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Rocktiludrop
Best = Black & Blue

Worst = Dirty Work. Looks like Keith knee to Mick's nuts

Well...as they say, it is one hit to the body, one straight to the nuts.

Sticky Fingers (with an actual zipper) and the original die-cut cover of Some Girls with pics of Lucy, etc., before it was "under construction" are standouts from a conceptual standpoint. Exile on Main St. is also great and works well as a reflection of the the music inside.

But I really like the covers with pictures of the Stones on them: Through The Past Darkly captures the spirit of the Stones, as does Brian's wasted face on Between the Buttons. How many discussions did that inspire back in the day?



Sure, Black and Blue has some beautiful wide-screen shots of them, but I don't think they reflect the music. Here they were recording some gritty down-to-the basics music, and they package it with a jet-set rock star on vacation cover.

At the time I felt that they put more effort into shooting the photos than they did on recording the album!



I never liked the conceits behind Goat's Head Soup and Tattoo You, where Mick and Keith appear on the front and back. In retrospect, the lack of information on Tattoo You was done on purpose, but representing the work of the band as "the Mick and Keith show" was infuriating.

At least Charlie, Bill and Mick T. made the inside gatefold of GHS. But that cover could have been a lot better if they had used the goat soup image that was included inside (or the pic that put that image on a can of soup) on the front, and a group shot from those David Bailey sessions on the back. What probably killed the concept of the actual goat head on the cover was when "Angie" was picked as a single.



Among the worst would be that one with the gorilla and Emotional Rescue, which I think was designed that way just to hide Mick's beard. There's nothing emotional about it. It's blah.

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treaclefingers

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Rocktiludrop
Best = Black & Blue

Worst = Dirty Work. Looks like Keith knee to Mick's nuts

Well...as they say, it is one hit to the body, one straight to the nuts.

>< They play to the gallery, the fake fighting in the OHTTB video comes to mind.

Fittingly, Dirty Work is the worst cover.

Best? For me that might be Voodoo Lounge. Very tough though, Sticky, Let It Bleed, Some Girls are all in the running.

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loog droog
Sticky Fingers (with an actual zipper) and the original die-cut cover of Some Girls with pics of Lucy, etc., before it was "under construction" are standouts from a conceptual standpoint. Exile on Main St. is also great and works well as a reflection of the the music inside.

But I really like the covers with pictures of the Stones on them: Through The Past Darkly captures the spirit of the Stones, as does Brian's wasted face on Between the Buttons. How many discussions did that inspire back in the day?



Sure, Black and Blue has some beautiful wide-screen shots of them, but I don't think they reflect the music. Here they were recording some gritty down-to-the basics music, and they package it with a jet-set rock star on vacation cover.

At the time I felt that they put more effort into shooting the photos than they did on recording the album!



I never liked the conceits behind Goat's Head Soup and Tattoo You, where Mick and Keith appear on the front and back. In retrospect, the lack of information on Tattoo You was done on purpose, but representing the work of the band as "the Mick and Keith show" was infuriating.

At least Charlie, Bill and Mick T. made the inside gatefold of GHS. But that cover could have been a lot better if they had used the goat soup image that was included inside (or the pic that put that image on a can of soup) on the front, and a group shot from those David Bailey sessions on the back. What probably killed the concept of the actual goat head on the cover was when "Angie" was picked as a single.



Among the worst would be that one with the gorilla and Emotional Rescue, which I think was designed that way just to hide Mick's beard. There's nothing emotional about it. It's blah.

Thank you! That’s the biggest problem I have with the GHS and TY covers.

It's kind of hard to disassociate the album covers from the music on the album. I always thought the "Let It Bleed" cover was kind of daft (cake and bicycle wheel floating above disembodied stereo needle and record), but the music inside is so good, who cares?

Best - exile. Often imitated (pearl jam no code etc) never bettered
Worst - dirty work

Flanker for the streaming age blue and lonesome

Funny how the better albums tend to have better covers

Top 3

It’s Only Rock and Roll

Exile

A Bigger Bang

Bottom 3

Dirty Work

Undercover

Black and Blue

It is interesting to look at them and really try to concentrate on the design only and not the iconic status of the album that they're on.

I'm looking at the album covers now and really trying to critique them purely on a visual design level, but it's so hard to not rate the album itself. It really is an interesting thought experiment.

