The Beatles Album Cover That George Harrison Disagreed With: “Gross and Stupid”

The Beatles had many iconic album covers. From simple shots of the band staring down the lens to more off-kilter, artistic choices, the Beatles’ covers were as diverse as their sound. It’s hard to find fault in any album cover from the Fab Four. Although if we had to, there is one that comes to mind…George Harrison certainly thought so, pointing a finger at one “gross” and “stupid” cover that shouldn’t have made it past the ideation stage.

In 1966, the Beatles released one of their more controversial records: Yesterday and Today. Though the album’s sound was par for the course, the cover turned heads.

The cover featured the band donning butcher coats, surrounded by headless baby dolls. Not the image one typically thinks of when discussing the Beatles. Somehow, the cover got through, although Harrison refused to give it his stamp of approval.
“Gross and Stupid”

Harrison made his feelings on the album quite clear, saying, “I thought it was gross, and I also thought it was stupid.”

“Sometimes we all did stupid things, thinking it was cool or hip when it was naive and dumb, and that was one of them,” he added. “But again, it was a case of being put in a situation where one is obliged, as part of a unit, to cooperate.”

Harrison’s disapproval of this record was indicative of why he ended up leaving the group several years later. Harrison felt unheard, a theme that would become common during the “quiet Beatle’s” tenure with the group.

“So we put on those butchers’ uniforms for that picture,” he added. “In the photograph we’re going, ‘Ugh!’ That’s what I’m doing, isn’t it?… I’m disgusted, and especially so by the baby dolls with their heads off. What the bloody hell is that all about?”

Harrison’s bandmates didn’t feel as strongly opposed to the cover as Harrison did. John Lennon saw it as an opportunity to defy expectations, something the Beatles certainly faced at the time.

“I would say I was a lot of the force behind [the ‘butcher’ cover] going out and trying to keep it out,” Lennon once said. “I especially pushed for it to be an album cover, just to break the image. There we were, supposed to be sort of angels. I wanted to show that we were really aware of life.”

Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com