A
Anonymous
Guest
I really like the somewhere in time artwork. Eddie on that one looks really.......different. Almost exotic.
I think Somewhere In Time because it has so much detail relating to the past of Maiden shown in a futuristic tense, how could it not be the best, it has the "23:58" time on a futuristic town clock, it also has Eddie standing with a gun in the Killers pose which is shown in the future but relates to the past. It is also nice to see the band portrayed animated on the cover.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I think Somewhere In Time has the best artwork because it has the band and Eddie in a futuristic tense, it also has the 23:58 time on a digital town clock, it has the Ruskin Arms pub in the painting done up in the future, it also has loads of detail relating to Maiden from the past.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I don't know what I might have voted, anyway, it's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
It looks plain but has lots of funny things in it: the apple heart, the ice sculptures that give us former albums such as LaD and Killers. You can see England in the ice and in the sky there you will see the frozen NotB Eddie.
It looks plain but has lots of funny things in it: the apple heart, the ice sculptures that give us former albums such as LaD and Killers. You can see England in the ice and in the sky there you will see the frozen NotB Eddie.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Somwhere In Time
My Favorite album and the detail and references in that picture can have you gazing at it in minute detail for hours.
My Favorite album and the detail and references in that picture can have you gazing at it in minute detail for hours.
gor
Ancient Mariner
[!--QuoteBegin-664+Oct 25 2005, 12:42 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(664 @ Oct 25 2005, 12:42 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]What's with so many people voting for Powerslave? Have you even looked at other covers? Powerslave consists of two single sided drawings making up a separate front and back that only relate to each other trough their Egyptian theme.
In fact, this is the ONLY IM cover Riggs has done from NOTB until 7th Son that has NO single painting spanning both sides of the album cover!
Admittably, the front cover artwork on Powerslave is just great, really lush and detailed! But the back is visibly done in a great hurry and doesn't reflect the quality of the front-painting at all!
Why did Riggs suddenly decide on two different paintings on Powerslave? Why would he suddenly part from such a recognisable and high-quality style for just ONE album cover?
As we can all see for ourselves with Live After Death he had returned to the two-side spanning artwork style. He actually couldn't have done it differently because LAD originally had a double-slant LP cover. Opening it up would enable you to see the true magnificence of the "light objects on dark background" artwork that made for a really eerie experience, especially under a blacklight! And Live After Death is what I voted for in this poll.
Now back once more to Powerslave... I asked you why Derek did not do another double-sided painting when working on the Powerslave cover. I think I know the answer as it can be found on the PS cover itself!
First this: (almost) All CD cases and LP sleeves open on the right side. This means that in order to do a double-sided cover painting the front-part for your art has to be on the right side of your work as the LP sleeve or CD booklet folds to the back-part of the image over the left side.... I hope you're with me so far...
So... if we want to find any clues to whether Riggs originally intended to do a double-side album cover for Powerslave or not we will have to check the left portion of the FRONT cover.
Now what's on the left side of the front cover... "A mirror image of the right side" you'd say. Well, not quite... There's actually two things that lead me to presume Derek Riggs originally planned on doing another double sided cover-painting:
First clue: There's a larger part of the temple and the pyramid showing on the left side of the drawing then on the right. This might indicate that the complete drawing in fact stretches out further to the left. The first sign of an (attempt at an) double sided painting.
Second clue: This will take some investigation on your behalf! But do it and it will prove me right! Take every album cover from NOTB to 7th Son. I'll say it once more: These ALL have double sided cover-art, exept for Powerslave. But in addition to the supposedly missing rear-portion of the original Powerslave artwork, ANOTHER CRUCIAL THING IS MISSING! Something that MUST have been on the original left/rear-side of the artwork: THE SUN!!! All the mentioned albums have clear lightsources (open door, sun or moon) that cast shadows on and over the various objects in the paintings. Derek was always very precise with his use of lights and shadows! Now once again look at the front of Powerslave: There are lots of shadows, and they're all cast to the right, implying the lightsource must have been drawn somewhere on the left side (rear) of the painting... There is some image of a sun on the back of the cover but in this position the sun could never cast the shadows as shown on the front cover.
