Klaus Voormann, Astrid Kircherr, and Stuart Sutcliffe at party in Hamburg, Germany, early 1960’s.
(via forthlinroad)
My favorite album. Amazing album cover created by my favorite Beatle friend, Klaus Voormann.
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In 1965 Klaus received a call from John Lennon asking him to design the cover of The Beatles’ next LP. Klaus had been out of the art scene for some time, playing bass in Paddy, Klaus & Gibson. And now he was being asked to design a record cover for the most famous band in history! Klaus accepted the challenge, and he spent the next couple of weeks coming up with different ideas for the cover. He had the idea that he wanted The Beatles’ hair to be a focus, and in contrast to what was being done by everyone else, he wanted to do a black and white cover. He tried different ideas, and eventually (from memory) he drew the four line drawings of John, Paul, George and Ringo, then placed photos in and around the drawings.
The Revolver cover was well received by The Beatles, George Martin, and Brian Epstein, who cried tears of joy upon seeing it. With Revolver, The Beatles’ music had taken a different direction. It was more psychedelic and less about love and relationships. This change in musical direction made Brian unsure of how the public would receive the new sound, and he believed that Klaus’s cover would be a bridge for that change and help people to accept the new direction. As it happened, at the 9th Annual Grammy Awards in 1966, Klaus was awarded the Grammy for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts. It was the first time anyone had ever won for a graphic cover.
(via)
This is the first record I ever bought myself.
