Here’s an album cover post presenting reclining figures of various kinds: some seductive, some scary.
All explore utilising the LP ‘gatefold’ to extend the field of view*.
The bigger your screen, the better this gallery will look!
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NOTES
James Taylor‘s solo debut was released on Apple Records in 1968. It’s a fine LP (reviewed here) that includes an early version of ‘Carolina in my mind’.
Another debut album, this time from Roxy Music (Island Records 1972). Though spoilt for choice with Roxy’s reclining ladies, featuring the self-titled first LP seems appropriate. The model is Kari-Ann Muller from Cornwall, a former Bond girl who later married Chris Jagger (the less famous brother) and became a yoga teacher.
Originally on Vertigo (1969), the first, self-titled LP by Juicy Lucy is a fruity affair. (Pause for groaning.) The band played heavy blues-rock and you’d need a seriously heavy bag of coins to secure a Vertigo original. Several cover variants exist, mostly with similar quantities of fruit but less flesh. It would be lovely to acknowledge the cheerful model, but I was unable to find any info. The VC version is the re-issue from Music on Vinyl (2017).
David Bowie‘s confronting dog-man needs no introduction. It was painted by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert. There is also a very rare version that makes it abundantly clear David is a boy dog. Diamond Dogs was released in 1974 on RCA.
The Modern Jazz Quartet had been playing their intricate dinner-suited chamber jazz since the mid-fifties, but relaxed a bit for with this 1971 album on Atlantic. The first (Australian) copy of Plastic Dreams I owned was not a gatefold. It wasn’t until I picked up this US version much later that I realised Stanislaw Zagorski’s cover is a bit naughtier than I’d realised. Clever too.
Another debut. This time from UK weird-folk outfit Comus. First Utterance (1971) is much scarier than this cover suggests. In fact, this is a disturbing record all together. Original copies go for silly money. I have the Get Back re-issue (with a bonus 12″) and the more recent Music on Vinyl version. Spend too much time with Comus and you might need a long lie down. With bonus sedatives.
Although these are all I could find in the VC collection, there must be other horizontal gatefolds (outer, not inner) that feature the reclining form. Can you think of others?
* Except the feature image. I couldn’t resist the Warhol drawing (and it’s a great jazz album too).
This post is dedicated to CB, loyal reader and couch recliner.
vinylconnection.com.au 
Yes, Roxy Music have a few, right? Siren seems like an iconic one.
The best looking person in the gallery this week is James Taylor though.
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He had a nice line in dishevelled chic, eh? 🙂
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Ladies love cool James.
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Love the Juicy Lucy one.
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It’s an amazing cover. I recall being just a bit shocked when I saw it as a naive teenager!
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In the year 1969 was Juicy Lucy just an outrageous and shocking cover. From today’s point of view, more than harmless, the advertising offers such on the assembly line and hardly anyone is still looking.
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Caravan: For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night!!!
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Absolutely excellent get, Sir Vic!
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So focussed was I on Doggy David that I temporarily forgot this chaise lounger…
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I can think of a few inner gatefolds (Thriller, Lionel Richie) but I don’t think I currently own any outer ones. That didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this set though, Bruce!
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Y’know, Geoff, I have Thriller (but not Lionel) and I visualised the cover and thought ‘Shazam! A Recliner!’. How disappointed I was to find the outer sleeve does not wrap around but the inner one folds around. Can’t chat further. Have a T.Rex post to read.
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It does feel like a missed opportunity (on the artist/label’s part) that the thriller cover didn’t wrap around!
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Nice and that Comus album is terrifying, even the cover.
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Yep. 👿
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A clever post idea, Bruce. I love the Kenny Burrell one so much I’m writing it down for a future purchase. – Marty
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It’s a very fine album, Marty. And a wonderful Warhol drawing too!
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That version of “Carolina in my mind” has Paul McCartney on it, doesn’t it? Great post theme here. Juicy Lucy…
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It does indeed, Mr P. He plays bass. Give that man a cigar.
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I actually have that MJQ album. Here’s the thing. This horizontal thing is catching on but the Grand Poo-bah of that style is Perry Como. Man is that guy relaxed. I almost missed the dedication, I was lying down and starting to drop off. Sorry Bruce but I couldn’t resist dropping the link below to my hero.
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Well, that’s probably the last word on ‘relaxed’.
Loved the John Candy cameo. But who is Perry?
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Eugene Levy and he is chill-axed.
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Some interesting similarities between the Bowie and Comus covers (positioning, lean physique, prominent ribs). Not sure what it says about me, but two other reclining gatefolds I can think of involve nudity: a release of Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland and Zep’s Houses of the Holy (on the cover of which just one of the children pictured is actually what you could call reclining…
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Both unsettling, that’s for sure!
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My favourite here is that Modern Jazz Quartet. The Juicy Lucy is quite something!
I can only think of Buckcherry’s debut off the top of my head, but I’m actually not sure it was ever released on vinyl. But if it was, that’s a good one.
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. . . and then there are the notoriuos Ohio Players who made it their duty to capitalize on and sensationalize the gatefold cover.
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Ohio Players definitely pushed the envelope. Many of their striking covers were ‘vertical’ gatefolds. In fact they featured in a feature on that sleeve format…
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