I think Riggs either may have tried to paint another double sided cover but simply wasn't able to finish it in time (hence the more crude style used for the rear-painting). Or he may have finished the complete cover but either IM management or Riggs himself did not deem it fit for printing. The truth shall probably remain as much a mystery as Derek's brand of underwear. [!--emo&
--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
very intresting analysis! great insight!
In fact, this is the ONLY IM cover Riggs has done from NOTB until 7th Son that has NO single painting spanning both sides of the album cover!
Admittably, the front cover artwork on Powerslave is just great, really lush and detailed! But the back is visibly done in a great hurry and doesn't reflect the quality of the front-painting at all!
Why did Riggs suddenly decide on two different paintings on Powerslave? Why would he suddenly part from such a recognisable and high-quality style for just ONE album cover?
As we can all see for ourselves with Live After Death he had returned to the two-side spanning artwork style. He actually couldn't have done it differently because LAD originally had a double-slant LP cover. Opening it up would enable you to see the true magnificence of the "light objects on dark background" artwork that made for a really eerie experience, especially under a blacklight! And Live After Death is what I voted for in this poll.
Now back once more to Powerslave... I asked you why Derek did not do another double-sided painting when working on the Powerslave cover. I think I know the answer as it can be found on the PS cover itself!
First this: (almost) All CD cases and LP sleeves open on the right side. This means that in order to do a double-sided cover painting the front-part for your art has to be on the right side of your work as the LP sleeve or CD booklet folds to the back-part of the image over the left side.... I hope you're with me so far...
So... if we want to find any clues to whether Riggs originally intended to do a double-side album cover for Powerslave or not we will have to check the left portion of the FRONT cover.
Now what's on the left side of the front cover... "A mirror image of the right side" you'd say. Well, not quite... There's actually two things that lead me to presume Derek Riggs originally planned on doing another double sided cover-painting:
First clue: There's a larger part of the temple and the pyramid showing on the left side of the drawing then on the right. This might indicate that the complete drawing in fact stretches out further to the left. The first sign of an (attempt at an) double sided painting.
Second clue: This will take some investigation on your behalf! But do it and it will prove me right! Take every album cover from NOTB to 7th Son. I'll say it once more: These ALL have double sided cover-art, exept for Powerslave. But in addition to the supposedly missing rear-portion of the original Powerslave artwork, ANOTHER CRUCIAL THING IS MISSING! Something that MUST have been on the original left/rear-side of the artwork: THE SUN!!! All the mentioned albums have clear lightsources (open door, sun or moon) that cast shadows on and over the various objects in the paintings. Derek was always very precise with his use of lights and shadows! Now once again look at the front of Powerslave: There are lots of shadows, and they're all cast to the right, implying the lightsource must have been drawn somewhere on the left side (rear) of the painting... There is some image of a sun on the back of the cover but in this position the sun could never cast the shadows as shown on the front cover.
I think Riggs either may have tried to paint another double sided cover but simply wasn't able to finish it in time (hence the more crude style used for the rear-painting). Or he may have finished the complete cover but either IM management or Riggs himself did not deem it fit for printing. The truth shall probably remain as much a mystery as Derek's brand of underwear. [!--emo&
--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--][snapback]121245[/snapback]
[/quote]very intresting analysis! great insight!
A
Anonymous
Guest
So we're not supposed to like the Powerslave cover.
gor
Ancient Mariner
I emailed your speculation to Riggs, this is what he had to say on the matter:
"Powerslave was always intended to be a regular sleeve and not a gatefold
sleeve. it was never commissioned as a gatefold sleeve.
A gatefold sleeve is the propper term for a record cover that opens out like
a book, with two envelopes, as opposed to just one envelope like a regular
sleeve. the term "double-slant album cover" never existed and was never used
at that time, I think he's made that term up. (these were the days of
records, black vinyl 12 inch things with a hole in the middle)
the design was symmetrical, it was never at any point meant to be a gatefold
picture. the back cover was commissioned afterwards as a seperate artwork,
it has a lot of blank-ish space in it because it was meant to have a lot of
text printed across the picture.
so the sun "must have" been in the "missing back" portion of the picture?
crap.
if you look at the lighting, the sun would have been behind you to the left.
and quite high in the sky as well."
"Powerslave was always intended to be a regular sleeve and not a gatefold
sleeve. it was never commissioned as a gatefold sleeve.
