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A clownish figure juggling what appear to be planets… and a banana?! It’s a bizarre cover image for a legendary album.
We are, of course, talking about the picture on the front of Innuendo, the 14th and final album that Queen and Freddie Mercury made together before the singer’s death.
The record came out in 1991. But both its cover art and songs seemed to have travelled from another era, another world, even. And that’s no accident, as we’ll find out.
Stay with us for the story behind the cover for this iconic album.
What type of album is Innuendo?
Before we get into how Innuendo’s cover was born, we need to say a word or two about the landmark album inside.
From start to finish, Innuendo is a record charged with emotion. Originally supposed to come out in December 1990, it was eventually released on 4 February 1991 by Parlophone Records (the label that first signed the Beatles).
The reason for the delay was Freddie Mercury’s deteriorating health. A few years earlier, the Queen frontman had been diagnosed with AIDS, an illness that he had kept hidden from media and fans, but not from the rest of the band. Mercury died on 24 November 1991, nine months after Innuendo’s release. He only announced his illness to the public the day before his death.
This tragic circumstances of the album’s release only heighten the emotions on this poignant, yet lavish, energetic and powerful record. Nowhere is this felt more so than in the opening and closing songs: “Innuendo”, a musical mishmash born out of improvisation, and “The Show Must Go On”, a moving exhortation not to give up when times are tough.
The making of the cover for Queen’s Innuendo
There’s something else that adds to Innuendo’s timeless atmosphere: the cover art.
We said it seems to be from another world… and it really is: the original illustration comes from an eccentric 19th-century graphic novel entitled Un autre monde (Another world) written and illustrated by visionary French artist J. J. Grandville.
It was Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, who discovered this rare work by one of surrealism’s forefathers. Taylor showed the book to Richard Gray, the photographer, designer and creative director behind many of the band’s most memorable covers. The Innuendo cover was born!
Gray made a copy of the illustration “A Juggler of Worlds”, then, with the help of Angela Lumley, coloured it in and added an amusing little detail: a banana. This forbidden fruit (the star of another famous album cover – yes, this one) also pops up in the video for “I’m Going Slightly Mad”.
Bananas aside, Grandville’s etching is a perfect fit for a record like Innuendo. As this essay on the French artist explains, the picture highlights our planetary insignificance: we’re at the whim of a celestial juggler who’s playing with unknown worlds.
It’s simultaneously unsettling and amusing.
Other images from the Innuendo cover
For the back of the record sleeve, Gray chose another surreal Grandville image, this time an illustration of a lion with a brass tuba for a head.
But for the inside cover of Innuendo, Gray himself picked up a pencil and drew the band members in a style imitating the great French artist.
The pictures of John Deacon (bass), Brian May (guitar), Freddie Mercury (vocals) and Roger Taylor (drums) are exquisite portraits that stay just the right side of caricature.
Before we go, here’s a curious endnote about Grandville’s legacy, one that says much about the whims of fate alluded to in his work.
The Innuendo cover art is now famous the world over, as are other bizarre visions created by the artist. For instance, the card soldiers from Alice in Wonderland were inspired by another etching from Un autre monde. Yet this groundbreaking work went pretty much unnoticed for over a century: only one edition was ever published and it was never translated into other languages. It wasn’t even mentioned in Grandville’s obituary!
Odd, right? If you want to see more of this gem, you’ll find more pages from it here.
What do you think about this story? Have you always found the album cover for Innuendo intriguing?And has it given you inspiration for your next graphic design? Share your thoughts!
Editor’s note
This article is intended purely for informational purposes, and the images included are intended to provide the appropriate context. We aim to inspire, intrigue and inform readers on topics such as art, creativity, visual design and music. These are subjects that deserve to be explored in depth for the benefit of the wider community, which needs creative inspiration and the opportunity to experience, either first-hand or through the eyes, the beautiful works that humankind has been able to create through its own ingenuity.