Afghan Whigs - 1965

On December 11, 1964, at his Nobel Lecture, Martin Luther King, Jr., said "There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance." The following year, the United States, in its "scientific and technological abundance" launched its first Gemini space missions, one of which is depicted on this album cover. The inside sleeve depicts helicopters in Vietnam as well as a Civil Rights march, a reminder of that "poverty of the spirit" of which Dr. King spoke.

I initially chose this album, because while the music never really stuck with me, the cover always has simply because I like pictures from space, particularly those that have something in the foreground that gives the picture a sense of height above the earth. It wasn't until I was writing this that I made the connection between the outer and inner sleeves and realized how powerful this cover really is. I wonder if they were thinking of Dr. King's speech when they designed the package or if it was just a happy (or not so happy as the case may be) accident.