Yeah, waiting for the show to begin. (That one took me a while to get, -j.)
In a previous post I mentioned the parallel of the Beatle's "Revolver" being black and white,
followed by Sgt. Pepper being excessively colorful,
to the transition in "The Wizard of Oz" from a black and white Earth to a colorful Oz.
It made me think about whether the other Beatle album covers were intended to convey
a message in a contiguous fashion. I have often suspected that that might be the case, but I
never took the time to investigate 'til now. What follows are some of my thoughts on the matter.
Being a US citizen, I am going with the albums released here by Capitol and Apple records in the
period from 1964 - 1970. Other albums, such as the red and blue albums, have come out since,
and obviously they have significance, but I am focusing in on the ones that were from the Beatles'
"hay day". If anyone wants to do an analysis of the British releases, that would be interesting;
I am not qualified to do that. My conclusion is that there is no question that whoever decided
on what would be on the US Beatle record jackets was intending to have buyers 'connect the dots',
consciously or otherwise. Here are the sequence of releases, with comments under each.
The first one is out of sync, for reasons explained below.
U.S. Releases:
When the Beatles first 'hit' the United States they were not signed to any major label, and
so their first singles came out on a number of small labels, including "Vee Jay" and "Swann".
Their first album was released on those labels and was not part of the Capitol Records collecion.
In order to have the complete Beatle collection in their inventory, Capitol aquired the rights to the
original album in 1965 and re-released under the name "The Early Beatles". There seems to be
no esoteric significance to this cover that I can see. Just a "Let me introduce to you".
Or have I missed something? Seems these "Early Beatles" are clearly Earth-bound. Standing against
a leafy background, they're downright 'primitive'. Cavemen, almost.
"Meet the Beatles!" was the first widely available Beatles album in the US, and it flew off the shelves.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, bought it. I find it significant that the Beatle faces are illuminated
as if they were planets in space. I think this was done intentionally.
Having cashed in
Big Time with the "Meet the Beatles" album, Capitol quickly released
"The Beatles' Second Album". The general "roundness" of the layout of the pictures may have
been intended to represent the sun in a "Mayan" or "Aztec-y" kind of way. The "orange" color as well.
"There's nothing new under the sun", as the saying goes. But what's this? "Something New"!
And, looking at the bigger image below, it's "under the sun".
See? Golden rays shining above and around the lads, while they perform on a sky blue stage, with
solar rays even even beaming through the blue. Not just Lucy in the sky here; all of them are.
--------------------------------------------
A Hard Day's Night. Well, it was about a movie. And they generally did their concerts at
night, so, it's logical: It was a hard day's night doing all that performing, right?
Well, yes, but there's more going on here. It's hard to put in words exactly, but this kind of
ties in with what I wrote about the The Cars song "Let's Go!"
You know: 'She likes the night life baby!' Because that's when she really
shines. The idea that stars shine at night. The Beatles were stars, and stars are often named for "gods":
Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Pluto etc. Implicitly: the Beatles are "gods".
Released just in time for Christmas gift-giving in December 1964, we have the first hint of
Rainon a Beatles album cover. Nothing serious, mind you, just a dark cloud on the horizon, and the
song, "I'll Follow the Sun". Also the cover concept pays tribute to the surreal Belgian artist Rene Magritte:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Magritte&btnG=Google+SearchNote the image on the right in the link above. It was used on a Rascals album, and was also
the subject of a very interesting thread that was either here or at TKIN.
The Beatles' sixth album on Capitol, not counting the 'Early Beatles' album, which had not
been released yet at that time. Hand signals? I don't know if there's more going on here.
A suggestion that there are 6 Beatles?
Help! Another movie. Nothing more? But we've gone from sun to impending rain to a cry for Help!
Rubber Soul. The first cover with "death" clues, imo. It has been pointed out by astute observers
that the point of view of the camera person is that of a person looking up as if from a coffin, or
the ground, at passers-by. The tops of the Beatles' hair is grey, as if to suggest 'getting older',
with the exception of John's which is curiously blonde, as if he's standing in front of, and obscuring
the viewing of a blonde woman. Hmmm. Who could it be?
And there is a dark spot over John's head, with the tips of two leaves like a pair of eyes looking
out of the darkness. Last but not least, as was pointed out at TKIN, the title spelled out in a
fashion that suggests the male uh...apparatus in an aroused state. And a "Rubber Soul" - a shared
soul. More than one person having the same soul? Or a soul 'stretching through time'?
A person lies in his coffin, but his soul has gone through time; reincarnation. Or twins. Or both.
Yesterday and Today. The passage of time again implicit. And the notorious "Butcher cover".
Well, ya know, they just got tired of the same 'cute' photo shoots, so they thought they'd
go with something a little different. Uh huh. A tip of the hat to old "crowned joe"/"stephen christ"
here: the butchering of Osiris. Another god; chopped up into the pieces that make up
time.
