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The Beatles of Yesterday and Today

 

            The album covers of the Beatles have been a revelation in popular pop music. "They have been seen as groundbreaking in their visual and aesthetic properties and have been congratulated for their innovative and imaginative designs they have also been seen as largely responsible for allowing the connections between art and pop" (Inglis 83). Progressing from album covers such as 'Please Please me' where the band is posing with smiling faces, to the album covers of 'Revolver' and 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' where the album covers have multiple images infused into a single image, to banned album covers such as of 'Yesterday and Today' and ultimately to the controversial 'Abbey Road' album cover the band has portrayed their album covers in a lot of variety.
             The banned album cover of 'Yesterday and Today' also known as the Butcher cover, shows the band posing in butcher smocks, surrounded by pieces of meat and dismembered baby dolls. The album 'Yesterday and Today' is an early compilation by the Beatles released by Capitol in June 1966. The album has famous songs such as 'Yesterday' and 'Dr. Pepers'.Though, in spite of having famous songs and a famous record label, the album cover faced issues during release and "as the negative reactions started coming in from record chain buyers and disc jockeys, Capitol was soon faced with a crisis as everybody seemed to find the cover tasteless and even grotesque and it was possible some department store chains would refuse to stock the album" (Eder). (Thesis) Even though the songs in the album were highly recognized and the album was one of the top albums, the album faced issues during its release and was not accepted by the crowds due to its violent portrayal. Due to such traits of the cover it was banned and named as the Butcher cover. Thus a completely new album cover was released that had no resemblance to the previous one.


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