The Story Behind the Cover of the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request

By Nick Tabor



This week the Morrison Hotel Gallery in Soho is opening a photography exhibit commemorating Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Rolling Stones’ 1967 foray into psychedelia. September 14 marks 50 years since they clustered into a studio in Westchester County and posed for the cover shot.

The man behind the camera that weekend was Michael Cooper, who had also shot the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band three months earlier. Throughout the ’60s and early ’70s, Cooper photographed a number of rock bands, artists, and writers, including Eric Clapton and Allen Ginsberg, but aside from the Sgt. Pepper’s cover, his work with the Stones, from both the studio and the road, is his main legacy. He committed suicide in 1973.

The 20-photo exhibit, “Their Satanic Majesties Request — The Making of an Album Cover,” runs from September 8 through September 20, and features many never-before-seen images and behind-the-scenes photos from the innovative shoot. It was curated by Cooper’s son Adam, a filmmaker in his own right. We called Adam this week to ask about the story behind the shoot.



How did your father get involved with the band?
?A friend introduced him to Keith Richards, and they became very close friends from the beginning. Keith had a great interest in photography and was very interested to know about the process of developing and printing and all of that. And of course Michael had a great interest in music. So the two of them sort of married together from the outset, and that allowed Michael to hang out with them day to day, in different situations. And the thing about Michael was that he always, always — as they say, 24/7 — had a camera around his neck, with film loaded in it, and was ready to shoot. The collection I have is 70,000 images in a 10-year period, and about 3,500 are of the Stones.

When Michael died, I was 9 years old, but here I am now in my early 50s, and I’m still discovering more images pop up, and more people pop up, telling me stories of their experiences together.

When did you start exhibiting his photography?
?I inherited the collection when I was 18, because it was held in trust until people deemed that I was responsible enough to look after it. I went through this massive cardboard box of negatives that were completely in disarray. It wasn’t until then that I really discovered the material I had. I first put out a book of his work in 1990. The Stones were touring for Steel Wheels at the time, so we organized exhibitions in major cities around the world, in combination with where the Stones were performing. Keith and Ronnie and Charlie would come down once and a while and be there at the opening.



What’s the story behind the photos for the Satanic Majesties cover?
?Well, Sgt. Pepper was such a tremendous success, of course the Stones wanted to jump on that bandwagon and take advantage of it. So they went to Michael as a friend and said, “Look, you’ve done Sgt. Pepper. We want to do a similar type of thing with Satanic Majesties.” Typical of Michael, he wanted to take it one step further, so he said, “Okay, let’s do a 3-D cover.” One of the only 3-D cameras that existed in the world in those days was in New York, so they went off to Mount Vernon Studios.

Both bands were pretty much equal in popularity at the time, but the difference in the attitude of the record companies was completely distinctive. EMI rolled out the red carpet, and the Beatles came in for a three-hour photo session once the set had been built and committed it to history. They literally walked in, put on the uniforms, did some black-and-white test shots, and that was it. They were treated like the most popular band in the world at the moment, which they were. But the Stones were pretty much up there with them, as far as popularity was concerned. They pitched the idea to Allen Klein and ABKCO, which was their recording company, and they said, “Yeah, fine, you can do whatever you want, but you’re going to have to build the set, and you’re gonna have to go out and buy the clothing.” And basically, the Stones, along with Michael, put this album cover together themselves. In the photography that comes across in the exhibition, you can actually see it. There’s Keith down on the floor with a saw and glue. They’re literally building the set.

The tragedy of the cover was that it was supposed to be three-dimensional, so when you angled it in front of your face, the heads of the Stones would change direction. But of course, when Allen Klein and ABKCO received the budget for a worldwide, mass-market edition, it was immediately rejected because the cost was just too much. They ended up doing a 500-copy limited edition, which ended up with lots of friends and family and whatever. And it’s not until now, here we are 50 years later, that ABKCO are actually reissuing the album with the 3-D cover.

