What about A. Aldridge's Beatles Book(s)?

[Serviceable Villain]

Book(s) because I didn't realize until recently that there were 2 volumes.

Anyone own these books? (The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, I believe is the title) by Allen Aldridge.

I found little if any mention on these boards which surprised me considering I think there are a few dandy morsels, at least what I've found online.

I'd love to know what song/lyrics are supposed to correspond to this particular illustration:


And what of this illustration of a man being torn in half... or is it one man being split in two? Or even just a gruesome depiction of a man being pulled in two different directions.


The (original) cover:


4-armed Paul clad in Ringo's gear:


John descending into the depths of his mind (through the aid of LSD?):


And then of course there is this illustration of a Ringo-looking fish/yellow submarine (Ringo sang, so that makes sense). But what of the bald Paul (based on the man's attire) with the mermaid on his lap?


Does it allude to this:


The first illustration makes me think of some of the Christ crucifixion references in YKMN's series with the dead-looking man (Paul? Looks like him) in the tomb with a Christ-looking figure).

And speaking of the YKMN series, doesn't the bottom of the last illustration resemble this Escher painting?:


And I've only just noticed the (invisible) room containing the man, mermaid, and Ringo-sub with the door slightly ajar but I can't find any meaning, assuming any exists, in it.

[JoJo]

I have that book, only one that I know of. There's also "The Art of the Beatles", (or something along those lines) maybe that's what you mean? In this thread:

invanddis.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=2774&page=1

The short film "Cream of the Beatles" used a number of shots of illustrations from the Illustrated Lyrics book, which always seemed interesting at the least.

[Serviceable Villain]

What I was talking about was this:

which I never knew of until a couple days ago.

My search for this cover led me to a page about Dudley Edwards, a UK pop artist who is best known for painting Sir Paul's piano:




Also from the web page:

"At one point, I was doing murals for the Beatles. I did a mural in Paul's house and lived with him for about six months. I later painted a mural for Ringo and lived with him for a bit as well. This was around the time of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Paul's girlfriend at the time, actress Jane Asher, was away doing some theatrical production in America. Consequently, Paul liked having me around as a sort of companion. Every time I got started painting, Paul would say, "Come on, let's go off to the recording studio! ...Come on, lets go off to a nightclub!" or, "I've got a meeting with Epstein, will you come along?" When Jane came back, Paul told me that Ringo had wanted a mural too. So, I went over to live with Ringo."

Ringo's mural:


And, wait for it......................

Dudley did not confine his painting to other people's walls:

"I was painting a car for a guy named Tara Browne (heir to the Guinness fortune) who was the person mentioned (in A Day In The Life) on the Sgt. Pepper album for blowing his mind out in a car. He was actually killed in a car crash."



Anyways, Dudley Edwards was 1/3 of the pop art group "BEV" (Douglas Binder, himself-Edwards, and David Vaughan).

They also painted murals in a clothing boutique co-owned by Tara Browne where the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix bought their clothing and apparently where the Ziggy Stardust outfit came from.

BEV was responsible for the mural painted on the car on this album cover:


AND...
"BEV" were also renowned for their seminal light shows, the likes of which had never been seen in the UK. On January 28th, 1967 they staged ‘The Million Volt Light & Sound Rave’ at London’s Roundhouse (a former London tram shed turned psychedelic central) which featured the only known public airing of the legendary 'Carnival Of Light' recording; an experimental sound collage created for the occasion by McCartney during the early stages of the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions.





(Link):
www.godfreytownsendmusic.com/Dudley%20Edward%27s%20Page.htm

[plastic paul]

I've got a modernish copy, would love to help you out but it's 4am.

Will do it tomorrow unless you find another Good Samaritan on here!

[P(D)enny La(i)ne]

Feb 23, 2010 22:36:50 GMT -5 Serviceable Villain said:

What I was talking about was this:

which I never knew of until a couple days ago.

My search for this cover led me to a page about Dudley Edwards, a UK pop artist who is best known for painting Sir Paul's piano:




Also from the web page:

"At one point, I was doing murals for the Beatles. I did a mural in Paul's house and lived with him for about six months. I later painted a mural for Ringo and lived with him for a bit as well. This was around the time of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Paul's girlfriend at the time, actress Jane Asher, was away doing some theatrical production in America. Consequently, Paul liked having me around as a sort of companion. Every time I got started painting, Paul would say, "Come on, let's go off to the recording studio! ...Come on, lets go off to a nightclub!" or, "I've got a meeting with Epstein, will you come along?" When Jane came back, Paul told me that Ringo had wanted a mural too. So, I went over to live with Ringo."

Ringo's mural:


And, wait for it......................

Dudley did not confine his painting to other people's walls:

"I was painting a car for a guy named Tara Browne (heir to the Guinness fortune) who was the person mentioned (in A Day In The Life) on the Sgt. Pepper album for blowing his mind out in a car. He was actually killed in a car crash."



Anyways, Dudley Edwards was 1/3 of the pop art group "BEV" (Douglas Binder, himself-Edwards, and David Vaughan).

