A Secret Message in Bob Dylan’s Hair
Can you spot the name of a rock star in this famous poster?
Rumors of hidden messages in songs are old as backmasking, or recording a song backward onto a track. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and even the Eagles have faced accusations that their music held satanic code words.
But a subliminal message in a musician’s hair? That’s no rumor. There’s actually been one of those. It’s hiding in plain sight in one of the most famous music posters of all time, a psychedelic image of Bob Dylan by the renowned graphic designer Milton Glaser.
Glaser’s offset lithograph is in the collection of Museum of Modern Art, which describes the origin of the Dylan poster this way:
“After suffering serious injuries in a motorcycle accident in 1966, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was rendered bedridden and rumored to be dead. To generate positive publicity for his forthcoming album, Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, CBS records commissioned Milton Glaser to design a special poster to be packaged with the album. Taking inspiration from a Marcel Duchamp self-portrait, Glaser depicted Dylan in profile, his abundant curly hair rendered in saturated colors….The energetic design with its swirling streams of color evokes the visual effects of the psychedelic drugs that were gaining popularity…
