Lately it seems like airlines are dramatically cutting back on the services they offer, and with budget airlines, everything has a separate fee. Carry on bags, personal items, seat selection, all of these once-included things now are charged individually. We’re not quite at the point of coin-operated bathrooms or tray tables or being charged $5 every time you audibly fart, but we’re not that far off. This is quite a far cry from how airlines used to be back in the glorious, hazily-remembered past, when people flew in Met Gala-level clothes and the booze flowed freely, meals were a pair of lobsters embracing a steak trapped between them, all served in a caviar ravine, and airlines could absolutely destroy up-and-coming pioneering synth-rock duos.
That last bit got you, right? You were fine imagining a lobsters hugging around a steak in a tub full of fish eggs, but what the hell do I mean by an airline destroying a rock band? Well, simmer down, because I’m going to explain. Specifically, I’m going to explain how Pan Am sued a rock band out of existence.
The band was called the Silver Apples, and back in 1968 they were at the absolute bleeding edge of electronic music. Formed in New York in 1967 by Simeon Coxe III and Danny Taylor, the duo were one of the pioneers of electronic and synthesized music, with their distinctive sound revolving around a ramshackle machine called “the Simeon” after Coxe. The Simeon was an interlinked array of a dozen WWII-era oscillators, radio parts, lab equipment, and other salvaged electronic components, controlled via 86 switches, knobs, and telegraph keys.
Somehow, the band managed to get one of the greatest first gig opportunities in modern music history: a chance to play in New York’s Central Park to a crowd of 30,000 people. Coxe was interviewed by The Guardian back in 2019 and showed the picture above, to which he commented:
“Every time I look at that picture I shudder. We had no idea if our equipment was going to work and the audience were just staring at us.”
Yeah, that seems pretty nervy. Incredibly, all that finicky equipment actually worked, and the band had a wildly successful first gig. That gig led them to a record deal with Kapp Records, and a self-titled album arrived in 1968. The album did well enough that a second LP was in the works, which would be called Contact.
Here’s a sample of what the band’s sound was like; keep in mind, when their first album arrived in 1968, beating electronic music pioneering albums like Switched on Bach to the market. Anyway, give a listen; it’s pretty great:
So, things were going well for the experimental duo, and the record company’s ad agency saw an opportunity: why not use this album as a way to make one of our biggest clients even happier?
That big client was the airline Pan Am. Pan Am agreed to let the duo use one of their jets for the cover art, as long as their logo was visible. This felt like a win-win for everybody, so the cover of Contact featured the two Silver Apples sitting in the cockpit of a Boeing 707, and the Pan Am logo is clearly visible:
Okay, so far so good, right? That’s a fun album cover, with some nice contrast between the then high-tech aircraft and the decidedly non-pilot-like way the band members are dressed, the logo is visible in the upper right, everyone should be happy.
But then we get to the back cover.
For reasons lost to time, it was decided that it’d be a great idea to superimpose the Silver Apples into a picture of the aftermath of a plane crash, sitting on the wreckage, with Coxe playing a banjo. It’s not exactly clear what plane crash this was from, but most sources seem to indicate it was “European.” Wherever it happened, it’s a pretty questionable choice by the record company and designers. Was it just meant as a sort of dark joke, like these two don’t know how to fly a plane? Maybe?
Whatever the intent, it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that Pan Am was not having it. Pan Am was not consulted, and no approval on album artwork was sought from the airline, and, incredibly, no one at Kapp Records seemed to think that showing a wrecked plane on the back of the album could be an issue for the airline that had their logo on the front, so the album hit the shelves just as you see here.
Pan Am, still reeling from the literal (and PR) disaster of the crash of Flight 217 a few weeks prior to the album’s release, lost their luggage about the depiction of a wrecked airliner on the album and came down on everyone involved, hard.
