Cover Art
The Tom Wilkes-designed front cover of Dark Horse features a Liverpool Institute high-school photograph presented inside a lotus flower, behind which a dream-like Himalayan landscape extends to the horizon, where the "deathless Yogi of the Ancient of Days", Shiv-Goraksha Babaji, sits. While some observers have seen pointed similarities with The Beatles’ iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover image, Harrison’s choice of artwork betrays his enduring admiration for Terry Gilliam’s animation on Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Inside the gatefold cover, around the edges of a tinted photo of two distant figures (actually Harrison and comedian Peter Sellers) walking beside a Friar Park lake, text asks the "Wanderer through this Garden" to "Be kindly" and refrain from casting "Revengeful stones" if "perchance an Imperfection thou hast found", the reason being: "The Gardener toiled to make his Garden fair, Most for thy Pleasure." Taken as a metaphor for the record itself, this plea for tolerance was ridiculed at the time by critics Carr and Tyler as being "a self-pitying slab of sub-Desiderata".
On the back cover, Harrison is pictured sitting on a garden bench, the back timbers of which are apparently carved with his name and that of the album. Similar to Harrison’s attire in the outdoor scenes of the "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" video clip, Simon Leng refers to his appearance here as resembling the Jethro Tull character "Aqualung". Terry Doran's photo, given the same orange hue as the one inside the gatefold, was also used on some European picture sleeves for the "Ding Dong" and "Dark Horse" singles around this time.
Dark Horse's inner sleeve notes were all the work of Harrison himself, written on a plane early in the tour. Along with the very first Harrison-album credit for FPSHOT, and the now-familiar "All glories to Sri Krsna" dedication, his purple pen records various in-jokes while listing the many contributing musicians. As well as the confusing inclusion of Boyd and Clapton's names (leading to the assumption that they'd actually contributed to the track), the song title "Bye Bye, Love" is juxtaposed with the words "Hello Los Angeles", while "OHLIVERE" would appear to be a reference to Harrison's new lover and future wife, Dark Horse Records secretary Olivia Arias. The latter is also included among the title track's musician credits − her contribution being "Trinidad Blissed Out". Under "Ding Dong", aside from the appearance of "Ron Would If You Let Him" on guitar, Friar Park's original owner, Sir Frank Crisp, is credited for providing "Spirit".
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