(Album ©1994, American Recordings)
This album cover was such a turn-on when I first 
saw it. The not-so-subversive sexiness was off the charts. Only recently did I find out that this image was originally shot as the cover of Hustler Magazine’s July 1976 Bicentennial issue. Of course, WalMart and Kmart objected to stocking this album with this cover, so the record company reprinted the cover with just the triangular flag design on a field of black in order to placate the big chain stores.
Looking into this image further for this post, I found a blog post by a woman named Julie Ann Lyons who, in 1976, claims to be the one who sewed these panties for the art director of Hustler, a neighbor and friend in Columbus, Ohio. Two interesting things here – first, I didn’t know that Hustler was started in Columbus, and second, that looks like a printed bikini, not a homemade appliqué one. I consider this the perfect blend of tasteful and trashy, and I’m sure it says more about me that I love it than I might like. But I don’t care…
Unfortunately, the record itself was only OK – not even “good,” let alone worthy of as much praise (or as many column inches) as I am giving the cover art. The songs had gotten less R&B / rock-n-roll and more jam band-ish, and aside from two songs, was just dull. That, of course, led to less than stellar album sales. But even if the two good songs are not worth the price of the album – this is still a sexy-as-hell cover. I might go by the vinyl just to have a larger image I can put in a frame on the wall.