There was an injunction to stop the sale of the album, the album was pulled off shelves of record stores, lawsuits were filed against Kapp Records and Silver Apples, marshals confiscated the band’s drums (the components of the Simeon synthesizer were saved, however), and Pan Am was able to keep Silver Apples from ever performing again, since they claimed that any performance could be considered promotion from the album.
Pan Am killed the Silver Apples pretty completely.
Keep in mind this was a band that none other than John Lennon had championed as the “next big thing,” and a band that would go on to influence artists like Brian Eno, Portishead, Stereolab, and many more. After Pan Am had their revenge on the band, Coxe quit music altogether and for a while drove an ice cream truck.
It’d be pretty tragic if it all wasn’t so, well, stupid. What did they think was going to happen? They got an airline to loan them a plane for an album cover, and they show a crashed plane on the back of the album? Did they think Pan Am was going to be delighted and ask to use it in their ads? Nobody was thinking there.
The story isn’t all grim, though. In the late 90s, the band was rediscovered and had a bit of a resurrection. The duo was performing again, even after Coxe suffered a car wreck, but he pressed on. A third album arrived in 1997, and more kept coming, even after Taylor’s death in 2005, finally ending with Coxe’s passing in 2020.
They were a remarkable and influential band, pioneers in the world of electronic music, and a valuable lesson in maybe running ideas by some people before committing to them.
Top graphic images: Kapp Records
There had to be a lot of drugs involved in that album cover decision. Sheesh. Or possibly hashish.
In other word: hashsheesh!
I would like to think that if Pan Am was still around today and they took this heavy-handed approach, there would/should be a big public backlash.
And let’s consider the fact that the record company probably came up with the idea… but the band was paying the price for it.
The lawyers from the airline could have just started by having a serious conversation with the band and record company and gotten them to recall/change the back cover and not go straight to a lawsuit.
These days a reasonably savvy PR type could turn all this into so much publicity.
“Pan-Am sued them so hard they not only banned the album, they banned their whole band! Listen now to the new album by Les Pommes d’Argent at record stores now!”
Today, there would also be lightning fast coordination among families of those killed in the plane crash to go after the band and label for exploiting their loved ones’ deaths. They’d have a designated spokesman doing talking head interviews on cable news within 24 hours
I think Pan-Am could have leaned into this and even used it as the centerpiece of an ad campaign about “Why we don’t let hippies fly our planes”. Peggy Olsen could have made it work.
I’m skipping reading this because I know the story (although I’m sure Torch’s take will excellent once I do read it) and I LOVE this band. The first time I heard their song “Lovefingers” I thought it must be from a 2000ish trip hop band. Anyone with even a passing interest in music should read about this band and listen to them at least once.
It’s not like the cover features a greased-up woman on all fours, on a leash, with a glove thrust in her face.
“You should’ve seen the cover they wanted to do. It wasn’t a glove, believe me.”
“What’s wrong with being sexy?”
“sexist...”
It’s such a fine line between clever and stupid.
Jason; Pan Am got their revenge……. Really. That s how you see it? You and I could not be more different and I m not a lawyer. (I am an engineering supervisor with a MA and MS. )
I can’t even begin to imagine the point you are trying to make here.
its not revenge. it s simple protection of a brand. the airline’s reputation is worth billions. is that so hard to grasp?
They sold the still resonant name and brand for considerably less.
This ^^^
What revenge?!?
This is the least the cretin(s) who signed up on this back cover deserved.
Even a tiny disclaimer on the cover might have helped.
As an afficionado of early electronic music, I was not aware of Silver Apples. I am now, and am streaming them as I type this.
Thanks for the story Jason!
And here I thought this would be about famed[sic] 90s Montreal post-rock band Le Fly Pan Am. I remember when Panasonic (the brand) sued Panasonic (the band), who just took an “a” out of their name and went on abusing cold-war-era test equipment to make music.
Silver Apples should have done a deal with Beastie Boys airlines as they seem to have no problem with plane crash cover art.
