Comments on: Music Urban Legends Revealed #14

By: OM

OM — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 05:35:25 +0000

…Shame on you, Brian. The word isn’t “Northerner”, it’s “Damnyankee”

By: taffysaur

taffysaur — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:26:12 +0000

Actually, they aren’t spelling NUJV either.

When I first got my own copy of that record I tried to translate what they were saying on the front cover too, just for fun.
I always assumed they were spelling HELP, and that that was what I would find.
After getting NUJV a few times, I was staring at the picture and I realized it was flipped. I guess, again, it just looked more interesting.
If you flip it back to the way they were posed in the original shot, it completely changes the letters they’re forming.
It’s still something as nonsensical as NUJV, so the story’s still true. It’s just they were actually spelling something other than NUJV on the day.

By: Doug Atkinson

Doug Atkinson — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:04:45 +0000

Amusingly, the cover of the Rutles’ (non-existent) “Ouch” *does* have them spelling “Help”. (Not with semaphore, though–they’re spelling out the words with their bodies, with the “E” sort of oriented vertically.)

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:48:24 +0000

Interesting, onion3000, thanks!

By: onion3000

onion3000 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:57:36 +0000

And as a HUGE Beatles fan I’m amazed to only now discover that they’re not spelling “HELP” on the album cover! Interestingly, Wikipedia states:

‘…The images on the US album are out of order, and all of the pictures are mirror-reversed. In the UK order, and reversed, the message appears to spell “LPUS.”…’ ie, ” ‘Elp Us”! Wikipedia cites a book by Robert Freeman, the chap who shot the cover, so there could be something in it.

By: onion3000

onion3000 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:32:30 +0000

“The Star Spangled Banner” uses the tune of British drinking ditty “The Anacreontic Song”, but we Brits don’t mind.
For what it’s worth, “God Save The Queen” is a note-for-note rip-off of the much older composition “God Save The King”.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:38:26 +0000

Ha!

Thanks, Dan!

I fixed it.

By: Daniel O' Dreams

Daniel O' Dreams — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:27:35 +0000

Yes but what does it all have to do with Igor Stravinsky?