Hipgnosis album art : DISTANT LIGHT by The Hollies, 1971

This is a bit of an exception. It is solely a drawing by Colin Elgie, who apparently worked with Hipgnosis from time to time mostly famous for the Al Stewart's "Year Of The Cat" and Genesis' "Selling England By The Pound". This one is strange as it does have it's share of mystique and surrealism, we know Hipgnosis loves, but it is not quite executed in as strong a conceptual manner as usually. Maybe timepressure was of importance and they just let Elgie do whatever he felt... maybe with a few hints to move him along... i don't know. But truth is I have not been able to find any quotes on the art presented here.

First of all I cannot relate either the title or the lyrics (after a short but intense skimming) to the cover in any way. It would therefore be very speculative to make any connection and therefore i will rather just comment on it as standalone art. It has a tolkienesque romantic feel to it, with the flowers and the frogs and so on.

On the surface that is what we see at least, but if one looks closer, a mirror world appears below the surface of the stream that the boy kneels at. The boy may be supposed to represent one of the band members. I would not be sufficiently knowledgable to say that. I were always reminded of Paul McCartney when looking at him. He looks stunned, like he has suddenly realized there is another world below the surface he has not seen before or realized that he was approaching. What he sees down there is a completely different and surrealist story than what he sees above the surface.

There are suurealist bits two places underwater, one on the front and one on the back. The gatefold opens up as a 60x30 cm canvas, but the images are placed so that there is one on both sides when folded. There is a double face man with a bowler hat, three disco balls, a sheep with bloodred eyes, a stack of coins, a flea (?), a safetypin, two times two hands shaking, two hands cheering in some drink... and then a cod (?) swallowing a rabbit (?), swallowing something third (?)

It is in my opinion just random stuff thrown in without anything in common with anything else. At least i cannot find any clue why exactly those things are present. My best bet is that it is exactly supposed to be beyond comprehension, as a way to suppose an underlying surrelism. Usually the "meaning" is more fleshed out and clearer in Hipgnosis work, but this time it seems the aren't any.

The back side image is more realistic if still without any apparent reference to anything. It shows a landscape of hills with a road winding its way into the distance, with a read road-sign at the front left. It may be some play on the Distant Light title, but i feel that is a too loose reference to even be considered. It is one of those covers that does not have a good artistic expression, neither a coherent message or relevance to the band. At least, i cannot see it. If you know more or are better at spotting clues, please comment :-)

The gatefold inner photographs are just credited to Hipgnosis, so it might be anyone in the group doing those i suppose.