3MTA3
I’m still mad that people used to be able to smoke on planes (& buses, etc) and now we can’t! ha ha
Smokers are people too! C’mon, at least give us a lounge on there…free the smokes! Smoke ’em if ya got ’em!
ha ha ha ha ha
Although it would just be a cool experience to at least do it once…like the mile high club!
I was 5 in 1973 and my family flew to Jamaica. Delta I think, I clearly remember ashtrays with butts when I sat down. I am not even sure if there is a non-smoking section on that airplane
Nice… Jamaica mon! Did you see the Jamaican Bobsled Team? ha ha (I miss John Candy)
Yeah, I’m guessing that of course there were no non-smoking sections especially since it’s an airplane w/ recycled air; I don’t know, maybe they did on those huge double decker planes where sections could be closed w/ a door and had separate filtration systems; that would be a very interesting question for Mercedes! She just wrote about planes w/ those fancy 70’s style lounges somewhat recently…and private planes are a whole different thing since there are still some you can smoke on! I do completely understand the reason for it in restaurants, buses, in front of doors of buildings, etc. so non-smokers aren’t exposed to it through no choice of their own…but it’s just absurd how extreme it has become against smokers when it’s unnecessary, not to mention the judgement from it; one example is that my wife & I both smoke and when we went on one of our trips recently and stayed at Holiday Inn (which we like, usually stay at, and will keep using despite this)…at this particular location, (which it’s usually not like this) there were employees smoking somewhat close to the door but no ashtrays anywhere since it was a “smoke-free property”…and there were butts all over the ground…at least provide a spot w/ ashtrays away from the door so guests/employees are able to have somewhere to go on the property, not bothering anyone. Don’t exclude/judge smokers as customers, & that’s in general for any business or place. Most places we go we just go by our car anyway, and have a way to put them out so as not to litter either
Airplanes don’t actually recycle air. They change the air in the plane FAR more frequently than any normal house or office building does (typically the entire air volume is exchanged every five minutes or so). It’s literally how pressurization works – take outside air, ram into the fuselage to pressurize it, let it out in a regulated manner to stay at the correct pressure.
Doesn’t make smoking on an airplane any less disgusting. They used to universally have a nasty brown streak of nicotine stain trailing away from the pressurization outflow valves, and techs used to use nicotine stains to find air leaks in the fuselage. Blech. I am ever so glad that my travelling career started AFTER smoking on planes was banned in the US. I did a couple trips to Europe in the bad old days and it sucked.
Oh yeah, I figured it was some kind of high tech specialized system like that of course, since it’s a plane and obviously not like a car which is when I usually use the phrase recycled air, but just applied it to a plane. I just never looked up the logistics of it, so thank you since it’s so interesting like a lot of aspects of transportation!
There wasn’t.
The non smoking section of an airplane is pretty much like the no peeing section of a pool.
I buy maybe 3 packs of cigarettes a year, smoke 3 or 4 out of each pack, throw it out when the rest go stale, and buy another one, so, not what most people would consider a heavy smoker, but damnit, there are times here and there where I’ll randomly want one, and a beer is often one of them, so I would personally kind of like to be able to smoke in bars again. Also, bowling alleys.
And supermarkets
Wow, yeah…damn, I’ll take the rest of those packs off your hands each year! ha ha (I always figured it took way longer for them to go stale anyway) Yup, I haven’t drank for a long time, but that is definitely when I always wanted/needed one so bad. There is actually still a bar not far away from me where you can still smoke INSIDE, even now. Also, I think you would actually be floored w/ how much we smoke, although I actually truly believe that if we didn’t our particular marriage wouldn’t have lasted nearly as long as it has!
