The Johnny Bacardi Show

It's been forever and a day since I've done a music post. Well, besides the Marc Bolan memorial. So what I think I'll do is a little feature that I thought about doing aeons ago, in the early days of the Show, but just never did for whatever reason. And that feature be named:

JOHNNY B'S 25 FAVORITE ALBUM COVERS!

In which I will post at least two of my fave album covers a day until I reach that quarter century mark. These covers are not necessarily my favorite albums, or even my favorite albums by that particular artist or artists. These are just images that have grown on me, tumor-like, over the long years and have made an indelible impression upon my brainstem. There have even been cases in which I have been led to buy the album in question, music unheard, simply because I liked the graphics so much. Due to circumstances beyond control, I won't post these in any particular order except as I think of them. Let us begin, shall we?



VAN MORRISON-VEEDON FLEECE (1974)
Speaking of albums I bought because of the cover, here's this one- the first Morrison release I ever owned as well as the first time I ever listened to Van the Man. I'm sure I must have heard "Domino" or "Brown Eyed Girl" playing on a radio somewhere, but for all practical purposes this was my first exposure...and there was something about this somewhat luridly hand-tinted pastoral scene, featuring Van on the grounds of a mansion he didn't own and with two big dogs that weren't his, either, that fascinated 14-year-old me enough to make me plunk down my six dollars. I didn't know quite what to think about the music, either- the deeply personal, reflective low-key, jazz-folk-blues approach Morrison used on the nine songs therein was very different for young Dave, who, while a Beatle fan even then, was more into the likes of Black Sabbath, Grand Funk, and Alice Cooper than the Bert Jansch-cum-Ray Charles sound of this record. Kinda broadened my horizons a bit, it did, although it took a few listens...and all because I loved the cover. The back cover is just text; the song titles and musicians and legal stuff on a dark green background with light cream colored type. I forget who the designer was- I'll check it when I get home and post it here.

"
JIMI HENDRIX-CRASH LANDING (1975)
This is one of those infamous posthumous Hendrix releases perpetrated by Alan Douglas in the aftermath of Jimi's passing. It features unreleased and unfinished studio tracks Hendrix recorded, with the original backing musicians eliminated and new session musos, only one of which had even met the man, providing new backing. Hendrix fans hate these releases. Me, I don't own this, and it's long out of print- I only heard it once straight through many, many years ago so I don't remember whether I thought it was any good or not. But I've always liked this cover, with the sepia-toned Woodstock Jimi photo and the whimsical touch of the falling bird over the elaborate script font of the album title.

This is all I have for now...stay tuned and I'll see what else I can come up with!