The cosmic planetary procession through astrological houses. The passage of time.
Revolver. Take your pick: Planets revolving around the sun, and the passage of time; or a warm gun.
Now to be sure: "Happiness is a warm gun" when it is the one shown on the "Rubber Soul" album,
but this is different: a possible suicide or murder. And cover imagery that relates to vision
and blindness: the back of the album is very dark, and features the Beatles wearing sunglasses
as blind people sometimes do when their eyes have been disfigured, and they don't wish
to look frightning to those of us who see. And, as has been stated before: black and white
vision versus the 'color vision' of Sgt. Pepper
How can I begin to start? You've heard it all; read it all. The one and only. The big enchillada.
But the notable redness on the back of the album versus the blue skyline of the front. The 'red' vs 'blue'.
And pepper: hot, versus the coolness of blue. "The devil" comes into the picture after the death
of the blue angel.
Bursting forth from the ground, skyward, in a rocket blast of dazzling colors; through the sun-lit clouds,
up, up into the stars, four beings ascend. Higher and higher. Up, up and away! The fools on the hill
flying the blue jay way! On a magical mystery tour of the universe.
The white album. The fools on the MMT album have gone from the viewing on "Rubber Soul",
through their funeral on Sgt Pepper, and beyond their spiritual release from the body on MMT,
and "into the the light". You know: the big white light at the end of the tunnel that people having
near-death-experiences always describe after going through the tunnel. That's probably why
the "White Album" ended up being "the white album" as opposed to the "guy sailing in
the shoes near the side of a cliff with a ufo overhead while his spirit flew past Mt. Rushmore" album,
as it would have had to have been called if they used the alternate cover. They kept it simple.
Time having passed, the spiritual MMT travelers return to the Earth in a future visit. They re-connect
with their past selves.
A funeral procession, as has been pointed out countless times. But do dead men smoke?
Many smokers light up the first thing in the morning after they wake up.
Could that be the case here? A mortal who had 'been asleep', buried on Earth, has awakened
from death, and is on his way to be judged on Earth, with Jesus (John) as his lawyer, Ringo as his witness,
and George to attest to the fact that the deceased had, in fact, been buried?
Hey Jude. Basically this was a 'greatest hits' collection. Perhaps if it can be said that "Abbey Road"
portrays the resurrection of the dead from a Christian perspective, "Hey Jude" shows
the Jewish equivalent, as those outside the building are photographed prior to going in.
I don't know. I don't see much here.
"Let It Be". So mote it be.
What is the story that is told with Beatle album covers, then, if there is one?
I think it comes down to this: The Beatles, (as well as the rest of us) were a cosmic being. Just
as planets are part of the solar system, we were close to God the way planets are close to the sun.
We were, in essence, a part of God as planets are part of the solar system.
When the opportunity was given to us to stay with God, or learn from experiencing life on Earth,
we 'chose' to leave God, but his/her light was never far from us, just as the sun's light is never
far from the Earth, and the moon and star light are there at night.
"The Early Beatles" were the cave men, so to speak, living in the Cavern Club, but by the time
their sixth album came out they were pretty sophisticated, wearing suits and ties.
So there was evolution. "Beatles VI" relates to human kind having been created on the 6th
day in the Biblical creation story. But human evolution has run its course, and there are dark clouds
on the horizon. Too much pollution, devils in the mix, creating negative conditions. How is the sun
to shine? And what good will it do if it does? Through time, and many incarnations, our "rubber souls"
have lived and died, and come back for more, but now the time has come when Earthly experiences
can only threaten a horrible outcome. "It's getting very near the end" unless school-house Earth
can be restored or improved upon. It may well be time for the final graduation of humanity
to whatever is the next level of experience. In Christian terms, the promise is given that
a millenium of wonderfulness is granted to those who have "made the grade", while those
who have not will "sleep in their graves" 'til the time comes for their judgement after the
thousand years of happiness has been allowed to occur. Prior to the 'happy millenium' however,
there will be "an hour" when the "beast power" rules over the Earth. An hour of "rain" if you will.
The people who were behind the "story" being shown on Beatle album covers knew that they
had to put the story out very quickly. A 6-year period may seem a long time, but they had to do it
in a way that could speak to a generation that would live through times when survival
of life on Earth was tenuous. One could never be sure that a Nixon, or a Kruschev, or some
other nut job (Bush, Cheney, Putin) might not terminate the world before its time.
There was no assurance that there would ever be an "age of the internet" or any such thing, and
they wanted to give hope to humanity with the tools that they had at their disposal: records.
The message had to be given symbolically and subtley.
I leave it to you to decide whether they succeeded in what they set out to do.
That's how I see it.
