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John Lennon's album cover is almost identical to Yoko Ono's companion piece (of the same title), the subtle difference being that on Ono's cover, she is lying on Lennon's body. The photo
was snapped with a consumer-grade Instamatic camera by actor Dan Richter, who also worked as an assistant for the Lennons at the time. More
The texture of the image above was obtained through the use of the Watercolour filter after which the image was converted to monochrome. The cold tone was chosen with the intention
of creating an 'out-of-this-worldish' landscape in which a relaxed couple do not seem to mind as they fix their gaze at a distant light source.
John and Yoko recorded two albums simultaneously, the covers of which were identical, apart from the positioning of the couple, who were lazing under tree. One was called Yoko Ono/
Plastic Ono Band, the other John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – the first solo offering by the former Beatle. Co-produced by Phil Spector (although he was absent for much of the
recording, John & Yoko doing the lion's share of work), Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr, along with John, made up the core musicians, with Billy Preston and Spector
playing piano on a track apiece, "God" and "Love".
The album was also referred to as the ‘primal’ or ‘primal scream’ album, because it was recorded just after the Lennon’s had undergone primal therapy with the American psychologist
Arthur Janov, whose book The Primal Scream had made a big impression on the couple, especially John, for whom it touched a particularly personal chord, enabling him to
express the long-repressed childhood pain that had shaped his life. These raw emotions informed John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, which Rolling Stone magazine,
when placing it at No. 23 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, described as ‘a pure, raw core of confession that, in its echo-drenched,
garage-rock crudity, is years ahead of punk’. Full article
Here's the original album cover art design.
No. 23, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 40, Entertainment Weekly, The 100 Greatest Albums Ever;
No. 45, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 244, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.
Design concept by John Lennon, photo by Dan Richter. Album produced by John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Phil Spector. Apple 1970.
Lennon's experience in primal therapy strongly influenced both the lyrical content of the album, pushing him toward themes of child-parent relationships and psychological suffering,
and the simple yet intense style of the album's music. Throughout the album Lennon touches on many personal issues: his abandonment by his parents, in "Mother"; the
means by which young people are made into soldiers, in "Working Class Hero"; a reminder that, despite his rage and pain, Lennon still embraces "Love"; and
"God", a renunciation of external saviours. In the piano-driven climax of "God," after listing a handful of "idols" he does not believe in, including Jesus,
Hitler, Elvis, Zimmerman (Bob Dylan), and The Beatles, Lennon proclaims that he believes only in himself and Ono. More
(A) Mother - Hold On - I Found Out - Working Class Hero - Isolation
(B) Remember - Love - Well Well Well - Look at Me - God - My Mummy's Dead
