By 1966 the rock n roll revolution had come and gone and the only thing provocative about it was the swivel of a man's hips and four English lads who who wouldn't cut their hair. It was THE VELVET UNDERGROUND who came along and made rock n roll edgy for the first time ever on their debut album THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO. The album boasted an experimental garage sound that to JOHN CALE's "ostrich" guitar tuning and viola and LOU REED's detached prose which explored themes such as drug abuse, prostitution and sado-masochism. With those elements coursing through the album you expect the sleeve to be a sartorial clutter but instead  all we get is a banana. In early pressings the banana would peel off revealing an pealed flesh colored banana.  This here is artist ANDY WARHOL's first appearance on this list.

DEBBiE HARRY  - KOOKOO
The combination of CHRIS STEIN and DEBORAH HARRY of BLONDIE and NILE RODGERS and BERNARD EDWARDS of CHIC sounded like it couldn't miss when it was announced that the two songwriting partnerships were joining forces HARRY's 1981 solo album KOOKOO. Unfortunately the album tanked and it's mix of white rock and black funk wouldn't reach the chart heights that either  team was accustomed to but it sure left us with a beautiful album cover. H.R. GIGER (of ALIEN fame) took that exquisite face and punctured it with some rather large pins. The results were shocking and an ad campaign in England for the album ended up being scrapped. If only the music had been as engaging as the artwork we could've had a better MADONNA than the one we would end up with two years later.

BEASTiE BOYS - LiCENSE TO iLL
The forefathers of rap rock alchemized the trajectory of hip hop by adding a bit of white boy countenance to the proceedings. Back in 1986 THE BEASTIE BOYS set the hip hop world and a broader audience on it's ear with the release of LICENSE TO ILL. In an age when the idea of white rappers didn't look like it would take flight, the band made a joke of it  with the sleeve of this groundbreaking album.




A TRiBE CALLED QUEST - THE LOW END THEORY
Clearly we have entered the hip hop section of this list. Personally speaking, this was the first hip hop album that I ever owned back in 1991 and the influence that it has had in shaping alternative hip hop  by connecting the dots between hip hop beats and jazz can't be fucking ignored. This simple  yet vibrant cover beautifully captures the improvisational feel of the music.





RED HOT CHiLi PEPPERS - MOTHER'S MiLK
This was the album that made the CHILI PEPPERS mainstream thanks to the addition of guitarist JOHN FRUSCIANTE aand producer MICHAEL BEINHORN. This album was an opportunity for the band to move on after the death guitarist HILLEL SLOVAK. They maintained the irresistible funk sound that set them apart  from the rest of their L.A. brethren but added a more melodic approach and walked away with a hit - a joyous cover of STEVIE WONDER's HIGHER GROUND. Model DAWN ALANE was the nude girl on the cover with a rose and ANTHONY KIEDIS' head strategically blocking her nipples. ALANE was never notified that she was chosen for the cover and promotional posters were printed with her nipples exposed. ALANE sued the band and won a $250,000 settlement.

NiRVANA - NEVERMiND
Just when you thought that rock n roll wasn't going to have that next big jolt, along came NIRVANA with the single SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT and the endless airplay that the video received on MTV. The band came out of nowhere (Seattle to be specific) and brought alternative rock to a large mainstream audience. The image of a baby underwater reaching for a dollar bill hooked to a fishing line is a strong and powerful image. Once again some record company suits panicked because the infants penis was visible and wanted and alternate cover designed yesterday. However, COBAIN got his way in the end and the cover was untampered with.  It's great when the artist wins!

QUEEN - NEWS OF THE WORLD
With NEWS OF HE WORLD, QUEEN moved into a mainstream rock direction as opposed to the prog-ier sound that they had forged on their previous release A DAY AT THE RACES. The album spawned the AOR standards WE WILL ROCK YOU and WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS and an album that boasts such a big and monstrous sound needs a big and monstrous cover and that the band turned to American si-fi artist  FRANK KELLY FREAS


JANE'S ADDiCTiON - RiTUAL DE LO HABiTUAL
PERRY FERREL dedicated JANE'S ADDICTION's second full length album to the memory of his former girlfriend XIOLA BLUE and the artwork for the album's cover is related to the song THREE DAYS. The song artwork chronicle the three days that FERRELL, BLUE and his girlfriend CASEY NICCOLI had spent in a haze of sex and drugs. Needless to say the male and female nudity depicted was enough for the record company  to order and alternate cover with a statement form FERRELL which read "Hitler's syphilis-ridden dreams almost came true. How could it happen? By taking control of the media. An entire country was led by a lunatic... We must protect our First Amendment, before sick dreams become law. Nobody made fun of Hitler??!"

THE ROLLiNG STONES - STiCKY FiNGERS
This is the second time that ANDY WARHOL makes an appearance on this list but this time around he merely conceived the image. It was BILLY NAME's photography an CRAIG BRAUN's design. After years of being signed to LONDON RECORDS and after having inadvertently signed their sixties copyrights over to their former manager ALLEN KLEIN and hs company ABKCO, the band launched their very own ROLLING STONES RECORDS. STICKY FINGERS was the maiden voyage for one of the most successful business ventures in rock n roll history  and they did  it with panache.

T-REX - THE SLiDER
While THE SLIDER was T-REX's seventh album it was the second to showcase the fuzzy glam rock sound that would come to define the band and it's  puckish lead singer MARC BOLAN.  This 13 song opus may as well have set the standard for the glittery sound that had electrified the English rock scene and the rest of the world  with tracks like METAL GURU, TELEGRAM SAM and BUICK MCKANE.  Of course the grainy image of BOLAN with the top hat (SLASH before the fact?) and the bold blood red lettering made the package all that more appealing. However, there has been some dispute over who took the photo. Was it RINGO STARR or was it producer TONY VISCONTI?  According to VISCONTI, "...In fact MARC handed me his motorized Nikon and asked me to fire off two rolls of black and white film while we were on the set of "Born To Boogie." RINGO, the director of the film, was busy all day lining up shots. But MARC apparently saw a photo "credit" opportunity and gave RINGO the credit for the photos."