Explaining the photo, Whitaker said, “All over the world I’d watched people worshiping like gods, four Beatles. To me, they were just stock standard normal people. But this emotion that fans poured on them made me wonder where Christianity was heading” (via Rolling Stone).
Album executives were absolutely furious with the album art. But after a conversation with Paul McCartney, who advocated for its release, the label went ahead put the album out to the public.
Some fans wondered if there was a hidden meaning behind the photoshoot (via Rolling Stone). Apparently, the “Yesterday and Today” album was put out quickly and padded out with extra songs. So some fans interpreted the cut-up meat cover to symbolize that the album was thrown together sloppily, or wondered if the band was giving the middle finger to their label. Whitaker says his intention was to satirize the hype around pop stars and Beatlemania.
