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The Art of LP Cover
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Let’s do the time warp again (no, no, not „the jump to the left and a step to the right“ thing). After interesting LP covers from the 60s and 70s, logically the 50s follow, of course 😀. Which LP sleeves from that time do you remember, which ones did you like?
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Hey Jurgen! Nice video there.
For me I think one of the most iconic album covers is the Beatles famous zebra crossing, that made the image of Abbey Road famous. I like how it looks like a piano keyboard in the second cover.
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Yeah Jung, an iconic cover for sure. And it gave rise to numerous discussions at the time. Why was Paul walking barefoot across the crosswalk? Had he passed away? In Egyptian mythology, the dead were depicted barefoot. Fortunately, as we know today, only a bunch of wild speculations. But what only a few people know (and this I have not made up now) is that the original idea to Abbey Road comes from The Beagles (see proof photo) 😁
PS: The idea with the piano keyboard sounds interesting (and maybe also the true intention), but only now where you mention it I see the keyboard. So far I’ve just always seen a street and thought about why Paul doesn’t wear shoes….
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Hi Jurgen
That is hilarious, the Beagles!!! 😁 Yeah that album cover became infamous with the Paul died conspiracy theorists. I never noticed Paul is bare foot. Apparently the day of the shoot, Paul was wearing tight shoes that was killing his foot, so he took it off.
I wonder if the Volkswagen in the scene was pure coincidence or did they add a VW “BEETLE” in the scene intentionally. The 5th Beatle.
Many years later, for a Paul McCartney live album cover, he answered back in a sense that he did not die.
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I believe that McCartney was getting the last laugh on this photo.
Art spoofs life after life mis-interprets art after art spoofs life after life produces an absurdity.
I will explain if anyone is interested.
As a separate matter – that collage of stuff on Sgt. Pepper’s gets my vote.
Cheers Juergen et al
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Hi Tom,
very nice to hear from you again, I hope you’re doing fine.
„Art spoofs life after life mis-interprets art after art spoofs life after life produces an absurdity“.
I’ve tried to follow your thoughts, but I failed. 😀 Please explain it to me.
PS: You’re right, the LP-cover of Sgt. Pepper is hard to beat
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Hi Juergen,
I am not getting notifications and so i only catch up when i drop in.
Usually on the weekend.
The short answer is … ‘Art spoofs/lampoons life’ refers to the Paul getting the final say
after the “Paul died in an auto wreck” rumor.
But there several layers to this in my opinion. I will explain soon when i have time.
Thanks for asking. Cheers
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Hi Juergen et al,
Please excuse the cryptic message about McCartney’s 2nd Abbey Road album cover.
It’s about my theory regarding what was really going on around the
McCartney died in an auto wreck rumor.
It is my belief that all of the “clues that Paul is dead” on several Beatles
albums over several years were the work of McCartney himself – not to
engender the “Paul is dead” rumor but merely to lampoon the “Paul is dead” rumor
which already existed.
On January 7th, 1967 McCartney’s vehicle is involved in an auto wreck.
This is the custom mini-cooper designed for McCartney and easily recognizes as his.
The driver – not McCartney – who is briefly hospitalized – bears enough of a
resemblance to McCartney to be mistaken for him.
http://www.gadflyonline.com/home/archive/MayJune00/archive-mccartney.html
In no time at all there is a rumor going around London that Paul McCartney has died
in an auto wreck.
This rumor is serious enough that it is refuted in the Beatles fan magazine
in February of 1967.
The very next Beatles album photo session is March 30th, 1967.
This is for the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s – which will be the album people look
back on in a few short years as the 1st album with the “clues that Paul is dead”.
There is a very large amount of death symbolism around McCartney over several
albums. Some of it subtle and some not so subtle. I will be happy to list many
of these photos upon request. Including my favorite – the one which was produced
long AFTER the big rumor in 1969.
But the point is McCartney is just an artist being an artist –
spoofing one of the absurdities of life (the rumor of his own death).
Finally that Dee Jay in Michigan sees the funeral procession across Abbey Rd.
and then adds 2 plus 2 and gets five.
And then for several weeks all hell breaks loose on the radio.
So life produces an absurdity (the original death rumor).
And then art lampoons life.
(the large amount of death symbolism around McCartney over several albums).
And then life mis-interprets art and produces an even bigger absurdity.
(The 1969 Paul McCartney death rumor on steroids).
