blind faith

Credited as the first ever rock album to not display the bands name on the cover art (apparently Eric Claptons’ idea) was the self titled Blind Faith (1969).

The 60′s Supergroup’s only album featured Bob Seidemanns‘ striking photo of a nude, freckly youngster holding a gleaming, chrome, impressionistic sculpture of a jet (the hood ornament from a ‘57 Oldsmobile).
Raunchy album art seemed to be quite the thing to do at the turn of the seventies, but unlike, say STICKY FINGERS, this image is anything but direct.

Compositionally, it’s pretty simple but for a few elements – the superimposition of the head on the sky and the tilted horizon line betray a kind of 60′s/psychedelic vibe (only in hindsight I’m guessing) – but Stanley Millers’ design coupled with the photo produce symbolism and metaphor all over the shop.

Bob Seidemann says “To symbolize the achievement of human creativity and its expression through technology a space ship was the material object. To carry this new spore into the universe innocence would be the ideal bearer, a young girl, a girl as young as Shakespeare’s Juliet. The space ship would be the fruit of the tree of knowledge and the girl, the fruit of the tree of life.”

The American record company disagreed and released this cover with a sensible pic of Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood, Rick Grech and Eric Clapton -

blind_2.jpg

Sorry Bob, but I guess it looked too much like underage jailbait in the buff with a dildo.

Blind Faith cover The Rolling Stones ‘Under My Thumb’ in Hyde Park – 1969.

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Blind Faith: Blind Faith

blind faith

Credited as the first ever rock album to not display the bands name on the cover art (apparently Eric Claptons’ idea) was the self titled Blind Faith (1969).

The 60′s Supergroup’s only album featured Bob Seidemanns‘ striking photo of a nude, freckly youngster holding a gleaming, chrome, impressionistic sculpture of a jet (the hood ornament from a ‘57 Oldsmobile).
Raunchy album art seemed to be quite the thing to do at the turn of the seventies, but unlike, say STICKY FINGERS, this image is anything but direct.

Compositionally, it’s pretty simple but for a few elements – the superimposition of the head on the sky and the tilted horizon line betray a kind of 60′s/psychedelic vibe (only in hindsight I’m guessing) – but Stanley Millers’ design coupled with the photo produce symbolism and metaphor all over the shop.

Bob Seidemann says “To symbolize the achievement of human creativity and its expression through technology a space ship was the material object. To carry this new spore into the universe innocence would be the ideal bearer, a young girl, a girl as young as Shakespeare’s Juliet. The space ship would be the fruit of the tree of knowledge and the girl, the fruit of the tree of life.”

The American record company disagreed and released this cover with a sensible pic of Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood, Rick Grech and Eric Clapton -

blind_2.jpg

Sorry Bob, but I guess it looked too much like underage jailbait in the buff with a dildo.

Blind Faith cover The Rolling Stones ‘Under My Thumb’ in Hyde Park – 1969.

Posted by Ash on 10 August, 2007
Album: Blind Faith
Artist: Blind Faith
Cover Artist: Bob Seidemann, Stanley Mouse (Miller)
Record Label: Atlantic, Polydor
60s, Album Art, Photography, Rock




  • William Nerg

    If I recall correctly, this is *not* a Blind Faith album cover. I believe it was the cover for Ginger Baker’s Air Force album.

  • dan

    i must protest william – the blind faith cd release comes with this artwork still!-and the airforce record came with some wacky pythonesque style artwork – still, I am willing to be proven wrong – present yr evidence sir!…

  • William

    I loved this album when it first came out in 69 i recently rediscovered it and the ORGINAL cover it was quite controversial i mean (the cover for the times) but they pulled it off literally.

  • GIRL

    WHY CAN’T YOU CHEESEBALLS ACCEPT THE ARTIST’S SINCERE AND POETIC STATEMENT ABOT THIS ENCHANTING AND TIMELESS IMAGE.

  • dan

    take it easy GIRL – if you re-read the post i hope you’ll realise i wasn’t ragging on Bob Seidemanns ideas behind his image – more commenting on what i percieved to be a general reaction to the final cover…

  • jborsma

    I beleive that Rubber Soul by The Beatles was the first album to be released without the artist’s name on the front cover. This album cover art does say Blind Faith, just not on the front cover.

