Are these actually unused Achtung Baby cover designs?

[bigbang]

I came across this site (ACHTUNG BABY - COVER ART OUTTAKES) claiming to have unused drafts of the Achtung Baby cover, and I would like to ask the experts here if they were indeed actual works-in-progress versions.

Some of these designs look like early-nineties album cover art, so it could actually be legit, but not sure.

 

[nirniva]

These days, it could just be a kid with Photoshop, but some of these do look like possible covers..I especially like the one that looks like a more "disorganized" version of the cover we got.

I'm in no way, shape, or form an "expert", though, so I could very well be wrong.

 

[Popmartijn]

Yes, they are early versions the AB cover. I have the book Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show by U2's design team (Steve Averill and Shaughn McGrath) and those pictures appear in that book. Some of those covers also appeared in an issue of Propaganda (the replica of which will be included in the upcoming Uber Deluxe boxset of AB).

 

[corianderstem]

I can't see the pictures.

Edit: but can at the site.

Nifty, thanks!

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

If you click the link you should be able to see them

 

[corianderstem]

Yeah, now they're showing up. Weird!

 

[bigbang]

Thanks for the confirm guys, I tried reuploading them elsewhere:

This next one just feels like some Vanilla Ice/cheesy 90s cover, though if you look at it from far away, you can see that the pointed blue dots make up the image of a baby.

 

[whackjester]

I'm happy we ended up with the version that was released. All of those look like a 10 year old did them.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

im just glad we didn't get any private parts...

 

[Niceman]

I like the one with Bono's face and the topless girl, but the rest are crap.

 

[sonichka]

I remember seeing these years back, and i'm definitly glad they decided on the one they did.

 

[prbiker15]

I definitely prefer the released one. Some of them look rather cheesy.

 

[david]

Glad they went with the design they did because those concept designs would have dated the album. Also remember they chose the final design simply because they couldn't decide on one design based off he photos anton took.

 

[canedge]

the third one is really good.

 

[Nick66]

Funny. I know these are legit, I've seen them before, but now they all look like fan made covers you'd see on a bootleg. The one we got is definitely superior to any of these.

 

[whackjester]

the third one is really good.

If you like Max Headroom. They are look really dated, but that one is probably the most of them.

 

[angelordevil]

I like the one with Bono's face and the topless girl, but the rest are crap.

Strangely, the "topless girl" reminds me of Kurt Cobain... Definitely glad the final design won out.

 

[trevgreg]

I like the one we got too, but some of these are neat to look back on in hindsight.

 

[bigbang]

At least it didn't end up looking like this:

or anything else on this list!

 

[Popmartijn]

Glad they went with the design they did because those concept designs would have dated the album. Also remember they chose the final design simply because they couldn't decide on one design based off he photos anton took.

While it is true that they ended up with the current design because a single image from Anton's photos would not do the album justice, I don't think it was a process of 'simply' ending up with the 16-picture grid because everything else failed. Some choice quotes from the Stealing Hearts At A Traveling Show book:

The decision not to have a singular image on the sleeve was not down to their quality - as Bono has said "each one of those images on the coover could have been an album cover" [...]. Instead, the sense of flux espressed by both the music and the band's playing with alter egos was best articulated by the lack of a single viewpoint. The way the sleeve marked the break U2 had made with their former incarnation as a monumental and monolithic band was what Steve Averill also sees as the reason for the multiplicity of images - "we all began to realise that no single image is ever going to express the large change that they'd made in the music and their approach to recording it."

The first experiments with laying down a grid of images were initially in a staggered or random fashion, which in turn became an ordered system that allowed, in a way, the power and mystery of the photos to come through more strongly. The front cover is arranged into a series of related parts... there's a certain symbolism of course, the snake, the horned beast, the ring, the star... a deliberate mesh of contrasts. The idea was to get a balance of clour and light... and humour... of abstraction, then contrast that with strong human interaction.

-Shaughn McGrath-

As for the concept designs, most of them were really concepts. Not an attempt to go for the definite cover, but studies into the extremes of what was possible. From what I get, it seems the design team approaches the cover like U2 approaches their music. They 'jam', find the extremes of what is possible and then settle for the actual version of the song or record cover.
From the special Propaganda issue:

The conception and development of the sleeve designs for the Achtung Baby cassette, CD and LP - and the single releases - were as complex and time-consuming as any of the earlier releases. From scores of conversations, numerous ideas, thumbnail sketches and visual roughs, gradually, over a period of many months, the look of the Achtung Baby emerged.
"These cover designs represent different phases," explains Steve. "The band would see a certain kind of work and say, 'Right, that's fine, that's a direction we've covered, we know we can go, for example, the multiple-image way, but let's just explore totally different ways for U2.' Hence some of these cover ideas which look much more like dance-music oriented sleeves. We just did them to show how extreme we could go and then everyone came back to levels that they were happy with. But if we hadn't gone to these extremes it may not have been the cover that it is now."

 

[Y2K]

Which page in the "Stealing Hearts" book did you find this quote?

The decision not to have a singular image on the sleeve was not down to their quality - as Bono has said "each one of those images on the coover could have been an album cover" [...]. Instead, the sense of flux espressed by both the music and the band's playing with alter egos was best articulated by the lack of a single viewpoint. The way the sleeve marked the break U2 had made with their former incarnation as a monumental and monolithic band was what Steve Averill also sees as the reason for the multiplicity of images - "we all began to realise that no single image is ever going to express the large change that they'd made in the music and their approach to recording it."

 

[angelordevil]

or anything else on this list!

No Heino?

Heino.

 

[Popmartijn]

Which page in the "Stealing Hearts" book did you find this quote?

Page 38.

 

[sonichka]

At least it didn't end up looking like this:


or anything else on this list!

I think MC Hammers post 9/11 album takes the cake!!

 

[The Panther]

The stud below looks rather like a young Bono. If we photoshop B's face onto his, and change "Candace Hern" to "U2", this could be the next U2 album cover -- of course, it's got to be a record with a romantic theme. I think Larry will go for it.

 

[corianderstem]

 

[sonichka]

Put Larry in that picture instead! He's got the body! lol

 

[11o´clock]

The fourth one is the most similar to the original (well, the one from the cd.)

 

[dazzledbylight]

i like the one wihe irregularly sized AB photos

 

[dazzledbylight]

The stud below looks rather like a young Bono. If we photoshop B's face onto his, and change "Candace Hern" to "U2", this could be the next U2 album cover -- of course, it's got to be a record with a romantic theme. I think Larry will go for it.

but....then wouldn't it be either

His Scandalous Affair


OR


Their Scandalous Affair (?s)





oh i can "hear" Lars nao!


He turns on his FOAD Force Field to #11 !!!!