Chords for The Stories Behind Iconic Album Covers

My grandma once told me never [D#] judge an album [Bm] by its cover unless of [F#] course it's a great
[E] album with an equally awesome [F#m] cover.
Today we're looking at the stories behind seven
[E] iconic album covers.
[F#] Let's dive in.
First on [E] our list is an album that defined a [A] generation,
Nirvana's Nevermind, and I am [F#] censoring the baby's [E] business because I don't know what's allowed on
YouTube these days.
The cover to this grunge masterpiece features a naked [A] toddler swimming
[G#] towards an American dollar [B] bill attached to a fishing [A] hook.
While this image has [F#] been interpreted
in [A] a number of different ways, the [C] art director Robert Fisher said that Kurt [G] Cobain had seen a
documentary on water births and thought that that would make a cool [C#] album cover.
This was
ultimately deemed [A] too graphic and they [D] went with the [F#] concept of a swimming baby [A] instead.
Unable to
find stock footage of this, a camera crew [B] was hired.
They chucked a bunch of babies into [F#m] a pool
and [Bm] photographed the results.
For his hard [E] work, the baby was paid [G] $250.
[C#] The fishing line [B] and
dollar bill were added [E] in after the fact.
Moving on to the next [F#m] album on our list,
[E] Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely [F#] Hearts Club Band by The [D] Beatles.
This iconic picture [G#m] features the Fab
[F#m] Four clad in [E] flamboyant military [D#] suits amongst [B] a collage of various famous people.
The concept
[B] came from a sketch of Paul's, [G#] the idea being [C#] that they were an imaginary [F#] band posing with their
audience after a performance.
Each Beatle was [Gm] asked who [C] they'd like to have in the [G] collage.
John and Paul submitted a list even [F#] though some of their [Gm] suggestions like [C] Hitler, Jesus, and Gandhi
were [Gm] not approved.
[F] George only wanted Indian [Am] gurus and Ringo said whatever the others want [Em] is fine by
[C] me and didn't [F] suggest anyone.
The album cover [C] cost $65 [E],000, well [C#] more than the [B] average at the time.
The expense [E] came from paying to use [F#] all these celebrities' images.
[A] Next up we have the [G#] album
Enema of the [B] State by Blink [E]-182, an album that [D] personally inspired me to pick up the [B] guitar as
well as many others my age.
Here we [C#] have a rather [G#] buxom nurse putting on a blue surgical [F#] glove with
a seductive look [G#m] in her eye.
I'm [C#m] told an enema doesn't usually necessitate the [G] use of a glove,
but at the time of the photograph [D#] the album was [C] going to be called Turn Your [F] Head and Cough.
There [D#] have been a few different pressings of this album with minute [G] changes, the final version
removing the [Gm] red cross from the [Dm] nurse's hat.
[G] According [A#] to Mark Hoppus, we were [Gm] contacted by
the [G#] Red Cross that, as we are in no way a medical [G]
organization, we should not [Fm] have a red cross on
our artwork.
[G#] If we continued [A#] to use the Red Cross [D#] logo, we would be in [F#] violation of the Geneva
Convention.
[G#] Moving on we have [F] that awesome image of the band Queen from their album Queen 2.
The
band had yet to [C] gain major commercial success when their sophomore [F#] album was released.
[Gm] In fact,
they were [Cm] reluctant to even use this [F] image as they felt it was a bit pretentious.
They [A#] recruited
veteran photographer Mick Rock who had also shot Lou Reed, [G] David Bowie, and Iggy Pop.
For the session,
Freddie Mercury's only [G] instruction was that [Fm] the image had to evoke the [Dm] duality of black and [E] white.
With that to go on, Rock drew inspiration from [G] a still from the movie Shanghai Express [F] featuring
the actress Marlene [G#] Dietrich.
They would try a number of [D#] different things before ultimately
[C#] settling on a picture where Freddie Mercury strikes the same pose as the [Fm] actress.
A couple
[D#] years later, they [A#m] recreated this imagery in the video for Bohemian Rhapsody.
While [F] Queen 2 is one
of their lesser known pieces of work, this image is forever associated with the band.
Next up we
have the album cover for Marilyn Manson's [B] Mechanical [D#] Animals, an album that [G] an 11-year-old [G#] samurai
[Am] guitarist was not allowed to buy no matter [G] how much he asked his parents.
On it, Marilyn Manson
looks like [C] some sort of androgynous alien.
He [E] has nipples breasts painted over junk as well as
six [G] fingers.
Pretty cool.
This is tied into the [F] album's concept in which an emotionless alien
[D#] named Omega comes to earth and [A#] parties too hard.
[Cm] Contrary to popular [C] belief, Manson did not get
[G] surgery for the photo shoot and [B] was instead clad head to toe [G] in [C] latex and makeup.
The [A] prosthetic
breasts currently [D] belong to Johnny Depp who Marilyn Manson [G] traded them with for the wig that
[D] Johnny [F] wore in the movie Blow.
The 90s [C] were a crazy time.
The next album on our list is an
album that doesn't [Dm] really have a name.
The [Gm] fourth album by Led [F] Zeppelin, sometimes called Led
Zeppelin 4, [Dm] Zozo, or Four [C] Symbols.
The full album sleeve features a [G#] picture of an oil painting that
Robert [C] Plant bought of an elderly man hunched over carrying a bundle of sticks.
This [D] was transposed
against an image of a city, [C] the meaning of which, according to [G#] Jimmy Page, it [A] represented the change
and the balance which was going on.
There was an old country man [G] and the blocks of flats being
[Am] knocked down.
[D] It was just a way of [G] saying that we should look [Am] after the earth, not [D] rape and pillage
Perhaps more interesting than [E] the album cover itself [B] is what the album is lacking.
There is
no band name, no track listing, and no album name.
In lieu of this [F#] typical information,
[E] Four Symbols could be found in the sleeve of the album.
[G#] The reason for this, according to Jimmy
Page, after [F#] all this crap that we'd had with [E] the critics, I put it to everybody else that it'd be a
good idea to put out something totally anonymous.
At first [Am] I wanted just one symbol on it, but then
it was decided that since it was our fourth album and there were four of us, we could each choose
[Dm] our own symbol.
[B] Last on our list for today [Am] is perhaps the most iconic album [E] cover of all time
for [Am] perhaps the greatest album of all [E] time, [Am] Dark Side of the Moon.
Single beam [E] of white light
passing through [A] a prism revealing all the colors of the spectrum [G] juxtaposed against an [Am] all-black
background.
[A] What an image.
The band hasn't offered much of an explanation as to what this represents
[C] and when discussing concepts with their design team, [Dm] their only instructions were to create
[A] something that was clean, [C] elegant, and graphic.
The team of [G] Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson were
inspired [B] by an image in a physics [E] textbook.
They showed the [F#] concept to the band and were given [Fm] the
green light.
[E] It's honestly not the most interesting story, [F#] but I know if I left this one off the list
I would never hear the end [E] of it in the comments.
Ladies and [F#] gentlemen, there you have it, the story
behind [E] seven iconic album covers.
If you enjoyed this video, let me know by hitting [G] that like
button, [B] and if you can think of any other [G] albums with cool [C] stories behind them, let [A] me know in the
comments, I always [G] like to hear from you.
Videos like these are made possible with the support of
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[D] Thank you all for watching,
I'm [C] SamuraiGuitarist, and I will see you