ORIGINAL: info@tomflair.com

well i dont like that cover either but it doesnt remind me an 14 year old girl...i think it looks more like some hippie woman - and yes there are breasts there but the whole picture isn´t anyhow sexual.(there are 2500 old greek paintings that are more vulgar) ..since i am european i find it a bit strange how americans ( and pleeeease dont get me wrong . i dont wanna be polemic) are so ambivalent to the whole nudity and vulgarity issue...
as american culture is transported to europe it just looks like there are only extremes: american pornindustry / guns / gangs / and on the other hand people who are extremely conservative...as far as i am concerned i can live with "almost" everything that does not restrict my own liberty - and deviant behaviour of others doesnt influence my personality...

cheers

PS: really no us vs. eu intended :-)

Story of the origins of the Blind Faith album cover, from Bob Seidemann's (photographer of the album cover artwork) perspective:

I could not get my hands on the image until out of the mist a concept began to emerge. 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 space ship could be made by Mick Milligan, a jeweler at the Royal College of Art. The girl was another matter. If she were too old it would be cheesecake, too young and it would be nothing. It was the beginning of the transition from girl to woman, that is what I was after. That temporal point, that singular flare of radiant innocence. Where is that girl?


I was riding the London Tube on the way to Stigwood's office to expose Clapton's management to this revelation when the subway doors opened and she stepped into the car. She was wearing a school uniform, plaid skirt, blue blazer, white socks and ball point pen drawings on her hands. It was as though the air began to crackle with an electrostatic charge. She was buoyant and fresh as the morning air.


I must have looked like something out of Dickens. Somewhere between Fagan, Quasimodo, Albert Einstein and John the Baptist. The car was full of passengers. I approached her and said that I would like her to pose for a record cover for Eric Clapton's new band. Everyone in the car tensed up.


She said, "Do I have to take off my clothes?" My answer was yes. I gave her my card and begged her to call. I would have to ask her parent's consent if she agreed. When I got to Stigwood's office I called the flat and said that if this girl called not to let her off the phone without getting her phone number. When I returned she had called and left her number.


Stanley Mouse (Miller), my close friend and one of the five originators of psychedelic art in San Francisco was holed up at the flat. He helped me make a layout and we headed out to meet with the girl's parents. It was a Mayfair address. This was a swank part of town, class in the English sense of the word.


Mouse and I made our presentation, I told my story, the parents agreed. The girl on the tube train would not be the one, she was shy, she had just passed the point of complete innocence and could not pose. Her younger sister had been saying the whole time, "Oh Mommy, Mommy, I want to do it, I want to do it." She was glorious sunshine. Botticelli's angel, the picture of innocence, a face which in a brief time could launch a thousand space ships.


We asked her what her fee should be for modeling, she said a young horse. Stigwood bought one for her. I called the image "Blind Faith" and Clapton made that the name of the band. When the cover was shown in the trades it hit the market like a runaway train, causing a storm of controversy. At one point the record company considered not releasing the cover at all. It was Eric Clapton who fought for it. It was Eric who elected to not print the name of the band on the cover. This had never been done before. The name was printed on the wrapper, when the wrapper came off, so did the type.


This was an image created out of ferment and storm, out of revolution and chaos. It was an image in the mind of one who strove for that moment of glory, that blinding flash of singular inspiration. To etch an image on a stone in our cultural wall with the hope that the wall will last. To say with his heart and his eyes, at a time when it mattered, this is what I feel. It was created out of and a wish for a new beginning. It was created out of hope and a wish for a new beginning. Innocence propelled by BLIND FAITH.

i just wonder how you can pass any kiosk in england

I might just make the 93 mile journey to pass you Garry - but not now, too late [on this forum, your a next door neighbour!!]

Don't even buy the mirror.

Steve

ORIGINAL: Susan G

Hello Cakewalk-

I hope the forum moderators will step up and do something. Please enforce your own rules about avatars and language, at least, since these forums are open to all.

Thanks-

-Susan

ORIGINAL: Dr. Mac

I have noticed that there are some obvious "drunk posts" around here too! That is, posts that make little sense with loads of spelling errors (no I'm not picking on CJ here... LOL). Maybe we should take BAC tests before we're allowed to post...

ORIGINAL: Jose7822

ORIGINAL: vomit

We must ban obnoxious avatars now!!!

I totally agree with you man. This forum needs more avatars like yours, definitely.