From the end of the 1960s and throughout the 70s, John Byrne (obituary, 5 December) was a prolific designer of album cover artwork, most often for fellow Scottish artists. He began with the sleeve for The New Humblebums, where the band, featuring Gerry Rafferty and a banjo-playing Billy Connolly, are depicted in a childlike style wearing sailor suits.
Byrne would go on to design many more covers for Rafferty, from his first solo work Can I Have My Money Back? to the million-selling City to City and Rafferty’s equally successful work with Stealers Wheel, with Byrne’s portraits of the band members superimposed on to the bodies of wild animals.
His work can be seen at its most whimsical on a painting commissioned by the Beatles that emerged as the sleeve for the band’s collection Ballads, and at his most fantastical on Donovan’s double album HMS Donovan, which was clearly inspired by Tenniel and Bosch, and encapsulates a time when music fans would pore over an album sleeve for hours looking for hidden meaning.
