Pink Floyd fans are only just realising what the Welcome to the Machine cover is meant to represent.
One fan of the band took to the r/PinkFloyd subreddit and asked if they were “stupid” after finally figuring out what the image on the single cover is meant to represent. They wrote: “All these years and I just realised it’s supposed to be two hands interlocked… Anyone else or am I stupid?” Some users were taken aback by the image, which others believed was rather obvious. The original poster has since said they thought the image was meant to represent the titular machine, though it is unclear what machine that would be.
They were asked: “What did you think they were?” Their reply reads: “A nondescript satellite-like machine in reference to The Machine. Just figured it was meant to be a trippy unknown object.” While there may have been some comments mocking the interpretation further down the thread, other users saw what the original poster meant by the nondescript tech on the single sleeve.
One user replied: “Honestly, I can see how you thought this. If you don’t recognise the fingernails it isn’t perfectly apparent what is going on.” The original poster replied with praise for the album artwork, adding: “It’s really such a dope style and the artist made it in such a way where you have to look deeper to notice what it really is. You would think I would have picked up on it after all this time, lmao…
“They really seem so clearly like fingers now but I just thought they were parts to a machine! Props to the artist tho because it’s sick how it’s both a machine and hands. I was just only using half my brain I guess…” They added in a separate comment: “A lot of people saying I’m stupid on here, but I know I’m nobody’s fool!”
Another user has since explained the meaning behind the single’s artwork. They wrote: “Two robots shaking hands meant to symbolize the empty gesture of artists shaking hands with the money people after getting burned. Thus becoming part of the machine. Notice how one of the arms is slightly less robot looking and wears a ring.”
All these years and I just realized it’s supposed to be two hands interlocked…
byu/grey6263 inpinkfloyd
Another user has shared the origin story of the image, which was made by the same artist behind The Dark Side of the Moon. They wrote: “It’s by George Hardie, who also did graphics for Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, 10CC, the front of Led Zeppelin’s first album, etc. He’s a pretty big deal.”
Others have assured the original poster their mistake in identifying the image is not an isolated incident. One joked: “I just showed this to my husband who is not a Pink Floyd fan and asked him what he saw. He said it was some kind of spacey machine thing, until I said ‘two robots shaking hands?’ Then he saw it straight away.”
Another added: “I never noticed it either idk why people are saying it’s obvious. It isn’t unless you really focus on it.
Seriously? Some people are that oblivious to the obvious? 🤦
Are we related? :)
How dumb are you if you haven’t figured that out? It was obvious from the beginning. Duh.
I knew it from the day I saw it…It’s just a descriptive metaphor of an industry that’s still relevant given the state of my UK Pop Charts today.
Is it that easy that I recognised the robot hands as soon as I bought the album, some people should see what their actually looking at.
I figured that out years ago. Also, the four elements around the mechanical hand represent the astrological signs of the four Pink Floyd members. Earth is Roger Waters (Virgo) Fire is Richard Wright (Leo), Air is Nick Mason (Aquarius), and water is David Gilmour (Pisces).
Not necessarily stupid, but stoned, immaculate.
Ha ha maybe
Out here in the perimeter
✌️
It represents the 4 spirts earth water sky fire
{~}{*!
Those are the four elements.
It also looks like a machine gun controling the world.
Always presumed it was holding hands, the other cover art has two guys (on fire) shaking hands.
Suppose it’s one of those things if no one corrects you or a piece of information doesn’t come your way, then you interpret and presume.
When this album came out in the 70’s the original album cover is two men standing face to face shaking hands. Inside they are in fire. So when the new cover came out of course it was robots shaking hands. But don’t forget this was an album for Sid.
New cover? There is no new cover to WYWH. The man on fire has always been on the front cover of the album. The mechanical shaking hands always included with the LP.
The mechanical hands shaking was always part of the artwork. A version of that was used on the Belgian 45 of the songs “Have A Cigar”, with “Welcome To The Machine” was the “B” side of that single
Robots shaking hands, was perfectly obvious to me since first laying eyes on the image back in the seventies. The meanings of the four background images however, not so obvious, at least to me, until reading one of the earlier comments, they are the four elements, I didn’t know that.