It was your father’s design, right?
?Yeah, he came up with the concept and the art direction and everything else. It was pretty much a one-man show with the Stones attached to it. Keith says, “There wasn’t a photographer that we would ever have allowed to dictate to us what we should be doing for the cover.”



The cover also gives a nod to the Beatles. Do you know the story there?
?The British press were constantly dreaming up rumors that relations between the Beatles and the Stones were always bad, and they presented this bad-boy image of the Stones and the clean image of the Beatles and all of that. It was a complete invention by the press. People believed it, so the Stones, by 1967, said, “We’ve had enough of this shit. Let’s try to communicate through the cover to tell the public this is not the truth.”

So what you see on the Satanic Majesties cover, amongst the flowers, is the four faces of the Beatles. And in Sgt. Pepper’s, which was released earlier that same year, you see the doll in the right-hand corner of the cover, which says “Welcome the Rolling Stones.” It was their way of somewhat silently communicating between themselves, but also to the public, to say, “This is all a load of crap. We have great relations with the Beatles. We have great respect for them.”

Keith, again, to quote him, says, “We’d get on the phone and we’d talk to John or Paul, and say, ‘Hey, how’s your new album coming along?’ And they’d say, ‘It’s going to be released in a couple weeks.’ And we’d say, ‘Ours is ready as well, but we’ll hold off so that we don’t clash.’” That was the relationship. If you look at the famous “All You Need Is Love” video, which they recorded live in the studio, there’s Mick and Keith sitting on the floor, singing along with the rest of the band.



Do you think there’s any particular conceit behind the Satanic Majesties cover? With Sgt. Pepper’s the idea was clear: They were playing these characters in an old band that was reuniting after all these years, and they had a director named Billy Shears, et cetera. Do you think there was anything similar going on with Satanic Majesties?
?Eh … no, personally, I don’t think so. I think what they were jumping on was the fact that in England, this was the summer of love, flower power was kicking in, there was a lot of influence from drugs of course. I don’t think they were trying to necessarily make a statement. In the ’60s, a lot of bands were pretty much copying each other because of popularity. I mean Sgt. Pepper’s really was a groundbreaking album cover. It had never been done before. Nobody had ever thought, “Let’s put the lyrics for every song on the back cover of this album.” And the Stones jumped onto that popularity and tried to turn it into their own thing.

Do you have any favorite images from the collection?
?One of my particular favorites is a shot Michael took of Keith on the day of the Hyde Park ’69 concert, which turned into a tribute to Brian. They were staying in a hotel opposite the park, and they hadn’t performed live for like two years. Unbelievable as it may seem, they were really worried that no one was going to turn up for the concert. So Michael and Keith went up on the rooftop of the hotel to see how many people were turning up. Keith was wearing these reflective glasses, and Michael took this amazing shot of the sunlight beaming out of one of the lenses.

It impresses me so much because it’s a great composition, it’s a beautiful image, but you and I know that you’ve got probably about one second to get that — and he did. I think that’s the beauty of Michael’s work: this ability to get himself into the position, find the right composition, focus, put the right T-stop on the lens, and grab it in seconds. Because 90 percent of the work Michael did with the Stones — it was never rehearsed, it was never planned, it was never commissioned. It was just him being there. Fly-on-the-wall stuff. Great documentary, montage-type material.

Yeah. In that documentary vein, I also like some of the shots that show them putting the physical set together: one of Brian Jones holding a can of spray paint, another of Mick crouching on the floor, cutting a piece of foil or something.
?This is why we and Morrison Hotel came up with the obvious title of “The Making of an Album Cover” — because it really is the making of an album cover. But it’s actually the making of an album cover actually by the band that’s performing and appearing on said cover. Morrison gave me the opportunity to try and depict that as a complete process, do you know what I mean?



