The Aesthetics

The Front Cover:

(Image taken from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/LetitbleedRS.jpg)

The Back:

(Image taken from http://www.vinylrecords.ch/R/RO/Rolling_Stones/Let/IMG_0317.jpg)

The cover of the iconic album "Let It Bleed" is certainly something. A cake... plates... a tape canister... a clock face... a pizza... a tire... and five figurines (representing the main collaborators on the album). Pretty random, right? Not if you know anything about the Stones...

Like many of the great sixties musicians (like the Beatles), The Rolling Stones' every decision, every detail was deliberate. And the cover artwork for "Let It Bleed" is no exception. These weren't just random objects strung together to make a pretty nifty design. No - these objects meant something to the Stones... in some way, their combination, like virtually every track on "Let It Bleed", offered a social commentary in its own way. In some way, the cake, the plates, the tape canister, the clock face, the pizza, the tire and the figurines all offer some sort of insight into the chaotic world of the sixties and the perhaps even more chaotic musical minds of The Rolling Stones.

Just to give you the facts... The overall 'sculpture' featured on the album was designed by Robert Brownjohn. The cover art features the "Let It Bleed" record being placed by a tone-arm of an antique phonograph. Built upon the foundation of a record-changing spindle are (in order of appearance from the bottom, up) a plate, a tape canister, a clock face, a pizza, a tire, and a lavishly decorated cake (designed by Delia Smith), which supports five figurines, each holding instruments.

Now for the reverse of the LP... The back cover art features the same items: the cake, the figurines, the pizza, the tire - except that, unlike the cover art, the objects are in complete disarray. The cake is missing a slice, the figurines are toppled, the pizza is half-eaten with remnants scattered across the broken record, the tire is punctured, the tape loop destroyed, and the clock face splattered with stains. The ultimate structure remains intact, and yet the total effect remains a complete mess. The structure has lost its stability and strength under the weight of the broken and disarrayed individual aspects. The unsecured, unstable spindle just does not seem to be enough to hold up the tottering, beaten and battered array of objects. Instead, those objects (which, on the front cover, appear to be in perfect order, comfortably settled on the spindle) now seem to be on the verge of doom - swaying back and forth - so close to collapse and defeat.

Sound like a metaphor for the sixties?... We thought so. It seems what the Stones are, quite subtly and brilliantly, claiming is that initial glances might lead one to believe that the American sixties society was in perfect working order (think the front cover art where the objects, despite their oddity and seeming incompatibility, are perfectly and stably balanced by the spindle). Yet, if one looks close enough, and perhaps takes the time to delve into the true state of the society (this time, think the back cover art), the reality is clear: American sixties society. The balancing act was not working. The spindle, try as it might, simply could not support the weight of consumerism, materialism, technology, time-obsession, false images and appearances, and the rest of it. Society was going down. Society was in disarray. Society was one finger-tap away from complete ruin. And the Stones saw it coming; in fact, they were warning against it. They were saying, in their own way, 'Listen people... the cake, the pizza, the clock, the tire, the pleasure-seeking, the consumerism, the technology... it's all going to cave in. The facade isn't going to last. The balancing act is over'. To use the words of "Easy Rider" and Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test": We blew it. Society was in shambles, and anyone could see it if they would only look past the outer appearance, the initial guise... the cover. Look past it, and you will see society for what it truly is: overwhelmed, defeated, and on the brink of disaster.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Bleed#Cover