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One Beatles album cover caused such a controversy that their record label recalled it, much to John Lennon’s irritation. For the album Yesterday and Today, the band posed with decapitated baby dolls, sparking an uproar. Lennon believed the reaction was hypocritical. In a statement, he told reporters that the American public should be able to accept the cover because of their support of something else.
John Lennon said Americans should be able to accept a Beatles album cover
In 1966, The Beatles released the album Yesterday and Today. On the cover, they wore butcher outfits and smiled while surrounded by raw meat and decapitated baby dolls. The album, which was released in the United States and Canada, caused immediate controversy. Radio stations refused to play the album, and record stores would not stock it.
The Beatles found this reaction to be ridiculous. McCartney defended the cover and rolled his eyes at its detractors. Lennon said Americans should not be this outraged over it. If they could accept the war in Vietnam, he thought they should be able to accept the album cover.
“It’s as relevant as Vietnam,” Lennon said, per the book The Beatles Story on Capitol Records by Bruce Spizer. “If the public can accept something as cruel as the war, they can accept this cover.”
Despite Lennon’s protests, Capitol Records swiftly recalled the album and gave it a new cover.
George Harrison was more apologetic than John Lennon over the album cover
George Harrison, unlike his bandmates, did not defend the cover.
“I think [Beatles manager] Brian Epstein had met a photographer in Australia called Robert Whitaker, who came to London where Brian introduced him to us,” he said, per The Beatles Anthology. “He was avant-garde and took a lot of photographs. He set up a photo session which I never liked personally at the time.”
Harrison thought it was a mistake to take part in the photo shoot.
“I thought it was gross, and I also thought it was stupid,” he said. “Sometimes we all did stupid things, thinking it was cool or hip when it was naive and dumb, and that was one of them. But again, it was a case of being put in a situation where one is obliged, as part of a unit, to cooperate.”
Paul McCartney spoke about why the band got political
McCartney said the band decided to speak out against the Vietnam War after he had a conversation with Bertrand Russell.
“I remember going back to the studio either that evening or the next day and telling the guys, particularly John [Lennon], about this meeting and saying what a bad war this was,” he told Prospect Magazine in 2009. “We started to investigate and American pals who were visiting London would be talking about being drafted. Then we went to America, and I remember our publicist — he was a fat, cigar-chomping guy, saying, ‘Whatever you do, don’t talk about Vietnam.’ Of course, that was the wrong thing to say to us. You don’t tell rebellious young men not to say something. So of course we talked about it the whole time and said it was a very bad war.”
While their manager did not want them to speak about the war, they wrote the song “Revolution 1” about it.
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