My copy of “The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Annivesary DeLuxe 6CD Set” arrived yesterday and it is really exciting. It has a peelable banana on the cover and includes both the stereo and mono versions of the original album, as well as the 1966 Scepter Studios version previously released under the title “Unripened”. Added to this is a remastered version of Nico’s 1967 album “Chelsea Girl” and a Velvet Underground live recording from November 1966. But what I really found exciting was the 80 page book with historical photos from the band’s early days. Great! The book alone is worth the $70 or so that the set cost.
Warholcovers has previously commented on several covers purported to have illustrations by Warhol that have been for sale on Ebay. These are usually early Columbia Records LPs with Alex Steinweiss’ colour blocks and line drawings by various artists, most prolific of whom was probably Darrill Connelly who worked with Steinweiss at Columbia in the late forties, before Steinweiss moved on. Such titles as “Salome” and probably the “Elijah” three record set that are often put up for sale as being Warhol covers are by Connelly. I would also guess that the Debussy “French Song Recital” by Jennie Tourell and the Prokofiev/Respigi “Scythian Suite/Feste Romane” are also Connelly’s work – they definitely are not by Warhol.
The only genuine Columbia Warhol LP covers seem to be the Carlos Chavez “A Program of Mexican Music” and Prokofiev*s “Alexander Nevsky”. “The Nation’s Nightmare” – a classic Warhol cover – was released by Columbia Special Products, so qualifies as an early Columbia LP with Warhol art.
More covers are being suggested to be Warhol designs. Among the latest is The Darling Buds’ single “It’s All Up to You” released on both 7 and 12 inch vinyl with what looks like a variation of  Warhol’s “Flowers” design – but without the grassy background. There is an acknowledgement to Warhol’s Flowers on the rear sleeve. So I’d class this as heavily influenced by Andy Warhol, but not a true Warhol cover.

The past few days have seen several additions to my collection of Warhol covers.

I have constructed a mock-up of the “Progressive Piano” cover – the Warhol illustration that was never released, as a single 7 inch EP. However, I suspect that it was probably intended to be a double, gatefold EP, much like the Artie Shaw “Both Feet in the Groove” EP set, as there are eight titles on the cover and 7 inch EPs usually only include four tracks. I have used the standard RCA back cover. Perhaps I may get round to making a gatefold double pack one day.

Thanks to Frank “warholcovers” Edwards who tipped me off to the fact that Swedish punk band Enola Gay’s 1981 single “Döda djur / Storstad” (tranlsates to Dead animals / Big city), which uses Andy Warhol’s Bela Lugosi print on the record label and on the rear cover. So, yesterday, I went to my local purveyor, who naturally, had a mint copy in stock. Tis now is included in my collection. I was a little worried that the print was a still from a Warhol film, rather than a print. I have hitherto restricted my collection of Warhol covers to only include those that use Warhol designs, illustrations or prints and not film stills (such as those on many of The Smiths’ covers.) So the use of the Bela Lugosi print means I can include this in my collection.

Here’s a little background information on the Band Enola Gay. This Swedish punk band formed in 1978 under the name Usch. The group was heavily influenced by The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Sweden’s Ebba Grön. The released a couple of singles of which “Döda djur / Storstad” (translation: Dead Animals / Big City) which was released in 1981, under the band name Enola Gay just prior to the group disbanding.

And, today, I received my long-awaited copy of “Latin Rhythms” By Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops. One of the three early Warhol covers lacking in my collection. A nice, near mint copy. Here are the photos of all three additions.

In 1998 Nick Cave’s book “And the Ass Saw the Angel” used a photograph of a Banksy image on the cover. This was the same year that the first record cover stencilled by Banksy appeared in Bristol. My question is: ” How did Penguin Books recognise Banksy’s art so early?” – or was it Nick Cave that had the idea?

As the image appears on a book by a music icon, I will include this book in my collection of Banksy covers.

It seems to be a never ending story: the saga of record and CD covers with Andy Warhol art. Chief detective Kevin Kinney, with an eye for the unexpected, has turned up several new covers with Warhol art.
First off is the rear cover of Keely Smith’s “I Wish You Love” LP and EP from 1957. The rear cover has a typical Andy Warhol drawing.

No sooner had he found this previously unrecognised Warhol drawing that Kevin turned up the CD from the talk given by David Cronenberg at The Art Gallery of Ontario in connection with the 2006 Warhol exhibition that he curated.

This cover image was santioned by The Warhol Foundation. But this is not the first time Warhol’s “Multiple Elvises” has appeared on a record cover. In 1985 Andi Sexgang released their first album entitled “Blind!” that used multiple Elvises on the cover. But the “Cronenberg on Warhol” CD seems to me to be more a true Warhol cover.

Thanks Kevin! Keep up the good work.

No sooner had I sold the bulk of my records and posters than two new additions to the remaining collection arrived. I have previously announced in my blog that Sir Peter Blake was to appear on the cover of Madness’ special edition of their latest album “Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da”. Well the 4-CD set arrived yesterday with the picture of the band and Sir Peter all in fancy dress – Sir Peter dressed to look like Moses.

The second arrival was the CD “Music For Merce” – The EOS Ensemble conducted by Jonathan Sheffer. A recording of John Cage’s work with cover art by Andy Warhol. I have to thank Frank Edwards (Warholcovers) and Guy Minnebach for tipping me off about this CD.