Best:

Tattoo You

Get Yer Ya Ya's Out

Black And Blue

Steel Wheels

Exile On Main Street

Let It Bleed


Worst:

Sticky Fingers

It's Only Rock And Roll

Goats Head Soup

I love the castle photo on the back of Hot Rocks. It's what made me fall in love with Keith Richards and need to know every damn thing about him. Aside from Keith, it's just a really cool photo in general.

The only ones that stand out as bad are Mick's Primative Cool, A Bigger Bang, and Bridges to Babylon.

Wasn't looking too good, but I was feeling real well.

I actually always liked BTB particularly in the slipcase.

My top 5:
Aftermath
Let It Bleed
Out Of Our Heads
December's Children
Get Yer Ya Yas Out


Worst 5:
Dirty Work
Steel Wheels
Voodoo Lounge
Bigger Bang
Blue & Lonesome

I love almost all of the 60's album covers, but dislike the majority of the >71 catalogue. Especially the live albums are plain crap. Live Licks, Flashpoint, Love you Live, No Security... meh meh meh..

Best 5:

- Sticky Fingers
- December's Children (OooH UK)
- Their Satanic Majesties Request
- Let it Bleed
- The Rolling Stones (debut)

Worst 5

- Voodoo Lounge
- Emotional Rescue
- Undercover
- Steel Wheels
- Dirty Work
-

My Favorites would have to be (in no particular order):

Between the Buttons
Stripped
Zipper Sticky
Exile
BTB
London Years
Bremen
Voodoo
SW
All 3 versions of Live Licks (unedited being the best)
TY
Flowers
December's Children (always liked that photo)



Worst:
Grrrr
Love You Live
HONK
Jump Back
Still Life
All of the Vault series with the exception of LA Friday, which I actually like.


Really their live albums mostly stink.

bests:
between in the buttons

ya ya´s

iorr

metamorphis (amazing cover)

love you live

SG

TY

Still life

VL



worsts:
out of your heads
let it bleed
exile
emotional rescue
a bigger bang

until now:

BEST:

SF - 13
Exile - 13
Some girls - 10
ya ya´s - 9
black and blue - 8
lei it bleed - 8
Between in the buttons - 8
iorr - 7
Tattoo you - 7


WORST:

dirty work - 13
bridges to babilon - 10
a bigger bang - 9
undercover - 7
steel wheels - 7
emotional rescue - 6
voodoo lounge - 5
goats head soap - 5
iorr - 4

The absolute best are:

The First Album
Let It Bleed (very famous designer Robert Brownjohn)
Sticky Fingers
Exile

Very okay:

Some Girls
Tattoo You
Black & Blue

Just Okay:

Almost any other album

The Ones that I don't like very much:

Goats Head Soup
It's Only Rock'n Roll
Undercover
Dirty Work
Bridges to Babylon

But the B2B is absolutely the worst if I must choose one album cover.
Goats Head Soup is pure art in comparison with that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-09-27 21:03 by rollingon.

I always considered the cover of It's Only Rock'n Roll to be excellent. It's irony, sure, and it fits into the mid-12970s perfectly!

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saltoftheearth
I always considered the cover of It's Only Rock'n Roll to be excellent. It's irony, sure, and it fits into the mid-12970s perfectly!

I don't know what that means, but sure...why not?


It's hard for me to be objective over that one because of my first impression of that cover in 1974.

That summer Bowie released Diamond Dogs with a cover painting by Guy Peellaert. It was a pretty striking image, and very cutting edge, with a little controversy floating about it when word got out that RCA had the dog nuts removed. Ouch!

Peellaert was the man of the hour, with his upcoming Rock Dreams book of paintings that illustrated the history of RnR getting a lot of buzz and due to come out later that year.

A few months later when IORR was finally released it was explained how the Stones had actually commissioned Peellaert first--but due to their typical album delays Bowie was able to get his album to market before they did. Now it appeared that the Stones were followers...and copying Bowie!

Also, given how outrageous some of his images of the Stones were in Rock Dreams, the paining of IORR was a bit of a letdown. No need to censor this one.


So I've always viewed that cover as a bit of a disappointment, even though it's actually pretty good.


One thing I don't care for is how the inner sleeve uses the exact format of the one in GHS, with credits on one side and photos of sidemen on the other. It was fine the first time, but I didn't think it was good enough that it was worth repeating. It also makes me lump the two albums together, which shouldn't be because IORR was really a break from what they had been doing before, i.e. no horns and Glimmer Twins instead of Jimmy Miller.


I think you really have to look at the covers on vinyl records instead of tiny copies on CD cases. Covers like Let It Bleed don't really get across in that format. It's like watching Lawrence of Arabia on your phone. You miss a lot that way.