sabbath1977pr
28th June 2004, 11:17 AM
http://www.black-sabbath.com/images/covers/depechemode_newlife300.jpg http://www.black-sabbath.com/images/covers/bornagain279.jpg
They look amazingly similar, don't they? Born Again was released in the summer of 1983. The New Life CD single by Depeche Mode was released at some point in 1981. I contacted the webmaster of what appeared to be a popular Depeche Mode site (here), and asked them. They hadn't seen the Black Sabbath cover art at all, so my email was a surprise to them. They posted about it on their forums, no one seems to really know there what the connection is. Here's what I know about the situation (as copied from my post in that forum).
At the time, Sabbath was managed by Don Arden (Sharon Osbourne's father). Don apparently wasn't terribly keen on Sabbath (as the rumours go), and just (again, as the rumours go) slapped together any piece of crap and sent it to Sabbath, figuring they wouldn't like it, and wouldn't use it. That is what ended up being used! Again, as rumours go, Tony Iommi liked it, and wanted to use it.
The album title "Born Again" is how Sabbath viewed themselves. At the time, it was Sabbath being "Born Again" as a band; a fresh start. Didn't last, but that's what they were saying in the interviews at the time. I really do not believe it has anything to do with Depeche Mode, at least in terms of lyrics, as was suggested above. Here's a link to the lyrics from the Born Again album.
Yes, the Sabbath cover art is credited to Steve Joule. Whether Steve was influenced by the DM cover, or where he blatantly stole from it, or whether it was a horrendously huge coincidence, or if there's another image that both folks used, I do not know.
That's about the extent of what I know of this cover image (except there's a good story in Garry Sharpe Young's Sabbath Book on how Sabbath actually tried to have a live version of the baby cover art on stage - thankfully that idea went away quickly). I've placed a few inquiries about this, but as of yet haven't heard anything.
If there's anyone reading this that has concrete information as to where Depeche Mode got the image from, or knows how to contact Steve Joule, I'd appreciate hearing from you about it. In the meantime, we'll definitely have to go with the fact that the two images seem to be related in some way, but as to how - who knows?
http://www.black-sabbath.com/news.html
They look amazingly similar, don't they? Born Again was released in the summer of 1983. The New Life CD single by Depeche Mode was released at some point in 1981. I contacted the webmaster of what appeared to be a popular Depeche Mode site (here), and asked them. They hadn't seen the Black Sabbath cover art at all, so my email was a surprise to them. They posted about it on their forums, no one seems to really know there what the connection is. Here's what I know about the situation (as copied from my post in that forum).
At the time, Sabbath was managed by Don Arden (Sharon Osbourne's father). Don apparently wasn't terribly keen on Sabbath (as the rumours go), and just (again, as the rumours go) slapped together any piece of crap and sent it to Sabbath, figuring they wouldn't like it, and wouldn't use it. That is what ended up being used! Again, as rumours go, Tony Iommi liked it, and wanted to use it.
The album title "Born Again" is how Sabbath viewed themselves. At the time, it was Sabbath being "Born Again" as a band; a fresh start. Didn't last, but that's what they were saying in the interviews at the time. I really do not believe it has anything to do with Depeche Mode, at least in terms of lyrics, as was suggested above. Here's a link to the lyrics from the Born Again album.
Yes, the Sabbath cover art is credited to Steve Joule. Whether Steve was influenced by the DM cover, or where he blatantly stole from it, or whether it was a horrendously huge coincidence, or if there's another image that both folks used, I do not know.
That's about the extent of what I know of this cover image (except there's a good story in Garry Sharpe Young's Sabbath Book on how Sabbath actually tried to have a live version of the baby cover art on stage - thankfully that idea went away quickly). I've placed a few inquiries about this, but as of yet haven't heard anything.
If there's anyone reading this that has concrete information as to where Depeche Mode got the image from, or knows how to contact Steve Joule, I'd appreciate hearing from you about it. In the meantime, we'll definitely have to go with the fact that the two images seem to be related in some way, but as to how - who knows?
http://www.black-sabbath.com/news.html