Cover Story – Nina Simone’s “Let It Be Me”, cover by Sherry Barnett

October 15, 2007 by Sugartune

All images Copyright 1987 and 2007 Sherry Barnett – www.sherrybarnettphotography.com

Subject – Nina Simone – Let It Be Me – released in 1987 on Verve/Polygram Records, with cover photography by Sherry Barnett.

My wife and I had the good fortune of seeing Nina Simone at the Vine Street Bar & Grill in Hollywood a number of years ago, and so when I was going over the details of my interview with photographer Sherry Barnett, some vivid memories flooded into my head about my experience there. It was a small – very small – club that had room for perhaps 80 people (including those crammed in at the bar), and yet Ron (the owner) managed to book some of the best and biggest acts to come and play there. The place was “cool”, and it had a vibe that musicians and club patrons both just wanted a part of.

What makes this Cover Story so special for me is that it is the first one that is about an artist and a time and place that I have personal experience of. Of course, I’ve seen some of the other musical acts that have been featured on other covers, but in most cases it was after the fact (like seeing Pink Floyd well after they had released Dark Side of the Moon). In this case, I was part of that scene, going in to the Vine Street venue (after seeing a performance at the nearby temporary Ahmanson Theater) for a cocktail and to hear who was playing (and, often times, it was Nina Simone).

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Cover Story – Frank Zappa’s “We’re Only In It For The Money”, cover by Jerry Schatzberg

October 9, 2007 by Sugartune

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All images Copyright 1968 and 2007 Jerry Schatzberg – www.jerryschatzberg.com

Subject – Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention – We’re Only In It For The Money – Released in 1968 on Verve/Bizarre Records, with cover photography by Jerry Schatzberg.

Sticking with out “psychedelic” theme another week, this week’s Cover Story is on one of the best from the era – Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention’s fantastic spoof of everything and everyone involved in making (and promoting) that genre’s music titled We’re Only In It For The Money. Using an overall style of songwriting that would serve for many years as Zappa and The Mother’s trademark – sparing no subject, touching on all aspects of that subject that made it a joke in the songwriter’s mind, and then delivering this material via bound-to-be-censored lyrics, memorable melodies and with superb musicianship and studio craftsmanship – this record made more people laugh uncomfortably than any other I know of (until the Sex Pistols released Never Mind The Bullocks… 10 years later.

The record parodied everything that the Hippie/Flower Power movement stood for and used as its symbols – from songs such as “Who Needs the Peace Corps” , “Flower Punk”, “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance”, to the finale of “The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny” – and was Zappa’s conscious effort to get the youth of the day to stop a minute and look at how silly everything was. After The Beatles had released their widely-praised concept record Sgt. Pepper’s, Zappa wanted to show the world both that he’d mastered many technical aspects of the modern recording studio and that, perhaps, some of the widely praised concepts were, in fact, nonsensical, superficial and often meaningless in the long run.

The record did have some decent commercial success, hitting #30 on the Billboard Album charts in 1968, but it has had its greatest impact when viewed historically by fans of rock music. Rolling Stone Magazine included it in its “Top 100 Albums” list in its 20th Anniversary issue in 1987, commenting on how mercilessly – and with great talent – a band from that era could spoof its musical brethren of the time (it also came in at #296 on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the “Top 500 Albums of All Time”).

Of course, one of the most-memorable aspects of the record was the packaging. Here again, The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper’s stood for what was in vogue at the time, and so Zappa and his crew felt that it was important to use their newly-famous imagery as a starting point for their parody. Famed photographer and (film-maker) Jerry Schatzberg was called in to aid in this “homage to the collage” of Sir Peter Blake and Michael Cooper, creating the first of what would be many parodies of that work (I particularly liked the one done on The Simpsons in the 90s). How it all came together is addressed in today’s Cover Story….

