Originally Written 2015
B.B. King - One Kind Favor It’s hard to say for certain, but I love to speculate so here goes. Talent begets talent. There’s no questioning what B.B. King did for the blues, he was a singular artist and a singular man.
First off, I’m a sucker for simple covers. Light on the text and non-imposing images that don’t scream at you. This photo is about as far off from a scream as you’ll find and man do I love looking at it.
Let’s try to decipher the thought process of the album art. Firstly, B.B. Kings legacy is well know, world round. No matter if you’re a stringent punk, or death metal enthusiast you know who B.B. King is and what he was. The photo of him here embodies him entirely. Stoic. Powerful. Peaceful.
Secondly, anyone who has stood in a place like this, calm water, trees, sounds of nature, this is exactly how it feels. The photographer knew exactly what he was doing even if he wasn’t conscious of it. Some of the best work you’ll see was an accident.
But let’s get to the elements. There aren’t many here and that’s one of the things that makes this album so beautiful. The high contrast of the photo is one of the most important elements of the album. It allows the rest of the elements to stand out and give the full effect of their importance. Lucile is absent of highlights that are light based, making her white outline form a perfect silhouette, she is of course his consummate partner.
The tree line is one of the more interesting elements, it does it’s job more than once. The darkness of the trees pushes your eyes right to B.B. more specifically his suit that intersects it. Then the shoreline that is smushed between the trees and their reflections leads you not to B.B. but to Lucile. The contrast against the dark causes you to jump over the suit straight to the guitar.
Normally leaving a subjects face so dark would be a error, but with the contrast of the skyline it frames his bust and face to perfection, notice how when you look at the album, look away, and look again, that is where you’re drawn, to this imposing and beloved figure who shared his life and music. This is your first element in the hierarchy, the strongest element there is.
Lucile is right behind him, figuratively and literally, then comes the title but only barely before the water. If it wasn’t for the red in the title you would almost lose it all together, that’s the beauty of this album, each element, so strong and so quite.
Even though B.B. has left us to soon, knowing that he may be somewhere in this state, peaceful, serene, it brings me just a little bit of joy.
Michael Jackson - Dangerous
I love finding album covers that embody artists. Last time we had Jimi Hendrix this time we have Michael Jackson. This is an incredible accomplishment for the artist. There is a tremendous amount of elements that had to come together in order to create Michael Jacksons vision. Each element depicting something from Jacksons life, or his beliefs regarding the images. (Some of those beliefs are open to interpretation.)
One of the kickers is that this was created prior to computer aid. Sure it’s been done before, people illustrated before computers and it was amazing, so what’s the big deal? (Monty Python voice) Well, I’ll tell you.
The way the image is structured, it highlights nearly everything without smothering the most important bit. Michael Jacksons name and Eyes. Our eyes are naturally drawn there, partly to rest our eyes from the intensity of the rest of the cover. Humans also look for humans, looking at the album this size you can instantly pick out the human elements while our brains struggle to recognize other elements. It’s something we do from birth. Each and every element drives your eye to another, each interconnecting. I’m not particularly familiar with Jacksons life but I imagine the artist may have even put elements in a specific place to mark events chronologically.
There is so much going on here that we can’t possibly cover it here, but we can on bg.buddyguy.com so head over there and check it out, because art is beautiful but it’s also full of intent.
Album Art - Mark Ryden
Art Director - Nancy Donald
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