John Entwistle on how The Who came up with their iconic album covers
Iconic is a word easily thrown around these days. While I’m not averse to a bit of the ol’ hyperbole, it can be nice to save a term with as definitive a meaning as ‘iconic’ for the things that really deserve it. Hendrix with the burning guitar at Monterey Pop. Beyoncé in the ‘Single Ladies’ video. Kendrick with the devil’s own grin at the Super Bowl halftime show. While too much ink gets spilt about the greats of the 1960s, I’d say The Who are responsible for a truly alarming amount of iconic gifts to pop culture as well.
I’m not even talking about just their music either. The band have countless iconic songs and albums, but I would say their visual iconography is arguably the best of their era too. Perhaps specifically in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, but even outside of that parameter, which other band can you recognise from a worldless logo? It’s The Stones’ tongue and The Who’s bullseye, and that’s about it. Maybe Nirvana’s smiley face. Pretty immense company to keep.
They also have a fistful of the best album covers in the history of rock. The Who Sell Out is a ludicrous bit of silliness that even Roger Daltrey must admit was worth the flu he caught from spending a day sitting in freezing cold baked beans. Tommy, Who’s Next, My Generation, the hits just keep coming. You know you’ve got something special when even a few of their compilation albums create iconic imagery, like The Kids Are Alright and Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy.
So, where did all these album covers come from? In keeping with his nature, which is creatively unbound if you want to be nice and a control freak if you don’t, the basic answer to this is Pete Townshend. At the very least, he had the broad strokes of the idea, which he then took to photographers and art directors like Dave Montgomery and Roger Law in the case of …Sell Out. However, in an interview conducted with Goldmine in 1996, the Stoic bassist John Entwistle had a different answer to this.
What did John Entwistle say about the album art by The Who?
The Ox was a man full of surprises, and one of them was that he was an artist. Away from the stage, the man was a prolific cartoonist with a charming, expressive style of line drawing and portraiture. Arguably, the most famous example of this is on a Who album cover that’s just as iconic as anything else they released, the connect-the-dots picture adorning the front of the band’s 1975 album The Who by Numbers.
At the time of the Goldmine interview, a number of Entwistle’s artworks were about to be released. With his trademark sardonic wit, Entwistle has this to say about the work. “The first release is The Who By Numbers cover, which I never got paid for, so now I’m going to get paid! We were taking it in turns to do the covers. It was Pete’s turn before me, and we did the Quadrophenia cover, which cost about the same as a small house back then, about 16,000 pounds. My cover cost 32 pounds.”
With this in mind, one can’t help but speculate on which member of The Who was responsible for which cover. Though perhaps not all of them saw the light of day. No prizes for guessing which member of the band was responsible for a rejected Who’s Next cover depicting Keith Moon in nothing but a black wig and matching corset, making eyes at the camera while holding a whip.
