Episode Twelve

The University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia has produced some pretty impressive things. And while I'd love to get into Bill Mallonee, Herschel Walker, Ryan Seacrest, Mystery Girl, Debra Norville, or Zell Miller; I'll focus on one of the biggest bands of all time. Between 1983 and 1988, R.E.M. released an album a year (and that's not counting Eponymous a greatest hits album released in 1988). In 1988, they released Green. Previous to Green, R.E.M. had released their albums through IRS Records. In 1988 they went big time and signed with Warner Brothers. The album was their ticket from obscure college indie band to major music contributor. Green contained the hits "Stand," "Pop Song 89," and "Orange Crush." The cover, contrary to the title isn't green. One theory is that if you stare at the cover long enough, you will see the color green when you look away. Another theory is that they sold out with Green and green is the color of money. Even another theory is the idea that the album focused on more environmental and political topics. All good theories.


Incidentally, Athens also produced the B-52's, Drive-By Truckers, Vic Chesnutt, Neutral Milk Hotel, Chickasaw Mud Puppies, and the previously mentioned Bill Mallonee and his Vigilantes of Love. And that, Mad Fishicist, is how you get traffic from Google searches on your blog...because you asked.

This Day in History

1916 - Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17.
1933 - Great Depression: The U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress.
1943 - Bobby Fischer, American chess player is born
1943 - Charles Gibson, American television journalist is born
1945 - World War II: Bombing of Tokyo - American B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan with incendiary bombs. The resulting fire storm kills over 100,000 people.
1954 - McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy," produced by Edward R. Murrow.
1957 - Aleutian Islands register a 9.1 magnitude earthquake.
1959 - The Barbie doll debuts.
1964 - The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.
1964 - Juliette Binoche, French actress is born.
1965 - Brian Bosworth, American football player is born.
1965 - Benito Santiago, Puerto Rican baseball player is born.
1971 - Emmanuel Lewis (Webster), American actor is born.
1973 - Aaron F-ing Boone, American baseball player is born.
1975 - Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
1975 - MKinMotion is born.
1986 - United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily-damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The bodies of all seven astronauts were still inside.
1987 - Rock band U2 release the album The Joshua Tree.
1987 - Bow Wow, rapper and actor is born.
1996 - George Burns dies at age 100.
1997 - Notorious B.I.G. is killed.
2005 - Dan Rather presents his final broadcast of the CBS Evening News.
2005 - MKinMotion turns 30.

Happy Feast Day of St. Frances of Rome!
Happy Baron Bliss Day!
Happy National No Smoking Day!

Episode Eleven: 1975

Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run

Bruce Springsteen had released two albums and had found moderate success. In 1974, Jon Landau, after seeing Bruce perform, wrote "I saw Rock and Roll's future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." In 1975, Springsteen teamed up with Jon Landau and released one of his most successful albums. When producing Born to Run, Bruce and longtime producer/manager Landau set out to make an album that resembled "Roy Orbison singing Bob Dylan" while employing the Phil Spector "Wall of Sound" technique. This was the first album to feature Max Weinberg of Conan O'Brien fame. What came out of these sessions was "Thunder Road", "Born to Run," and an album that remained in Billboard's top 100 for over two years. The cover featured Bruce with his signature Fender Telecaster. He's leaning on Clarence Clemons.

The Who, The Who By Numbers

By 1975, The Who were huge. Coming off of the success of rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, Pete Townsend composed a confessional. Alcoholism, lust, fame, self-loathing, and midlife crisis are the major themes of The Who By Numbers. The cover features cartoon charactures of the band ready for the listener to connect the dots and paint by numbers.

Elton John, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

Believe it or not, a concept album. The concept? The struggles of Elton John and Bernie Taupin early on in their career together. If you don't already know, the two collaborate on songwriting. Elton writes the music and Bernie writes the words. I'm sure you can figure out who Captain Fantastic represents. Allegedly, the album's hit single "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (again, one of the greatest songs ever) is about Elton's suicide attempt in 1969. John Lennon appears on the album to contribute guitar, but records under an alias. Captain Fantastic has a wonderful cover.

Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here

Largely a tribute to former member Syd Barret (see 1968), Wish You Were Here was a five track album released in 1975. Syd Barrett showed up in the studio unannounced on the same day David Gilmour got married. He wasn't recognized by the band initially. He lent his voice for background vocals on "Shine On..." Featuring famous songs "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," "Have a Cigar," as well as the epic title track. The band wanted to release the album with a completely black cover with no writing; essentially an anonymous release. The record company balked at that and the burning man handshake concept was born.

Honorable Mentions for 1975:

Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffitti

Jackson Browne, Late for the Sky

Bob Dylan and The Band, The Basement Tapes

Tom Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner (Based on the Hopper Painting, Nighthawks)

Episode Ten: The Quiet Beatle

Fans and non-fans have to admire at least one thing about U2: The fact that they have stuck together for 30 years. It's not easy. When creative minds collaborate it can be, much like your 7th grade chemistry experiments, either beautifully wonderful or dangerously volatile. I think of Uncle Tupelo's split, the Chili Peppers' split and reunion, Peter Gabriel leaving Genesis, Pink Floyd, even David Lee Roth.

All Things Must Pass, 1970

As I mentioned in the previous post, George Harrison struggled with his role in the Beatles. He was a musical genius, not just for being a great guitar player, but his songwriting was top notch. George Martin, longtime producer of The Beatles even stated that he overlooked much of Harrison's songs. The Beatles albums featured a Harrison written song here and there. John Lennon even said to McCartney "George's songs are at least as good as ours." When Frank Sinatra performed "Something" (written by Harrison), he even said mistakenly called it his favorite Lennon-McCartney song. When he released All Things Must Pass very soon after the break-up, it was clear that he had built quite a large catalog of material. Later, Harrison admitted that many of the songs on the triple album would have been Beatles songs, but he had trouble getting everyone on board to record them. All Things Must Pass was the first triple album from a solo artist. George called in the help of friends to make it. Eric Clapton played on the record but went uncredited for over 30 years because of contractual committments. Bob Dylan collaborated on writing the opening track. A 19-year old Phil Collins played drums on a couple tracks. Peter Frampton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Dave Mason, Ginger Baker and members of Badfinger all contributed to the album. Considered one of the greatest albums of all time, the cover featured George and garden gnomes dressed similarly. In 2001, George Harrison oversaw the remastering of the album. As they remastered the album, the original master tapes were erased intentionally. Sadly, George Harrison, singer, songwriter, guitarist, activist, film producer, and Wilbury, lost his battle with cancer in 2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2004. In 2002, a year after his death, a charity concert was put together in his honor. The concert featured his son Dhani filling in for George with the remaining members of the Wilburys. The concert ended with an ensemble dubbed "George's Band" included McCartney, Starr, Clapton, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Dhani, and others performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and other Harrison classics.

Episode Nine: Paul is Dead

Definately one of the most famous album covers in Rock and Roll history, but did you know that it almost didn't happen? The original title of the 1969 Beatles album was Everest and the cover photo would've been the Beatles in the Himalayas. Instead what we got was Abbey Road with the fab four strolling across a crosswalk in front of the Abbey Road studios where they recorded the album. Lots of theories surrounded the album cover. Many had to do with the rumor that Paul McCartney had died several years before and been replaced by a lookalike. The license plate on the VW in the background is 281F which was translated to "28 if" meaning that Paul would be 28 if he were alive (he was actually 27 at the time). The same theorists that came up with this interpreted that John Lennon represented Jesus with his white suit, long hair and beard; Ringo Starr represented the undertaker in his black suit; Paul represented the dead man with his bare feet, eyes closed, and cigarette; George Harrison represented the gravedigger with his work clothes. An interesting theory, but Paul McCartney is alive and well. There's a man standing just behind John's head on the sidewalk, his name is Paul Cole and he was an American tourist who had no idea what was going on. He later figured it out when he saw the album cover in a store. If you know anything about the history of the Beatles, you know that tension ran pretty high during the last few years. In an effort to tame tempers, the record was produced very different than their previous few albums. What came out of the sessions was a bigger separation between Paul and John as well as George feeling like he was left out of the creative process (Stay tuned for more on George). The two sides of the album (remember it was vinyl) were put together in a way that Paul and John each had their side. Side One was John and Side Two was Paul. Side Two consisted of several short songs meant to be a medley. Still to this day, radio stations play the songs together. If you listen to the album as a CD or digitally, you can hear a pretty abrupt change from the end of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" to "Here Comes the Sun." Ironically Side Two (remember Paul's side) started with a George Harrison tune and George and Paul were at odds. Other hits on the album are "Come Together," "Something" (seriously one of the greatest songs ever!!), "Octopus' Garden." Always towards the top of lists of greatest albums, Abbey Road deserves it's praise. I know it has mine.

