I’ve got this book that has the "100 best album covers" and this is in it. This is the short paragraph and annotations on it.

"When Jean - Baptise Mondino began the Lovesexy photo-session he must have thought that he was dealing with a case of the ‘the Emperor's new clothes’. Circumstance had not permitted him and his client to discuss how intimate the pictures were going to be. When Prince arrived there was some confusion over whether he was to pose nude for the portrait because the studio contained a wardrobe full of costumes for him to wear. The question was finally resolved, and the result is a very daring and sensuous portrait. The pose is feminine, yet the flower stamen suggests ideas of ambiguous sexuality. Was it was just a case of barefaced chic?"

The Commission:
When Mondino was staying at Prince's Paisley Park studios in Minneapolis while working on a video project with him, Prince asked him if he was still taking photographs and would he be interested in doing the cover.

Tantric Sex:
Lovesexy was already the name of the album when Prince commissioned Mondino to photograph the cover. Mondino felt the title reflected Prince's spirituality, as well as his lyrics about love and sex. Lovesexy also feels like a tantric word, and Mondino wanted the stamen of one of the flowers to represent a small phallus.

Kit off or on?
Prince wanted the photographs taken in Los Angeles and told Jean - Baptiste Mondino that they could discuss ideas on the flight. Unfortunately, Mondino was unable to get a seat next to Prince, so they were unable to discuss anything. The next morning (the day of the photoshoot) Mondino suggested to Prince that he would like to shoot him naked.

Photography:
Mondino shot one roll of Kodak Ektachrome film using a Hasseblad camera. Later that day he met Prince at his hotel and showed him the contact sheets. Prince chose one shot for the album cover and the rest were destroyed.

Jean-Bapiste Mondino:
The French fashion photographer and video director Jean - Baptiste Mondino is best known for his graphically composed, colour saturated images. His photographs are renowned for their subversive and sexual imagery. He has directed videos for artists such as Madonna, Neneh Cherry and Bjork.

The Quantel Paint Box:
At the time of this album digital paint boxes were still a thing of the future. None existed in the US, so Mondino flew to Paris were his friend Kiki had a demonstration model. Mondino played around with the photograph for a couple of days and when he was satisfied he called Prince to, who flew over to Paris with his bodyguard. They all sat squashed into Kiki's tiny kitchen, with Kiki's kids playing around them, and examined the cover. Prince's initial response was that he didn’t like it. For two hours they played around with some more until Prince concluded that he preferred what he had seen at the beginning.

So he wasnt planning on posing nekkid in the first place

AzurePanther said:

Darn!!

i still think it's one of his worst album covers

I can't believe it made the top 100. But that's really interesting stuff.

They used to have a Quantel Paintbox at my University (Middlesex, North London). I seem to remember it was 1 of only 2 in the country at the time and cost about half a million! This was back when we still only had black and white AppleMac screens in our computer room. Funny thing is, to help pay for it, professionals from tv companies came to use it - us students never got a look in! It was too expensive for us to actually use!

It basically did what Photoshop does. How times have progressed.

WaterInYourBath said:

I know!

What are the others in the top 100?

TheFrog said:

I knew it would come to this

Well they're all just alphabetically arranged, if you tell me some of your favourites i might be nice enough to write it out for you

AzurePanther said:

Tell me them all.

TheFrog said:

AzurePanther said:

Tell me them all.

TheFrogSpawn said:

Album name: TheFrog
Written/produced/arranged/performed by TheFrog
Stars:

picture fuck up




[Edited 5/25/05 7:18am]

you're extremely aggressive in the way you interact with me.



why is that?

i like the cover 2 Rainbow Children, its like hes spyin on us 2 c if we like the music or not!

yeah p we c u there.

