Copycats

May 31, 2006 12:10 AM

Music Nerds! Looking for album cover that are references to others.

What I got so far is... well, not very much:

Kruder & Dorfmeister - G-Stoned // Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
Clinic - Internal Wrangler // Ornette Coleman - Ornette!
Lovage - Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By // Serge Gainsbourg - N°2
Nick Drake - Bryter Layter // Boris - Akuma No Uta

Bonus points if the covers you know are b/w or jazz-related!

posted by Skyanth to media & arts (25 comments total)

(And yes, Akuma No Uta is the reference to Bryter Layter, got the order mixed up there)
posted by Skyanth at 12:16 AM on May 31, 2006

Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley/The Clash - London Calling
The Kinks - The Kink Kontroversy/Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out

Here's a list.
posted by lemuria at 12:20 AM on May 31, 2006

Here's another list.
posted by Aznable at 12:40 AM on May 31, 2006

Here's an extensive list: The Knockoff*project.
posted by Glow Bucket at 12:51 AM on May 31, 2006

Sorry Aznabel, I didn't see that.
posted by Glow Bucket at 12:52 AM on May 31, 2006

Shellac - 1000 Hurts // Ampex audio tape box
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly // The Best of George Jones (Okay, I'm reaching here.)
posted by hydrophonic at 1:08 AM on May 31, 2006

A relatively subtle one, but I have no doubt it's a reference:

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain //
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
posted by mr_roboto at 1:28 AM on May 31, 2006

Also:
Stereolab - Transient Random Noise Bursts // Haymarket Publishing Groups - Stereo Test Record (see here)
Barbra Streisand - My Name is Barbra // Allan Sherman - My Name is Allan
posted by hydrophonic at 1:31 AM on May 31, 2006

One that the knockoff project has missed:

Blue Train - John Coltrane // Qui Sème le Vent Recolte le Tempo - MC Solaar
posted by jontyjago at 1:52 AM on May 31, 2006

A german one:
Die Toten Hosen - Kauf mich // Boxhamsters - Klau mich.
Translation: Buy me // Steal me
posted by donut at 2:30 AM on May 31, 2006

Not an album, but the Big Black 7" "He's a Whorel" b/w" The Model" covers Cheap Trick and Kraftwerk and features dead-on parodies of the respective artists' album covers.
posted by ROTFL at 4:00 AM on May 31, 2006

Nick Lowe - Bowi // David Bowie - Low is more of a pun, actually.
posted by rfs at 5:16 AM on May 31, 2006

Ween - the Pod // Leonard Cohen - the best of..
posted by nimsey lou at 5:50 AM on May 31, 2006

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass/Whipped Cream and Other Delights; Soul Asylum/Clam Dip & Other Delights

Beatles/Sgt. Pepper;Mothers of Invention/W're Only in It for the Money (inner gatefold)

some old country/bluegrass compilation called Hootenanny; Relacements/Hootenanny

and there's a Pussy Galore album called "Historica del Music Rock" or some such that's completely ripped off from those cheap Italian compilations of bands like the Rolling stones
posted by AJaffe at 5:52 AM on May 31, 2006

there is a million threads about this over at ILM

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/searchresults.php?board=2&q=connections&mode=threads
posted by dydecker at 5:56 AM on May 31, 2006

that link
posted by dydecker at 5:56 AM on May 31, 2006

Things not mentioned on the knockoff list:

John Mayall // Cable
Horace Parlan // Freddie Hubbard // Steve Stoll
Plunderphonics
Trainspotting // Camelspotting

Blue Note has a history of reusing old album sleeves for compilations:
Lee Morgan // Blue Note Plays Stevie Wonder
Pete La Roca // So Blue So Funky 2
Stanley Turrentine // Blue N' Groovy 2
Big John Patton // Blue Movies
Donald Byrd // Blue Note Revisited

And, as usual, here's a gratuitous self-link: Lum Col Con Pix
posted by nylon at 6:06 AM on May 31, 2006

A bunch of them by Weird Al, naturally.
posted by Wild_Eep at 6:08 AM on May 31, 2006

one of the most famous is The Mothers Of Invention's We're Only In It For The Money, which parodied The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
posted by shmegegge at 6:47 AM on May 31, 2006

Heh, I love that Boris album's cover.
posted by aparrish at 6:58 AM on May 31, 2006

A nice recent one is Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Ensemble Plays Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch" which does a nice twist on the original Dolphy cover, and certainly fucks up the original music in some entertaining ways. Good band.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:13 AM on May 31, 2006

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band // Macabre - Sinister Slaughter
posted by bwilms at 9:48 AM on May 31, 2006

Isn't sort of disheartening to realize that whatever wacky project/collection/concept you can come up with, someone else has already made a website about it?
posted by Rock Steady at 7:35 PM on May 31, 2006

A bit different than what you are looking for, but most of the objects on the cover of Oasis' (generally rubbish) "Be Here Now" refer to a variety of events in rock n roll history -- ie Keith Moon driving his Rolls into a swimming pool.
posted by modernnomad at 6:49 AM on June 2, 2006

I've seen a ton of covers inspired by Freddie Hubbard's Hub-Tones but right now I can only find one, a project of Boom-Bip & DJ Osiris.
posted by carsonb at 12:21 PM on June 5, 2006