A gatefold sleeve is the propper term for a record cover that opens out like
a book, with two envelopes, as opposed to just one envelope like a regular
sleeve. the term "double-slant album cover" never existed and was never used
at that time, I think he's made that term up. (these were the days of
records, black vinyl 12 inch things with a hole in the middle)
the design was symmetrical, it was never at any point meant to be a gatefold
picture. the back cover was commissioned afterwards as a seperate artwork,
it has a lot of blank-ish space in it because it was meant to have a lot of
text printed across the picture.
so the sun "must have" been in the "missing back" portion of the picture?
crap.
if you look at the lighting, the sun would have been behind you to the left.
and quite high in the sky as well."
--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
[!--quoteo(post=127096:date=Jan 16 2006, 03:37 AM:name=gor)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(gor @ Jan 16 2006, 03:37 AM) [snapback]127096[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
I emailed your speculation to Riggs, this is what he had to say on the matter:
"Powerslave was always intended to be a regular sleeve and not a gatefold
sleeve. it was never commissioned as a gatefold sleeve.
A gatefold sleeve is the propper term for a record cover that opens out like
a book, with two envelopes, as opposed to just one envelope like a regular
sleeve. the term "double-slant album cover" never existed and was never used
at that time, I think he's made that term up. (these were the days of
records, black vinyl 12 inch things with a hole in the middle)
the design was symmetrical, it was never at any point meant to be a gatefold
picture. the back cover was commissioned afterwards as a seperate artwork,
it has a lot of blank-ish space in it because it was meant to have a lot of
text printed across the picture.
so the sun "must have" been in the "missing back" portion of the picture?
crap.
if you look at the lighting, the sun would have been behind you to the left.
and quite high in the sky as well."
[/quote]
Thanks gor, when I was reading the guy's post I also thought "crap" a couple of times, and it's good to hear it from the master itself! [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"
\" border=\"0\" alt=\"smile.gif\" /]
Nice that Riggs is so easy to approach. These responses should be archived!
p.s. This says it all imo.:
-------
if the poser had really wanted to "solve the mystery" he could just have
emailed me like you did. but he didn't want to do that he wanted to bullshit
and try to make himself sound clever.
sorry if this sounds a bit critical, but this kind of constant bullshitting
about my pictures pisses me off after a while.
it's just a fucking album cover, get a life.
have fun
D
---
Indeed, a lot of people on forums have theories and show them to sound clever. And this one about Powerslave was the ultimate crap one, and it couldn't have been annihilated in a better way.
Okay, in the past Riggs might have said things that were not very sincere as you say, gor, but it's easy to explain.
Since Maiden quit the collaboration with Derek, Maiden and especially Rod were pretty rude about him and tried to make him less important than he was and still is. Derek did and does the same.: Maiden's influence was not big on his art, he said earlier. Now it seems he admits the things "the band wanted". It's a good sign. I still think he is more sincere than Rod, when it comes to his own artwork.
I emailed your speculation to Riggs, this is what he had to say on the matter:
"Powerslave was always intended to be a regular sleeve and not a gatefold
sleeve. it was never commissioned as a gatefold sleeve.
A gatefold sleeve is the propper term for a record cover that opens out like
a book, with two envelopes, as opposed to just one envelope like a regular
sleeve. the term "double-slant album cover" never existed and was never used
at that time, I think he's made that term up. (these were the days of
records, black vinyl 12 inch things with a hole in the middle)
the design was symmetrical, it was never at any point meant to be a gatefold
picture. the back cover was commissioned afterwards as a seperate artwork,
it has a lot of blank-ish space in it because it was meant to have a lot of
text printed across the picture.
so the sun "must have" been in the "missing back" portion of the picture?
crap.
if you look at the lighting, the sun would have been behind you to the left.
and quite high in the sky as well."
[/quote]
Thanks gor, when I was reading the guy's post I also thought "crap" a couple of times, and it's good to hear it from the master itself! [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"
\" border=\"0\" alt=\"smile.gif\" /]Nice that Riggs is so easy to approach. These responses should be archived!
p.s. This says it all imo.:
-------
if the poser had really wanted to "solve the mystery" he could just have
emailed me like you did. but he didn't want to do that he wanted to bullshit
and try to make himself sound clever.
sorry if this sounds a bit critical, but this kind of constant bullshitting
about my pictures pisses me off after a while.
it's just a fucking album cover, get a life.
have fun
D
---
Indeed, a lot of people on forums have theories and show them to sound clever. And this one about Powerslave was the ultimate crap one, and it couldn't have been annihilated in a better way.
