Was a defocused Adam Ant ever a sex symbol? This 1983 cover of Strip certainly suggests that over 30 years ago, he was. I was busy acting out my favorite scenes from Return of the Jedi with my Jedi Luke Skywalker (with green lightsaber) and Jabba the Hutt playset (with snub-nosed Salacious Crumb) at the time, so this obvious monument of male sexual prowess escaped me.
I’ll admit that I went through an “80s” phase about a decade ago, and managed to gobble up any and every early 80s pop album I could find. I’d been the proud owner of Adam Ant’s B-Side Babies back in High School, and figured that expanding my Adam Ant collection was a logical endeavor. Strip, with its chart-climbing single, Puss ‘n Boots (which was co-produced by Phil Collins, I’ll have you know) was Mr. Ant’s 2nd solo effort after ditching the Ants in ’82.
Sex symbol or not, Stuart Leslie Goddard (aka Adam Ant) made some pretty damn good pop music throughout his career, and although B-Side Babies never received a proper vinyl release, it comes HIGHLY recommended.
I’m certainly no expert on this subject, only having stumbled across it earlier today, and there have been wiser individuals who have written, at great lengths, about this subject (cited examples: ONE and TWO), and I know it’s rather old news, but were you aware that The Police’s 1983 album Synchronicity (their fifth and final studio output) has 93 different cover variations?! Some sources claim only 36 variants exist, which is still an outstanding number, in my opinion. Sure, The Police were considered the biggest band in the world upon this summer album’s release, but why all the intentional variants? Fun fact: most, if not all US pressings were released as audiophile records, which are actually brown or purple when held up to light, but appear to be standard black vinyl with minimal-to-no inspection. Mine is purple, for the record (see what I did there?). Which color is yours?
The Prudent Groove 