Beggars Banquet is not even my favourite Rolling Stones album cover, but I've always admired it: gritty, dirty, bang-on for hitting the adolescent rock fan (of whatever age) square in the face ... and no doubt pissing off some parents to boot.
The death of Tom Wilkes, 69, who created this and other rock album covers, reminds me of something that is often not obvious with Beggars Banquet, among many other items in my record collection: it was designed. Every rotten, Trainspotting-esque element in the shot is there, not by accident. Says veteran Rolling Stone magazine writer David Fricke: "The magic and the sort of importance of album design was to be able to catch the eye, to try and get a sense of what the music and the personalities were inside and also make you want to buy it."
You can read that comment, and more about Tom Wilkes, here. Look also for some Rolling Stone links on album covers that matter.