In the words of the photographer, Jerry Schatzberg (interviewed September, 2007) –

“I had shot a photograph for the Rolling Stones in drag for the U.K. release of their single “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?”. Zappa had seen that and after seeing the cover of Sgt. Peppers, he had the idea the he wanted to do a spoof of that image, with the principals in drag. I had met Zappa a couple of times before that, but we’d never worked together, so I was intrigued when I was told that this was going to be the cover of his next record.

We had a couple of weeks to produce this, and keeping the Sgt. Pepper’s cover in mind – with its elaborate costumes, flower-filled foreground, and its amazing cast of celebrity guests who were featured on the cover, both of our staffs set out to find the clothes, the props and some “celebrities” who would be part of the final composition.

We all agreed that it’d be very funny if we’d use fruit and vegetables and other junk in the foreground (instead of flowers), and since both of us knew Jimi Hendrix, we asked him to take part (you’ll find a real-live Jimi Hendrix on the far right-hand side of the shot, the second person to the right of Zappa, who’s posed in a mini-skirt). Zappa and his record company then decided on the rest of the background imagery and then a series of photos were taken. I submitted all of my tests over the two weeks and then the final one was selected. No special effects or lenses were used – the final photograph contains just the props and the people you see. Everyone was very happy with the results.”

On the original Sgt. Pepper’s record package, the collage was the cover, a photo of the band with Paul standing with his back to the viewer (“Paul Is Dead?”) was on the back cover, and the inside gatefold image (quite strange for a single LP) showed the band in costume on a bright yellow background, spread across both panels. For the Zappa version, we shot a back cover photo of the band with only one member facing the viewer, and then a gatefold portrait of the band – in costume/drag – standing in front of a bright yellow background.

When the record was first released, a lot of the songs were censored, and so the record company decided to make changes to the packaging, too, and basically turned the package inside-out, with the gatefold image presented as the front cover and the collage on the inside. Years later, when the record was re-released on CD, the original cover was returned to its proper position.

About the photographer, Jerry Schatzberg –

Born In the Bronx, New York in 1927, Jerry attended the University of Miami, and then worked as assistant to Bill Helburn (1954-1956), after which he left to start his career as a freelance photographer. His fashion and portrait photography has been published in magazines such as Vogue, McCalls, Esquire, Glamour, Town and Country, and Life. He was also in demand by the record companies as a photographer and was the one who shot the famous cover photo image (as well as the other photos used on the record sleeve) for Bob Dylan’s 1966 LP Blonde on Blonde. His cover photo portfolio also includes Sonny & Cher’s Wonderous World of Sonny & Cher, The Rascals’ Young Rascals, Wilson Pickett’s Midnight Mover, and others for Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin, Carmen McRae and many others. In 2006, Genesis Publications released a limited-edition collection of Schatzberg’s photos of Dylan entitled Thin Wild Mercury.It was his portrait photography that taught him how to deal with actors. He realized that most people feared the photographer’s lens. To relax them, he would spend as much time with them as possible, not only to know them better, but to see beyond the surface and discover their true self – the one they hid from the outside world. Most of his great portraits of the sixties – Bob Dylan, Francis Coppola, Andy Warhol, Arlo Guthrie, Roman Polanski, Fidel Castro, Milos Forman, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones and many more – reveal these moments of truth.

By not giving specific directions to his photographic models Schatzberg gave them rein to find the moment. It is the same way he gets actors to reach inside. In many ways his photographic style is much closer to that of Andre Kertesz or Henri Cartier-Bresson than to the more-contemporary Irving Penn or Richard Avedon. Instead of the self-contained space of the frame, he looks for the space beyond. His photographs are narrative; they tell a story. In an instant they recognize an action, a gesture, an emotion while at the same time they have a rigorous formal pattern that expresses their meaning. The style however, never manifests itself ostentatiously and never encroaches the fluidity of life.

