Rush News

Permanent Waves' Paula Turnbull makes VH1's "True Stories Of Iconic Women From Classic Rock Album Covers"

Yesterday VH1.com posted the second in a series of "Iconic Women From Classic Rock Album Covers." Coming in at #2 in a list of 10 classic album covers featuring female models is:
Paula Turnbull – Permanent Waves by Rush (1980)

Shot by photographer Fin Costello and graphically rendered by designer Hugh Syme, the cover of Rush’s Permanent Waves LP makes an unmistakably powerful statement. Its visual centerpiece (albeit off to the right side) is fashion model Paula Turnbull, who poses as a sexy, clueless, panty-flashing 1950s glamour queen on a suburban street where, behind her, Armageddon rages unacknowledged.

Before a single needle hit Permanent Waves’ first groove, Paula’s expertly evocative still photo performance announced that, on the album within, humanity’s premiere prog-metal power trio would be exploring new sounds and different aesthetics—specifically, those of the then hyper-happening new wave movement.

Paula worked steadily as a model before and after Permanent Waves, but her best-known other work occurred two years later, when she reprised her role as the same intriguingly oblivious sexbomb on the cover of Rush’s tremendous live album, Exit… Stage Left.

2 comments:

  1. I think this may be the greatest album cover of all time.

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  2. This is truly the greatest album cover of all time!

    ReplyDelete