The Cover Uncovered: the mystic presence of Amanda Lear on Roxy Music’s ‘For Your Pleasure’
It might well have been true that ‘sex sells’ in the 1970s and that people probably had pound signs glazing over their eyes if something was adorned with titillating imagery, but it’s reasonable to think that we’re probably moving on from that notion in the modern art world to an extent. For example, it’s becoming rare for all-male musical acts to place an image of a scantily clad woman on album covers these days, and when it is done, it’s usually best left to women to be in control of how they present their bodies in the public eye.
That memo wasn’t really being spread around 50 years ago, though, and one act that certainly didn’t shy away from bawdy album covers was Roxy Music. You can argue that there was a certain sleaziness to Bryan Ferry’s musical stylings, but whether that excuses the band’s motivation to feature pin-up models on each of their first five LPs between 1972 and 1975 is another matter.
These artistic choices would range from the more tasteful Marilyn Monroe-esque shot of Kari-Ann Moller on their self-titled debut and Ferry’s former girlfriend, Jerry Hall, clambering over rocks on Siren to the borderline pornographic artwork for Country Life that leaves little to the imagination.
Arguably their finest work in a musical sense, For Your Pleasure also features a glamorous model on its front cover – and a panther. It was Amanda Lear who would be the central focus of the photograph, a model who also dated Ferry around the time of the album’s recording, and the striking image has since become one of the most immediately recognisable album sleeves of all time.
Sporting a tight black leather dress and long gloves in front of a midnight skyline as she parades her equally dark-coated feline around on a leash, it’s the sultry expression on her face that stands out most while surrounded by darkness. It was clear that Ferry liked to show off this idea of glamour and beauty on album covers, and photographer Karl Stoecker seemingly understood the brief that the singer had in mind.
Writer Gerrit-Jan Vrielink says in his interpretation of the artwork for the Dutch publication Poppodium Boerderij that Lear was known at the time for having “shocked London men’s world with her voluptuous appearance and dark sultry voice” and that “she called herself a superwoman and a sex addict.” It was already obvious that the intention of the album artwork was to be both enticing and provocative, and having a figure such as Lear on the cover would only create further conversation.
Vrielink also notes how Ferry is depicted as her chauffeur on the back cover, smiling as he stands beside a limousine. Whether the intention is to show him as appreciative of her beauty or for his presence to be indicative of something more sinister isn’t known, though when paired with the album’s title, it could possibly be interpreted as him parading her around to be ogled at lasciviously ‘for one’s pleasure’.
Lear was also known as having been the muse for Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí for many years and appeared in many glamour shoots across her career as a model, but it’s possibly her alluring role on the cover of For Your Pleasure that remains her most intriguing appearance, despite its sinister and sleazy undertones.
