December 02, 2019

The Dying Art of Album Covers — Part Four

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Roy Wood Mustard

Roy Wood, often known as the Wizard, is an iconic music figure in England. Unfortunately, for some completely mystifying reason, his talents were never appreciated by the Rock fans in the United States.

During the late 60’s when so many British bands were enjoying huge success in the US, his band called The Move never caught on. This was true despite Roy’s leadership that guided The Move in scoring several songs on the UK charts.

The closest thing to hit that The Move had in the US was called “Do Ya”. The complete story of the song and the band was already posted on this website (story). While the song never got past the lower levels of the charts, it was enough to cause a split in the band. Roy, using most of the same Move members, started an off shoot that he called The Electric Light Orchestra.

These was a conflict between Roy and other member Jeff Lynne as to what direction ELO should take. In what was not the best career move, Roy left his own band and started a solo career. This album MUSTARD. Was his second solo record. It was entirely produced and performed by Roy. He even did the album artwork. The album did get great reviews, but the fans were not buying it.

 

Neil Young 19

The artist that did the cover for the first Neil Young solo album did such a good job that at first Neil’s name wasn’t even on the cover. Roland Diehl was well known in the so called “Hippie” community of Laurel Canyon in California. Even though he was well known in those circles, he really had no desire to become rich and/or famous. Despite the praise for the painting he did for Young’s first solo record, he never did or perhaps wasn’t interested in doing any more covers. It is a real shame. Except for his small circle of friends and artists, when Roland died of Cancer in 2006, he remained unknown to the general population.

 

Who are you

The Who’s album called WHO ARE YOU was the eighth studio album. It was also the last with Keith Moon. Terry O’Neil put together and staged the album cover. He recently died (November 19, 2019), but not before he became a legend in England. His work hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. What O’Neil did to make a name for himself was to take pictures of celebrities and fashion models. He was well known for making everyone look great.

It was by design that the photographer Terry O’Neil insisted that Keith Moon be seated with the back of the chair covering up Moon’s big belly that was the result of his heavy drinking. It was ironic that the chair had a sign stuck to the back of the chair that read “Not to be taken away”

Keith was on the edge of being asked to leave the band. He was in such bad shape at the time of this recording that he was unable to do what was needed on some of the tracks. Sadly, Keith dies three weeks after the release of the record.

This is Part Four in a series. To view the rest in this Album Cover series, click here.

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More in this category: « Did You See What They Did On Stage? The Dying Art of Album Covers — Part Five »

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