10 ALBUM COVER PARODIES: It looks familiar but . . .

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10 ALBUM COVER PARODIES: It looks familiar but . . .

There are any number of books dedicated to the art of the album cover, and at Elsewhere we've indulged ourselves in articles about 10 Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own (four columns, see here) as well as an article on 10 Good Albums in Bad Covers.

You could fill a handsome coffeetable book with parodies of Beatles covers alone (hmmm, that's an idea), especially Please Please Me, With the Beatles, Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road.

So for the most part we'll just offer a couple of Beatles parody covers (right and below), and will sensibly ignore everything by The Muppets, Lego characters and Weird Al . . . but will throw the spotlight on parodies -- or perhaps homages? -- of covers you should know.

Here goes nothin' as they say. And at the end I will throw in another oddity.

But we start with a work of genius . . . not only do these likely lads get the whole concept of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds spot on they almost make you want to hear the music. Almost.

album_The_Lancashire_Hotpots_Pot_Sounds

And out of South Korea they came . . . the cover for Queen II was, like With the Beatles, one of those concepts which just cried out for a copy.

And that's exactly what this hard rock band did.

resized__400x396_album_NEXT_ReGame_0

Most people looking at Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother cover must have have had a similar thought: what if that cow . . .?

This deathgrind band Cattle Decapitation took it one step further with their cover for the 2004 album Humanure. It ain't pretty.

2651099_cattledecaptitaion

Herb Alpert's famously sensual cover for Whipped Cream and Other Delights in '65 has inspired a number of homages and parodies, but few more funny than this for a pizza shop.

Okay, it's not an album cover, but it should be.  

album_Colby_Knight_Melted_Cheese__Other_Delights_0

The circulating story behind this Beatles' parody was that the band made it as a tribute their (Jewish) manager Brian Epstein's mother Queenie.

Of course none of that is true, but this is the inspired cover to a collection of Rubber Soul outtakes and interviews on a bootleg label which also offered Withered Beatles (With the Beatles, but them as old men as per Alan Aldridge's artwork for When I'm 64) and The Little Red Album (Maoist chic).

rabbi_saul

You don't have to look far to find parodies of a few Springsteen covers (never spotted one of Nebraska though, ho ho ho) but this one leaps out because it has that virtue of any successful album cover. It is eye-catching.

resized__400x394_album_Various_Artists_Booty_Jams

Back when he was a cheeky wee fellow Nick Lowe spotted an opportunity for the cover concept of his new EP when David Bowie released the album Low. And so it was that the most commonly used letter of the alphabet disappeared and gave him the title.

resized__400x400_Bowi

Bowie has inspired many a career and some of his album art was so distinctive -- think Alladin Sane, Pin Ups etc -- that inevitably people were drawn to pay tribute, or take the piss. Constantine is actually a DC Comics character and the inspiration for his look was apparently Sting.

resized__400x400_David_Bowie_Heroes_album_cover_Uwe_de_Witt_parody

And finally, you'd have to think Andy Warhol might have enjoyed this, even if Lou Reed didn't. Dead Milkmen from Philly are a satirical rock band and on their album Metaphysical Graffiti they parodied Led Zepp's Physical Graffiti. This is funnier though. It's their Smokin' Banana Peels album.

dead_milkmen

And doubtless we'll be back at some other time with more such nonsense for your amusement. By the way, Evolver at the top wasn't an album (should have been) but a t-shirt design.

russian revolver album cover_1

Oddly enough this (above) was an actual album cover.

It was the Russian version of Revolver but if you compare it with the original it isn't just the title which has been rendered into Russian.

All the cut-in photos of the Beatles are actually different.

You wonder why anyone would bother . . . and that "anyone" is the artist/designer who inserts himself in the middle on the far right edge of the cover, just as Klaus Voorman did on the Beatles album.

FRONT_RUSSIA_Beatles___Help_1965And don't get us started on why the Russians had a different cover for Help!

That too defies commonsense.

Is that thing a parody?

Or is it a homage?

Or is it just bloody stupid?

Still, the Americans did their own absurd mischief on Beatles' album too . . . so who among us would cast the first stone?

Well, anyone with a brain, perhaps? 

Elsewhere has a number of columns along these lines, click the title for the following

10 Solo Albums by Group Members

Five Odd Albums No One Should Own (but I do)

Five French Albums I'm Surprised I Own

10 Shameful Records I'm Embarrassed to Own

10 Odd Unplayed Albums in My Collection

Another 10 Odd Unplayed Albums in My Collection

10 Unusual 10 Inch Records I'm Surprised I Own

10 Good Albums in Bad Covers

10 Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own

10 More Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own

And Another 10 More Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own

10 Rare Free Jazz Albums I'm Proud to Own

10 Somewhat Rare Reggae Albums I'm Proud to Own

and there is probably much more . . .   

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