Do you know how much time they spent on this, between assembling the costumes and the set and doing the shoot?
?They arrived on — I think it was September 12, in New York, and they started prepping and producing September 13 and 14, and they shot the session on the 14th, probably through to the early hours of the 15th. And that was it, done. I mean, Keith says that, God knows how he did it, but Michael arranged for the stores in New York to be open on a Sunday so they could go look at things and buy things and traipse back to the studio and put the whole set together, and try on different costumes, and as always, with photographers, they always shoot more than you’re ever going to use. There are lots of Charlie and Bill and Brian posing with instruments in different situations — which was all submitted to ABKCO, and like all record companies, they chose the images that they thought [were] suited best for the album, and then the rest of the material went back to Michael.

Have you ever managed to pry out any specific anecdotes about that weekend?
?No, in all honesty, the Stones tend to walk away from the past. And what you also have to remember is that relations between ABKCO and the Stones at that time were not good, because the Stones signed a contract that meant Allen Klein was going to make the majority of the money. They’ve never said the album doesn’t exist, because they can’t, but at the same time, it’s not their best album. Mick says, you know, “We weren’t in the right place at the time. There were too many problems, too many personal things going on, too many problems with the authorities, doing drugs and everything else.” But at the same time, they were there in the thick of it all, you know?

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

[www.vulture.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-07 21:02 by Cristiano Radtke.

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ironbelly
So at which stage we are at right now?
1. This is going to be the greatest thing ever!
2. I can't wait, look at that tracklisting!
3. I have pre-ordered 3 sets! (2 to be kept sealed)
4. It shipped!
5. Even better than I thought it was going to be!
6. It sucks.
7. A missed opportunity.
8. Looking forward to the 60th anniversary set.

I think most of us are on number 3 right now...I'm hoping to skip a couple and get right to number 6 or 7.

Thanks Christiano for the article....much appreciated.
Would love to know more about his life (and untimely death). What made him so depressed? Why the descent into heroin use? etc.
Also, to have a book that does justice to his life and work....at a sensible price.
The Genesis book "Blinds and Shutters' which Bill had a hand in retailed at around £1k. Ridiculous price.

COOL READ ...... FANKS Cristiano ....... ^^^^^^^



ROCKMAN

My pleasure, folks!

From Morrison Hotel Gallery:



[www.instagram.com]

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Cristiano Radtke
The Story Behind the Cover of the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request

By Nick Tabor

Thanks

Women of History Steal the Show In This New, Psychedelic Video for a Rolling Stones Classic

Kelly Faircloth

The last precious days of summer are waning but you could do worse to maximize these last afternoons of warmth than watch this mesmerizing new lyric video for the Rolling Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow,” guaranteed to make you yearn for a beach on which to blaze it while wearing a caftan.

The video, which we are premiering here, is being released in connection with ABKCO Music’s luxe fiftieth anniversary edition—specifically, a “a limited edition deluxe double vinyl/double hybrid Super Audio CD,” which I believe is serious music fan speak for “really, really nice Christmas gift”—of Their Satantic Majesties Request, the far-out Rolling Stones album on which the song first appeared. “‘She’s a Rainbow’ contains a kaleidoscopic array of sonic effects which are more adventurous than what anyone other than the Beatles were putting on chart singles at the time,” explains Rob Bowman in an accompanying essay.

The video is therefore appropriately trippy. It was also conceived of as a tribute to women in all our glory. According to the team working on the release, it’s “a colourful and playful celebration of women through the ages from all walks of life,” and “The subjects of Renaissance, Romantic and Classical art, Victorian theatre, vintage ballerinas, traditional dancers, stars of the silent screen, Tribal women and mid-century groovers all rub shoulders in this psychedelic, kaleidoscopic collage.” Featured women range from a painting of Venus by Titian to jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams.

Where did I leave that caftan?

[themuse.jezebel.com]

It would be nice to have the original "2000 Light Years" video restored and re-released.

It may be a good idea to have footage of the Stones from 1967 mixed in these videos but at least we got something new.

Thanks for sharing Cristiano. Great read!

Audiophiliac checks-out the 50th Anniversary Edition of Their Satanic Majesties Request


Exile,

This guy is a well renowned audio consultant.

