There have been several versions of the tongue over the years, all of which can be seen here. The Forty Licks album is the only one to incorporate text into the logo. The numerals 4 & 0 have been added to the tongue. The Forty Licks logo itself has been coloured and is often referred to as a “rainbow” although it’s really just a gradient of yellow, orange, red and blue. I can’t find who designed this new logo so I’ll assume for now it was someone working within the Virgin art department. If you know leave me a comment. John Pasche however continued to be heavily involved in cover art for bands and has produced work for Jimi Hendrix, Art of Noise, The Stranglers, The Vapors and loads of others.

Whilst I really appreciate the subtlety of the 4 & 0 on the tongue, and the use of the bright colours, one aspect of the cover annoys me. The layout is simple, but I find the cropping of the logo awkward and although it is recognisable enough without being featured fully I think it could have benefited from a different placement on the cover.

David’s first choice incorporated an iconic piece of design but his second choice is an iconic piece of design in itself. The Dark Side of the Moon was released in March 1973. The album originally contained two posters and a set of stickers; my copy has both intact (yay me). It was designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie. Hipgnosis was a design group consisting of Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson. Storm Thorgerson’s career will be subject to a blog post all of it’s own soon enough but to say he has produced some of the most memorable and impressive album covers of all time is to understate his achievements. This was the album cover that really brought Hipgnosis to international eminence.

The cover features Hardie’s prism design on the front. A beam of light entering from the left is refracted in the prism creating a stylised rainbow. In white text on the black background is the name of the band and album within a white circle. The label’s logo is also shown on the lower right corner of the sleeve. On the inside of the gatefold the rainbow continues in a straight line but the green colour is shown as a pulsing soundwave. The albums lyrics are also shown in white on the black background. The rainbow continues onto the back cover of the album where the rainbow is seen refracted from a larger prism. To keep the outside of the album clean; showing only the two prisms, white light and rainbow the album information is positioned on the inside with the lyrics. This is what David means by keeping the cover distintinctive and not overly complicated.

I can find nothing wrong with the album cover; not that I was looking fomr something “wrong” with the Rolling Stones album. I like The Darkside of the Moon for the same reasons David does and the album completely deserves it’s place in musical history both for it’s visuals and the music it contains.

The record sleeve took on a far greater significance than capturing the contemporary urban spirit intended by Saville. The sleeve never really captured the melancholic feel of the song and with Curtis’ suicide shortly after recording the song the sleeve itself was misinterpreted as a headstone. I can completely understand this. My copy of the sleeve although of decent print quality shows a surface that looks as much like smooth stone as it does metal. Although supposed to be oxidised the actual image doesn’t show any orange rust spots which would give a more metallic impression. The result in any case is a design that took on an increased significance, an iconic significance way beyond its intended purpose.