They also painted murals in a clothing boutique co-owned by Tara Browne where the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix bought their clothing and apparently where the Ziggy Stardust outfit came from.

BEV was responsible for the mural painted on the car on this album cover:


AND...
"BEV" were also renowned for their seminal light shows, the likes of which had never been seen in the UK. On January 28th, 1967 they staged ‘The Million Volt Light & Sound Rave’ at London’s Roundhouse (a former London tram shed turned psychedelic central) which featured the only known public airing of the legendary 'Carnival Of Light' recording; an experimental sound collage created for the occasion by McCartney during the early stages of the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions.





(Link):
www.godfreytownsendmusic.com/Dudley%20Edward%27s%20Page.htm

Interesting stuff. I'd never heard of that book before, but I'll have to investigate.

The murals all remind me of this Paulish looking Tara photo:

[plastic paul]

I saw her standing there by Clive Arrowsmith.

And what of this illustration of a man being torn in half... or is it one man being split in two? Or even just a gruesome depiction of a man being pulled in two different directions.


What goes on by Alan Aldridge. The man is being pulled by the arms of a headless body. He is coming out of a slot kinda like a piggy bank at the top of this body. The body in question has a face of a woman on the torso. Sounds surreal, but think of what is going on in her mind, and tearing me apart when related to the lyrics.

4-armed Paul clad in Ringo's gear:


This one is classed as Miscellaneous, again by Alan Aldridge of Paul.

John descending into the depths of his mind (through the aid of LSD?):


There's a place by Alan Aldridge. Again relating to the lyrics, it's Lennon, walking down the stairs into his own mind when he feels blue

And then of course there is this illustration of a Ringo-looking fish/yellow submarine (Ringo sang, so that makes sense). But what of the bald Paul (based on the man's attire) with the mermaid on his lap?


Again by Alan Aldridge, relating to Yellow sub of course, as you alluded to.

[iameye]

Feb 24, 2010 13:54:56 GMT -5 plastic paul said:

I saw her standing there by Clive Arrowsmith.



4-armed Paul clad in Ringo's gear:


This one is classed as Miscellaneous, again by Alan Aldridge of Paul.

This one is classed as Miscellaneous, again by Alan Aldridge of Paul.


was it? it's the cover of his last book....

[plastic paul]

What are you asking?

[Serviceable Villain]

Feb 24, 2010 21:54:28 GMT -5 plastic paul said:

What are you asking?

My main question was what song did the first illustration correspond to? My follow up question is how a (presumably) dead man (who looks rather like Paul) laying in what appears to be a tomb relates to the song "I Saw Her Standing There?"

A secondary question (which I suppose I didn't state very clearly) was why, considering the myriad of other seemingly non-related topics which are studied and interpreted here, has a Beatle-related book mostly gone mostly unnoticed?

I could guess that its possible that it has been discussed and I simply couldn't find the topic despite the fact that I used the (lousy) search function and manually searched this entire section.

If this is the case, I apologize.

I suppose that I could be looking too much into these illustrations and they are simply surrealism for surrealism's sake.

[plastic paul]

My question was directed at iameye, but...

Feb 26, 2010 17:27:08 GMT -5 Serviceable Villain said:

I suppose that I could be looking too much into these illustrations and they are simply surrealism for surrealism's sake.

That is how I see it.

Also I definitely have mentioned the book, and it's content before, but I forget whether I started a new topic or just mentioned it in discussions on other topics. Alas, I imagine it will be buried in the tomes of this forum as the search topic rarely seems to find what one is looking for.

[P(D)enny La(i)ne]

Feb 27, 2010 5:53:33 GMT -5 plastic paul said:

My question was directed at iameye, but...

Feb 26, 2010 17:27:08 GMT -5 Serviceable Villain said:

I suppose that I could be looking too much into these illustrations and they are simply surrealism for surrealism's sake.

That is how I see it.

Also I definitely have mentioned the book, and it's content before, but I forget whether I started a new topic or just mentioned it in discussions on other topics. Alas, I imagine it will be buried in the tomes of this forum as the search topic rarely seems to find what one is looking for.

JoJo mentioned it in reply #76 in connection with the Braverman film, and TotalInformation mentioned it twice in the same thread, but that's as far back as I can search without blowing up:

invanddis.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2774&page=4

[donrobert]

wow... the thread is heavy...

[linus]

Serviceable Villain, how interesting that you came back today. I just discovered Alan Aldridge earlier today while researching this photo, which is being discussed in another thread.
invanddis.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=6946&page=1


Jessbottles mentioned that he sees PA in the upper-left corner and UL in the lower-left.

It is from a photo session that produced the image used on the cover of The Penguin John Lennon, originally published in 1966. It contains both of Lennon's first two books. The concept design for this book was of course by Penguin Books' Alan Aldridge.


I can't find a specific date, but even if it were published in late-fall or winter, the photo session would most likely had to have been either before their summer tour, or directly afterwards.