The Art of Neon Park

I’ve been relistening to the first five Little Feat albums this week. Little Feat were one of the nearest things to a perfect American band that you could hear, probably on a par with The Band. I had been fascinated with their album covers starting at “Sailin’ Shoes”.

I noticed the name / logo NEON PARK in the bottom left hand corner of the cover and decided to look a little further. Every time I looked at the cover I seemed to see something else. There is an almost “Alice In Wonderland” feel to it. The cut cake with a large eye, legs kicking off a shoe, on a swing watched by a wickerwork snail against a green lawn backdrop and a parade of blue urns spouting greenery and plants. The cake is watched by a dandy and possibly a dragon hidden in the trees.

On the back cover the urns are to the forefront and a tree spouts a leg that ends in a hoof and has an eye on the knee. This is a very surreal journey describing the first Neon Park (real name Martin Muller) Little Feat album cover, although this piece is about the remarkable album covers rather than the remarkable music contained within.

Neon Park produced artwork for many artists and organisations and you find these by referencing the Wikipedia page here, he did the “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” Album art for Frank Zappa where the weasel is used as a razor by a suited gentleman. Neon Park was a master of the surreal and became very much in demand.

In 1993 he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a degenerative disease with no treatment available, and doctors estimated a two-year survival time. He continued to work, but as his illness advanced he could no longer paint, so he concentrated on writing poetry, typing with one finger when he could no longer hold a pen.

A very sad loss but we will continue with his work for Little Feat.

His next cover for “Dixie Chicken” looks fairly innocuous, This was only a front cover, with madam on the front against a quilted background about to be wrapped in a large accordion. Of course there is an extra eye in the top of her hair, then you notice the eye on the accordion and the white keys look like teeth and the accordion is not an accordion at all but a large legless slimy creature akin to a snake or millipede.

“Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” is a little more subdued but the car is driving up the mountain road threatened by forked lightning , but the car has eyes for headlights and the two people in the car are crushed to the left hand side, not sure where the steering wheel is.

“The Last Record Album” features a jackalope (a hare with antlers) in a tumbleweed strewn wild west town under a massive cream topped orange jelly , with a Joshua tree (which are actually yuccas) decorating the street too,

The live album “Waiting For Columbus” features a monstrous tomato headed person in a hammock enjoying a sunny day amidst the greenery. Again another album on which the music is second to none and really should be in your collection, not just for the cover.

There are many more examples of his work and I could include them in here but I’ll just include links to the albums so you can see , just search Little Feat . I’ll lead with “Dixie Chicken” so you can see that monstrous accordion cover , see what you think , The song is superb though