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“It is like the invasion of the bunny body snatchers,” says JT Thompson, the former lead singer of the 1970s US rock band Peter Rabbitt, as he looks at what is regarded as one of the world’s worst record covers.
The 1979 album Roadstar shows all five members of the California rock band with their faces morphed on to rabbit bodies, with Thompson emerging, like a terrible dream, smiling from a top hat.
“We had no idea they were going to do it,” he said. “This actually came out after we had split up.”
The cover is one of several hundred which have gone on display in the latest version of an exhibition that has become something of a phenomenon.
Four years ago the Guardian featured the first Worst Record Covers in the World exhibition in Huddersfield. Since then there have been numerous exhibitions at galleries and festivals, and it will be at the Edinburgh fringe, on display at the Assembly Rooms Studios Bar in George Square later this year.
All the covers have been collected by the exhibition curator, Steve Goldman, and it all started with Peter Rabbitt – the reason why Thompson, from San Diego, is guest of honour for its opening at the weekend at Mansfield Museum in Nottinghamshire.
Goldman said he bought the rabbit album 40 years ago for 10p because it had such a bad cover. “It made me laugh … I was in hysterics.”
He then lost the album but never forgot it and when the internet came along he was able to track a copy down.
“When it arrived it was one of the happiest moments of my life,” he said. “That evening I said to my family, ‘do you know what, I think I’ll start collecting crap LP covers’.”
Goldman’s rule of thumb is that if it makes him laugh, he collects it.
Among the albums on display are Oil and Vinegar by Dave McKenna/The Wilbur Little Quarter, with a naked couple and their disturbing, possibly erotic, use of what could be chard; Songs for Gay Dogs by Paddy Roberts; Do You Want to Touch Me by Johnny Carroll and Kris Jensen Sings: Torture.
Goldman said his favourites changed week by week. At the moment they include All My Friends Are Dead by Freddie Gage, which shows the singer – a Southern Baptist evangelist – kneeling at a grave.
“It is the most expensive album I’ve bought – £110 – but it’s worth every penny.”
Most of the albums are from the 1970s and 1980s, but singers and bands are still releasing albums with terrible covers.
Goldman points to the album from Norway’s Satanic Panic Attack, Handgemeng, in which the five band members have stripped naked to mournfully cuddle up on a rug. “They just look comical,” said Goldman, laughing.
Because Mansfield Museum will probably have a lot of children visiting, some of the more risque covers from Goldman’s collection will be missing. Not on display will be Letzte Naach by the German folk singer Kingsize Dick or Let Me Touch Him by the Minister’s Quartet.
On Friday, Thompson, 74, visited the show recognising people he had worked with over the years. There’s Dee Snider from Twisted Sister about to gorge on a cow bone; and an almost-naked Ted Nugent with Terminator-like guitar arms.
“He’s a wild guy,” said Thompson of Nugent. “One of those guys who you never knew what was going to happen.”
Thompson said when he first saw the rabbit album cover he thought it was terrible but also “funny as hell … What can you do?”
Visitors will be encouraged to vote for their favourite worst album cover and also take part in a poll of albums which are more divisive, for example the Prince album Lovesexy, featuring the singer, deep in thought, reclining naked on a giant lily. Terrible or genius?
Goldman said his favourite activity during exhibitions was to watch people’s reactions. He hopes people will laugh.
He remembers a friend seeing a record called The Nimble Fingers of Jean Pierre Jumez, featuring a concert guitarist in a dinner jacket and no trousers.
“She laughed more than I’ve seen her laugh in her life,” said Goldman. “That’s when I decided I needed to exhibit them. We still don’t know why he’s not wearing trousers I’m afraid.”
