Artwork Roger

To take a break from writing about an album and artist I decided to write about album artwork. This came to me today when I was looking for an Art book at the library. I thought about the Art of Roger Dean. We all know his artwork for Yes, but did you guys and girls know about his artwork for other artists. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few years back and he was the coolest guy. We just talked for about 15 minutes and his inspiration and stuff that makes him get these wonderful ideas that look like they stepped out of the 25th Century. I was going through this artwork idea the other day when I pulled out my Nucleus and Gun and Keith Tippett CD's who's artwork was also done by Roger Dean. Two of these were written about in the blog. Here is some of the artwork. After the jump I will tell you about what I think he was thinking. I cannot speak for him, but his artwork is great.


Roger Dean

His first album cover work was in 1968 for a group called Gun. In 1971, Dean produced the cover for the first album by the African/Caribbean band Osibisa which attracted widespread attention to his work. Later that year, he began the partnership with the progressive rock band Yes for which he is best known. His first design for the band was for their album Fragile. Dean designed the now-classic Yes "bubble" logo, which first appeared on the album Close to the Edge, and continued to create covers for the band until as recently as 1999 (The Ladder). Yes guitarist Steve Howe said, "There is a pretty tight bond between our sound and Roger's art." In addition to their album covers, Dean also contributed to his brother Martyn Dean's stage set designs for the band.

Known primarily for the dreamy, other-worldly scenes he has created for Yes, Budgie, Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant and other bands, Dean has said, "I don't really think of myself as a fantasy artist but as a landscape painter." Characteristic landscapes show graceful stone arches (as shown in Arches Mist, above) or floating islands, while many paintings show organic appearing habitats (such as shown in the cover for Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe). Though he primarily works with watercolour paints, many of his paintings make use of multiple media, including gouache, ink, enamel, crayon and collage. In addition to his cover paintings, Dean is respected for his calligraphic work, designing logos and titles to go with his paintings.


The Gun (Gun) I really like this album a lot and the artwork is pretty cool. It's too bad the band did not last that long. "Yellow Cab Man" is a really awesome song.



Osibisa (1971). I own this album and it's a great mix of Funk, Worldbeat and Rock and Roll. Great stuff.



Keith Tippett Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening. What a great album of British Free Jazz and wonderful playing by Elton Dean, Robert Wyatt and others.


Ian Carr and Nucleus. Elastic Rock. Like the Keith Tippett I featured both these in my blog. Both albums are a pretty penny in record form if you find them I would like them. Both on the wonderful Vertigo label. The artwork is nothing really new, but it sure is quite interesting to see that when you open the album.


Gentle Giant (Octopus) I own this LP, but with different artwork. The music is great, but it be even better with that artwork surrounding it. Another Classic Non-Yes cover art!



All this stuff is wonderful. I suggest you check it all out. There is a few web sites and a few books. I own one and it truly is wonderful to go through once in a while and try to figure out what he was thinking when he first started the idea. The last artwork will be a Yes one. Enjoy all these and this weekend I will get a few posts out to you.




Yes- (Yesyears) 1991. This was the artwork for the Yes box set that I bought. It truly is amazing (so is the music). I have a signed poster of this and really love staring at it and figuring out where in this world he drew inspiration and also where this could come from.

http://dj-spyder.blogspot.com/2008/11/roger-dean-album-art.html
Check out this site! For more artwork and stuff about Roger Dean.