Classic Album Cover: America Eats in Young…Still
In 2017, we are still in the trenches and foxholes of the war that America wages on its people, a bit more high tech battle than the warring strategies of 1972, but a war nonetheless. In 1972, Funkadelic, the brainchild of George Clinton, the first funkateer on the Planet Earth, released their fourth studio album, America Eats Its Young, debuting a fresh cover art concept unlike few before it. The 1960’s and 1970’s were a time of upheaval and unrest. There were riots going on, just like the riots we have witnessed and suffered recently in cities across the nation. Racial tensions and class conflicts were boiling over into the streets of the United States with blood and fire. Funkadelic captured this social uproar in the cover design of their LP and its signature protest concerto. It is so cliché to quote the adage, but so necessary and apropos for this essay, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In the case of America Eats Its Young, the cover art is worth a thousand stories. Funkadelic became known for their graphic designs more than any other group of the funk era. Their graphic images told stories that were relevant then and arguably more relevant now. The most famous of their album covers were created by Pedro Bell, artist extraordinaire, who brought us unique caricatures of people, places and things that make us think and consider, ponder and wonder, and change our minds.
America Eats Its Young cover design by graphic designer Paul Weldon, depicts the Statue of Liberty, draped in the American flag, eyes gorging blood, eating babies with a United States dollar bill as the back drop. If the standard 12 inch square front cover image is not enough to pause you, the original LP was released as a gatefold cover, opening up and spreading out into an oversized greenback, encasing 2 vinyl discs. Yes. America Eats Its Young was a double LP, 14 songs of haunting, chanting, funky, psycho rock soul that serves as the soundtrack for a celestial riot, a cosmic revolution taking place on the streets of the Milky Way, the Milky Way of our minds. America Eats Its Young is an outer space odyssey of earthly social, political, and cultural proportions. Mixtape Cover Kings pays homage to the artistic gifts of Parliament Funkadelic and their unmatched ability to conceptualize their creativity to elevate and empower the people. Mixtape Cover Kings carries on the tradition of artistic passion and power, making your mixtape covers a monument that pays tribute to the legacy of our musical forebears. Salute
Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young (2xLP – Red/Green Vinyl)
Funkadelic
