Hello everyone, welcome to the fourth article in the "Looking for Fun" series. In the last issue, we talked about the album covers of the first seven Pink Floyd (hereinafter referred to as Pink) studio albums. Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and encouragement. This time we will talk about the covers of their next eight albums, many of which are widely known to the world. Such a *** is fifteen studio albums. "Looking for Fun" only talks about the cover, not the music.

Read past issues:

Taking pleasure in appearance: A first look at Pink Floyd’s album cover

Taking pleasure in appearance: A brief discussion of Led Zeppelin ’s album cover

Taking pleasure in appearance: A brief discussion of the Beatles’ album cover

Text: Yichen

Editor: Echo

The Dark Side of the Moon

The eighth, March 1, 1973, "The Dark Side of the Moon (The Dark Side of the Moon)". I believe that anyone who knows anything about rock and roll is familiar with this album cover: a beam of white light is injected into a prism. Due to the dispersion of light, the white light is decomposed into various colored beams.

Initially, the person in charge of EMI was not satisfied with the band's previous album covers. They preferred to have some more normal designs, such as at least adding the name of the band, album and record company. on the cover. For example, the previous "three-no covers" such as "Mother of the Atomic Heart" and "Meddle" were simply random in the eyes of EMI people.

But Storm Thorgerson, the chief designer of Pink album covers, still decided to go against the grain. Richard White and Storm Thorgerson said: "We hope you can design a more creative and concise cover."

So Storm Thorgerson Sen and his design team provided seven design sketches, including this cover of a prism-dispersed beam. After this, the band members unanimously decided that this was the best design because it represented three things: the first was the stage lighting effect when the band was performing, and the second was the meaning of the lyrics in the song. , and the third one is to meet the band’s requirement for a “concise and elegant” album cover.

Wish You Were Here

The ninth, September 12, 1975, "Wish You Were Here (Wish You Were Here)". Another epoch-making album and iconic record cover. The cover was photographed by Storm Thorgerson's work partner Aubrey 'Po' Powell.

In the picture, two businessmen in suits are holding hands, one of them is caught in fire, and the background looks like a huge factory area. There will be several questions in this. First, why do businessmen shake hands? Why would someone be on fire? Where is the filming location?

The two stuntmen who appear on the cover are Ronnie Rondell (the one on fire) and Danny Rogers. There was an episode like this during the filming process: Ronnie Rodell was first wearing fire-resistant clothing, and then put on a suit outside. At first he was standing on the left in the photo, but due to the wind direction, his body burned. The flames burned his beard (haha), and he had to stand on the right side of the picture.

As for the shooting location, Bree Powell chose to shoot at the Warner Bros. Video Studio in Los Angeles because he wanted to shoot in a place where "everything can be created, but actually there is nothing." This photo serves as the album cover.

Animals

The tenth album, January 23, 1977, "Animals (Animals)" is also a high-level album, and its production inspiration came from George O. Will's famous novel "Animal Farm".

After the music production was completed, the original team members who designed the band's previous record covers immediately devoted themselves to new creations. They gave Pinker three designs, and as far as I know, one of them involved a kid bursting into his parents' bedroom and finding them having sex.

However, this time, Pink did not accept any suggestions made by others, but finally adopted Shui Ye's inspiration. At that time, Mr. Shui lived in Clapham Common, a suburb of London, and would often drive past the nearby Battersea Power Station, the largest red brick building in Europe. It was abandoned, so he decided to use this power station as the cover background of the band's new album. Above the power station is the famous balloon flying pig, fitting the theme of the album.

Pinker invited Ballon Fabrik, a German airship manufacturing company at the time, and Jeffrey Shaw, an artist from Australia, to jointly create the 12-meter-long balloon pig. The original plan was that the balloon was raised and fixed at the designated position the day before the shooting. If the balloon flew away due to an unexpected disconnection, the hired shooter would shoot it to avoid accidents. Necessary trouble. As a result, band manager Steve O'Rourke ignored the hiring of the shooter, and a sudden windy day the next day caused the flying pig to break free from the fixed rope and disappear into the sky. Afterwards, the flying pig flew over London's Heathrow Airport, causing widespread grounding of aircraft. Eventually, the flying pig was discovered on a farm in Kent, a hundred kilometers away.

