Visual Puzzles & Answers: The Viktor Hertz Rock Pictograms for Beatles, Stones, Dylan and More
While the infographics I often feature on this site intend to make data easier to consume by employing clever visuals, this set of graphics proves that it’s equally fun to use visuals to obscure meaning.
Designer Victor Hertz has created some rock music pictograms that do just that for the songs of David Bowie, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. What emerged is a bit of a puzzle — and the “aha” moment of realization of one of the more difficult is extremely satisfying. Five months in the making, he describes the effort as his “most ambitious, and maybe also the best, personal work I’ve done so far.” You can purchase these as posters or simply make a donation to fund their printing. I definitely encourage the support of this incredible work.
Additionally, I invite you to join me in trying to decipher the pictograms. It takes a combination of musical knowledge and “outside-the-box” thinking. As I publish this for the first time, I believe I have identified 75 of the 234 songs depicted across the eight graphics. I have also confirmed my knowledge of the Beatles (20 songs identified) and come to the realization that I have a huge gap in my music knowledge as it pertains to Iggy Pop (0).
I’m interested in seeing how well The Barn community can do in solving these riddles. Check the answer page for my attempt at solving (I fully admit, some may be incorrect). Feel free to correct me or add additional answers in the comments below, on our facebook page or on twitter. I’ll update this post occasionally with any new solutions that I get from the crowd.
Comments
Pages: 1 2
The baby is “Baby it’s you”, the eye with a person inside is “Tell me what you see”, the van is “Magic mistery tour”, the speech balloons is “Do you want to know a secret” and the female symbol with a crown is “Her magesty”.
It’s “I’ll follow the sun” , not “here comes the sun”.
here’s some other for Dylan:
tv talkin’ song
got blood in my eyes for you
down the highway
moonlight
thunder on the mountain
shot of love (btw, that’s a silhouette of a cylinder to a revolver)
ballad in plain d
Had A Dream About You, Baby
father of night
pressing on
dead man, dead man
country pie
ain’t talkin’
diamond joe
two soldiers
in the summertime
others that may be wrong:
Black Crow Blues (bird)
My Back Pages (paper)
7 days (calendar)
Disagree with Biell on a few. I think the baby is “Little Child” (because it’s a child and you need a magnifying glass to see it). The speech balloons are most definitely “No Reply” not “Do You Want to Know a Secret.”
Hi, here are some answers on Bruce Springsteen:
The ball with a chain is probably Wrecking Ball, not Shackled and Drawn.
Others songs missing from your list:
Walk like a man (little man right below the hungry heart)
You can look but you better not touch
Two faces
Meeting across the river (?)
I’m going down (?), is right of Candy’s room
Two hearts
Tougher than the rest
the shopping cart with the heart is “cant buy me love”
the guy climbing is “the fool on the hill”
the black eye with the little person is “i’m looking through you”
the guy with the arrow and the sun is “i’ll follow the sun”
the sun with the crown iws “sun king”
Beatles:
The bird might also be “And your bird can sing” cause of the musical notes coming out of it. But I think it is, at the same time, Blackbird.
Btw, what’s that black thing above Maxwell’s Silver Hammer? Can’t figure that out..
For the Beatles, the sideways tree is “Norwegian Wood,” the calendar is “Eight Days a Week,” and the one with the couple and the car is “Baby, You Can Drive My Car.”