Foxtrot, the 1972 album by Genesis is one of the great prog rock vinyl album covers of the decade. Designed by Paul Whitehead who worked for the record label Charisma and had designed the band’s previous releases; Nursery Cryme and Trespass.

On a personal level my favourite album is Selling England by the Pound followed by Nursery Cryme with the latter being my favourite cover design. With Foxtrot and the reason for my choosing it is that the band really did not like the design. Whilst Tony Banks gives you the impression that nothing is ever good enough, the other members thought it the weakest of Whitehead’s designs. He would go on to produce one more cover for the band, Genesis Live which was the letter writing only, the writing was on the wall!!

Whitehead’s design for Nursery Cryme featured a take on The Musical Box and depicted the childhood Victorian home of Peter Gabriel. This and Foxtrot set out to shock its audience, both covers are a take on the pursuits of the upper English classes along with his take on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Gabriel used the idea of the fox’s head as a stage prop during the subsequent tour.

The designs for Whitehead’s three Genesis albums were eventually stolen from the head office of Charisma when news broke that the label was being sold to Virgin Records in 1983. Here at Retroculturati we like to champion the underdog, in truth, Nursery Cryme should be featured but I like the fact Foxtrot annoyed Tony Banks!

See also

The Golden Age of the Gatefold Sleeve Pt One