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In
was the late summer of 1976. I went out for a few beers with
a high school buddy, our conversation turned to music. I was
by then a heavy QUEEN and YES fan. “What about PINK
FLOYD? “ he asked. “I got DARK SIDE OF THE MOON,
I replied I like the song where the synthesizer sounds circle
the speakers I think it’s after "BREATHE”.
“Get WISH YOU WERE HERE, he said Gilmour’s guitar
playing is great. This is their best ever! “. Well
I did and by the time ANIMALS came out in February of 1977
I was a full-blown Floyd head.
If
there is ever going to be a Record Album Cover Hall of Fame.
Then the art studio HIPGNOSIS and it’s founding members
Aubrey “Po” Powell and especially Storm Thorgerson
should be the very first inductees. Their clients included
ELP, YES, GENESIS, PETER GABRIEL, PINK FLOYD, LED ZEPPELIN,
RENNAISANCE, WISHBONE ASH, THE CULT, ALLAN PARSONS PROJECT,
BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, 10CC, KANSAS, AL STEWART, STYX, THE
NICE, STRAWBS, ROBERT PLANT, BAD COMPANY, WINGS, PAUL MC CARTNEY,
MIKE OLDFIELD. I don’t think there was a major British
act or supergroup that had not hired these guys in the late
seventies and early 80’s.
In
the months to come we are going to revisit this design team
time and time again, as some of my favorite record covers
were designed by HIPGNOSIS. I think it’s virtually impossible
to pick a dozen of the most memorable sleeve packages of the
seventies and not find that at least half were done by these
guys.
Storm
Thorgerson was born in 1944 about 15 miles north of London.
Aubrey Powell was born in 1946 in Sussex. They met at The
Royal College of Art , Storm was an English major. They figured
that they could make a few bucks shooting photos of their
friends who were in bands in the summer with a camera that
they had acquired at a thrift store. As Storm would later
put it they drove the guy running the photo lab at the college
nuts staying up all hours of the day experimenting with their
photos. Thus in 1968 Hipgnosis was born.
The
name Hipgnosis had been scribbled on the floor of the flat
they were living in by some hippy who had misspelled it, but
they thought it was cool. HIP (as they felt they were) GNOSIS
(Greek word meaning knowledge) and since they felt that they
would create hypnotic visuals, it was perfect!
One
of their first client’s were their childhood friend's
band THE PINK FLOYD. The first album Hipgnosis designed for
them was A SAUCERFULL OF SECRETS. The rest is rock and roll
history.
PINK
FLOYD was going through a tough time mentally and physically
when they started to record "WISH YOU WERE HERE"
(WYWH). PINK FLOYD started as a cult band and wanted to experiment
and stretch the boundaries of rock music. They wanted to be
successful and accepted but on their terms. Who wouldn't?
However they were not prepared for the massive success that
"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON" brought them. They never
really had to work another day in their lives because all
their goals were met financially. The price that came was
the pressure from the label and themselves to top this hugely
successful album. They also got a healthy dose of the dark
underbelly of the music industry. Their relationships, personal
and professionally were strained and the band felt they were
going through the motions as a feeling of “absence”
was present, and that’s what Storm and Po used as their
basis for the design.
They started the album in a rehearsal room in KINGS CROSS,
which Gilmour recalls as a tiny depressing studio. The album
was built around a four-note phrase that Gilmour played on
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part I". The band especially
Roger really missed the band’s founding member, original
guitar player and creative force SYD BARRETT, who is immortalized
on the track title track. Poor Syd had fried himself out on
acid and left. The band had actually thought that it was over.
There is much more to the SYD legacy that we'll get to in
other PINK FLOYD covers to come. Gilmour came in to help thinking
that he could not fill Syd’s shoes, (boy was he wrong!!).
