analyses
of the cover of
The Division Bell
Introduction
In august 2001, we decided to structurally investigate the TDB album. The start was made with the cover. Here you can find the thought that people in the network45 forum had.
Whot's uh... the deal?
Wings51 asked an important question: Which lyrics fit best to the cover. I started a poll on this, which is still ongoing. The ringing of the division bell has begun: Vote yourself and check the results.
The rivets
Like with the entire album, there are differences between the versions of the TDB album. In some versions, like the cover of the guitar tab book and the cover of the US CD jewel case, some of the rivets are missing from the head. On the back of the album, they are there. Maybe before we learn, we are not held together by any ideas, then after we hear them, we are now held by their ideas [syclic].
For everyone who has the guitar tab book: check the page which looks like the uk cd cover, between AGDFF and WtIO. The shadows definitively don't match with reality. They look like the hawklike faces (don't know where I saw them before). Also, the retouching went wrong (bottom right rivets of the right face are not in line).
More differences
First: Why so many different covers on so many different mediums, if it was not all meant for us to "keep talking"? Specifically, Why are some of the heads stone, some wooden, and some of them metal? Apparently they were made of metal originally, and then modified in some art program sometimes. One of the pieces of art shows them covered in flames.
One of the pieces of art shows them at night, with what appears to be 21? pieces of white that appear to be tombstones, behind the heads (this was not discussed on this forum - it is on the right inside cover of the bifold, U.S. Columbia vinyl album cover) - what are the "tombstones" and why 21 of them, and what is their significance to anything? (They must be important, or they wouldn't be there.)
The four dots between the mouths... are these the four airline lights at the end of the runway on the "Learning to Fly" video, or are they representative of the four CURRENT members of the band?Why are the four lights replaced with an electronic wave on the back cover of the CD art? Someone at the beginning of this web page indicated what Ohm (om?) the wave represented, but nobody got into that issue on this site recently to my knowledge...
The back cover of the Cassette Tape (Columbia, U.S. version) shows the heads looking like they are made of wood, instead of stone or metal. Also, the item between the two mouths on that pic looks like a worm more that anything else.
Don't forget the pencils and the DSoM album cover on the back cover of the DB Columbia vinyl USA version, pic posted at top of this page. Also, on the Columbia (USA) CASSETTE cover, front AND back, there is a different castle or monistary (not sure what or where it is) in the background between the two heads, which is NOT Ely. Also, there were some postings about the numbers that can be seen around the eyes, which, by the way, are synonomous with the ticket art to the concert (the directions surrounding the circles).This from Dan Harris (regarding the ticket art that he has):
"The writing around the symbol is basically the titles of many pink floyd albums overlapped upon each other. I can clearly make out The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and A Saucerful of Secrets. What interests me are the various circles with letters pointing to them (e.g. Fig.1 M, W, D, S,M)" (NOTE: these are synonomous with the writings around the eyes on the back cover of the US Columbia bifold vinyl) Also, there is a smaller triangle above the big green symbol which looks similar to the Dark Side of the Moon album. Dark side of the moon turns up a lot. It is in this symbol, the album cover is above the left eye of one of the DB statues and it was payed in full on P.U.L.S.E., why?"Please remember that on the USA Columbia bifold Vinyl cover, on the back side, Ely is NOT BETWEEN the two heads, but rather OFF TO THE LEFT. Why?
Finally, why were the heads built outside of the pariliament building in Scottland and then superimposed with pictures of Ely cathedral (and another castle or cathedral on other art), which is (i thinks) 40 miles west of London, on a completely different continent? It appears that the ONLY thing consistent within the covers is the Target eyes... [paganvegan]The heads
There is some debate about which head is smaller. Nlitendlz says: "On all of the art it seems that the left head is slightly higher than the right ...i really don't think it means much just a slight human error on storm and team's part ...then again though they were so specific with lighting, the targets, etc ... who knows."
However, Freedom ays: "i can't tell without point of reference but i think maybe the right one is closer to the camera."The targets
While enhancing my webpages with a few pics, looking for an illustration to accompany the big bong theory, I noticed a striking resemblence between the targets and what was on the back of the ummagumma album. This picture was taken at Biggin Hill airport, Kent, for the Ummagumma album. Is there a relation to the runway used for the shots with the banners in the TDB album and during the HH clip?
Wings51 remembered the targets from the "Live in Pompei" movie. I checked the the video and saw the chinese gong appearing constantly in the center of the screen. There are also cirlces on the back of their equipment, but in my opinion, those circles don't match the targets. Paganvegan noticed the"target" too and saw a monkey face at the very beginning of "Careful with that Axe, Eugene"! Indeed, faces are shown on the video. Aside to Careful with that Axe, also almost constantly during Echoes part 1 and part 2. To my knowledge, this is the only Pink Floyd work that is so closely related to 'heads', of coarse appart from TDB.
The gong targets are made of steel and there might be a relation to the "stared out the steel in your eyes" lyrics in PA. Chris thought that the chinese gong/target refered to Nick Mason, in order to complete the presence of the original Pink Floyd on the cover: "Nick Mason is the only member of the original 4 that was not fired. have no explanation other than he uses gongs that do look like the targets used all over place," he says.
Well, if you watch the video, you will see that the only person that "uses" the gong, is Roger Waters. I personally think that the gong represents an instrument that Pink Floyd used quite regularly during their pre-DSOTM era. It is present as a central element on the video. You even see two people carrying it into the Pompei stadium. Furthermore, it is on top of the bus on the back of the Ummagumma album.