And finally art gets the final say
(McCartney spoofing the big rumor on his 1993 live album – the 2nd Abbey Rd cover)
If you have read this far thanks for the interest. Cheers to everyone.
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My favorite take on “Paul is dead”:
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Ha, ha thanks David, very funny. „Yeah, I wasn’t really dead“😁 Who’s the guy asking the questions?
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Hey, Juergen. That’s Chris Farley from the sketch comedy Saturday Night Live. This was a recurring character that he played on that show: the world’s most awkward talk show interviewer. Here’s the full clip:
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Chris Farley is good David, a hilarious spoof on high anxiety.
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Thanks for the detailed background story, Tom. Now I understand it. Since I didn’t discover my love for the Beatles until the 70’s, it was obvious by then that Paul was alive and I was only marginally aware of all the rumours. As an entertaining anecdote, nothing more. But I can imagine that towards the end of the 60’s this rumor kept Beatles fans quite busy. I always wonder why people have such a keen interest in believing in the mystical and unusual when the truth is obvious.
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Thanks Tom for that detailed explanation about Paul’s death rumour. Now I understand your Art Lampoons life phrase. The 2+2 = 22 logic happens a lot to perpetuate a rumour or conspiracy theory in the world.
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Is Paul really dead was all the rage for two months in the 2nd half of 1969.
1969 had a ton of history in a few short months. Maybe i should start a thread.
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Hi Jung,
back to the title picture from Abbey-Road: you are right, on the left, further back is a fifth Beetle. I never thought about that, because we call this VW “Käfer” (same meaning, but completely different word). By the way, I found another copy of the Abbey Road cover. Absolutely no idea who these boys are and why they’re walking in the wrong direction, but I like the ironing board 😃
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Hi Jurgen, HAHAHA, good one. it looks like the Fab Four is returning from a day at the beach in this scene, and they picked up a friend along the way.
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Come on Guys!
Some one is spoofing the Beatles and the Beach Boys at the same time.
Or are you guys pulling my leg?
I never saw this before. I think it really is the Beach Boys. -
What has been superimposed is the cover photo of the Beach Boys’ “Surfer Girl” album from 1963.
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Thanks David!
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Ever hear of stick man? Recognize the pic below? I guess with a url like that, it’s going to be easy to “guess”.
They found out who the guy on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV was.
A historian in England ran across the original photo. The guy’s name is Lot Long, and he was 69 in 1823, and worked as a roof thatcher. Good thing it’s that old, so any copyright would have expired by now, they sold a lot of those albums.
theguardian.com
Figure on Led Zeppelin IV cover identified as Victorian Wiltshire thatcher
Fifty-year mystery solved as research suggests picture shows Lot Long, a widower from Mere
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That’s cool, Chris! But 1823 was before photography was (pardon the pun) developed. I looked it up and the article said he was BORN in 1823. Not that it really matters…
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Good catch David. I did think that was pretty early for a photo, even a daguerreotype.
I spent more time looking into when the copyright ended for it. Didn’t find anything definitive for England; most countries seem to use 50 years after the photographer dies, 70 in the US. And there is no agreed international standard for that.
But — if they have the part about the photographer dying in 1944 right, then 1944 + 50 years is 1994. I think it’s unlikely to have ended before that.
Just when did they sell all those 37 million copies of Zep IV anyway? It was released in 1971. Might be time for the heirs of that photographer to ring up a barrister and talk about how much 37 million copies of that pic totals up to.
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I found a piece about applicable UK law, at the link below. It says that for the time period this shot was taken, copyright only lasted 50 years after the pic was taken. That law changed in 1995 to match the US term of life of the photographer plus 70 years.
And I don’t know what an artist would normally get paid by a big name band in 1971. Sounds like no payday though.
https://www.dacs.org.uk/knowledge-base/factsheets/copyright-in-photographs
dacs.org.uk
DACS - Knowledge Base - Factsheets
Read our factsheets on different areas of copyright in the visual arts, from rights after death to social media.
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Hi Chris and David,
a nice find. I don’t know the cover or the LP by Led Zeppelin (shame on me), but I don’t think anyone would have gotten very rich by the copyright. That would be atypical for the music industry 😀. Klaus Voormann, for example, only received 50 pounds from the Beatles for designing the cover of “Revolver”.
https://youtu.be/H8osM60KtE8?si=pw-EfbLYqXSSkhcm
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