Forty years ago this month, Throbbing Gristle released 20 Jazz Funk Greats. It was the band's first full studio album, as prior albums contained both live and studio recordings.
An fun piece of trivia about the album is that it has a bit of a Beatles connection. It's true. It was recorded on a 16-track they borrowed from Paul McCartney. T/G member Peter Christopherson worked for design company Hipgnosis and did some artwork for Paul. In turn, McCartney lent a machine to them.
In an interview in 2014, T/G member Cosey Fanni Tutti said of the album's cover and title:
We did the cover so it was a pastiche of something you would find in a Woolworth’s bargain bin. We took the photograph at the most famous suicide spot in England, called Beachy Head. So, the picture is not what it seems, it is not so nicey nicey at all, and neither is the music once you take it home and buy it. We had this idea in mind that someone quite innocently would come along to a record store and see [the record] and think they would be getting 20 really good jazz/funk greats, and then they would put it on at home and they would just get decimated.
This was the first Throbbing Gristle album I ever heard. It gave me the creeps for months afterwards. What are you listening to tonight?