Okay, in the past Riggs might have said things that were not very sincere as you say, gor, but it's easy to explain.
Since Maiden quit the collaboration with Derek, Maiden and especially Rod were pretty rude about him and tried to make him less important than he was and still is. Derek did and does the same.: Maiden's influence was not big on his art, he said earlier. Now it seems he admits the things "the band wanted". It's a good sign. I still think he is more sincere than Rod, when it comes to his own artwork.
A
Anonymous
Guest
For archive purposes:
[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Hi it's Derek Riggs
I put the answers underneath your questions.
On Killers:
Does the hand grabbing on to Eddie's t-shirt belong to Thatcher?
A. no, it's just an arm. in fact it's a man's arm if you look
On Somewhere In Time:
Is there a small story being on the artwork? It looks like the members of
Maiden have travelled in a Doctor Who style time machine to reimplant
Eddie's brain (held by bruce's character on the artwork) in his head, while
Eddie's shooting down some guy that tried to rip off the Maiden poster on
the far right...
A. no, that's all bullshit. the band wanted a science fiction city like the
one in Bladerunner and so I invented that one. I always used to keep nits
from past albums in because I liked doing that. not because there was any
kind of a story involved, because there wasn't
On Seventh Son cover artwork:
Is the uterus in Eddie's hands "trying" to asfixiate the unborn child by
covering its mouth? Does that have sth to do with the story of the lyrics?
Does the apple under Eddie's chest contain the Ying Yang symbol, as is
speculated? What is the apple's significance? Is it supposed to link to the
"Original Sin"? Why the liquid element on the cover?
A. the band said they wanted me to paint one of my surreal style things. so
that is what I did. that was actually the wording of the brief. the album
was about prophecy and a prophet so I got a load of religous and mystical
bits and stuck them into a landscape. and then I just painted whatever took
my fancy.
about Powerslave. (I had him comment on this post)
all that stuff you found on the internet is a complete load of shite. the
poster has no idea what he is going on about. he should write a book about
conspiracy theories because he would be good at that.
Powerslave was always intended to be a regular sleeve and not a gatefold
sleeve. it was never commissioned as a gatefold sleeve.
A gatefold sleeve is the propper term for a record cover that opens out like
a book, with two envelopes, as opposed to just one envelope like a regular
sleeve. the term "double-slant album cover" never existed and was never used
at that time, I think he's made that term up. (these were the days of
records, black vinyl 12 inch things with a hole in the middle)
the design was symmetrical, it was never at any point meant to be a gatefold
picture. the back cover was commissioned afterwards as a seperate artwork,
it has a lot of blank-ish space in it because it was meant to have a lot of
text printed across the picture.
so the sun "must have" been in the "missing back" portion of the picture?
crap.
if you look at the lighting, the sun would have been behind you to the left.
and quite high in the sky as well.
if the poser had really wanted to "solve the mystery" he could just have
emailed me like you did. but he didn't want to do that he wanted to bullshit
and try to make himself sound clever.
sorry if this sounds a bit critical, but this kind of constant bullshitting
about my pictures pisses me off after a while.
it's just a fucking album cover, get a life.
have fun
D
My comment:
Afar from a bit bitter, I *think* Riggs hasn't been all that sincere with his replies now and then. His No1 complaint from Maiden for many years was that he came up with all the artwork concepts and they ended up credited to Rod and the boys. Which, knowing how Maiden work, is far from impossible. Nevertheless, in his effort to take claim of all the ideas behind the artwork, he denies any links to the lyrics which might have been suggested to him by the lyric composers. For instance, the stuff about the liquid element on the SSoaSS cover and especially the agonizing fetus in the uterus which is apparently asfyxiating it are both stuff that agree with the concept of the album too much to be coincidences. By the way Dismal, I asked him about the cube too, hope he replies again.[/quote]
[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Hi it's Derek Riggs
I put the answers underneath your questions.
