Classic Album Cover Art

The Dreaming (1982)


The album cover depicts a scene described in the lyrics to the song "Houdini".

In the picture shown, Bush is acting as Harry Houdini's wife Bess, holding a key in her mouth, which she is about to pass on to him. The photograph is rendered in sepia, with just the gold key and Bush's eye make-up showing any colour. The man with her on the cover photograph was her bass player, engineer and then-partner Del Palmer. The scene refers to the story of Bess Houdini and her attempts to communicate with her deceased husband Harry with a code that only Harry and Bessie knew about, to be sure that the spirit medium was not a fraud. The code was: Rosabelle – answer – tell – pray – answer – look – tell – answer – answer – tell.

The albums songs draw inspiration from a variety of sources, including old crime films ("There Goes a Tenner"), a documentary about the war in Vietnam ("Pull Out the Pin"), the plight of Indigenous Australians ("The Dreaming"), the life of Harry Houdini ("Houdini") and Stephen King's novel The Shining ("Get Out of My House").

 Recently saw this, I Love Melvin, and thought of you:

                                                                              wealthofgeeks.com/old-vinyl-records/

After much due diligence, I am pleased to report my favorite Johnny Cash album has not been relegated to the scrap heap of life for being insensitive or exploitative of the native plight.

The songs in this album address the harsh and unfair treatment of the indigenous peoples of North America by Europeans in the United States. It was considered controversial and was rejected by some radio stations and fans.

Facing censorship and an angry backlash, Cash decided to fight back. He paid for a full-page ad that appeared in the August 22, 1964 issue of Billboard magazine, calling some DJs and programmers "gutless" for not playing the Ira Hayes song, and asking why they were afraid to do so. He left the question unanswered.

Cash began a campaign to support the Ira Hayes song, buying and sending out more than 1,000 copies to radio stations across America. By September 19, the song had reached number 3 in Billboard. In 2010, the Western Writers of America chose "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time

Johnny Cash – Bitter Tears - Ballads Of The American Indian 
Photography By [Cover] – Bob Cato. Art director, designer, painter and photographer, born 1923 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA - died 19 March 1999 in New York City, New York, USA.

 If someone has already posted, disregard, I Love Melvin...

 I ran across the following book and thought of your thread here, I Love Melvin:

                                                          

 Its author, Richard Evans, has done some graphics for the WHO, most notably in my eyes the following book jacket to the QUADROPHENIA boxset: 

                                                             

 From THE ART OF THE ALBUM COVER and an ARP 2500, head on over to intrepid37's The 1960's: Hits, B-Sides, Album Tracks thread for another 'Richard' and different type of synth at your convenience...