Album Design. - DM's Beatles forums

I recently wrote an article/essay on the Beatles and Album Design.
I thought I would post it, so I could get some feedback.

Cheers.

How albums could be attributed to art deeply interested me, realising it was during sixties that such a transformation occurred, changing an album into a separate entity, one that could hold significant meaning.
But before I focus on the Albums as a topic, I first need to get a grasp of what my topic stands for, or at least a simple definition of art.
This task is not as simple as it may seem. Art cannot be defined in one simple sentence. So many words can be attributed to explain and describe art, making it a vast and endless subject. Whatever art form it may be, it can always be described as a manifestation of expression, channelled through the artists style and creativity.
As well as complex definitions, the intentions or goal for art could be anything, ranging from personal to a strong political belief.
The art that I am focusing on is from revolutionary albums in popular music. Although this form of art has a main goal of making a person buy the album, it can still be used to project a purposeful intention.
As well as the albums, I need to consider the era that they were created, and the culture and standard of living that accompanied that specific decade. The decade that I am looking at is the sixties, which was a time of British life, where modernism was being pushed through all means of life: fashion, film, music and technology. The younger generation were rocking the old crumbling establishment, and the sharp contrast of living was channelled through the bright colours and trendy living that was accustomed with late sixties life. New idealisms on living were brought out through songs, which was the main form of entertainment. Musicians were seen as being at the forefront of innovating the youth, the music had changed dramatically, love and peace were rules to live by, global drug use increased, as psychedelic fashions moulded personalities, and the music reinforced it.
Music was taking on another role, in the field of entertainment. It was now a separate entity, a flourishing Business, in which large sums of money could be made.
The Beatles had achieved global success in the early Sixties, and proceeded to revolutionise the music scene, introducing tape loops, backward music and orchestras clashed with electric guitar. Such experimentation had never been witnessed before; surrealism was being explored through a multitude of avenues, The Beatles, like so many other happenings, were at the forefront of a vibrant transformation.
The most recognised popular music album cover of the 21st century is, undoubtedly, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The glamour of Sgt Pepper is equally matched by the sheer indulgence of colour, in which, when combined, creates a powerful and surreal explosion that captivates the eye, and evokes a response. Peppers was a production on a grand scale, it displayed a real theatrical style, like a whole pantomime concealed in one image. The sheer busyness of the sleeve would keep the eyes wandering for an eternity, new faces emerging constantly, adding a hint of freshness to the fascinating album cover.
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hears Club Band mirrored the spirit of the age; it was the spokesman for flower power, projecting positive vibes around the world, conceptualism in the form of an album had been born.
Yet before Peppers materialised, the original idea from Paul McCartney was very much a rough outline of colour, only real results started to immerge when the Beatles approached modern contemporary artist Peter Blake to design and create the psychedelic concept.
With Blake�s organisation and tightening of ideas, Sgt Pepper started to take form. The Beatles all wrote individual icons that they wanted to appear on the album sleeve, ranging from film stars such as Marlon Brando to the controversial Nazi leader Hitler, right through to obscure Indian Buddha�s. Along the way a lot of these faces disappeared, most notably Hitler and Jesus, figures that Lennon wanted to adopt for controversial sake. As well as the four Beatles contribution to the Lonely Hearts Club band, Blake also incorporated personal favourites into the final design, a sort of personal signature, as well as a symbolic gesture of agreement to the social implications that the album concealed.
One of the most distinguishing aspects of Peppers is the florescent army outfit�s, a real mix of Edwardian and Crimean styles, all blended with rich satins and silks, each projecting the bold psychedelic collage with a relaxing ease. This military peace power image echoed around the whole country, children were putting flowers down the barrels of the Queens guard�s rifles, and fresh bands were dressing in army outfits. Each action was threaded on the same peace and love principles, which had influenced the young generation with such intensity.
