Roxy Blue-Want some?

The time is early 1992. The place is somewhere in a workroom of a creative design firm where two art consultant's are hard at work on designing the cover of Roxy Blue's Want Some?

Art consultant 1-Mike Clink produced this album and it's on Geffen so I'll there has been a lot of money poured into this project. So what's your idea?

Art consultant 2-We just went through the Gulf War and it's an election year, so I think that we should do a play on that old Uncle Sam poster to make a statement about the government and today's society.

Art consultant 1-Okay, what's the angle?

Art consultant 2-We will have Uncle Sam with a big smirk on his face with a hot, barely dressed babe with big boobs hanging on to him.

Art consultant 1-That's your idea? It's the 1990's, man. It's not just a new decade, but a whole new way of thinking. It's not only popular musical trends that have begun to change, but it's the whole attitude of our society that has shifted. The young people of today care about issues and there is no way that they are going to be drawn in by a cheap, shallow cover like this!

Art Consultant 2-You're exactly right. How about we also give the girl a round butt and Uncle Sam will have just a hint of lizard skin around his right wrist?

Art consultant 1-Now you're talking!

***So perhaps that's the story of how this cover came to be or perhaps not.

Tom Waits - Small Change

Okay, let's be honest. You could take the collective artistic/graphic design knowledge of the gang at Whole Lotta Album Covers and fit it on one point of a Seurat painting. We're rock fans, not art critics. Most of the time, we're not going to give you any great insight into album covers, and we'll certainly never be able to compete with Ash and the good folks at Sleevage (which is an awesome site, and you should probably just go there now instead of reading my comments about Tom Waits).

Despite our obvious shortcomings, this site gets a ridiculous amount of hits every day. Since we're Americans, we immediately saw an opportunity to make some money. Thus, we un-retired the site and added some Google ads. We've made like $0.43 so far. As Daffy Duck used to say, MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY!

So, in honor of our whore-like tendencies, I'm highlighting the strip club dressing room of Tom Waits' Small Change. The cover isn't great, although it might be if stupid Tom weren't sitting in the middle of it like some egotistical jackass. The good thing about this cover -- and it's really good -- is the expression on the young woman's face. Her separation, her disinterest, her disconnect... it speaks volumes about the relationship between sex and money and men and women and bloggers and Google ads.

Now, before you go, do me a favor and slip a couple'a cents into my g-string here by clicking that Amazon ad on the top of the page. I'll be your best special friend if you do, big guy.

The Police-Ghost in the machine

This one is very basic and a little dated yet I have always liked it. It came out around the time I was first getting into music, but I was listening to a lot of radio so I was hearing quite a bit of popular pop stuff. I like the simplicity of the design and the colors. Plus it doesn't have Sting's snooty mug on it.

Ozzy Osbourne-The Ultimate Sin

Everything comes back it seems. Seasons come back, Indiana Jones comes back, Ozzy's brain cells...okay, maybe not everything comes back. However, our blog is back for better or worse. So hold on tight because here we go again. I was like 15 when this one came out and I remember staring at Boris Vallejo's rendering of Ozzy as a monster and the witch in full mid-80's metal chick garb. I liked it back then, but now it's a bit busy I think. I always look at the background and think of a pot of boiling spaghetti sauce instead of the big end of the world event I think they were shooting for. I am not sure why they made the decision to have a painting done instead of having Ozzy in some silly spot like they did in every previous cover.