The P and I were in Portland, OR last weekend, making our usual rounds, when I stumbled across something that I never thought I’d see in person, let alone have a chance to own – the infamous “Butcher” cover of The Beatles’ Yesterday And Today album. This has been described as “the Holy Grail of Beatles albums” but I’d go that one further and say that this is the holy grail of collectible albums, period.
This cover was released to record stores on June 15th, 1966, but withdrawn after just one day when many retailers protested about the graphic art and simply refused to stock it on their shelves. A majority of the original covers were destroyed, but others were pasted over with new artwork. Collectors later steamed the glue on these new covers and peeled off the replacement artwork to reveal the butcher artwork. The version that I purchased in Portland is a “peeled” cover. If you look closely, you can see the grooves where the glue settled on the artwork – a dead giveaway that the cover was peeled:
[click to enlarge]
Paul McCartney claimed that the visual was a protest of the Vietnam war, but it runs so contrary to their squeaky clean image at the time that it’s almost surreal. I’ve always gotten a kick out of the expression on George Harrison’s face here – he looks like a complete madman who’s having the time of his life. Needless to say, because this record was in stores for just one day, it has become extremely valuable. One mint copy was recently appraised at a value of $12,000 on Antiques Roadshow and in 2005 a sealed copy was auctioned for $39,000. Obviously, the peeled covers are worth quite a bit less than that, but for me this goes beyond dollars and cents (or dollars and sense) and into the realm of owning a piece of history.
Tags: Antiques Roadshow, Butcher Cover, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Yesterday And Today
23 September 2009 at 12:45 pm |
So what did it end up costing you?
23 September 2009 at 2:35 pm |
Sorry to be evasive, but I’m not going to throw around specific numbers. To quote The P, I paid less than what it’s worth, but more than I should have…
23 September 2009 at 11:58 pm |
Harrison actually hated the cover. He was quoted as saying it “was gross, and I also thought it was stupid. Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naïve and dumb; and that was one of them.”
Disc magazine also had him spitting this quote at photographer Robert Whitaker: “”We won’t come to any more of your sick picture sessions!”
24 September 2009 at 11:00 am |
Sometimes when we over indulge ourselves in our hobbies, it’s just nobody’s business! It drives people crazy that I won’t tell them how much I spent on my most expensive bird. It’s not the $ that matters but the joy that it brings you, right?
24 September 2009 at 11:10 am |
True enough, but I think it’s natural to wonder about the cost of a rare collectible – especially with something like this, where the dollar value is definitely part of the story…
24 September 2009 at 12:01 pm |
It was certainly my first thought! Which store did you find it in?
24 September 2009 at 12:26 pm |
My bad not mentioning that – Crossroads Music in Portland. A great sprawling record store, one of my favorites up there…