Why did the Chicken cross the road?
August 1, 2009 4:45 PM   Subscribe

The Beatles 'most famous' album cover inspires dozens of imitations
posted by nam3d (41 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
That was fun! Thanks.
posted by lazaruslong at 4:46 PM on August 1, 2009


Ugh. It sure was great to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers one again. Yeah.
posted by Askiba at 4:49 PM on August 1, 2009


Those Molecular Biology Of The Cell folks are some cool cats.
posted by zer0render at 4:53 PM on August 1, 2009 [1 favorite]


Previously, the real thing.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:57 PM on August 1, 2009


Booker T and the MGs, with their McLemore Avenue, FTW. Those guys are strutting just as good as they play, and note: no "crosswalk" bullshit for those bad boys. Nuh-uh. They're jaywalking down in Memphis.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:58 PM on August 1, 2009 [5 favorites]


I've always loved the Be Sharps' cover for their album, Bigger Than Jesus.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 5:03 PM on August 1, 2009


I would have thought that "Sgt. Pepper" would be their most famous album cover. But, this was cool.
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:11 PM on August 1, 2009 [2 favorites]


Wow, whoever does the graphics for that paper's website should be shot. Not only for the poor quality of those images, but also for repeating six of those covers. Perhaps if the paper had waited another seven days til the fortieth anniversary, it might be a much more worthwhile story. Otherwise, weak.
posted by Sova at 5:12 PM on August 1, 2009 [2 favorites]


Much better website here: Sleeve Design.
posted by Sova at 5:15 PM on August 1, 2009


Fuck me, Jive Bunny. I'll get you for this!
posted by Abiezer at 5:21 PM on August 1, 2009


I would have thought that "Sgt. Pepper" would be their most famous album cover.

Funny, when I saw "The Beatles 'most famous' album cover" headline, I immediately thought of The White Album. Seems like the most boldly radical one, anyway, from a record jacket design standpoint, and somehow I would've thought that might translate into 'most famous'.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:23 PM on August 1, 2009 [1 favorite]


I thought of their notorious butcher cover.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:34 PM on August 1, 2009 [4 favorites]


I would have thought that "Sgt. Pepper" would be their most famous album cover.

Funny, when I saw "The Beatles 'most famous' album cover" headline, I immediately thought of The White Album.


Honestly, I am weird enough that my first thought was the infamous original "Butcher Cover" for Yesterday and Today.

My dad had that Molecular Biology textbook, and took great pleasure in explaining to 7-year-old me why it was funny.
posted by doift at 5:35 PM on August 1, 2009


I think many of those were too literally like the original--it was surprisingly dull seeing them all together like that.
posted by not that girl at 5:45 PM on August 1, 2009


Very little creativity there. Nobody has done even most basic of meme mutation, other than changing who the characters are. Like, what if you have the drivers be the guys and they are running down little old ladies. Or make the guys the stripes with the audience walking on them. Or make the guys the cars parked on the road and some tiny driverless cars "walking" across. Or whatever. Switch it up a little, is all I'm sayin'.
posted by DU at 5:47 PM on August 1, 2009


when I saw "The Beatles 'most famous' album cover" headline, I immediately thought of The White Album.

How much more famous could it be? None. None more famous.
posted by DU at 5:48 PM on August 1, 2009 [2 favorites]


I'm with Astro Zombie. The ineffectively-suppressed "Yesterday and Today" cover with doll parts and meat needs more homages.
posted by wendell at 6:11 PM on August 1, 2009


Switch it up a little, is all I'm sayin'.

I see it: the crosswalk crossers are being picked up by a tractor beam from a flying saucer. Inside the saucer's portal window we can see aliens, who've already chopped up the Beatles (à la the infamous "butcher" cover) and are eating them. The same fate, of course, awaits the copycat band currently being beamed up.

