"The S(l)ick Humor of The Beatles"


KYA Beat magazine July 9, 1966
KYA BEAT
Vol. 1 No. 50    July 9, 1966

This KYA Edition of BEAT newspaper featured one of the first print stories after the June 1966 recall of the Butcher cover album. BEAT was evidently afraid to publish the controversial picture on the cover, instead printing it inside on page 9. Featuring only a text headline, this was the first time that a photograph was not used on the cover of this national weekly teen newspaper.


Here is the story, reconstructed for readability, and with color photo.


Butcher cover
THE CONTROVERSIAL ALBUM COVER WHICH CAPITOL RECALLED. WEAK STOMACHS PREVAILED.

  'HELLO DOLLY' FLOPS AS POP ART
  Beatles Yank 'Sick' Album Cover
The Beatles' gory album cover, which was their own idea of pop art satire, has been withdrawn by Capitol Records after disc jockeys objected to it. A spokesman for Capitol said a sampling of public opinion indicated the album picture was "mis-interpreted." He said the group quickly decided to replace the controversial cover with a more conventional one, which was released less than a week after the first one. Although more than 200,000 copies of the jacket were released across the United States, most of the copies were returned to Capitol after the announcement of the banning. The questionable covers are now expected to bring astronomical prices as rare collectors' items. The offending picture shows the Beatles dressed in butchers' smocks and festooned with chunks of meat and bones, along with a doll's severed head. The singers wear sadistic grins. The Beatles still haven't made a statement concerning their intentions when they released the first cover. Rumor has it that it is a brilliantly disguised protest, but some have countered that it was just a publicity stunt. In either event, their intentions backfired.


Shown below, the actual ad as it appeared in the paper.

kyabeat2s.jpg - 54992 Bytes



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