I have been collecting posters as well as records – running round London in the sixties ripping posters from walls. I managed to collect posters for a Tim Buckley concert at The Middle Earth, Ravi Shankar at Blaises Club, The Rolling Stones 1971 UK tour and a host of other goodies.

One of my more recent favourites is Rob Jones from Austin, Texas. Rob is a poster and record cover designer, who won a Grammy for his design of the box set of the White Stripes’ “Under Great White Northern Lights”.

I suppose I first found out about Rob’s work via his record covers. Rob has designed posters for Jack White’s various bands: The White Stripes, The Dead Weather anbd The Raconteurs and he continues to produce covers for Jack White’s record label Third Man Records.

In about 2005, he had an exhibition at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester, UK. For the exhibition, called “Aluminium”, Rob created a series of six fantastic silkscreened posters and in addition the exhibition poster and the cover design for the album “Aluminium”, which is an album of orchestral versions by Richard Russell and Joby Talbot of ten White Stripes songs. The LP was released in an edition of 999 copies and the CD in an edition of 3333 copies. The LPs contained a 10″ square part of one or other of these posters. Rob also designed the cover art for a promo CD and a 12″ single.

I bought the set of Aluminium posters. Three with diagrammes of the Aluminium atom and three without.

I started to collect Rob Jones’ recprd cover designs. There was a number of difficult ones to find. First Jack White decided to release a single of the live performance of “The Denial Twist” from each of the ten concerts on his 2005 tour of the UK. Each single from the respective concert was given to everyone who attended that concert. Each single has a different card cover designed by Rob. I managed to get hold of all ten. Then Jack White released a set of nine double Digipak CDs from a concert series with more Rob Jones artwork. Once again, people who attended tghe concerts could order the CDs at each respective venue. People who could not attend, like me, could subscribe to receive the CDs later. I later contacted Rob to try to get a list of all the covers he had designed and he was most helpful.There were only a couple of early CDs that I couldn’t get hold of, such as the Pink Swords’ demo CD.

Then I bought a Rob Jones’ homage to Ian Curtis in the form of a triptych of silkscreened prints (edition of 80) that used Kevin Cummins famous photo of Ian Curtis as its centrepiece:

Warholcovers had the brilliant idea of contacting members of Literature to find out more about their approach to making the album cover. Warholcovers has given me permission to publish the interview here, so tah other lovers of record cover art may read it. So here is the interview:

“Curious to find out more about one of the most recent Warhol related covers, I was able to track down Literature and ask them a few questions about their “Arab Spring” record cover.

WC: How did you come up with the decision for the cover art for your debut record, “Arab Spring”?

Nathaniel (Cardaci, vocals/guitar – recordart’s note): Sometime after recording ” Arab Spring” I found myself at the Menil collection in Houston. They had a Warhol room at the time and as I walked in I saw Ten Foot Flowers on the far wall everything about it screamed POP and I knew at that point that I wanted to try to use some amalgamation of the image for the record cover.

WC: Did you have any interaction with the estates of Andy Warhol or Patricia Caulfield, the photographer of the original flower image?

Kevin (Attics, guitar/vocals – recordart’s note): We did not attempt to contact them fearing that it might result in a legal obstruction that would push back the release of the record or disallow us from using the cover.

WC: Was the image used an original Warhol image, or was it manipulated to avoid copyright issues?

Kevin: The artist Jordan Shade and I worked to create a new cover using the same techniques employed in the original series. I think that the flowers’ shapes might be cut from the original series but they were overlaid onto a new screen of grass and colored by us.

WC: Does the work of Andy Warhol have any special meaning to any of you in the band?

Kevin: Nathaniel and I have an abiding fondness for NYC Culture running from the late 60′s to the mid-80′s. That period is obviously indebted to Andy. That we are influenced by bands he showed a great enthusiasm for might be why we felt his work was a great visual complement to our music.

Thanks to Literature for taking the time to answer these questions.”

So, as we surmised the album art is not a Warhol picture at all, but a new montage of four hibiscus flowers on a new background of grass by Jordan Shade and Kevin Attics to resemble Warhol’s famous “Flowers” painting – a true homage to great art!.

Here’s a photo of my copy of record 1 of this two record set. Record 2 is on its way, too. Considering the record sleeve is only relatively thin paper, the cover is in great shape. No tears or writing, although it is rather faded.I also have the original 1953 book “Magic Key to Spanish” which has many more Warhol drawings than are on the record sleeve.

The list of record covers bearing Warhol art is continually increasing thanks to two Warhol cover detectives Frank Edwards and Kevin Kinney. The latest addition which I feel has to be added to my http://www.rateyourmusic.com Warhol cover art list is yet another Velvet Underground bootleg entitled “Orange Disaster”. The rear cover bears a photo of an upturned car used by Andy Warhol in his “Death and Disaster” series of screenprints.

So, there are probably many more covers that use press photos later used by Andy Warhol is his art; the photo Warhol used was a stock photo of the electric chair in New York State’s Sing Sing prison. I have thus far been unable to find details of who the photographer was.

The latest addition to my collection of record covers illustrated or designed by Andy Warhol is

the RCA Red Seal recording of Vladimir Horowitz “Piano Music of Mendelssohn & Liszt”. I have another on order – Margarita Madrigal’s “Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish, Vol 1”, and after that there are only three or four left to find, unfortunately all very expensive! These are The Madrigal Volume 2, Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops “Latin Rhythms”, Johann Strauss Jr “Waltzes” and the Ultra Violet LP.