Yet the iconographic impact of the sleeve cover is not all that Sgt Peppers comprises of. It was the first pop Album to feature lyrics; it was the first to have a gatefold sleeve; and even had cutout moustaches and medals. The packaging was transformed from the normal Beatles picture pose, into an extravagant, if not slightly costly revolution.
Such an Album like Sgt Peppers was bound to pick up a few rumours over the years, all of which faded into obscurity, yet still mirrored the cult status that it had achieved. Such trivial suspicions of marijuana plants on the front cover, demonstrates the endless scrutiny that this sleeve has endured. Even today, 36 years on and fit in a CD jewel case, the impact of the sleeve is undiminished: a stain glass window of the 20th century.
A year on from the extravagant Busyness of Peppers, the Beatles had changed direction altogether. The bright colours and drug taking had dissolved into the mainstream grasp, as the Beatles found themselves shifting into a higher echelon, one of meditation and religion, yet still being the stimulus for the creative energy that reflected their next project; the White Album.
If 1967 was the year of mind-expanding drugs and hippy life, then 1968 was the year of Indian religion and the exploration of the mind. Inner peace could be accomplished without the traditional ways of eastern asceticism, which appealed greatly to the Beatles. With this monumental change in the way of living, it is no surprise that both on a subconscious and conscious level, the Beatles next project was gentle; relaxing and all together more secure. The experience of mediation combined with the new way of living since Peppers, and ultimately the psychedelic demise, embodied the White Album.
The natural and musical freedom that the Beatles had captivated through the previous album; Sgt Peppers, had manifested into a purposely executed device that went against a lot of the songs, purely on the mental aspect while recording. This was again negatively emphasised through the sheer scale of information on a double album, which can sometimes exceed the limit of concentration by the listener. Nevertheless, millions anticipated the White Albums release; advance sales crept up to 300,000 in Britain, and 1,900,000 in the United States. By the end of 1968, it had sold an impressive four million copies, not bad for an album that had just come out at the end of November. The White Album would hold on to the illustrious title of biggest selling double album until the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack came out during the mid Seventies, and quickly stole away the impressive record.
Ignoring the cold cash statistics or the classic superior songs, the White Album had another powerful tool to which it could use to symbolise its meaning and its value; the sleeve.
Paul McCartney knew Robert Fraser, an artist who knew many contacts in the art world. People such as Peter Blake, who had designed Sgt Peppers was contacted through Fraser, much to the delight of the Beatles. When the Beatles had completed their next album, McCartney asked Fraser if he knew anyone suitable, Fraser knew Richard Hamilton, an artist that McCartney was familiar with having seen a few of Hamilton�s exhibitions. Hamilton�s Rock credentials were more than adequate, having made an etching called Swinging London, an image that was based on a photograph of Robert Fraser and Mick Jagger being arrested on drug charges. His love of pop art was notably summed up in his superb definition - �pop art should be popular, transient, expendable, low cost, mass produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and big business.�
After a brief meeting among the Beatles, Hamilton was asked, and said yes, much to the delight of the band. McCartney went to Hamilton�s house in Highgate to discuss what viewpoint to take in creating a sleeve, or the more important underlying issue of how to match the effectiveness of their previous masterpiece Sgt Peppers Lonely hearts Club Band. Hamilton�s first idea was for the Beatles to collect photographs of themselves from being a baby right through to present day. Once collected, Hamilton then put together a huge collage, finishing it by overlaying segments of paper strategically to create more space and freedom, and diminishing the busyness of the crammed photos. This clever use of negative space helped the whole piece breath more, seeing through the density and making the peaceful image flow a lot better. After the poster had been finished, Hamilton then asked what the front sleeve should contain, asking if they had thought of the album title yet, which could help add relevance. He asked if they had ever called an album just The Beatles, to which McCartney surprisingly said no. The Beatles early Albums included titles such as With the Beatles or Beatles for Sale, but never just the band�s title. Again McCartney went and told the other Beatles and they all agreed on the title arrangements.
