Whats the story behind the “butcher cover”?
In the UK the Beatles’ release sequence included Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966). In the US, Capitol avoided extra royalty costs by releasing an interim album called “Yesterday and Today”, with some songs from the “Help”, “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver” albums. (American law regulated the number of songs which could be included on an LP under a lower royalty rate; hence Capitol regularly issued Beatles LPs in shorter formats than their UK counterparts). The Beatles were asked to provide a cover photo. They’d just done a promotional shoot for the “Paperback Writer” single release in England, which included an avant-garde-influenced photo of the Fabs in white lab coats with meat cleavers, hunks of raw steak, and cut-up dolls. This photo actually made it onto “Yesterday and Today” and was shipped to some stores in 1966…until someone at Capitol decided it was in rather poor taste. They recalled the album. Some were “fixed” by pasting over a hastily-photographed picture of the Beatles
