David Bailey's Photograph for The Rolling Stones' 'Goats Head Soup' Cover

The cover of Goats Head Soup (1973) is a tight, almost confrontational close-up of Mick Jagger’s face, shot by David Bailey. Jagger is wearing a thick fur hat and heavy, smudged makeup—lipstick, eyeliner—giving him an androgynous, slightly sinister look. Bailey had already shot the band for Between the Buttons and several other projects, but this was his first solo cover portrait for them.

The intended effect was pure mystique. The album was recorded in Jamaica and had a darker, druggier atmosphere than its predecessor Exile on Main St., and the cover was meant to mirror that—decadent, exotic, a little dangerous. The makeup and the intense gaze made Jagger look like a character out of a voodoo ritual or a glam-rock underworld. The