Tuesday, January 9, 1968
Look magazine publishes psychedelic photos of the Beatles
Last updated on August 24, 2024
Tuesday, January 9, 1968
Last updated on August 24, 2024
Article Jan 05, 1968 • “Magical Mystery Tour” broadcast in color on BBC 2
Interview Jan 06, 1968 • Paul McCartney interview for New Musical Express (NME)
Article Jan 09, 1968 • Look magazine publishes psychedelic photos of the Beatles
Session Jan 10, 1968 • Recording "Lullaby"
Article Jan 12, 1968 • Legal Beatles structures changed their names to Apple
In August 1967, Richard Avedon photographed the Beatles. The black-and-white photos of the four Beatles were transformed into vivid, psychedelic images and published for the first time in the January 9, 1968 edition of the US magazine Look.
In keeping with the Beatles’ pioneering desire to experiment with unconventional formats in their music and the packaging of their albums, their manager Brian Epstein commissioned Avedon to photograph the band members and design a set of posters that would visually capture the new psychedelic direction of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. Avedon overlaid the solarized prints with Day-Glo colors and symbolic attributes Ringo’s white peace dove, George’s mystical henna patterns, Paul’s flower power, and John’s trippy eyeglasses. The posters were printed in four different countries and released simultaneously through popular magazines for maximum international impact.
From Richard Avedon. Paul McCartney. 1967 | MoMA
A form in the magazine allowed readers to buy posters of the photos and a special Beatles banner (“order all four big color posters now and receive a FREE super-size 3 1/2 feet-wide black-and-white Beatle banner of the whole swinging group“).
In the UK, the Daily Express published those photos in its February 23, 1968 edition.
Those psychedelic photos would later be used in the packaging of the 2000 compilation album “1”.
The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years
"With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group."
We owe a lot to Barry Miles for the creation of those pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - a day to day chronology of what happened to the four Beatles during the Beatles years!
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