The butcher cover | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Ron Nasty said
The suggestion that it was a comment on their feelings about Capitol’s treatment of their catalogue was certainly a widespread at one time. I certainly came across it many times when first reading about The Beatles in the ’80s. I think that one of the main reasons for it was an attempt to understand what, even all these years later, is a shocking album cover.

There was no explanation of the photo shoot until Whitaker spoke about it at length in 1991, and so people came up with theories that might explain the reasons behind the picture, and that was one that seemed to make sense and so was widely adopted for a time.

It’s one of those stories about them that were common currency until being discarded when evidence became available that contradicted the story.  

It’s funny, I’m one of those who hadn’t come across the ‘Capitol Theory’ until this thread…  Makes a lot of sense to me though…  If the only “evidence” we have is Mr. Whitaker’s interview then I say that it’s still possible that The Beatles did, in fact, make a statement here…  For one, I believe his story about it being his artistic vision that The Beatles had some fun with, but wasn’t the original photo shoot just that?  a photo shoot?  Management scheduled these kinda things frequently, sometimes without knowing when, or even if, they’d be used and for what purpose…

It’s entirely possible that when The Beatles subsequently heard about yet another Capitol butchering of their recorded works incoming, something that was becoming increasingly intolerable due to their artistic nature becoming more prominent, someone within the group suggested that they use that butcher photo taken recently and ran with it, who really knows?…  What was their involvement with Bob beyond the day of the actual shoot?…  Understand that I’m only asking these questions because I’ve never heard the interview, or “evidence”…  Again, I only just read about this whole theory to begin with…

The irony of this butchering of their records is that Parlophone themselves put out a cheesy compilation of their own at year’s end to cash in on the Christmas Market, one that contained only one “new” track, if I remember correctly, and that was Larry Williams’ ‘Bad Boy ‘ which Capitol had released on ‘Beatles VI’ many months before…  It’s no small wonder that they were eager to take more control of what went out…  The U.S. version of ‘Revolver ‘ released that year was probably the worst of them all…  Who’s bright idea was it to leave out 3 John Lennon songs for ‘Yesterday  And Today’?!  Completely changing the complexion of one of Music’s True Masterpieces in the process…

This also reminds me of an exchange that you & I, Ron Nasty, had years back in regards to the ‘Sgt. Pepper ‘ photo shoot…  I was sticking to the photographer’s account that a certain unnamed German Dictator was placed in behind the four Beatles as you were attempting to debunk that claim with a photo of his cut-out placed off to the side…  It’s ironic to me that in this case you’re favouring the photographer’s story instead…  If I remember correctly, you questioned the credibility of the photographer (who’s name escapes me at the moment) and didn’t believe his version…  What’s there about Bob Whitaker, someone I confess to know absolutely nothing about, that makes you accept his tale so readily?

Maybe this would be a better way to put it…  Just for argument’s sake, what else would motivate Mr. Whitaker to come out after 25 years of silence on the issue to debunk the widely accepted story here?  Just as all of the surviving Beatles and their camp have demonstrated a need to change public perception of themselves since, perhaps the “Big Wigs” were thinking about the future re-issues of the U.S. albums and wanted to begin dispelling the majority opinion that the Capitol albums were vastly inferior to their UK counterparts, if they could even be called that…  and I’m not just talking about the butchering of the listings and wanting more porridge…  The fidelity is nowhere near in the same league…

I find the long period of silence broken, especially after John’s death, a little suspect…  If The Beatles were actually making a statement here then it very likely was John’s idea…  After all, it was his ‘Revolver ‘ tracks that were butchered here…  Isn’t there more George Harrison songs on the U.S. ‘Revolver ‘ than John’s?…  This previously widely accepted theory does make a whole lotta sense, in my opinion…:-)

My angle is that of, everyone’s memory is correct…  The cut out in question for Sgt. Pepper could’ve been placed off to the side for some shots and, according to the photographer, placed behind the four Beatles for the shot that they actually used (he wanted to please John and have him in there whilest agreeing with the rest that it simply was too controversial)…  My point is, there doesn’t have to always be a right/wrong, but that everyone’s recollection is different but correct…  I feel that the same could very well be applied to the ‘Yesterday And Today’ cover…  Bob’s memories are sound but he probably didn’t think much beyond achieving his artistic vision here at the time…  The idea for using it for a Capitol sleeve may very well have taken off after the shoot was done…  Someone all ready posted in this thread atleast two other instances where shots from this session were used for something else before ‘Yesterday And Today’ was even released…

I thought about another interview clip from the ‘Anthology’ video (perhaps around the ‘Please Please Me ‘ L.P. segment?) were John Lennon discusses how a singer/group would have a hit single then build an album around it and how they didn’t want to do that…  Isn’t that kind of exactly what Capitol did here with ‘Yesterday And Today’?  Wasn’t it a bunch of songs removed from their albums built around the ‘Yesterday ‘ single?  I’m thinking that, as with the ‘Sgt. Pepper ‘ shoot, there’s no incorrect information here…  Contradicting reports perhaps, but Contradiction is Balance…:-)

You’d think, with the Beatles being the most famous pop band of the 20th century, and the 20th century being in the full light of history, that these kinds of details would not be so mired in ambiguity.  Like why Paul was barefoot on Abbey Road (e.g., “I came there barefoot because it was a sunny day”, “I was wearing sandals, and I kicked them off”, woops — several photo shoots wearing different shoes…)