Cover Art: The Royal Scam

One of the greatest rock albums of the 1970s. I have always been fascinated by the album artwork though its hated by many... including the band.

The Royal Scam is an album by Steely Dan, originally released in 1976. The album went gold and peaked at #15 on the charts.
The album cover, which shows a somewhat well-dressed, possibly homeless, man sleeping underneath (or perhaps dreaming of) images of mutating skyscrapers, is a satirical take on the American Dream. The drawing and painting of the skyscrapers topped with various animal heads (snake, etc.), was considered dark, eerie, and gothic. The cover was designed by Larry Zox, and at least a portion was originally created for a Van Morrison album from 1974-75 that was never released. In the liner notes for the 1999 remaster of the album, Fagen and Becker claim it to be "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can't Buy A Thrill).