I'm a painter and I remember from (70's? 80's?) an image of a floating
men's fedora in a lightning storm on the cover of a popular rock
group's album, but can't remember who or when. don't want to paint a
copy or homage without seeing the original.
can you send me to a site with the specifics to find the image? I
tried the "easy ones" but without knowing the group name they couldn't
help me.

I went through my own collection of albums, and the closest thing I
could find to a floating fedora was "Shootout at the Fantasy Factory"
by Traffic, released in 1973. It shows complete suits floating in the
clouds. I'm sure that's not the one you want, though. On the web I
came up with another possibility. Could this be the cover you seek?

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/W/Weather_Report/weather_heavy.html

The group was Heavy Weather and the album was released in 1977 by CBS
records. This link gives the artist's name as Lou Beach. Another link
I found gives a webiste for the artist Lou Beach at:

http://www.loubeach.com/HOME.html   Could it be?

Ooops... Let me correct myself. The group was "Weather Report" and the
Album was "Heavy Weather". Good Luck!

lou beach/ weather report/ heavy weather/ lou beach
you got it!
bravo
c