THE BUTCHER COVER (Room 302)
THE BUTCHER COVER (Room 302)
In March 1966 The Beatles did a photo session at Robert Whitaker’s studio in Chelsea. The session produced a very controversial set of photographs, which have subsequently been termed, the ‘Butcher Session’. The photoshoot produced images that were the complete antithesis to the fab four, mop top, fresh young innocent Beatles that hitherto had been de rigueur. Lennon explained “The session was inspired by our boredom and resentment at having to do, yet, another photo session and another Beatles thing. We were sick to death of it!”.
Those sentiments and the fact that Whitaker was very into the surrealism of Salvador Daly combined to produce the cover. The Beatles were getting sick of being “The Beatles” and most things that went with it. By the end of 1966 they had taken a complete new direction, which did not involve incessant touring and being mop tops. Their image was becoming a burden and a strait jacket and it was one that they were quickly to shed. The metamorphosis from lovable mop tops of 1965 into more serious artists of the late sixties was to radically change both their appearance and their sound. One thing that wouldn’t change was their popular appeal and success. The beginning of these changes can be traced back to this March 1966 photoshoot. The Beatles wore white coats and held pieces of dismembered babies. With accompanying strings of sausages and dead meat together with lots of blood, this was an extremely bold and disturbing image. So much so, the US record Capital, upon using the image for the cover of a new US album ‘Yesterday and Today’ quickly recalled the albums from the shops amidst public uproar, as people liked their Fabs nice and clean. Capitol’s rather penny-pinching solution was to paste over new less controversial photographs over the Butcher image on each of the recalled albums. Fans quickly snapped these up and steamed off the overlay thus exposing the original Butcher cover. These are extremely rare and very collectible. Robert Whitaker summed it up as “a considered disruption of the conventions surrounding pop stars.” This was a route the four Beatles would now consistently explore.
Artwork painted and owned by ©SHANNON
THE BUTCHER COVER (Room 302)
In March 1966 The Beatles did a photo session at Robert Whitaker’s studio in Chelsea. The session produced a very controversial set of photographs, which have subsequently been termed, the ‘Butcher Session’. The photoshoot produced images that were the complete antithesis to the fab four, mop top, fresh young innocent Beatles that hitherto had been de rigueur. Lennon explained “The session was inspired by our boredom and resentment at having to do, yet, another photo session and another Beatles thing. We were sick to death of it!”.
Those sentiments and the fact that Whitaker was very into the surrealism of Salvador Daly combined to produce the cover. The Beatles were getting sick of being “The Beatles” and most things that went with it. By the end of 1966 they had taken a complete new direction, which did not involve incessant touring and being mop tops. Their image was becoming a burden and a strait jacket and it was one that they were quickly to shed. The metamorphosis from lovable mop tops of 1965 into more serious artists of the late sixties was to radically change both their appearance and their sound. One thing that wouldn’t change was their popular appeal and success. The beginning of these changes can be traced back to this March 1966 photoshoot. The Beatles wore white coats and held pieces of dismembered babies. With accompanying strings of sausages and dead meat together with lots of blood, this was an extremely bold and disturbing image. So much so, the US record Capital, upon using the image for the cover of a new US album ‘Yesterday and Today’ quickly recalled the albums from the shops amidst public uproar, as people liked their Fabs nice and clean. Capitol’s rather penny-pinching solution was to paste over new less controversial photographs over the Butcher image on each of the recalled albums. Fans quickly snapped these up and steamed off the overlay thus exposing the original Butcher cover. These are extremely rare and very collectible. Robert Whitaker summed it up as “a considered disruption of the conventions surrounding pop stars.” This was a route the four Beatles would now consistently explore.
Artwork painted and owned by ©SHANNON
THE BUTCHER COVER (Room 302)
In March 1966 The Beatles did a photo session at Robert Whitaker’s studio in Chelsea. The session produced a very controversial set of photographs, which have subsequently been termed, the ‘Butcher Session’. The photoshoot produced images that were the complete antithesis to the fab four, mop top, fresh young innocent Beatles that hitherto had been de rigueur. Lennon explained “The session was inspired by our boredom and resentment at having to do, yet, another photo session and another Beatles thing. We were sick to death of it!”.
Those sentiments and the fact that Whitaker was very into the surrealism of Salvador Daly combined to produce the cover. The Beatles were getting sick of being “The Beatles” and most things that went with it. By the end of 1966 they had taken a complete new direction, which did not involve incessant touring and being mop tops. Their image was becoming a burden and a strait jacket and it was one that they were quickly to shed. The metamorphosis from lovable mop tops of 1965 into more serious artists of the late sixties was to radically change both their appearance and their sound. One thing that wouldn’t change was their popular appeal and success. The beginning of these changes can be traced back to this March 1966 photoshoot. The Beatles wore white coats and held pieces of dismembered babies. With accompanying strings of sausages and dead meat together with lots of blood, this was an extremely bold and disturbing image. So much so, the US record Capital, upon using the image for the cover of a new US album ‘Yesterday and Today’ quickly recalled the albums from the shops amidst public uproar, as people liked their Fabs nice and clean. Capitol’s rather penny-pinching solution was to paste over new less controversial photographs over the Butcher image on each of the recalled albums. Fans quickly snapped these up and steamed off the overlay thus exposing the original Butcher cover. These are extremely rare and very collectible. Robert Whitaker summed it up as “a considered disruption of the conventions surrounding pop stars.” This was a route the four Beatles would now consistently explore.
Artwork painted and owned by ©SHANNON