Album Cover of the Week: The Vancouver Canucks, Hockey — With a Little Help from Your Friends

That’s right, the NHL is back! I thought I’d dedicate this week’s album cover post to a hockey-related LP, but I quickly found that there simply aren’t that many out there. There are plenty of covers with a football or baseball theme, but not so much hockey.

What I did find was this curio from the mid-1970s. It’s the 1975 LP from the Vancouver Canucks, Hockey — With a Little Help from Your Friends.

The Vancouver Canucks, Hockey -- With a Little Help from Your Friends

This is just great, whether you love hockey, vintage logos, or funky and weird albums. This isn’t a music album, so don’t go expecting the ’70s hockey equivalent of “Super Bowl Shuffle.” This is a mostly spoken word record, featuring playing advice and tips from Canuck players such as Don Lever, Rick Blight, Bob Dailey, Dennis Ververgaert, Curt Ridley, Harold Snepsts, Phil Maloney, and Theme Tune. Sprinkled in with the spoken parts are some slabs of vintage jazzy instrumental funk.

Here’s a sampling from the album — a track featuring 15-year veteran Don Lever:

With a Little Help from Your Friends (The Vancouver Canucks) by VanCanucks

Awesome, eh?

No idea on the artist or graphic design credits for this beauty. I’d like to thank him for creating that fantastic ghost streak effect on the old Canucks uniforms. Love that color scheme and the stick-in-rink logo. Not much has changed about the Chicago Blackhawks uniform so there’s not much to remark on there, other than the glaring lack of helmets and the old-fashioned goalie mask.