Thursday, April 23, 2009

Greatest Album Covers

Pink Floyd - Animals



Pink Floyd's Animals came it in the U.K. in January 1977 and was successful in spite of it being the height of the Punk Rock Era. Animals was a concept album based on the George Orwell novel Animal Farm. Orwell's novel attacked Communism while Pink Floyd chose to attack Capitalism a tricky thing for a band that sells albums and t-shirts to do.

The building on the cover of the album is the Battersea Power Station on the Thames river near London. The building is actually two different power plants one built in the 1930's and the other in the 1950's both built in the same style. The photo also contains the Pink Floyd Pig which was flying next to the building. On the first day of the shoot a marksman was on duty to shoot the pig down if it got lose. After realizing the insurance company would not allow a marksman on sight he was not there the second day when the balloon did fly off. A police helicopter did follow the pig but had to break off the chase when it flew to 5,000 feet. The balloon was later recovered relatively unharmed in a farmers field and patched up for a third day of shooting. The image on the cover is a composite using a photo of the building taken on the first day of shooting and of the pig on the third day.

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