On Killers:
Does the hand grabbing on to Eddie's t-shirt belong to Thatcher?
A. no, it's just an arm. in fact it's a man's arm if you look
On Somewhere In Time:
Is there a small story being on the artwork? It looks like the members of
Maiden have travelled in a Doctor Who style time machine to reimplant
Eddie's brain (held by bruce's character on the artwork) in his head, while
Eddie's shooting down some guy that tried to rip off the Maiden poster on
the far right...
A. no, that's all bullshit. the band wanted a science fiction city like the
one in Bladerunner and so I invented that one. I always used to keep nits
from past albums in because I liked doing that. not because there was any
kind of a story involved, because there wasn't
On Seventh Son cover artwork:
Is the uterus in Eddie's hands "trying" to asfixiate the unborn child by
covering its mouth? Does that have sth to do with the story of the lyrics?
Does the apple under Eddie's chest contain the Ying Yang symbol, as is
speculated? What is the apple's significance? Is it supposed to link to the
"Original Sin"? Why the liquid element on the cover?
A. the band said they wanted me to paint one of my surreal style things. so
that is what I did. that was actually the wording of the brief. the album
was about prophecy and a prophet so I got a load of religous and mystical
bits and stuck them into a landscape. and then I just painted whatever took
my fancy.
about Powerslave. (I had him comment on this post)
all that stuff you found on the internet is a complete load of shite. the
poster has no idea what he is going on about. he should write a book about
conspiracy theories because he would be good at that.
Powerslave was always intended to be a regular sleeve and not a gatefold
sleeve. it was never commissioned as a gatefold sleeve.
A gatefold sleeve is the propper term for a record cover that opens out like
a book, with two envelopes, as opposed to just one envelope like a regular
sleeve. the term "double-slant album cover" never existed and was never used
at that time, I think he's made that term up. (these were the days of
records, black vinyl 12 inch things with a hole in the middle)
the design was symmetrical, it was never at any point meant to be a gatefold
picture. the back cover was commissioned afterwards as a seperate artwork,
it has a lot of blank-ish space in it because it was meant to have a lot of
text printed across the picture.
so the sun "must have" been in the "missing back" portion of the picture?
crap.
if you look at the lighting, the sun would have been behind you to the left.
and quite high in the sky as well.
if the poser had really wanted to "solve the mystery" he could just have
emailed me like you did. but he didn't want to do that he wanted to bullshit
and try to make himself sound clever.
sorry if this sounds a bit critical, but this kind of constant bullshitting
about my pictures pisses me off after a while.
it's just a fucking album cover, get a life.
have fun
D
My comment:
Afar from a bit bitter, I *think* Riggs hasn't been all that sincere with his replies now and then. His No1 complaint from Maiden for many years was that he came up with all the artwork concepts and they ended up credited to Rod and the boys. Which, knowing how Maiden work, is far from impossible. Nevertheless, in his effort to take claim of all the ideas behind the artwork, he denies any links to the lyrics which might have been suggested to him by the lyric composers. For instance, the stuff about the liquid element on the SSoaSS cover and especially the agonizing fetus in the uterus which is apparently asfyxiating it are both stuff that agree with the concept of the album too much to be coincidences. By the way Dismal, I asked him about the cube too, hope he replies again.[/quote]
A
Anonymous
Guest
I really love Brave New World's cover. So much detail in it, and I like the futuristic style.
It was hard to choose. I also loved Powerslave, SSoaSS, and Somewhere in Time. The X Factor was also really good.
It was hard to choose. I also loved Powerslave, SSoaSS, and Somewhere in Time. The X Factor was also really good.
A
Anonymous
Guest
the trooper
well piece of mind [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"
\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /] but the trooper dieserves an album [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]
well piece of mind [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"
\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /] but the trooper dieserves an album [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]
A
Anonymous
Guest
Powerslave!!!
A
Anonymous
Guest
Killers [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]
\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]
A
Anonymous
Guest
Killers has to be the best for me followed by live after death , both are brilliant artwork and have alot to look at , i loved these when i had them on vinyl !!!
Cosmiceddie
Back From The Edge
I maintain that the 'Powerslave' sleeve is still second to none.
...why the hell is there still no 'coolest single cover artwork' topic?
...why the hell is there still no 'coolest single cover artwork' topic?