let it bleed – rolling stones 1969

 

Let It Bleed – Rolling Stones
Album Front Cover – Original Sculpture
London 1969

Let It Bleed – Rolling Stones
Album Back Cover – Original Sculpture
London 1969

 

When the Rolling Stones were preparing to release an album in 1969, Keith Richards asked BJ, his close friend, to design the cover. The title was originally going to be ‘Automatic Changer’. BJ created a surreal sculpture with an assortment of circular objects – a plate, film reel canister, clock face, pizza, bicycle tire and wedding cake – stacked above a vinyl LP as if they were on one of the autochanger mechanisms that enabled old-fashioned record players to play numerous albums without stopping.

On the front cover, tiny models of the Rolling Stones ‘perform’ on top of the cake, which was elaborately decorated by the then little-known chef Delia Smith. BJ had asked her to make the gaudiest and over-the-top cake that she could.

On the back cover, chaos erupts. The stack of objects has been vandalized. The record is broken and littered with cake and pizza debris. All of the mini musicians have tumbled into the icing, except BJ’s friend Keith Richards. As the only one standing, Keith is still strumming his guitar.

By the time the album came out the title had been changed to ‘Let It Bleed’, but BJ’s design was so powerful that the band kept it.

The album cover was one of ten chosen by the Royal Mail for its set of Classic Album Covers issued in 2010. ‘Let It Bleed’ is widely thought as one of the best, if not the best, Stones’ albums and the cover has been named as one of the greatest album covers of all time.

 

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Let It Bleed Rolling Stones Original Album Cover

Let It Bleed
Rolling Stones
Original Album Cover

 

Rolling Stones with Let It Bleed cover proof Los Angeles 1969

Rolling Stones with Let It Bleed cover proof
Los Angeles 1969

 

Let It Bleed Colour Transparency London 1969

Let It Bleed
Original large color transparency 8 x 10 inches
London 1969

 

Let It Bleed Colour Transparency London 1969

Let It Bleed
Original large color transparency  8 x 10 inches
London 1969

 

Let It Bleed Colour Negative London 1969

Let It Bleed
Original large color negative  8 x 10 inches
London 1969

 

Let It Bleed Colour Negative London 1969

Let It Bleed
Original large color negative  8 x 10 inches
London 1969

 

Let It Bleed stamp London 2010

Let It Bleed stamp
London 2010

 

Royal Mail Stamps London 2010

Royal Mail Stamps
London 2010

 

Let It Bleed

Let It Bleed article – London 2012

 

Keith Richards at Rolling Stones Exhibition at Saatchi Gallery  London 2016

 

Let It Bleed Book by Sean Egan

Let It Bleed Book by Sean Egan featuring a chapter on the making of the album cover