Memorable Beatles Inspired Illustrations by Danilo Agutoli
“I think maybe people see bands and musicians as some sort of superhero unrealistic sport that happens in another dimension where it’s not real people and not real emotions. So, I grew up listening to Beatles records on my floor. That’s how I learned how to play guitar. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be a musician.” – Dave Grohl
It is perhaps a bit superfluous to mention who The Beatles are. Even if you haven’t heard any of their songs (although that’s highly unlikely), you still have undoubtedly heard of them, and it is almost like you aren’t a true musician if you don’t mention “The Fab Four” as influences.
They revolutionized pop and rock music by courageously experimenting with both song structure, harmonies, and the recording process itself, creating never-before heard music, and made the foundation for music as we know it today.
Formed from the ashes of John Lennon’s highschool band The Quarrymen, The Beatles’ first big break came in 1960, when their manager got them a three and half month contract, playing gigs in Hamburg, Germany’s red-light area.
After three years of stints in both Hamburg and their native Liverpool, The Beatles finally got their first record deal with EMI, who released their debut LP Please Please Me. The single with the same name quickly became a hit in the United Kingdom, marking the beginning of what would become known as “Beatlemania”.
After becoming dissatisfied with their live shows, feeling as if the fans’ focus moved away from the music itself, the band began and began experimenting in the studio. This lead to the creation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which many consider to be their greatest album, and one of the greatest albums ever made. It was also the first major album to contain every song lyric on the back cover.
The Beatles were not only a band, but a true cultural phenomenon, and artists from across mediums have paid homage to them. Today we will be showing you one illustrator’s marvelous Beatles-inspired works, and also use them as pretext to talk a little more about The Beatles.
But first, let’s get to know the illustrator a bit.
Danilo Agutoli is an Italian illustrator that currently lives in Sweden’s capital city of Stockholm and, as you are about to see, he is very (and we mean very) talented.
Without any formal training, Danilo is an accomplished illustrator that does fantastic works, both commercially and artistically. To list just a few of his clients, we have Wired Italia, Louis Vuitton, Harvard Business Review, Forbes Espana, and Men’s Health USA.
He is a huge fan of The Beatles, and it’s that side of his art that we will be exploring in this article, but his subject matter isn’t limited to the iconic band. His topics range from Japanese robots, to Star Wars, to Zoology, all done in a distinctive Pop Art style.
Now, let’s take a look at some of his Beatles illustrations. First up, we will be looking at some of his album cover illustrations.
The Beatles Cover Project
In this project, Danilo illustrated all of The Beatles’ famous album covers. We will be showing you some of them, but you can check them all out on his Behance profile.
1. Let It be
Let It Be is The Beatles’ last album, before their official break-up in April that same year. After spending the previous four years experimenting in the studio and not really recording as an ensemble, tensions between the band members was growing, and Paul McCartney felt that getting the band into rehearsals to put together an album was vital. That’s why, unlike their previous post-fame efforts, this record is a much more straightforward rock and blues album.
The album cover reflects this straightforward by simply having the four band members’ photos placed on a black background. It’s perhaps cool little coincidence that, although the album is recorded as a band, as opposed to individual members adding parts to a song, each member is depicted individually.
2. Abbey Road
Although released before Let It Be, Abbey Road is, in fact, recorded after the group’s last album. The album mixes several genres, including pop and progressive rock, and makes heavy use of Moog synthesizers, and Leslie speakers. It’s stories about this album that lead to the wide-spread belief that Yoko Ono was pivotal to the band breaking-up, with John Lennon apparently going out of his way to accommodate her presence in the studio.
The photo depicting the four Beatles crossing the street is undoubtedly one of the most famous pictures in The Beatles’ archive, sparking some pretty far-out fan theories, including the one about McCartney being dead, and replaced by a doppelganger.
3. Help!
This 1965 album was also released as a soundtrack for the band’s movie with the same name. It sees The Beatles making their first steps into experimenting in the studio, and a deepening dissatisfaction with the record industry, as Lennon was pressured into making the title track an upbeat pop song, rather than the moody ballad he was aiming for.
The cover is yet another famous photo of The Beatles. Contrary to popular belief, the members don’t spell out “HELP” in semaphore language, in fact, the positioning of their hands spell out “NUVJ”. This is because those particular letters looked more appealing to the group and the photographer, than the correct ones.
4. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
As we’ve mentioned earlier, Sgt Pepper’s is considered by many to be The Beatles’ finest album. Pioneering the use of the studio as an instrument itself, it paved the way for high-concept albums, and saw the band experimenting with several different styles of music, including music hall, avant garde, vaudeville and Indian classical music.
The album cover features the members wearing colorful military uniforms, and they are depicted as being Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. With them on the cover are cardboard cutouts of famous figures, including Karl Marx, Bob Dylan, Sigmund Freud and Marlene Dietrich.
5. Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine is the soundtrack for the movie with the same name, and was The Beatles’ last psychedelic rock album, although the band itself doesn’t really consider it a proper album, as their involvement in it was minimal. In fact, their music is only present on one side of the album, the other side comprising of orchestral music for the movie, composed by the band’s producer, George Martin.
Now we’re going to show you Danilo’s Beatles (R)evolution project.
Beatles (R)evolution
Here he depicts The Beatles throughout their various style changes, in both music and look, across the band’s career. The illustrations are done in his trademark style, with bright colors and gangly limbs.
And finally, for music aficionados and visual artists alike, we have a few of The Beatles’ guitars, marvelously illustrated by Danilo Agutoli. We’ll be showing just a few of them, but the artist promises that he has illustrated all of them. Check ’em out by clicking this link, here, or by clicking the following photo link sources.
Beatles Guitars
That wraps up our article on Danilo’s absolutely stunning Beatles illustrations. If you want to see more of his stuff, be sure to visit his website or by clicking the source link we provided in this article. Also, don’t forget to share your thoughts on our article, in the comment section below.
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