Not only has the album cover been parodied, but the entire album was covered by George Benson a month after it's release. The album cover was parodied by not only Benson (The Other Side of Abbey Road), but The Red Hot Chili Peppers (The Abbey Road EP; yep just socks), Booker T and the M.G.'s covered songs from the album and mimicked the cover (McLemore Avenue; the street outside of Stax Records in Memphis) and even by McCarney himself (Paul is Live; note the VW).

Episode Eight

First off I want to thank those of you who've sent in ideas, suggestions, and now many more odd questions for me to answer down the road. I've gotten a lot of stuff from you, so be patient as I continue to do my thing and also get your ideas integrated. As always, questions, ideas, and comments can be sent directly to MKinMotion(at)gmail(dot)com.

In 1991, to put things into perspective, Bryan Adams went soft with "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You." But something happened along the way. In the fall of 1991, there were a few historic albums released. 1991 was overall a great year for music, but it was more for what started in 1991 than the year itself. On September 24, 1991 Nirvana released Nevermind; arguably one of the best albums of all time. The cover was a bit contraversial as it features baby Spencer Elden naked. Elden was just 3 months old at the time (now 15), and his parents were paid $200 for the photo shoot. When Geffen pitched altering the cover, Kurt Cobain accused anyone who was offended of being closet pedophiles. Spencer Elden went on to be featured on the 2003 release of Skinny Puppy member cEvin Key's album The Dragon Experience and claims he's never been a fan of Nirvana. "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," "Lithium," and "In Bloom" helped Nevermind top Billboard and paved the way for other bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden to receive radio play. The success of Nevermind also changed the way that record companies searched for new acts. Tragically, Cobain took his own life in 1994, leaving only two more albums and the incredible MTV Unplugged to the world. Dave Grohl, of course, went on to form Foo Fighters.

Exactly

Episode Seven

In 1989, as I've discussed previously, the music industry was evolving. I know some of you will find this hard to imagine, but there was a time before CD's. In fact CD's didn't catch on as the primary music media until the early 90's. However in 1989, The Cure created and produced Disintegration specifically for CD. They broke some rules in the process. The length of the album was longer than average (over 71 minutes). Many of the songs were over six minutes long, making it hard for commercial radio stations to fit them in. Similarly to Depeche Mode, the public's conception of The Cure is a depressing goth rock band. On Disintegration, they brilliantly mix the dark, sad, and brooding with the hopeful, uplifting and energetic. They accomplish this not only through the songs, but in the album cover as well. Truly one of the greats with songs like "Fascination Street," "Lovesong," and "Pictures of You."

Friends, Networking

Through MySpace, and thanks to Dwight Schrute, I found a MySpace profile that Jenna Fischer posts in character, and sometimes out of character. She plays Pam on the American Office. She directed and starred in a movie that they made a few years back and it's set to be released on DVD tomorrow. Which happens to be her birthday. Check it out. The trailer looks really funny. Gotta love mockumentaries. The film has a myspace profile that includes more info about the movie and the trailer. Definately worth checking out. I'll be out looking for the DVD in the Bay Area.

