abbey road cover

Recently a wonderful music anniversary came and went. It was 40 years ago (not) today, when Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Abbey Road's cover art was photographed. The iconic image fed into an unusual rumor: that Paul McCartney was dead. Did it represent a funeral procession? Did Paul's shoeless feet represent his voyage to the afterlife? The reason for Paul's bare feet is simple enough.

The photographer for this shoot took a total of six shots of the band traversing the "zebra crossing" as the English call it. For the first few passes, Paul was wearing sandals. This made it difficult to keep the same gait as his band mates, so he ditched them after a few attempts. The fifth picture from the series was used for the cover, and history was made.

Now if only we could figure out why Helter Skelter sent Charles Manson to order a psychopathic killing spree.