Stray Cat

[www.youtube.com]

here is 2000 Light Years...sorry if it's already been posted:

[www.youtube.com]

Win tickets for the Stones’ Satanic Majesties playback and Kris Needs talk

Fifteen lucky Shindig! readers can win a pair of tickets for a “special pre-release playback and exploration of Their Satanic Majesties Request” in Richer Sounds and Cambridge Audio’s swanky head office venue. On arrival the winners will also receive a limited edition record slip mat based on the album cover design. A further five runners up will win copies of the 50th anniversary vinyl/SACD set

Richer Sounds, Cambridge Audio, Shindig! and UMC host an evening of music and drinks celebrating the 50th anniversary and brand new special edition of The Rolling Stones’ psychedelic landmark album Their Satanic Majesties Request. The evening includes full playback of the brand new remaster of the album, a talk on its importance and place in musical history by author and journalist Kris Needs and the chance for one of the invitees to win a specially engraved one-off Their Satanic Majesties Request presentation disc.

7pm Thursday 21st September

Melomania, Gallery Court,

Hankey Place, London SE1 4BB

To win please answer this question using the below form (which includes an opt in for Richer Sound’s mailing list) and add your answer into the Message box:-

What did Mick Jagger originally intend the album to be called?

[www.shindig-magazine.com]

Blasts From the Past From the Rolling Stones, D’Angelo, Neil Young and Can

By Jon Pareles

Sept. 15, 2017

Rampant, madcap clutter defines “Their Satanic Majesties Request” like no Rolling Stones album before or since. “It just got freakier as we went along,” Mick Jagger said in 1968, as quoted in the packaging of this elaborate 50th-anniversary reissue of the album. There are no particular revelations; it’s a new remastering in multiple configurations — vinyl and CD, stereo and mono — but without any additional material. Released in December 1967, “Satanic Majesties” was the Rolling Stones’ clear rejoinder to the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” six months earlier, down to using the same artist (Michael Cooper) for its cover and hiding images of the Beatles in the photo collage. It was produced by the Stones themselves after their manager-producer Andrew Loog Oldham quit, leaving the band to indulge any and all studio whims: free-for-all jamming, horn and string arrangements, endless percussion overdubs, spoken-word interludes that probably seemed droll at the time. As the drummer Charlie Watts noted, “It was so druggy — acid and all that.”

On release, the album was rightly tagged as the Stones’ attempt to jump on the psychedelic bandwagon, piling on instruments and feigning flower-power bliss in songs like “Sing This All Together” and “She’s a Rainbow” (which, contrived or not, still sounds euphoric). The Stones themselves treated the album as a dead end and decided they needed no frills.

But 50 years later, “Satanic Majesties” also has some enduring charms. Bill Wyman’s song “In Another Land” is a pointed sendup of twee psychedelia, as its sweet harpsichord-backed verse gets a rude awakening in the chorus, and “On With the Show” bristles with sarcasm. “2000 Light Years From Home” makes the solitude and claustrophobia of space travel palpable. And two songs that never quite joined the Stones canon but should have — “Citadel” and “The Lantern” — glimpse a more complicated spirit of 1967, torn between recognition of a troubled world longing for sanctuary and a stubborn hope that things will work out. “Please,” Mick Jagger sang like he meant it, “Carry the lantern high.”

[www.nytimes.com]

If they decided to release special box sets of each 60's album this would certainly be my last pick. Geez if they started this program next year instead with the 50th of BB and add a CD of the outtakes - that would something to be excited about!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-16 23:26 by schillid.

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Lynd8
If they decided to release special box sets of each 60's album this would certainly be my last pick. Geez if they started this program next year instead with the 50th of BB and add a CD of the outtakes - that would something to be excited about!!

well...buy a couple of copies of this to make it financially worth their while and your wish may come true next year!

Original iTunes-Artwork of the 50th-Anniversary-Edition:


Large version (1400x1400px).



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-22 11:50 by Irix.

Album Review: The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request (50th Anniversary Special Edition)

September 18, 2017
By Jeff Burger

(...)

