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Cheap Thrills, an album cover by Robert Crumb (2020)

Created in late 1960s in the style of underground comics, Cheap Thrills is one of the most iconic album covers in history. This is the story of the art and the artist behind it.

After living in Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, all these really depressing industrial cities, San Francisco seemed like a sweet little cupcake with Victorian houses and pretty parks.” The town offered him the best environment to indulge in the things that most interested him: drawing wild comics and taking acid. I remember us all sitting around and talking ideas for the cover and I said ‘How about asking R.Crumb?’ Janis, James (Gurley, guitar player) and I were all big fans of his work, we loved his cartoons which were appearing in the SF underground newspapers and Zap Comics. I lost my ego and you haven’t.’ It became where in any social gathering everybody sat around trying to out-cool each other.” But as he admits, he never felt comfortable in that environment anyway, even when it was at its peak of innocence: “I couldn’t kick off my shows and go dance in the park.

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