COME DOWN OFF YOUR THRONE
AND LEAVE YOUR BODY ALONE
SOMEBODY MUST CHANGE
YOU ARE THE REASON
I'VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG
SOMEBODY HOLDS THE KEY
Blind Faith
is the only
studio album
by the English
supergroup
originally released in
the United States on
August, 9th 1969
on
Atco Records,
and in
the United Kingdom
on
August, 22nd 1969
on Polydor Records
and in Europe.
It topped the
album charts
in the UK,
Canada
and US,
and was listed at
No. 40
on the US
Soul Albums chart.
It has been certified
platinum by
the RIAA.
Background
The band contained
two-thirds of
the popular
power trio Cream,
in Ginger Baker
and
Eric Clapton,
working in collaboration
with British star
Steve Winwood
of
the Spencer Davis Group
and Traffic,
along with
Ric Grech
of Family.
They began to
work out songs
early in 1969,
and in February
and March
the group was at
Morgan Studios in London,
although the first few
almost-finished songs
did not show up
until they were at
Olympic Studios
in April and May
under the
direction of
producer
Jimmy Miller.
The recording of their album
was interrupted by
a tour of Scandinavia,
then a US tour
from
July 11th
(Newport)
to
August 24th
(Hawaii),
supported by Free,
Taste
and
Delaney & Bonnie and Friends.
Although a chart topper,
the LP was
recorded hurriedly
and side two
consisted of just
two songs,
one of them a
15-minute jam entitled
"Do What You Like".
Nevertheless,
the band produced
two hits,
Winwood's
"Can't Find My Way Home"
and
Clapton's
"Presence of the Lord".
Controversial Album Cover
The cover was a photo
by Bob Seidemann
of a topless
11-year-old girl,
Mariora Goschen,
holding a
silver-painted model
of an aircraft,
sculpted for the
album shoot
by Mick Milligan.
The cover was
mildly controversial
in the British press,
with some seeing
the model airplane
as phallic.
The American
record company
issued the album
with an
alternative cover,
with a photograph
of the band
on the front,
as well as
the original cover.
The cover art
was created by
Seidemann,
a friend and former
flatmate of
Clapton,
who is primarily known
for his photos of
Janis Joplin
and
the Grateful Dead.
In the mid-1990s,
in an advertising
circular intended
to help sell
lithographic reprint's
of the famous
album cover,
he explained his
thinking
behind the image.
Seidemann wrote that he
approached a girl,
reported to be
14 years old,
on the London Underground,
asking her to model
for the cover.
He eventually met her parents,
but she proved to be
too old for the effect
he wanted.
Instead,
the model he used
was her younger sister,
Mariora Goschen,
who was reported to be
11 years old.
Goschen recalled that she
was coerced into
posing for the picture.
"My sister said,
'They’ll give you a young horse.
Do it!'
She was instead
She was instead
paid £40
According to Seidemann:
"It was Eric
who elected to
not print the name
of the band on the cover.
The name was
instead printed on
the wrapper,
when the
wrapper came off,
so did the type."
That had been
done previously for
several other albums.
In America,
Atco Records used a
cover based on element
s from a flyer
for the band's
Hyde Park concert of
June 7th 1969.
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