What Are The Best And Worst Car-Based Album Covers?

I recently saw a great movie about Hipgnosis, an art design group that made some of the most iconic album covers of all time. What struck me as the most poignant statement in the documentary was from honest-to-a-fault Noel Gallagher of Oasis, who said that “album covers are like the poor man’s art collection”.

He’s right, and it’s a shame that we no longer typically purchase music in vinyl or even CD form with a carefully crafted cover featuring imagery that’s as memorable as the music itself and inextricably linked to it. The ones many of us Autopians remember have cars on these covers. Which ones do you love, or not love?

The Black Keys famously had an album called El Camino, which did NOT have a Chevy ute on the cover.

According to the band’s drummer (and brother of the art director):

I told my brother the idea and my brother was like, “You know, if you name the record El Camino, everybody’s going to think of the car the El Camino.” And I was like, “Yeah exactly. That’s the f**king point!” And he was like, “OK, but why don’t we just put a car on the cover that’s not an El Camino?” And I said, “OK, what kind of car?” He says, “Just put the first car you guys ever toured in on the cover.”

Hence the Dodge Grand Caravan, even though the band’s was blue. Hailing from Akron, Ohio, the band also thought that a “busted up car in a busted-up parking lot” symbolized the struggling city.

The cover of one album by seventies AM radio dentist-office-waiting-room schmalz duo The Carpenters in 1973 was not supposed to be car-related, according to Richard Carpenter:

So they show up at my parents place and they wanted us to stand in front of the front door and to take a picture of us. I said “you mean like a snapshot my mother would take?” That’s exactly what it was and I couldn’t believe it. I said I won’t stand for it, so to speak, “what else could we do, we need to have it done.

The compromise ended up being the two driving up and down the street in Richard’s then-nearly-new Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona.

What a weird shot for a tri-fold album cover; just some generic LA suburb and not even a complete car visible.

You can barely see their faces, which might be just as well according to Carpenter:

If you look at my face on that picture I am pissed off! And they said just drive it down the street and we will take a picture – and it’s dreadful!

Portugal. The Man’s album Woodstock features an early Rolls Silver Shadow engulfed in flames; a great metaphor for a bonfire of vanities but to most of us Autopians it’s just yet another old British car on fire (taken by photographer and friend-of-the-band Josh Welch when he spotted it while driving from LA to Anaheim).

Also, can you please tell me why they posed Marky Mark on a Saab 900? That’s like Vanilla Ice on a Peugeot.

It’s no Kendrick Lamar GNX, that’s for sure.

So how about you? What are your favorite album covers with cars or that are otherwise car-related? Go ahead and do a web search if needed – you’ll remember some and discover more. It’s not like you want to work on a Monday morning. If you’d like, give as an image link, too!

Top graphic image: Kendrick Lamar/PG Lang/Interscope