So That’s What That Thing Was On That One Police Album Cover

Back in ’80, when my brother or sister was listening to Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police (shortly before Sting disappeared up his own arse), I was always fascinated by the complex album art:

inside album art

One bit used to jump out at me, because I thought it was a little creepy, and I would deliberately take out the record and open up the sleeve to look at it and creep myself out. It was the photo of one of the band looking at what looked like a pig-like statue with weird staring eyes (seen just above the center of the left half of the above image). I could never figure out what that was supposed to be.

Fast forward THIRTY YEARS, and I’m reading this blog post from Pink Tentacle about Japanese mythological creatures, which sent me on a click trail reading about them all. One creature, the Tanuki, is based on the real Japanese Raccoon Dog, and what do I find on the Wikipedia page for the Tanuki? This.

Thumbnail of Tanuki Statue

So it wasn’t a creepy glassy-eyed pig thing, it was a raccoon with a straw hat and massive balls. I’m glad that got sorted out.

And to play you out, here’s Stewart Copeland in shades and a top hat, with friends Jools Holland and Roland Rivron (amongst others) as Ken Bishop’s Nice Twelve, performing Subterranean Homesick Blues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KORmxfOCdM