Newspapers and blogs, such as the British blog The Guardian, are reporting that the cover photo used for Bob Dylan’s seminal album Blonde on Blonde was a mistake. Photographer Jerry Schatzberg explained how it was shot, saying:
“It was pretty cold out. I know all the critics, everybody said, ‘Oh, they were trying to do a drug shot’. It’s not true. It was February, [Dylan] was wearing just that jacket, and I was wearing something similar, and the two of us were really cold.”
Schatzberg was shivering when he shot the photo – obviously using a handheld camera, and not a tripod. “To his credit, [Dylan]’s the one that chose that photograph.”
So it wasn’t a mistake, but Dylan found that the blur in the photo captured what he wanted for that album cover.
Unfortunately, in the days of CD and digital media, we no longer even see the complete photo. It was printed at a 90-degree angle of what you expected on an LP, and when you opened the sleeve, you saw the full photo, as you can see above.