TheFrogSpawn said:

Ok i admit that was a bit harsh.
But do you really expect me to write it all out for each the albums?
There isnt even a list of the contents or anything
It would take me ages
Tell me your favourite

if ur not goin go all the way dont post!

purplepants said:

Ok bitches:

Santana- Abraxas
John Surman - The amazing adventures of Simon Simon
Miles Davis - Agharta
The Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa
Sadistic Mica Band - Appare
The Popinjays - Bang up to the date with the popinjays
Itakura, Konishi, Shigeto, Banana & Wakui - Bettenchi
Roger Eno - Between tides
Laurie Anderson - Big Science
Blinda Faith - Blind Faith
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
Pixies - Bossanova
Supertramp - Breakfast in america
Depreche Mode - A broken frame
Happy Mondays- Bummed
The Cars - Candy-o
Heavenly Bodies - Celestial
Big Brother & The holding company - Cheap thrills
Cathrine Wheel - Chrome
Joy Divsion - Closer
Roxy Music- Country life
Orchestral Manouevres In The Dark - Crush
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Buzzcocks - A Different kind of tension
Finerprintz - Disnquishing Marks
Pink Floyd- The division bell
Captain Beefheart - doc at the radar station
Ian Dury & the Blockheads - Do it yourself
Jefferson Starship - Dragon fly
Litle Feat - Down to the farm
Edgar Winter - The edgar winter band with rick derringer
Richie Havens - The End of the begining
Prodigy - The fat of the land
Talking Heads - Fear of music
Free - Free
Gamma - Gamma 2
World Party - Goodbye Jumbo
Hank mobley - Hank mobley
Harshash and the coloured coat - Haphash
Joni Mitchell - the hissing of the summer lawns
his name is alive - home is in your head
patti smith - horses
abc - how to be a zillionaire
led zeppelin - houses of the holy
freddie hubbard - hub- tones
the art of noise - in no sense? Nonsense!
edward versala/sound & fury - invisible storm
its a beautiful day - its a beautiful day
slammin watusis - kings of noise
various artists - the last testament
arthur blythe - lenox avenue breakdown
freddie hubbard - liquid love
the beastie boys - licensed to ill
johny coles - little johnny c
joe jackson - look sharp
the clash - london calling
heidi berry - love
bruno walter - mahler -symphony no.9
kazumi & the gentle thoughts - mermaid boulevard
blur - modern life is rubbish
the damned - music for pleasure
bef - music quality and distincion vol 2
rod stewart - never a dull moment
the sex pistols - nevermind the bollocks
nirvana - nevermind
grace jones - nightclubbing
wayne shorter - night dreamer
jane's addiction - nothing's shocking
beck - odelay
the small faces - ogden's nut gone flake
10cc - the original sountrack
orchestral manouevres in the dark - the pacific age
peter gabriel - peter gabriel
david bowie - pin ups
los lobos - la pistolay y el corazon
bjork - post
new order - power, corruption and lies
led zeppelin - presence
the 13th floor elevators - the psychedelic sounds of..
the tubes - remote control
wes montgomery - road song
the beatles - sgt pepper
bow wo wo - see jungle! see jungle! go join your gang...
bob dylan - self portrait
system 7 - 777
the rolling stones - some girls
the rolling stones - sticky fingers
the doors - strange days
yes - tales from the topographic oceans
the rolling stones - their satanic majesties request
pulp - this is hardcore
jarrett, peacock & dejohnette - tribute
john lennon and yoko ono - two virgins
the velvet underground - the velvet underground & nico
pink floyd - wish you were here
the mothers of invention - weasels ripped my flesh
moby grape - wow
peter erksine - you never know

take your pick

Xavier23 said:

i beg to differ i think is one of his most revealin sexest covers ever.

AzurePanther said:

i knew you loved me really.

thanks.

TheFrog said:

And that took time! Now tell me if you see something you like before i go mad again

AzurePanther said:

i like loads of them.

TheFrog said:

I love your vagueness

AzurePanther said:

well, when you're bored, you can pull up some info on one of the Floyd albums.

now get revising!!

i wonder how many copies were sold in brown paper bags