Rock Covers
Album art is indelibly linked to our collective musical memories; when you think of your favorite albums, you picture the covers. Many photographers, illustrators, and art directors have become celebrities from their album artworks―the best examples of which will go down in history as permanent fixtures in popular culture.
Paying tribute to this art form, Rock Covers brings you a compilation of more than 750 remarkable album covers, from legendary to rare record releases. Artists as varied as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Iron Maiden, and Sonic Youth are gathered together in celebration of the cover art that defined their albums and their cult status. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing the art director, photographer or illustrator, year, label, and more, while nearly 250 records that marked particular turning points for a band, an artist, or the music genre, are highlighted with short descriptions.
This far-reaching catalog of visualized rock is contextualized with insider interviews with five professionals who shaped the history of rock, and by top-10 record lists from ten leading rock collectors.
Reviews (76)
only about 1/3 of the album covers in the book have any real information
I bought this book and it is big (you will never be able to read it at night in bed), has beautiful pictures, but only about 1/3 of the album covers in the book have anything else except: "artist, title, year, label, art, photo," or some variation thereof. The other 2/3 have no explanatory text. Why this is so is unknown. E.g., on pages 124-125 we have: "Crass," "Stations of the Crass," with explanatory text; "Cream," "Disraeli Gears," with explanatory text; and "Creedence Clearwater Revival," "Green River," with no text at all, just the "artist" etc, which IMO is one of the most beautiful and iconic album covers you will ever find. (Long live CCR, one of the best bands ever from the Bay Area). Most pages have three album covers, with only one with text. So the information in this huge book on the music artists and art artists is skimpy (at least compared to "100 Best Album Covers.") The best book I have found for information is "100 Best Album Covers" (1999) by Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell. (See my review of same). "1000 Record Covers," (2001) by Michael Ochs, is really just about that, with artist, label, year, design and photo, with little, if any text. But you will find some album covers here that you will not find anywhere else, especially from the 1950's. (which is also published by Taschen). "A Brief History of Album Covers," (2008), if OK, but flawed. It has a lot of information on the music artist but only some entries have information on the art artist at all. E.g. pages 72-73 "Grateful Dead's" "Aoxomoxoa" L.P. cover from 1969, which had no information at all on the artist Rick Griffin. (See page 22 of "100 Best Album Covers" for this information.) Honestly, I would buy "100 Album Covers" first, and the any of the other three album cover books. For sheer size and beauty you can not beat "Rock Covers," (2014), but the information on the artists included in this book is a little light.
Awesome... came damaged
It's an awesome product and my dad LOVED this birthday present. However, who on Earth packaged this for delivery? It came in a strange, crumpled up bag (no box or anything) and the ears of this had damage. Don't get me wrong, the book gained a cool "slightly worn" look, but I paid for new and I expected new.
Just simply a GORGEOUS product
I'm almost 50. That means I grew up with actual records and I'm a stubborn bastard and so I STILL mostly buy and listen to vinyl. This book, for a person like me, is a dream. Heavy, sturdy, beautifully designed, immaculate paper, stunning reproductions of album art...everything I could want (I know some people want track listings, liner notes, etc... I could care less... I have almost all these albums so I can get that stuff there) is here. Endlessly pleasing.
One for the ages!
Crazy heavy book! This is gonna take some time to get through but so far very detailed. I agree with another buyer when saying that the track listings should have been included! With that being said, the book is worth every dime!
Impressive collector's item
This book was a big hit with my boyfriend. It's a great gift for the hard core rock fan! Wish there was a little more commentary with the pictures, but still one of the best table books I've ever seen.
Table book colorful fun!
So love this book, yes I remember so many of these artist album art! This is a big book, looking forward to reading it, mostly just looking at pictures. Beautiful color!
He loves it
Bought as a gift for my boyfriend who’s a collector of vinyls. He says because of the book, he’s going to buy more he didn’t even know about
He loved it! He’s a rock lover
Got it for my boyfriend as a Christmas present! He loved it! He’s a rock lover. The book was bigger and heavier than I thought it would be. Definitely a great coffee table book
My granddaughter, a musician, loves it!!
This weighs a ton! The quality of the paper is superb. Graphics and pictures of covers are beautiful!
3 languages on each article
Book is very heavy and thick bc each page has 3 languages.
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