The Velvet Underground & Nico

This is just an example of a great album, the back cover of which I hadn't given much thought to until I started this blog. Most retellings of the Velvet Underground's debut album major on how poorly it did commercially on initial release and the back cover has a part to play in this story.

The album’s back cover features a photo of the group playing live with an image projected behind them. On the initial pressings the projected image was a still of actor Eric Emerson from a Warhol film, Chelsea Girls. Emerson had been arrested for drug possession and, desperate for money, claimed the still had been included on the album without his permission. The label recalled all copies of the album until the legal problems were settled (by which time the record had lost its modest commercial momentum), and the still was airbrushed out.

Back cover credits: Colour show photo by Hugo. Portraits by Paul Morrissey (director, alongside Andy Warhol, of the film Chelsea Girls).