Will A Beatles "Butcher Cover" Sell For A Price Set By John Lennon?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Sep 8th 2009 at 2:29AM

Last year, we ran a piece on the world of rare records but if a copy of the Beatles infamous "butcher cover" sells for its asking price it might set a new record. To coincide with the worldwide release of the digitally re-mastered back catalog of every Beatles album on 09/09/09 the Saint Giles Street Gallery in Norwich, England in association with the British Beatles Fan Club is showing the "Eleven Million Dollar Picture Show", a collection of rarely photographs and other memorabilia. The show includes an original banned Beatles "butcher cover", a printer's proof from the personal collection of John Lennon. The "butcher cover" will be exhibited with a note signed by John Lennon that says, "here's the famous banned butcher cover. You can sell it for 11 million dollars". And that will be the price. The album will be on show and on sale for $11 million from the September 10 onward. Butcher album covers vary in price generally fetching several thousand dollars.

The cover was the original cover of Yesterday and Today issued only in the United States and Canada. The original cover image, showing the band in white butcher coats holding doll parts and pieces of meat was shot by photographer Robert Whitaker. A few original covers were shipped to disc jockeys and store managers and an outcry immediately arose. The album was hastily recalled and a new cover was slapped on. In the collectibles world there are original untouched covers, covers bearing the second image and covers that have had the second image removed or partially peeled off. The rarer versions are still in the original shrink wrap.

[via Beatles News]

Tags: beatles, butcher, butcher cover, ButcherCover, john lennon, JohnLennon, rare records, RareRecords