The very compact and simplistic title for the double album was a conscious effort to create a minimalist approach, suitably choosing the very symbolic and monochromatic direction of complete white, and thus signifying the bare essentials of the sleeve, while also developing the untouched artic wasteland of the front cover. The title would be embossed on the front, in relatively small font, not to disturb the gentle flow of white. Hamilton also knew a colleague who�s signature in the art world was to smudge an image, and so he thought of developing this for the Double album, maybe in the form of an apple smudge, as a sort of reference to the newly created organisation that the Beatles had set up called Apple. This was then re-designed to a coffee cup stain, a deliberate injection of humour, as Hamilton admired the subtle tones of hilarity that art could concoct yet still not be overbearing. This idea was thought of being too flippant and so rejected by the Beatles, subsequently leaving the sleeve untouched and pure, saturating the onlooker to an almost heavenly degree.
Hamilton�s next idea was not essentially an artist�s concept but more a selling device, in which every Album would have an issue number on starting from 000001 to whatever. This would not only increase record sales but also create mass interest amongst collectors, something that would only generate more respect for the Beatles, and at the same time formulate another ingenious and refreshing face for the album-selling world. The albums that were marked from one to twenty were shared amongst the Beatles and close friends, surprisingly the drummer; Ringo Starr, got issue one and two. This inventive numbering system was revived for the 30th anniversary CD, a tribute to Hamilton for the flawless design.
The revolutionary simplicity of the White album sleeve has secured its stature amongst the pop/rock world. Yet some commentators have questioned its aptness for such a varied, attic-like album, a statement that can easily be quashed by commenting on the blank like canvas of the sleeve that for once, does not hint to the listener what is in store for them.
However not every aspect of the White Albums history is so rosy, as a record that is indirectly responsible for murder, it holds a sinister legacy. The Beatles had a great fondness for word games, meaningless lyrics that created nonsensical interpretation, that at times, was a deliberate device adopted by the Beatles to confuse the fans. Sadly, when the White Album was released, it was a time of mass social change; hippy life was the new way of living, fuelled by drugs and naïve ideals powered by the shallow education of simplistic values such as love and peace.
Haight-Ashbury, a district of San Francisco, was the very nexus of hippie, the place where the counter-culture invented itself on an hour like basis. In this uncertain environment, where merely being an unusual character was enough to earn you place in society, even a dangerous conman like Charles Manson could easily find an important role amongst the hippie community.
In late 1968, Manson got hold of the White Album; it had a profound impact on him and his followers, so much so in-fact, Manson thought the songs spoke to him. His constant reference to the Bible and the Book Of Revelations was filtered through his continual symbolic link to the Beatles and their songs, Helter Skelter being at the centre of his ludicrous beliefs. Manson�s need to associate the bands music with the Bible would be so distorted; it would lead to at least seven pointless murders, all of which carried out ruthlessly by Manson and his �family�.
The Beatles, understandably, were always reluctant to comment on the horror that Manson had claimed the Beatles were responsible for. Nevertheless the harsh irony that the peaceful white album projected was emphasised through Hamilton�s minimalist design. Such a contradiction of symbolism was obviously unintentional, but like Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White album made a genuine impact on people�s lives, whether it was the confined destructiveness of Manson, or what the majority of the world thought as an exceptional piece of expression from the worlds favourite band.
I found exploring the avenues of design in each album an exciting and rewarding task in itself, and not only a tribute to the Beatles, but the designers, and on a more social basis, the culture development of the sixties which I found as appealing as the design aspect. I choose the Beatles for my analysis, as the global success they achieved would mean almost everybody could relate to the two albums in one way or another. I also originally had a reasonable amount of knowledge about the band, being a great fan of their work, and so found it helped increase the natural approach that I felt was critical when writing an essay about personal admiration for a particular piece of art.
Other Albums that lend themselves to the culture movement of the late sixties include: The Velvet Underground & Nico, with Andy Warhol�s Banana on the front, and Cream�s album Disraeli Gears, which features an exceptional psychedelic montage. The music and art of such works will never fade away, and will always represent the historical culture changes that dominated the sixties decade. Art has never been so powerful.