Hidden Findings discovered in Backspacer Cover (Updated)

pleatherman

krymsin wrote:

pleatherman wrote:

That's a good guess. It seemed a peculiar choice to have Matt with blonde hair. I've never considered him a blonde. There are two observations that make it harder to know for certain he is the blonde kid from the cover. The first is, in most of the childhood photos of the band, they do seem to have at least some blonde in their hair. The second one is he was born and raised in San Diego. It still could be him though. The astronaut drummer might be too obvious of a choice for Matt. Although, it is worth noting he did begin drumming at an early age. Lets face it, Tom Tomorrow has given us the best scavenger hunt since that other band released something called Sgt. Pepper's... whatchamicallit.

So, i guess this album cover and inside artwork makes up for the avocado we got on S/T ...

Ha! Actually, I'm quite a fan of the S/T artowrk. Perhaps there are metaphorical interpretations on what the avocado means in relation to the music and that the actual image on the cd is the seed, but essentially I just like it as a piece of Pop Art, plain and simple. The 10c version is the definitive one, in my opinion. The beauty of it is the way the front and back cover juxtaposes with how grim and macabre the rest of the book is. But I don't want to get too off topic. I will say the Backspacer artwork, without even taking into account all the hidden meanings, is one of my favorites of all time. For anyone who doesn't buy vinyl records, I would definitely make an exception here. I hope Tom Tomorrow wins some prestigious awards for his work on the album. Then he can parlay that into syndicating his comic strip to more periodicals.

Heather Evers

NoelMichael wrote:

Can't wait to hear the story of the pimp on the tricycle with the giant women

If I remember right, the giant woman in the pic is Raquel Welch from the 1 million years b.c. movie poster.....hope that helps 'cause I have noooo idea what a pimp has to do with it

Heather Evers

the pic on the robot's "face"...is that the same pic in the background of the "making of backspacer" sessions???

Valerio wrote:

And this is the robot from the bottom-left image:

Heather Evers

if there truly is a 60s theme here, remember there's pics of the guys as kids, too. wouldn't they have been kids in the 60s?

my 2 cents....things are limitless when they're in your head...imagination frees...and sometimes it's not too late to go back & right some wrongs - just do it while u have the chance.

OUCH - BRAIN CRAMP!!! guess i'm done thinking for the day...i seem to have pulled something

NateIsFaithful

i think i figured out who is on the bottom left panel in the lost in space robot tv...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNMnj5YVUKQ


at 4:11 photo between the 2 redish lamps.

not sure who it is, but its seems to match.

what do ya reckon?

Nate

mike-sizzle

Sorry I just found this thread, just found like it hasn't taken up the last 2 hours of my day. So here's my 2 cents, be gentle.

The red dress, although I think the song lyric is right on, the song came from Ed seeing the album cover in the bathroom right? Maybe it's from an album cover not a movie or TV show?

And I know I am reading waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much into this but the picture with the magician, the "sirens" or "ghosts" could they be the ghosts of drummers past, Krusen, Abbruzzese, Irons.

Side note, great job all of you, this was great to read.

blondieblue227

pleatherman wrote:

Good find on the initials "M R" written in the stars. Undoubtedly, that refers to Dr. Michael Richter. The scene depicted in the same illustration, however, is based on a recurring dream of Jeff Ament's as a child. In Big Sandy, where he grew up, Jeff was told if he stood too close to the train tracks as a locomotive passed, he would be sucked under them. Like most youngsters, these sort of stories can tend to leave a lasting impression. In Jeff's case, he had nightmares of a train, covered in flames, chasing him relentlessly around town, wherever he went. The poster Tom Tomorrow did for Spin magazine may help connect the individual cover images to specific dreams of the band members. Here is a link to the poster- http://twitpic.com/iks51/full Notice Jeff is wearing the same ringer shirt as the kid being pursued by the train.

i like this theory.

fallingupsomehow

blondieblue227 wrote:

pleatherman wrote:

Good find on the initials "M R" written in the stars. Undoubtedly, that refers to Dr. Michael Richter. The scene depicted in the same illustration, however, is based on a recurring dream of Jeff Ament's as a child. In Big Sandy, where he grew up, Jeff was told if he stood too close to the train tracks as a locomotive passed, he would be sucked under them. Like most youngsters, these sort of stories can tend to leave a lasting impression. In Jeff's case, he had nightmares of a train, covered in flames, chasing him relentlessly around town, wherever he went. The poster Tom Tomorrow did for Spin magazine may help connect the individual cover images to specific dreams of the band members. Here is a link to the poster- http://twitpic.com/iks51/full Notice Jeff is wearing the same ringer shirt as the kid being pursued by the train.

i like this theory.

