truck? Only Bowie knows. This was a collaboration with the British pop artist Derek Boshier, who later worked on the Let's Dance album cover.

    

19. 10cc - Deceptive Bends (released May 1977)

    Hipgnosis again: the title of the British band's 1977 album came after member Graham Gouldman saw a road sign warning of "deceptive bends" outside their studio in Dorking. Hipgnosis interpreted this as the bends deep sea divers get when surfacing, creating a peculiarly artificial effect by shooting the diving suit and the band members in the studio.

    

20. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (release date: 22nd November 1974)

    To visualise the prog band's epic rock opera, design studio Hipgnosis came up with this elaborate and chin-stroking package. For the pre-Photoshop era, some of the image manipulation on the cover is hugely impressive.