Kirby Puckett, (1960-2006)

"I was told I would never make it because I'm too short. Well, I'm still too short, but I've got 10 All-Star games, two World Series championships, and I'm a very happy and contented guy. It doesn't matter what your height is, it's what's in your heart."
-Kirby Puckett, Hall of Famer

Episode Six: The Academy Award Episode

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the Oscar's. I have to admit I didn't see a lot of the movies that were up for awards. I did see Crash and enjoyed it in a "sick-feeling-at-the-end" sort of way. So in honor of the biggest night for Hollywood, I will take a shot at correlating the top 6 awards to great album covers. Here we go...not my best outing, but everybody has to have their Hulk.

Best Picture, Crash

I think of Kathleen York as an actress. She played Congresswoman "Andy" Wyatt as well as Toby Zeigler's baby's mommy on the West Wing. She also was the masseuse on Curb Your Enthusiasm. She also had a role on the O.C. for a few episodes. Apparently she's also a songwriter and singer, publishing under the name of Bird York. She did a great job singing the song with flames of fire close behind her.

Best Director, Ang Lee

Willie Nelson? Ang Lee? This is a bit of a stretch, but Willie has a song on the soundtrack for Brokeback Mountain and it gave me an excuse to throw in a great old album cover by Willie. Can you believe that Ang Lee is directing Hulk 2? I though he'd have learned his lesson with the first Hulk movie.

Best Actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Hoffman plays Lester Bangs in Almost Famous. If you doubt his acting ability, just watch the deleted scenes for Punch Drunk Love titled Mattress Man. It's one scene, but it's worth the rental.

Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

I love Reese Witherspoon. I always have. It's great to see her win this. Perhaps we'll get less Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama and more Election or Walk the Line. In light of Jon Stewart's "Raise your hand if you weren't in Crash," quote, "Raise your hand if you didn't fall in love with Reese in Man in the Moon." In honor of her performance, Folsom Prison...

Best Supporting Actor, George Clooney

Great ol' timey music. Contrary to popular belief, George Clooney didn't sing on the soundtrack. But Doug Ross, Danny Ocean, Ulysses Everett Magill, Major Gates, Seth Gecko, Booker and even Bruce Wayne ain't too shabby.

Best Supporting Actress, Rachel Weisz

I think Rachel Weisz is pretty amazing. She's had some great roles and done really well with them. I didn't see Constant Gardener, but I'm sure I will. My applause was for her catalog of great performances. And speaking of great performances, Badly Drawn Boy put together a darn good set of songs for the About a Boy soundtrack (hint: Rachel Weisz was in About a Boy).

Episode Five: The Rick Rubin Factor

Remember when Aerosmith and Run DMC collaborated for "Walk This Way"? That was Rick Rubin's doing. Rubin started as a hip-hop producer but has since branched out. The following covers are albums he's produced. Great album covers not necessarily because of Rick Rubin, but great albums because of him. Rubin has made a living of bringing the best out of an artist by reducing them to the musician/artist that they started as. He helped redefine and revive Johnny Cash's career. He helped the Chili Peppers get loud by first getting quiet. His work on Tom Petty's Wildflowers album, The Black Crowes' Shake Your Money Maker, Weezer's Make Believe, and even on Jay-Z's Black Album have all been critically praised. You can look ahead to another Rubin produced Chili Peppers album, an album of unreleased Johnny Cash tracks, as well as producing Justin Timberlake's, Metallica's, and Kid Rock's next albums.

LL Cool J, Radio (1985)

The Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill (1986)

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), Californication (1999), By The Way [Julian Schnabel] (2002)

Johhny Cash, American Recordings (1994), Unchained (1996), Solitary Man (2000), The Man Comes Around (2002)

Shakira, Oral Fixation Vol. 2 (2005)

Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (2005)

Episode Four: Controversy

The following are album covers that were changed due to their racy or controversial content.