This thread is awesome! I am getting the "band members have their own panel" thing now connecting it with the SPIN poster. Ed/Thorston, Jeff/Train, Stone/Robot(and hat)...so would Mike's be the underwater theme, and Matt's be the space drummer then?

fallingupsomehow

pleatherman wrote:

krymsin wrote:

pleatherman wrote:

Good find on the initials "M R" written in the stars. Undoubtedly, that refers to Dr. Michael Richter. The scene depicted in the same illustration, however, is based on a recurring dream of Jeff Ament's as a child. In Big Sandy, where he grew up, Jeff was told if he stood too close to the train tracks as a locomotive passed, he would be sucked under them. Like most youngsters, these sort of stories can tend to leave a lasting impression. In Jeff's case, he had nightmares of a train, covered in flames, chasing him relentlessly around town, wherever he went. The poster Tom Tomorrow did for Spin magazine may help connect the individual cover images to specific dreams of the band members. Here is a link to the poster- http://twitpic.com/iks51/full Notice Jeff is wearing the same ringer shirt as the kid being pursued by the train. Perhaps the upper right picture on the Backspacer cover, with Thurston the magician, is based on a dream of Ed's because he is holding a skull in the Spin poster. And of course, the Gilligan image would have to originate from Stone.

So, could this make Matt the blond kid looking in to the "underwater world" of Seattle?

In that poster, Cameron is the only one who's clearly blond -- as is that kid on the album cover ...

That's a good guess. It seemed a peculiar choice to have Matt with blonde hair. I've never considered him a blonde. There are two observations that make it harder to know for certain he is the blonde kid from the cover. The first is, in most of the childhood photos of the band, they do seem to have at least some blonde in their hair. The second one is he was born and raised in San Diego. It still could be him though. The astronaut drummer might be too obvious of a choice for Matt. Although, it is worth noting he did begin drumming at an early age. Lets face it, Tom Tomorrow has given us the best scavenger hunt since that other band released something called Sgt. Pepper's... whatchamicallit.

Someone guessed what I mentioned in the previous post. Sorry, should have read more carefully.

Heather Evers

then going by the Spin poster, my guess is Mike is the one with the underwater theme....look at the similarities at the bottom of each pic.

then again...maybe they just did all of this to make us crazy!!!

broloco

pleatherman wrote:

krymsin wrote:

pleatherman wrote:

So, i guess this album cover and inside artwork makes up for the avocado we got on S/T ...

Ha! Actually, I'm quite a fan of the S/T artowrk. Perhaps there are metaphorical interpretations on what the avocado means in relation to the music and that the actual image on the cd is the seed, but essentially I just like it as a piece of Pop Art, plain and simple. The 10c version is the definitive one, in my opinion. The beauty of it is the way the front and back cover juxtaposes with how grim and macabre the rest of the book is. But I don't want to get too off topic.

I want to get back off topic ... yeah, I always saw the Avacado artwork as "don't judge a book by it's cover" thing. Like you have this nice, clean, simple piece of fruit on the outside, but yet there's all this dark, messy, almost evil shit going on inside. Ties into the self title pretty good...sorta like you think this is what Pearl Jam is (outside), but think again (inside).

fireladie

[ nerd time ] the being sucked under trains thing isnt a myth -

" When a train is travelling at speed it creates air turbulence. This forms an area of low pressure adjacent to the carriages. Personnel standing close to a passing train are in danger of being 'sucked' towards it. Suction distances vary with the speed of the train

For example:

0-40mph up to 1.25m
40+mph in excess of 2m "

from one of my work lectures about safe working on railways. [end nerd time]

HeavyHands

fireladie wrote:

[ nerd time ][end nerd time]

This is what really made the whole "nerd time" effect work for me. Nice!

krymsin

broloco wrote:

I always saw the Avacado artwork as "don't judge a book by it's cover" thing. Like you have this nice, clean, simple piece of fruit on the outside, but yet there's all this dark, messy, almost evil shit going on inside. Ties into the self title pretty good...sorta like you think this is what Pearl Jam is (outside), but think again (inside).

You know, that's insightful as fuck ...