  • Mark

    Erm, William, this really is the Blind Faith cover. I remember it from waaaaaaay back.

  • dan

    my apologies jborsma yr right – it seems it was bob seidemann himself who credited the achievement to blind faith when in fact the stones had done it with their debut record, the beatles in 65 with rubber soul and then traffic in 68 with their debut! – that makes them 4th-not even placegetters!..get off the podium clapton…

  • alan

    see also unhalfbricking by fairport convention for no title, and a couple of bjork’s albums too, including her debut one. my favourite album sleeves are patti smith’s horses and the vu white light (more or less copied by metallica)…

  • http://www.quirkmuseum.com Michael Quirk

    I remember my brother had this album from back in the day. These days you could probably get thrown in jail for something like this.

  • Aaron

    This is not the first album to be issued without the band’s name on the cover; the Rolling Stones’ first record (the UK version, mind you) was issued that way in 1964, so the concept is at least that old.

  • http://www.optimaltrader.net Peter

    Today this cover would have been classified as pedofilia..

  • Vaughan

    Ahhh, High school! Eric finally got another musician to make it four in Stevie. That was the Blind Faith cover until the police etc.forced a change. I wanted to see them, but had thumbed to Montreal’ I needed cash to see a concert just south of Que. and the money did not arive on time. My sister sold my FM to see Blind Faith and I was trying to go to a little place called Woodstock.Sigh.
    By the way, in those days, the album was called ‘innocence’ by us. Times changed.

  • christian

    Another recent topless picture is Daniel Lanois’ For The Beauty of Wynona (1993). She is also young but can’t say underage and i think the USA version was censored too, just type across her breast, unlike my canadian version. It’s a powerfull image, she’s holding a knife, very tensely, almost at the level where a man would have another type of instrument… if hard. i find both sleeve not to be sexy in any way. The Blind Faith ia almost embarassing, with the fast close cut around the hair it look small budget, isnt it?

  • ViciousZen

    @Micheal Quirk
    Nope, totally legal album to own. Hell, we sell it where I work, at HMV.

  • leon

    these were the first album sleeves without mention of band name/album title etc..: rolling stones 1st and 2nd albums (64/65), rubber soul (65), blonde on blonde (66)….

  • Snarky Yarbles

    Erm… this one is touchy…..on the one hand I do believe this cover was all innocents and light (having been raised in a tofu and sprouts, hippie family).On the other hand I was eleven years old when this cover showed up at our house….. I felt, um….stirrings that were less than innocent. I don’t know fer sure what the intent was, but I know the result for me was confusion. A whole lot of that going on at the time, as I remember.

  • Singhen

    This one’s nothing compared to Boxer’s Below the belt, Montrose’s Jump on it (ea the picture with the name) and the horrible Scorpions’ Virgin Killer which, thank You very much got cencored. Having said that I think the cover sucks. Never understood the meaning of it. Was it hippie or sexist/pedophile? Well, now I know thanks to you, hehe.

  • http://www.flugzeuge-auf-dem-cover.de/ thomas

    Every cover that shows a plane is very cool :-)

  • http://www.flugzeuge-auf-dem-cover.de/ thomas

    Every cover that shows a plane is very cool :-)

  • http://twitter.com/Tourville Tourville

    That hood ornament is NOT a 1957 Oldsmobile item.

    It is some General Motors part – might be a European version without
    the Eagle motif .

  • rocketrodeo

    ’55 Chevy.

  • http://www.700r4transmission.org 700R4 Transmission

    Thanks for information, I’ll always keep updated here!

  • Kim Scarborough

    The Velvet Underground’s first album, released in 1967, didn’t have their name on the cover.

  • Kim Scarborough

    Come to think of it, neither did “Rubber Soul”. That was in 1965.

  • Kim Scarborough

    And I found an even earlier one: Elvis’s “For LP Fans Only”, from 1959. Okay, I’ll stop now.

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  • Abe1124

    THE GREATEST album cover of all time. those little boobies are STILL SPECTACULAR!!!

  • Lesart

    You’d get the jail for that cover now!