That's not gonna happen to Booker T and the MGs, though, cause the aliens would get their ass kicked in Memphis.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:16 PM on August 1, 2009 [1 favorite]


I also thought of "Sgt Pepper's" before I clicked the link. Huh.
posted by blucevalo at 6:51 PM on August 1, 2009


okay, i would definitely say that it is at best the 3rd most famous beatles album cover (the FPP does put most famous in quotes, for what it's worth). it is probably the most imitated, because sgt. pepper's is too hard to imitate and the white album is too easy.

barely related: on the wall of the kitchen of the rental house where my band lived in we had a 3x3 grid of whipped cream and other delights album covers with this in the middle.
posted by snofoam at 7:07 PM on August 1, 2009 [1 favorite]


I would just like to say that the George Benson album "The Other Side of Abbey Road" is awesome.
posted by mattoxic at 7:29 PM on August 1, 2009


I see it: the crosswalk crossers are being picked up by a tractor beam from a flying saucer. Inside the saucer's portal window we can see aliens, who've already chopped up the Beatles (à la the infamous "butcher" cover) and are eating them. The same fate, of course, awaits the copycat band currently being beamed up.

That's not gonna happen to Booker T and the MGs, though, cause the aliens would get their ass kicked in Memphis.


That's not a saucer its the Mothership. And that alien in the window? Bootsy.
posted by Sailormom at 7:49 PM on August 1, 2009


Really, if you've not listened to McLemore Avenue, you should. Brilliant interpretive work done in four ... well ... movements, really. Benson's The Other Side ... is almost as wonderful, but there is just something profound about how Booker T. and the MGs approach the challenge. It's one thing to do a damn good cover of a classic song ... it's a whole other bag of awesome to do a damn good cover of an entire album end-to-end.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:15 PM on August 1, 2009 [1 favorite]


BASS!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:29 PM on August 1, 2009


I think it's pretty interesting how many of those covers replicated the VW Beetle on the left side-- other than the bold stripes of a London crosswalk, it seems to be the most consistent background element.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:47 PM on August 1, 2009


And I'm the only one who thought Meet the Beatles when I first heard "most famous album cover,' apparently.
posted by jabberjaw at 9:39 PM on August 1, 2009


What's up with the zig-zag lane marker in some of the images? Is that a recent London thing?
posted by unmake at 10:45 PM on August 1, 2009


I'm far too lazy to research it the way the Mail article has, but I've seen any number of homages to the "With the Beatles" (US title "Meet the Beatles") cover as well. So many in fact that I wouldn't take any bets that Abbey Road's been done more.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:56 PM on August 1, 2009


I also thought of the butcher cover.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:56 PM on August 1, 2009


Was this the source?
posted by feelinglistless at 1:36 AM on August 2, 2009



posted by zorro astor at 2:07 AM on August 2, 2009


Paul is dead.
posted by zorro astor at 2:08 AM on August 2, 2009


Paul is dead.
posted by zorro astor at 2:08 AM on August 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


sorry double post
posted by zorro astor at 2:09 AM on August 2, 2009


What's up with the zig-zag lane marker in some of the images?

The zig-zag is to let drivers know tha they're approaching a pedestrian crossing where pedestrians have right of way. They've been around since at least the 70's.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:30 AM on August 2, 2009


Even Paul McCartney has emulated the famous Abbey Road cover of his former band

That's because Paul is a tosser. And dead.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:06 AM on August 2, 2009


What's up with the zig-zag lane marker in some of the images?

It's illegal to park on the zig-zags
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:08 AM on August 2, 2009


... or wait, or overtake.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:09 AM on August 2, 2009



What's up with the zig-zag lane marker in some of the images?


They have them outside schools, so presumably a school was built on Abbey Road.
posted by Acey at 7:00 AM on August 2, 2009


I likely would have thought of Sgt. Pepper's, too, or the butcher cover. What I can glean from this thread is that no one likes the cover of Magical Mystery Tour.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:31 AM on August 2, 2009


They have them outside schools, so presumably a school was built on Abbey Road.

They aren't just outside schools; they are often right before a zebra crossing unrelated to any school.
posted by grouse at 12:20 PM on August 2, 2009


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