Stealing Real Art

Introduction

I'm not sure which one kicked this off. A lot of album covers are by modern artists with their own signature identity. such as Jim Fitzpatrick, Patrick Woodroffe or Roger Dean (click on their names to find out more).

"Beck-Ola" by The Jeff Beck Group was one of the first that came to mind.

Jeff Beck Group - "Rice Pudding" from "Beck-Ola"

The album's title puns on the name of the Rock-Ola jukebox company, and the cover is taken from.

The album art is a reproduction of the second version of The Listening Room (1958) by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte.

I have chosen the closing song from the album, "Rice Pudding", an early example of nascent heavy metal.

The Pogues - "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" from "Rum, Sodomy, And The Lash"

The cover artwork is an altered version of The Raft of the Medusa, a Romantic-era painting by Theodore Géricault, with the band members' heads, painted by Peter Mennim,replacing those of various figures on the raft.

The song I have chosen is their cover of Eric Bogle's poignant and brilliant anti-war song "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". The YouTube video clocks in at over eight minues though I thought it was closer to six minutes, but you have to listen to every second of it.

Coldplay - "Viva La Vida" from "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends "

Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008) album cover features the famous 1830 painting "Liberty Leading the People" by French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix. The band slightly altered the historical masterpiece by daubing the album title, "VIVA LA VIDA", across the artwork in white paint. The Original Painting: "La Liberté guidant le peuple" commemorates the July Revolution of 1830 in France. It depicts the Goddess of Liberty leading revolutionaries over the barricades while waving the French tricolor flag.

Deep Purple - "Lalena" from "Deep Purple"

Tetragrammaton issued the album in a stark gatefold sleeve, wrapped around with a segmented illustration from Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights.The label ran into difficulty over the use of the Museo del Prado-owned painting, which was incorrectly perceived in the US as being anti-religious, featuring immoral scenes, and was thus rejected or poorly stocked by many record shops. The original painting is in colour, although it appeared on the LP in monochrome due to a printing error for the original layout, and the band opted to keep it that way.

The song I have included is a cover of a Donovan Leitch song. This is a radio session but includes a little of the cover in the YouTube video

More about the painting here:

Pearls Before Swine - "Lepers And Roses" from "Balaklava"

The cover is a detail from Bruegel The Elder’s The Triumph Of Death (incidentally drawing a telling parallel with the first-album appropriation of a portion of the Hell panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s visionary Garden Of Delights).

I could have chosen any song from this album, while at first it may sound very gentle, to me, it seems there is something sinister lurking in the background, with mythological references drifting in and out.

Alan Hull - "United States Of Mind" from "Pipedream"

The painting is "La Lampe Philosophique" (1936) by René Magritte.

Magritte used this painting to explore the limitations of human thought, later noting that the image represents how people become prisoners of their own habits or obsessions:

While I love Alan Hull and Lindisfarne (I have used his work in many Vocal stories), I bought the vinyl album because of this painting and the wonderful photograph album of the band and Alan's friends and family that came with it. The music is excellent as well, and this is one example from this songwriting genius.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Rebels" from "Southern Accents"

The album cover features an 1865 painting by Winslow Homer titled The Veteran in a New Field.

While mixing the album's opening track, "Rebels", Petty became frustrated and punched a wall, severely breaking his left hand. Subsequent surgery on his hand left him with several pins, wires and screws holding his hand together.

Tom Petty, always a favourite of mine.

Southern Accents was later hailed in The Rolling Stone Album Guide as a "breakthrough" and "Petty's best record...backed up with rock & roll of nearly the sweep and ease of the Stones' Exile on Main Street."

Pearls Before Swine - "Another Time" from "One Nation Underground"

This takes a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" as used for the Deep Purple album cover.

The msuic is typical Tom Rapp/Paerls Before Swine, and in case you were wondering I do have all their albums either digitally or on CD.

Conclusion

I am sure I have missed so many, but this is just to give a tasted of classical art meeting with great music.

Thank you so much for reading and listening.