Jane's Addiction, Ritual De Lo Habitual (submitted by Schmetzger)

Ritual De Lo Habitual was released in 1990 to the mainstream with the white cover above featuring article 1 of the constitution. Other perhaps more progressive retailers stocked copies of both covers. The cover artwork on the original is by Perry Ferrell of Jane's Addiction and is based on the song "Three Days."

The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet

In 1968, the Rolling Stones were trying to put together a R&B influenced rock record unlike their previous album that delved into the psychedelic sounds of the late 60's. The album cover featuring men's room graffiti, was rejected by the record label. Initially the Stones withheld the album standing on the cover art principle, but finally relented and allowed the album to be released with the much tamer invitation cover. In 1984 when the album was remastered and re-released it was released with the original cover art.

Guns 'n Roses, Appetite for Destruction

The original cover artwork featured some graphic cartoons by Robert Williams. This album is listed at or near the top of a lot of "best album" lists. It's one of the highest selling albums of all time, however the sales had been slow the first year it was released. In 1987, the album was released with pretty good critical acclaim, but MTV (which is hard to believe now) refused to play any of the videos unless the album cover was changed. The band agreed and replaced the cover with a Grateful Deadesque cover. MTV still thought that it was too much. David Geffen begged and MTV eventually agreed that they would play the "Welcome to the Jungle" video, but only once and at 2am. Within 24 hours, the video was the #1 requested video. And the rest is history. "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City" were also hit singles from the album.

No, I'm not going to include Ween's Chocolate & Cheese, despite three requests.

Episode Three: The Challenge

Episode Three of the album cover series is partly a nomination sent in, and partly my own. Third episodes are frequently when a large paradigm shift occurs in a series. So, in light of that...the Challenge.

Michael Jackson

Thriller vs. Off The Wall




Both were great albums. Anyone who questions that is either too young to remember or too jaded by who or what Michael Jackson has become. Off the Wall came out in 1979 and was produced by Quincy Jones. Quincy had finished being the Musical Director of The Wiz, in which MJ was the Scarecrow. Generally accepted as his first solo album because of his age and the influence on the previous Michael Jackson albums. Song you might know that were on Off the Wall are "Rock With You", "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", and "Girlfriend" written by Paul McCartney. He followed up that album with 1982's Thriller. Thriller is the top selling album of all time, due to the number of hits on the album. "Beat It", "Thriller", "Billie Jean", "The Girl is Mine and Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" were all big selling singles for Jackson. Again produced by Quincy Jones, Thriller spent 37 weeks at number one on Billboard. At it's peak it would sell a million copies a week. Originally titled Starlight, the title track was a late addition that changed the face of the music video industry forever.

Responses

I've had several responses to the album cover feature. Thank you to those who have sent them in, I will slowly work my way through them. I also receive lots of emails with questions from people who are apparently too afraid to post comments. You know who you are...
So in an effort to connect more with the lurkers of MKinMotion, I will answer a few of the questions.

Question One: What's next for MKinMotion?

MKinMotion: Well, it's a blog. There's not much to it. I'd like to take it on the road and go in motion, so I'm exploring some ideas about that. I'd like to continue to build a loyal following of people. If they keep coming, I'll keep posting.


Question Two: What is your blog for? What is your point?

MKinMotion: Good questions. I'd like to think that I shed a different perspective on things. Sometimes normal things that need a fresh perspective, sometimes random things that I think are interesting. It's kind of weird, but I picture someone reading every word I type. Seriously a mental image of people reading...so I try to make something worth reading. I want to write and this is good exercise.

Question Three: What is your inspiration? Is someone your muse?

MKinMotion: Like I said I picture people reading, is that muse enough? But really, I've always liked to write. It never made much sense until my sophomore year of high school when I wrote a vignette and people actually liked it. I know my sophomore english teacher was one of the most disliked teachers at the school, she was hard on her students, but looking back she seemed to believe that we were all just doing the least that it took to get by. She encouraged excellence and I've never forgotten. I have no idea what ever happened to her, but I had sophomores come up to me every year ("That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.") telling me that my vignette was shared in class. I think it meant more to her that I would take a lesson seriously than it meant to me to have her love it. But I digress. I have lots of muses, but most of them are just memories now.

