Andy Warhol became the Manager of the band who became the house band at the 'Factory' and played his 'Exploding Plastic Inevitable' events, which was a series of multimedia events organized by Warhol between 1966 and 1967. Warhol's management allowed freedom to the band to play whatever music they wanted, and their debut album 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' (featuring German singer Nico with whom they collaborated) was named the 13th Greatest Album of All Time by 'Rolling Stone' in 2003.
The Album cover for the bands debut album was a design by Warhol which featured a yellow banana with 'peel slowly and see' printed near a perforated tab. For those that removed the banana 'skin' discovered a peeled pink banana underneath.
Here is the album cover, I love the instant 'pop art' impact the cover gives as soon as you see it. I also think that the unusual aesthetic would draw in a persons attention on a cd or vinyl rack in a music store. I think that the child-like nature of the cover would relate directly to the childlike, simplistic first impression an audience may recieve from viewing a piece of Andy's artwork. Therefore, this could represent Andy's influence on the group, making the Album cover also a piece of art, signing his name at bthe bottom of the image. The silkscreen effect also seems to resemble a stamp which could imply Andy's 'stamp' he put on the group with the debut image and the idea to collaborate with Nico.
The unusual and almost disjuncture effect that the image gives could relate to the unusual and provocative music the band produced, an intelectual indication to the genre on the cover of the album.
I believe that to produce my album artwork similarly to this would have an ideal link to the Warholian image that 'Rickie & the Islanders' have for their debut album and video for the leading track 'End of the Night'.
