40 Year Itch: Listen To What I'm Saying

Mr Miracle

[Purchase]

   The 1975 cover of Jet's Roy Thomas Baker produced debut album features Mr Miracle, a character directly lifted from DC Comics.  Yes, the record label would get sued for that. (Did nobody hear the story about Icarus ? )  "Start Here" is the opening track and the second song from that quirky proto New Wave album to be featured this year on 1001 Songs.  "Tittle-Tattle" is another winner . Really, I can't get enough of Jet. 

  For more about the band that would soon become Radio Stars, visit here

The original Hipgnosis cover

40 Year Itch: A Marvel-ous Concept Album

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40 years before Disney bought Marvel for $4 Billion, a British prog rock band called Icarus released a tribute album to the great superheroes of Marvel Comics. So you have songs called "Spiderman", "Thor", "Captain America" and "Conan The Barbarian". The lyrics are a bit over the top for the most part --though I like "Hulk"'s chorus: 

Hulk is on the rampage/ Doesn't understand

Cuz underneath that thick green hide is a very mixed up man

And speaking of mix ups, when Marvel's chief honcho found out about the album he demanded Marvel receive 50% of the royalties. Instead, Pye Records pulled the album...making The Marvel World of Icarus a super rare, super album about super heroes.