I mean, PJ never really does anything at face value (and when i made the comment about "Backspacer" making up for S/T, i meant the simplicity of the avocado cover vs. the complexity of this one -- i didn't mean to slight the band or anyone else), but i had never put the connection between the safe vs. freakishly insane together before. It sounds as plausible as anything ...

///Back to "Backspacer."

stoneg

Now that my brain is mush from reading all of this.I have no pics.The only answers I have came up with is that Gillian's Island and Lost in Space were shows the guys in the band watched when they were kids due to the fact that all the band members born in the 60's.

fireladie

this ain't it.. but I'm working on it..

Spags

I must be trippin'

CG39449

I think the ladies in the Johnny Guitar drawing are all from famous pinup posters. That means, the red dress is probably the most famous pinup of all time: Farrah Fawcett.

Tom Tomorrow just took some artistic liberties and had her stand up!

blondieblue227

Leo.......LMAO!

stoneg

Another thing thing I noticed was the link between Lost in Space and Gilligans Island.It is about Humans being lost.Lost in Space or Lost on a Island."When something is lost I wanna fight to get it back again".

IamMine

blondieblue227 wrote:

Leo.......LMAO!

You people are awesome.... that's what makes this thread so unique and memorable.

I am just so happy to "sign" in here.... 30-50 years from now on, people are gonna look back and see how we were all thinking...

I told hubby that I could see this happening in the future.... the smartest people would get together and try to understand Pearl Jam.... especially EV's poetry and art.

I am NOT trying to compare him to Jesus cuz he is not and we all know that... but how people, even to this day, are still analyzing Jesus' time and words....

The same is true, I think, for EV and the band.....

Anyway, I'm glad to be part of that history as a fan and I can imagine people come and visit me in a nursing home and try to interview me.

"You want to interview me, huh? Get me my benny LP back - specifically #149 - and then we'll talk! Goodbye, now."

Back to backspacer.....

blondieblue227

See I have that problem too. When I’m babbling on here or to somebody about Ed I have to stop and say Wait but I’m not a freaky stalker or anything. I even have to do it here too…cause he has had freakoids after him and people are quick to say you’re a stalker or something.
It’s just after years of being a fan, you know stuff. I can’t help it. lol

justam

My son saw the picture with the flaming train and the red headlight today and thought it was meant to be a scene from an old book called "The Octopus." This is a book published in 1901 about how a fictional railroad (a thinly veiled Southern Pacific reference) was expanding from California outward and getting too large.

He took me to a scene from this book to show me it was similar.

Here it is-->

“He had only
time to jump back upon the embankment when,
with a quivering of all the earth, a locomotive,
single, unattached, shot by him with a roar,
filling the air with the reek of hot oil, vomiting
smoke and sparks; its enormous eye, cyclopean,
red, throwing a glare far in advance, shooting by
in a sudden crash of confused thunder; filling the
night with the terrific clamour of its iron hoofs.”

Jo

blondieblue227 wrote:

See I have that problem too. When I’m babbling on here or to somebody about Ed I have to stop and say Wait but I’m not a freaky stalker or anything. I even have to do it here too…cause he has had freakoids after him and people are quick to say you’re a stalker or something.
It’s just after years of being a fan, you know stuff. I can’t help it. lol

You need to vent on the PJ Fanatic Thread

Jo

My Partner still thinks the train is from 'Back to the Future'.

IamMine

Just wanted to give you all heads up on another Tom Tomorrow's interview if you missed it on his blog or on Washington Post... I posted a thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=113483

Happy Friday to Backspacer peeps!

Yellow Ledbelly

Jo wrote:

My Partner still thinks the train is from 'Back to the Future'.

Some say its from Stand By Me when the boys are running from the train....I don't know.

The pimp on the tricycle is from a Johnny guitar Watson album cover....without a doubt
EDIT: Here's a link to it http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/Lo ... heHell.jpg

theskyiscrape.com had come up with just about all of the explanations a while back....I haven't looked lately though

Yellow Ledbelly

http://www.theskyiscrape.com/index.php?limitstart=60

Scroll down the page a bit for what they've come up with...

Heather Evers

Music For Rhinos wrote:

It's definitely not Ed...

I agree it does look like Stone, that's probably who it is.

that would make sense, especially when u add in the Spin magazine cover

GirlInRed

bd10 wrote:

when I saw the TV, I immediately thought Danny Bonaduce. http://www.cmongethappy.com/gallery/bonaduce/gallerydannypinkstripes

me too!