After the balloon flying pig's journey was over, the filming was able to proceed smoothly on the third day. However, because everyone found that the picture of the power station taken before was better due to time and weather conditions, the photos of the balloon pig taken later were actually photoshopped onto the photos of the previous power station.

The Wall

The eleventh album, November 30, 1979, "The Wall (The Wall)" is another milestone for Pinker. This is the band's most minimalist album cover, and it is also the second album cover that Pink designed, conceived and produced entirely by himself since their first album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" .

In the beginning, the cover was actually just a wall made of white bricks. The name of the band and album were later released by the famous British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. It was added later and comes in red and black versions. If you have seen the movie "The Wall" or some of the music videos from this album, there are many animated characters drawn by Gerald Scarfe.

The Final Cut

The twelfth album, "The Final Cut (Final Movement)", released on March 21, 1983, is an anti-war album (at the time of the British and Argentina’s Falklands War). This is Shui Ye's last album in Pink. It is the only album where Shui Ye arranged all the arrangements, and it is also the only album in which keyboard player Richard White did not participate in the production.

The cover of this album was still designed by Mr. Shui. He used a photo of his uncle Willie Christie in military uniform. In the upper left corner of the cover is a poppy flower, used to commemorate those who died in the war; below are four medal ribbons from the Second World War, from left to right: "1939-1945 Star" (1939–1945 Star ), "Africa Star", "Defence Medal", and "Distinguished Flying Cross".

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

The thirteenth picture, September 7, 1987, "A Momentary Lapse of Reason (The Moment of Losing Reason)" is Shui Ye's own His first album after leaving Pink in 1985.

The album cover returns to a team led by Storm Thorgerson for design. He got the following inspiration from the single "Yet Another Movie": countless beds arranged like a river on the beach (the lyrics "A vision of an empty bed"). So, with the help of Storm Thorgerson's colleague Colin Elgie, they moved hundreds (some say 750 beds) of hospital beds to Saunton Sands in Devon. ), a process that reportedly took two weeks to complete.

At the top of the photo, a hang glider flies over the beach, an obvious reference to the album's hit track "Learning to Fly." The person sitting on the bed in the photo was once said to be actor Langley Iddins, who has appeared in many album single MVs ("Sign of Life", "Learning to Fly" and "On the Run"), but it is actually David ·A supervisor at Gilmour's private recording studio, Astoria (actually a houseboat docked on the River Thames in suburban London). On the back right are several dogs on the beach, pointing to the track "The Dogs of War" from the album.

The Division Bell

The fourteenth picture, March 28, 1994, "The Division Bell". The album cover was still designed by Storm Thorgerson.

Two huge metal heads facing each other, as tall as a double-decker bus, rise from the ground in Ely, Cambridgeshire. The two heads combined together are actually a face facing people. According to Storm Thorgerson, this face is actually Sid Barrett.

In the distance of the picture you can see the famous local building in Ely, The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Unpided Trinity of Ely. In 2001, the two heads were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

The Endless River

The fifteenth, November 7, 2014, "The Endless River" is Pink's last studio album , is also their last album. At this time, the only veterans in the band are David Gilmour and Nick Manson (Richard White passed away in 2008), and even their long-term record cover design partner Storm Thorgerson has also died. In such a changing environment, the remaining Pinkers found former Storm Thorgerson partner Aubrey Powell (the photographer of the "Wish You Were Here" photo) to host this event. cover design.

In this picture, a young man is sailing alone in a sea of ??clouds in a boat toward a sun-drenched distance. It gives people a quiet and hopeful feeling. Perhaps this is the ordinary life of the 21st century. I want to tell people the message.

At that time, Aubrey Powell discovered an 18-year-old graphic artist from Egypt, Ahmed Emad Eldin, and one of his works " "Beyond the Sky" brought great inspiration to Aubrey, so he asked the Egyptian artist if he could use his work to create the cover of Pink's new album. The latter readily agreed and claimed to be an avid musician. pink. This is the story of Pink's Life of Life.

I spent two issues introducing the cover of Pink’s studio album, and I don’t know if you will like it. Pink has always been an amazing band. From "Pipers at the Gates of Dawn" to "Endless River", from 1967 to 2014, there are few bands that can have such tenacious vitality. Putting music aside, I don't want to make comparisons based on their obsession and pursuit of record cover design, but this is really beyond the reach of other bands. I hope Pinker can take everyone to sail into the distance in a small boat.