As
Storm recalled the most emotional moment that added to the
eeriness of the time was when the band was at ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS
laying the backing vocals to SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND (“Syd’s
song”). Syd suddenly just showed up. No one had seen
him in over six years and he looked terrible; he had shaved
his head, gained a lot of weight and looked like he had not
slept in a month. He sat down, took out his toothbrush and
after brushing his teeth he said he was ready to play guitar
now and help the band out. It was painfully obvious the he
was totally out of it. Everyone, sat stunned and both Waters
and Gilmour broke down and cried.
“He
was so absent, his mind totally gone. That had to be the album
concept. But how do you represent absence?” Storm said.
Can't do a white album, the BEATLES had done that. How about
an album where the cover is missing?"
A
series of images started to take shape, many around the songs.
The burning man image is of a model that is actually on fire.
Even though he was wearing an asbestos suit and wig when they
lit him the wind blew the wrong way and his mustache burned
off. The concept in this image is about the music industry,
dishonest managers, the emptiness of a handshake and getting
“burned “ shown literally, “HAVE A CIGAR”.
The
photo of the diver in the lake was by PO. It was shot in a
lake in California, “a dive absent of a splash or ripples”.
It was achieved by the model doing yoga and holding his breadth
(for a long time) while the ripples disappeared. He almost
drowned!
George
Hardie their ace illustrator (he did the first LED ZEPPELIN
cover) came up with an illustrated graphic symbol of a mechanical
handshake "WELCOME TO THE MACHINE", surrounded by
the four elements, earth, water, fire, and air. It also stood
for the four members of the band.
The
Flying Veil blowing in the wind is very symbolic of a funeral,
hiding one’s face or a feeling of loss.
It was all packaged around a black shrink wrap, the images
hidden inside, so at first the cover is missing and later
discovered by the listener as the album plays.
The
ideas were presented during a lunch meeting at ABBEY ROAD
studios with the whole band and management present. Unlike
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON where a dozen ideas had been drawn up
this was the only presentation HIPGNOSIS had brought. The
band responded with a round of applause. It was a moment of
triumph for Storm.
Unfortunately
the record label in the U.S. balked at the shrink-wrap idea.
SONY/COLOMBIA screamed bloody murder, Storm recalls them saying
”What’s the point of paying ton’s of cash
for stunning artwork if it’s hidden, and no one can
see it?” What was lost on them was that this was the
whole point of the album, "absence". PINK FLOYD
demanded that everything stay as it was and since they had
considerable pull due to their recent massive success, the
label backed off.
Storm
recalls whimsically that he was told some fans cut the side
of the album package with a razor blade so they could slide
the vinyl out without harming the wrap, and thus to this day
have never seen the photo of the burning man in their own
package. How “absent “ can you get?
Personally
in the days before Photoshop, computers, trick photography,
these images still stand up today as stunning artwork. The
motto for Storm has always been“We do it for real”
This is a credo he uses to this day to the dismay of budget
minded record label accountants."Why use trick photography
that looks fake when we can set up 200 beds on the beach for
the shot and flip everybody out.” But that’s another
story and another FLOYD album.
WHERE
ARE THEY NOW:
THE
PINK FLOYD was not done yet as more amazing album’s
came and one that almost eclipsed DARK SIDE, in terms of sales
THE WALL. And yes rumor has it that the three remaining members
(sorry no Roger) are actually contemplating another run sometime
in 2006.
HIPGNOSIS
disbanded in 1983. Storm and "Po" got into the music
video biz in the early days of MTV. Later they went solo with
PO almost exclusively handling videos and concert films (ROBERT
PLANT JIMMY PAGE NO QUARTER, JEAM MICHAEL JARRE, and PAUL
McCARTNEY). Storm did the same but still kept creating covers
(PINK FLOYD, CRANBERRIES. AUDIOSLAVE, MUSE, PHISH, WEEN, MARS
VOLTA) and has also started exhibiting his work.
They
influenced dozens of contemporary album designers such as
HUGH SYME (RUSH) and yours truly. Their work stands up to
this day as brilliant art that has yet to be topped.
Cheers
until next time!
You
can visit Storm's website here
You
can visit Pink Floyd's official site here
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