Incorrect Aquarius is infact an Air sign
I always felt it was a representation of the disdain for the inevitable societal evolution of economy and growing up, then having to accept you now are part of the machine. One is being pulled / lured by another from the primordial ocean of innocence and the ring and watch are trinkets to show he is embracing the transition. The hand shake is so dubious..I mean this really is art
Straight on!! I grew up with my father being a HUGE fan, and after his passing, I have realized a lot of the imagery that is portrayed throughout their messages.
Even in the most intense acid fuelled listening experiences, I just saw it as “Welcome To The Machine” 🤷😂😂
I noticed it the day it was released
Perhaps it is the melding of man and machine, perhaps it is all of what everyone has stated in their responses, I believe that everyone should come together and enjoy the music because they’re shall never be the likes of my favorite band ever again, unless they become Cyborg’s, and are welcomed to the machine?
Im really quite confused that people really couldnt see two robot type hands interlocked in a hand shake/ hand grasp type gesture.
It doesnt look like anything BUT that exact thing.
That concept/ idea was readily visible from the get go.
Oh well
I would think those people might not have listened to the song to get the meaning of the lyrics. That context might spark the recognition of what is shown.
The machine is apparently the music industry which eats up musicians. The welcome is to Pink Floyd after Dark Side of the Moon. They are now part of the machine!!!!!! So, Welcome To The Machine….make more music for the machine to make money. Like Have A Cigar, another swipe at the people who run it.
Often the best place to hide something is in plain sight. My brain can’t see it any other way than the robot hands.
Hey, how about the Santana “Lion’s Head” album cover?
It was evident what it was when it came out. I’m shocked people had no idea.
Clearly people don’t listen to the lyrics because if you understood what “welcome to the machine” is about then the cover is obvious.
It is a shock to discover that others struggle to see it. We are over a hundred years after cubism, futurism and dada, and we are in an era when comic book art is behind everything Hollywood shoots. Image blindness is a thing, obviously but why?
I think it might have to do with a diminishing imagination and lack of attention to details due to having way too much social media to go through, therefore not developing the patience to developing one’s own mind and imagination.
That being said, it baffles my mind that an image as obvious as the shaking hands isn’t clearly seen by everyone.
After concerts during the song it would show the two coming together
Have any of you simpletons read Simple Matters?. A novel by William Hjortsberg. It won’t help you to see or interpret art any better but it will give reason to what that album cover is depicting. It can also give you a perspective on the music, take for example Picture That. This is a song that carries on from welcome to the machine nearly 4 decades later by Roger Waters. I tell you all this because I know the man quite well chaps…..
I highly recommend the documentary Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis, the album art design studio responsible for WYWH along with countless other iconic works.
Yes obviously it’s two robotic hands
Two robotic hands one fashioned on Earth you can tell by the fragment attached to the planet, the other from space welcome my son welcome to machine, where have you been…
Surely symbolic of the nuclear button
It also represents to races due to the appearance of different metals. Also one has a square end and one has a round end.
I use to have this album till it got stolen but I could see it was two robot hands shaking
Funny, I see an award/trophy shaking hands with the machine of the industry.
Call me crazy
Notice the streaks on the lower part of the lower hand showing that it’s pulling the other hand and the other hand even appears to only have two connections left to whatever it was connected to initially. Also noticed that it appears to have come out of the water by the pattern on the water. But what all this means I have no idea
Man, I don’t know where we should even start in explaining the actual music and lyrics to these people!!😵💫🤯
I have always seen, based on the music and the electronic nature of it as machines being created by men and then being surpassed by machine who become smarter than us and decide our fate! The robotic hands coming together is the moment the machines come to the realization of their own existence… a birth if you will! If you haven’t been following artificial intelligence lately, then you should, because it may happen!
The article repeatedly mentions that the two hands pictured are both meant to be robots shaking hands. I’ve always thought one was actually a human. Before anyone starts calling me ‘stupid’, I’ll declare it myself. I’m stupid….so there.
I guess I just assumed that everyone knew that it was two hands shaking!??
I suppose if you weren’t a stark raving Floyd fan, maybe you never really thought about it. It was obvious to me, but I am that raving lunatic.
Simple child like drawing to a boring band I will never like.if yiu have to be stoned to like the music it can’t be that good .
Gee, Paul, I guess they’ll never mean as much to you as Taylor Swift and Lezzo do.
I’m not sure the ring is a wedding ring as it is on the index finger rather than the traditional left hand ring finger. Also, the ring has an “X” on it – maybe the foretelling of Elon Musk and “X”.