Escher and The Rolling Stones

50 years ago, on 5 December 1969, The Rolling Stones launched the album Let It Bleed. It is one of the most famous Stones albums, featuring classic songs like Gimme Shelter, Midnight Rambler and You Can't Always Get What You Want. The cover features a cake and a record player, but it could have been a print by Escher.

During that period the Stones were locked in battle with The Beatles over which of them was the best band in the world. One of the battle fronts was the record sleeve. After a well-behaved start in the early 60s, both bands were looking for more artistically credible covers. As early as 1967, The Beatles chose colourful covers for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. That same year The Stones released Their Satanic Majesties Request, the cover of which was also awash with colour. The white cover for The White Album (Beatles) was immediately followed by an almost white cover for Beggars Banquet (Stones). In January 1969, a new psychedelic cover for The Beatles’ album Yellow Submarine followed. The Stones were eagerly looking for suitable artwork for their new album, the title of which had not yet been decided at that juncture.

Mick Jagger decided to approach M.C. Escher, an artist he held in high esteem. A cover featuring a design by the printmaker could only be a boon for the album. On New Year’s Day 1969, Jagger wrote a letter to Escher:

Escher responded immediately. The answer given to Peter Swales, in English, was cordial but a little savage too:

Admittedly, Mick Jagger made a mistake by addressing Escher by his first name, but that was not the main issue. The music of The Stones was not Escher’s cup of tea at all. Hence the use of one of his prints for one of their album covers would not have sat well with him. He was also a man of strong principles, and so wanted to give precedence to fulfilling previously made agreements. If he were to give priority to a request such as Jagger’s, there would be no end to it. Even though that request had come from a world-famous band like The Rolling Stones. Jagger wrote a follow-up letter asking if he could use the print Verbum, but Escher had already made up his mind.

Overall, 1969 was not a good year for the Stones. Brian Jones was so addicted to alcohol and drugs that he was barely able to contribute to the new album. He was kicked out of the Stones by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in June. Jagger himself was arrested for drug possession earlier that year. Just before the band presented its new guitarist, Mick Taylor, through a free concert in London’s Hyde Park, Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool. Hence the Hyde Park concert became a memorial for Jones. This first concert in over a year was a huge success, in part due to the emotional charge hanging over it. But more disasters were to come. On the same day that Let It Bleed was released in America, the band gave a performance on the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California. During the concert, a spectator was stabbed to death by a Hell’s Angel. Members of that motorcycle gang had been hired by the Stones to maintain order. The opening song of Let it Bleed is Gimme Shelter, containing the refrain ’Rape, murder! It’s just a shot away! It’s just a shot away!’ The fact this song received such a literal interpretation during Altamont remains a bizarre notion. Escher’s rejection of Jagger’s album cover request was therefore a relatively minor setback in a year in which everything went wrong for the band.

Incidentally, three records featuring Escher prints were released in 1969. The British band Mott the Hoople released an album with a coloured version of Reptiles and the cover of the album L. the P. by the band Scaffold (also British) featured Ascending and Descending. The third cover was by the American psychedelic rockband The Mandrake Memorial, who used two Escherprints for their album Puzzle; House of Stairs for the front and back and Curl-up for the inside of the gatefold sleeve. He himself was not involved in these designs. The permission was granted by the Escher Foundation, which can be seen on the covers of Scaffold and The Mandrake Memorial.

In the end, the cover of Let it Bleed was created by the American designer Robert Brownjohn. It features a record changer with the album and the needle of an old-fashioned phonograph. On top of that is a pile consisting of a cake with five figures representing the five Stones, an elastic band, a pizza, a clock face and a film can. The result is colourful, busy and kitschy, an ode to the flower power era in which it was made. An image that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the art of M.C. Escher.