We’re a pack a day between us (seriously, so a carton roughly every week and a half) which actually isn’t as bad considering quite a few smokers are a pack a day; but that’s neither here nor there, since we (& smokers in general) both realize that it’s so obvious that of course it would be better to quit for health and to save all that $ (which is a ton, and literally going up in smoke, ha ha) but that’s why it’s called an addiction. There really are times though, where the absolute only thing helping me just get through the day is…a smoke. It shouldn’t, but it is…so I’m just grateful to have it during those times, and that’s good enough for me
Ah, the good old days, when you woke up on Sunday morning with the clothes you wore the night before smelling strongly of cigarette smoke.
Used to be you could spot cracks in the bulkheads by the brown tar that collected just outside.
I think the bathrooms were a tad larger in the Disco Era, allowing the Mile High experience. Now you might get stuck in flagrante dilecto and need walls removed to get you unstuck. They’ve engineered the fun out of all aspects of air travel.
ha ha ha ha ha…yup! It’s a completely opposite experience from the “golden” era of the jet age when passenger travel dropped like a rock on ocean liners and flying was a whole experience in itself. I only experienced the tail end of that era as a kid and remember being able to order and eat the mediocre “airplane food” and on some wide planes watching a movie play on center divider walls from a projector that everyone could watch! Now most people are over obsessed w/ their precious screens, which we also use a little bit, but usually read actual physical books since we both love reading them
The crash photo was from Sabena Flight 548, a 1959 Boeing 707-300, reg OO-SJB, transatlantic flight from New York to Brussels, crashed Feb 15, 1961, just 3km from the airport, killing all 72 passengers and crew on board, plus a farmer on the ground. All 18 members of the US national figure skating team were on the plane, along with another 16 in their group (coaches, trainers, etc). The conclusion was that it was most likely a malfunction of the stabilizer adjustment mechanism, though that could not be conclusively determined
This is such a puzzlingly boneheaded cover art decision. Not only would this be viewed as disrespectful of the people who lost their lives in the tragedy pictured, you had an airline that WAS your client (at least I’m assuming that was the case) tied into that with the front cover. This is shooting your own foot with a giant cannon levels of stupidity. The mind boggles.
They airbrushed out the vertical stabilizer with the Sabena logo, that’s something?
You’re not wrong, but I wonder why Pan-Am didn’t require final sign off.
That seems like a boneheaded miss by Pan-Am’s legal department
Geez Louisiana, I KNOW THIS ALBUM. It was one of a dozen or two albums left behind by my best friend’s ten-years-older brother when he left the house. And that image in the video is wrong – the album was not black on a white-grey gradient. It was black graphic on silver foil. And iirc, no printed words, just the two apples graphic. On bumpy foiled cardboard.
For further rabbit holes, this reminded me of another electronic album of that era, “Silver Apples Of The Moon” by Morton Subotnick [1967], my dad had that one.
Yes, I’ve run into that one (streaming) while looking for the other one. Both named for a poem, I think.
Ok, so now I had to do a web search since I couldn’t remember where the line came from. It’s from “The Song of Wandering Aengus” by William Butler Yeats. The last two lines are
“The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.”
“What’s wrong with being sexy?”
I thought this would be something like “they thought the synth was a bomb and destroyed their luggage” but no, it was somehow worse all around.
Nah, but in “The Cultural Ambassador” Laurie Anderson tells a great story about dealing with airport security while lugging around a pile of electronics with displays that say stuff like “Atom Smasher”.
And Pan Am never had to worry about being associated with crashes again
Ba-DUM-bum. That ‘dum’ has no B by the way, most people don’t know that.
And Pan Am went bust in 1991. How do you like them (silver) apples?
This story reminds me of Debra Harry posing as if she were climbing out from a wrecked car when the band came upon an overturned car and decided to make it a photo op out of it.
Even Jimmy Buffett posed on a wrecked fishing boat that was grounded in a hurricane (I’m assuming nobody died on the Good Luck, but situations like that can go bad easily enough)
Yeah people piss on bean counters for destroying things by a thousand cuts but creative people destroy things at the speed of well an airplane crash