Black Sabbath's Debut: Woman From Album Cover Makes Electronic Music Today | Page 2 | Revolver

Black Sabbath's Debut: Woman From Album Cover Makes Electronic Music Today

Model Louisa Livingstone gave first interview about iconic Sabbath image
black sabbath debut cover

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Black Sabbath's groundbreaking self-titled debut, Rolling Stone recently published a massive, in-depth piece on the making and legacy of the album, including interviews with all the major players. One of the biggest scoops in the story are the first-ever interviews with the people behind its iconic cover art: designer and photographer Keith Macmillan, who was credited as Keef in the liner notes, and model Louisa Livingstone, the album cover's witchy "figure in black."

Livingstone, who was 18 or 19 at the time, was cast in part because of she was only five feet tall, which made her surroundings look bigger and more dramatic. She was also naked under the occult-looking cloak. "She wasn't wearing any clothes under that cloak because we were doing things that were slightly more risqué, but we decided none of that worked," Macmillan revealed to Rolling Stone. "Any kind of sexuality took away from the more foreboding mood. But she was a terrific model. She had amazing courage and understanding of what I was trying to do."

For her part, Livingstone recalls that it was freezing cold during the shoot. ""I had to get up at about 4 o'clock in the morning," she remembered. "Keith was rushing around with dry ice, throwing it into the water. It didn't seem to be working very well, so he ended up using a smoke machine. It was just, 'Stand there and do that.' I'm sure he said it was for Black Sabbath, but I don't know if that meant anything much to me at the time." Indeed, when she finally heard Sabbath, she was not a fan.

So what is Livingstone up to now? As it turns out, she makes her own music: not stoner doom, but ambient electronic music under the name Indreba. Listen to some of her tracks below.

louisa_portrait_400x400.jpg, Twitter @louisaliving
courtesy of Twitter @louisaliving