An individually numbered 50th anniversary special edition of Their Satanic Majesties Request, out this month, gives listeners who haven’t already discovered the album another chance to do so; and it provides long-time fans of the record an opportunity for a significant upgrade. Included in the beautifully designed package are two CDs, containing newly remastered stereo and mono versions of the album, as well as two 180-gram vinyl LPs with the same content. You can listen to the CDs via any standard player but they offer enhanced sound when played on equipment designed to handle Super Audio Compact Discs (SACDs). The package incorporates the original 3D cover art, which was eliminated after early pressings due to its cost, as well as a 20-page booklet that includes a long, incisive new essay by Canadian music writer Rob Bowman.

I do have several quibbles. First, since relatively few people own players that can take advantage of SACD, I wish the Stones’ label had instead offered enhanced (preferably 5.1 surround) sound on Blu-rays. Also, while Stones fanatics and vinyl lovers will appreciate the mono mixes and LPs, I suspect many listeners would like the option to buy just the remastered stereo CD at a much lower price. (Perhaps we’ll see that offering at a later date.) Another configuration I think some would have welcomed: instead of giving us four versions of the same 10 tracks, why not supplement the original album with studio outtakes (assuming they exist); live versions of “She’s a Rainbow” and “2000 Light Years from Home” (the only songs from the album that the group has performed in concert); and remasters of “Dandelion” and “Child of the Moon,” the terrific non-LP single that resulted from the same period?

All that said, this remains an immersive and memorable record that belongs in any collection of essential rock. And it has never sounded better than it does in this lavishly packaged reissue.

[www.themortonreport.com]

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-19 12:24 by DandelionPowderman.

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schillid

Nice work!

Thank you kindly

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treaclefingers

Quote
Lynd8
If they decided to release special box sets of each 60's album this would certainly be my last pick. Geez if they started this program next year instead with the 50th of BB and add a CD of the outtakes - that would something to be excited about!!

well...buy a couple of copies of this to make it financially worth their while and your wish may come true next year!

That's what I am afraid of actually - this is the first deluxe edition of a 60s album and it's not likely to do all that well with the absence of bonus tracks and the fact that it's not one of the stronger albums. They could get discouraged and abandon any efforts in the works for doing the others...

The 50th-Anniversary-Edition is available as combined Mono/Stereo-Version on [iTunes.apple.com] .

Available too as combined Mono/Stereo-Version in HiRes 96kHz/24bit at [www.Highresaudio.com] ,
as well as in HiRes 192kHz/24bit at [www.Qobuz.com] and [ProStudioMasters.com] .

The 2.8MHz/1bit DSD-versions are available (North-America only) at [Store.AcousticSounds.com] .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-24 11:30 by Irix.

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Lynd8

Quote
treaclefingers

Quote
Lynd8
If they decided to release special box sets of each 60's album this would certainly be my last pick. Geez if they started this program next year instead with the 50th of BB and add a CD of the outtakes - that would something to be excited about!!

well...buy a couple of copies of this to make it financially worth their while and your wish may come true next year!

That's what I am afraid of actually - this is the first deluxe edition of a 60s album and it's not likely to do all that well with the absence of bonus tracks and the fact that it's not one of the stronger albums. They could get discouraged and abandon any efforts in the works for doing the others...

not sure why they started with this, other than maybe because they were hoping for some tail wind from Sgt. Pepper's deluxe release. I'd have to think they understand that BB and LIB are going to be worth the treatment though.

inexplicable though, is why they didn't include some unreleased material. that was even done on Sgt. Pepper.

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treaclefingers


inexplicable though, is why they didn't include some unreleased material. that was even done on Sgt. Pepper.

Who is releasing this 50th Anniversary edition? Abkco? They are not allow to release anything more than what was released before without approval from the Rolling Stones.

All ten songs now have lyric videos.

[www.youtube.com]

[we.tl]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-23 02:40 by Deltics.

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Deltics
All ten songs now have lyric videos.

[www.youtube.com]

Nice, thanks!

One reason why Satanic Majesty's is the first 60s Stones studio album to get the super deluxe treatment: it's their first with the same songs worldwide.