Robert Crumb – album covers

American cartoonist Robert Crumb (born 1943 in Philadelphia) is widely considered to be the "father of underground comics." His work has a distinctive style and satirical tone and often features strongly stereotyped portrayals of minorities and overly sexualised women. He is best known for creating the cartoon characters Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural and Devil Girl.

 

Crumb has illustrated many album covers, including most prominently Cheap Thrills by Big Brother & the Holding Company and the compilation album The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead.

1968 Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin 
Cheap Thrills

1995 Roots of the Grateful Dead 
The Music Never Stopped

1972 Earl Hooker 
There's a Fungus amung us

1972 Good Tone Banjo Boys

1973 Please Warm My Weiner 
Old Time Hokum Blues

1974 Big John Wrencher and his Maxwell Street Blues Boys 
Maxwell Street Alley Blues

1974 Dave Jasen 
Rompin’ Stompin’ Ragtime

Between 1974 and 1984, Crumb drew at least 17 album covers for Yazoo Records/Blue Goose Records, including those of the Cheap Suit Serenaders. He also created the revised logo and record label designs of Blue Goose Records that were used from 1974 onward.

1974 R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders ( front cover )

1974 R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders ( back cover )

1974 Ukelele Ike 
I'm a Bear in a Lady's Boudoir

1975 Casey Bill Welden and Kokomo Arnold 
Bottleneck Guitar Trendsetters of the 1930s

1975 The Hokum Boys 
You Can't Get Enough of that Stuff

1975 Roy Smeck plays Hawaiian Guitar, Banjo, Ukelele and Guitar 1926-1949

1976 Harmonica Blues

1976 R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 2 ( aka Chasin' Rainbows )

1977 Larry Groce 
Turn on Your TV

1978 Harmonica Blues Band 
Bring Me Another Half a Pint

1978 Blind Boy Fuller 
Truckin' my Blues Away

1978 Bo Carter 
Banana in Your Fruit Basket

1978 R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders Number Three

1978 The Klezmorim 
Streets of Gold

1978 The Cheap Suit Serenaders 
Party Record

1979 Memphis Jug Band 
Double Album

1982 The Otis Brothers 
Flying Crow

1985 Louie Blue

1987 Robert Crumb, Dominic Cravic and others 
Cocktail D'Amour

In 1992 and 1993 Crumb was involved in a project by a Dutch formation, The Beau Hunks, and for both their albums The Beau Hunks Play the Original Laurel and Hardy Music (1 and 2), he was the illustrator for the album covers, as well as for the album booklets.

1993 The Beau Hunks Play the Original Laurel and Hardy Music

1999 Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie

2000 Trésors Illustrés des Musiques Populaires du XXe siècle

2003 That's What I Call Sweet Music

2006 The East River Band 
Sweet East River

2006 Alan Seidler 
"The Duke of Ook"

2008 Eden and John's East River String Band 
Some Cold Rainy Day

2009 Hot Women

2009 Eden and John's East River String Band 
Drunken Barrel House Blues

In 2010 Crumb drew three artworks for Christopher King's Aimer Et Perdre: To Love And To Lose Songs, 1917-1934 released on CD on Tompkins Square in 2012.

2010 Aimer et Perdre To Love and to Lose, Songs 1917-1934

2010 Aimer et Perdre To Love and to Lose

2010 Aimer et Perdre, To Love and to Lose, Songs

2011 Eden and John's East River String Band 
Be Kind to a Man When He's Down