Music For The Day:
"Jolene" - Ray LaMontagne
"Boston" - Augustana
"Girl in the War" - Josh Ritter
"Like A Rolling Stone" - Drive-By Truckers
"Houses on the Hill" - Whiskeytown
"Young Hearts" - Commuter


Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment or email me at MKinMotion(at)gmail(dot)com and have your questions answered.

Another Year in Music

Some of you might remember my post on the significance of 1989 in music. That's not the end all be all of years. Another great year for music was 1968. A great year for Corvettes (pictured above) too. In 1968 Elvis came back; David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett (pictured below) committed himself; Led Zeppelin came to life; Simon, Garfunkel, Joplin, Fogerty and others campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy...the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago turned into rioting and violence (picture below); Buffalo Springfield split paving the way for Neil Young to do his own thing without guilt; John Lennon and his wife split paving the way for him to do his own thing without guilt. Albums released in 1968: Johnny Cash released his concert at Folsom Prison; The Doors released Waiting for the Sun; Simon & Garfunkel's Bookends; The Beatle's The Beatles (The White Album); Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland; Van Morrison's Astral Weeks; The Rolling Stone's Beggars Banquet. Also significant in 1968 were the births of: Lisa Loeb, Thom Yorke, Sarah McLachlan, Shawn Mullins, LL Cool J, Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket), and of course icon Vanilla Ice. Sgt. Pepper won the Album of the Year Grammy; the song "Jackson" made so popular by Walk the Line won best country performance by a duo or group; Boris Karloff won for Children's Recording with his reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Clearly yet another year that helped form not only my music collection, but shaped music today.

Episode Two

Episode Two:

U2's "The Joshua Tree."

Released on my birthday in 1987 (March 9, yep coming up), The Joshua Tree truly broke U2 onto the mainstream music scene. I won't focus too much on the album itself, seeing as I'm trying to focus on the covers. The photo was taken by Anton Corbijn, somewhat ironically in Death Valley, rather than the assumed Joshua Tree National Park. Anton does at least three things that were taught to my in every photography I've taken.

1. Don't center your subject.

2. Use your subject to block a major background feature if it draws the eye to your subject.

3. In a portrait, have your subject stare off into their own mortality. Bono's mortality is apparently somewhere different than the rest of the band.

Interesting you said that...

It's interesting that the Chindo mentioned having a few of his own. I meant to include an invitation in my Pilot Episode post about submitting your own favorite album covers. Please do. You can email me at MKinMotion(at)Gmail(dot)com with what album and why you love it. I'll do some research on it and put together a post with your name (err...pseudonym) with it. It will be fun. And yes, I do see a D.I.D. stream coming along anytime now. It's been a while since I've explored that topic.

I've become an addict. No not to myspace, although I am a little intrigued by it. I'm addicted to podcasts. Much like my fits of talk radio, I can listen to a podcast about anything. There is so much going on out in the world that you just don't see unless you either stumble upon it or you dig deep enough. I think the number one misconception about podcasts is that you need an iPod. Simply untrue. All you need is something to interact with the podcast and something to play the podcast. For me I use iTunes, because it does both...and makes it easy. Try it. I'll post some recommendations at some point.

Pilot Episode

I've decided to start a new feature: Great Album covers. Most of which are actual Albums or LPs or vinyl.

Episode One:

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Featured on the cover are The Beatles (twice), Bob Dylan, Laurel and Hardy, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and many other icons of Pop Culture (as well as Stu Sutcliffe). The album won the Grammy for packaging (this year this Grammy was won by Aimee Mann). Ghandi, Jesus and Hitler were all removed before the final print. The album was released on June 1st, 1967 (June 2nd in the US) and was one of the first pop albums to have the lyrics printed on the cover (they're on the back).

Incidentally, I have this album cover framed and hanging on my wall, so it's appropriate to kick off the series with this one. Stay tuned for more.