After expanding into directing TV commercials, he made his debut as a film director in 1970 with “Puzzle of a Downfall Child”, the story of a fashion model. Schatzberg then scored with his second directorial effort, the gripping, finely acted “The Panic in Needle Park” (1971), a bleak study of heroin addiction starring Al Pacino. Pacino co-starred with Gene Hackman in Jerry’s next film, “scarecrow” (1973), which was a moody tale of two drifters which in many ways is an apotheosis of 70’s alienation and confusion. Schatzberg was one of the leading protagonists in the Hollywood Renaissance that struck critics and film-goers alike at the beginning of the 70’s. Perhaps significantly, Schatzberg’s critical following in the United States rose and fell with the 70’s; after 1979’s “Seduction of Joe Tynan”, the trend in Hollywood shifted from small introspective films to the Spielberg/Lucas blockbuster mentality.

Jerry Schatzberg never lost his European devotees, as witnessed by the international success of 1989’s “Reunion”. He also directed 1995’s Lumiere et Compagnie with Sylvia Miles and Rob Cea and 2000’s The Day the Ponies Come Back with Burt Young and Guillaume Canet. He’s been nominated for 4 Golden Palm Awards at Cannes (winning one for “Scarecrow” in 1973 and serving on the jury in 2004) and continues to work on projects – writing books and screenplays – to this day.

Ed. note – I’d like to extend a special “thank you” to Florence Annequin, Assistant to Jerry Schatzberg, for her help with this article.

To see more examples of Jerry Schatzberg’s work, please visit his Web site at:
http://www.jerryschatzberg.com

To see more examples of psychedelic artwork in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please visit
http://www.rockpopgallery.com

About “Cover Stories” – Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

Every Friday and syndicated the following week on The Rock and Roll Report, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. – all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

We hope that you enjoy these looks behind the scenes of the music-related art business and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow fans about what role these works of art – and the music they covered – played in your lives.

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Cover Story – Pink Floyd’s “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, cover by Vic Singh

October 1, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – Pink Floyd – Piper at the Gates of Dawn – a 1967 release on Columbia Records (distributed in the U.S. by Capitol Records), with cover photography by Vic Singh.

2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the world’s introduction to the recorded music of Pink Floyd. Clubgoers in London had been treated to the band’s psychedelic blues and instrumentals – with 20 minute jams of “Interstellar Overdrive” and ground-breaking lightshows the highlights of a typical concert event – but it was their first singles, “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, released early in 1967, that introduced the song-writing capabilities of Syd Barrett to a wider listening audience. The singles had done pretty respectably in the U.K. charts and the band was keen on trying out new technologies in the studio. As it was that Barrett – the chief songwriter and singer – was also quite fond of LSD, it only made sense that their first full-length effort, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (whose title was adapted from a chapter in a fondly-remembered book – The Wind in the Willows – from Barrett’s childhood), would both employ these new technologies to craft songs and experimental musical tracks and also be altered by drugs to the point that they were considered “spacey” and “hallucinogenic” in nature.

While the record was a hit in the U.K. at the time (hitting #6 on their album charts), the record did not fare well here in the U.S. until it was re-released in the 70s, after the band’s popularity had soared due to the popularity of their subsequent albums and their touring with other psychedelic stars of the day – including Jimi Hendrix – and their appearances at many music festivals. Of course, Floyd fans are all aware of Syd Barrett’s rapid and disturbing slide into sickness – both mental and physical – that ultimately lead to his ouster from the band in 1968. After his departure and guitarist David Gilmour’s joining the band, Roger Waters took on the role of the creative lead and the band would go on to create a roster of rock classics, selling over 250 million records (!) world-wide. It wasn’t until many years later that rock critics and fans would revisit the band’s debut album and explore its many intricacies, with most fans and critics now in agreement that it deserves consideration as on of the most-important and influential psychedelic recordings of the rock era.

Pink Floyd has also been associated with a number of the best-known artists and illustrators throughout the years, including Storm Thorgerson/Hipgnosis (who created covers for Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and many others) and Gerald Scarfe (creator of the amazing imagery used for The Wall’s packaging and stage show). After they had reached a certain degree of fame (i.e., right after their first album), they did not appear on the cover of any other album, but in 1967, it was an “industry standard” to feature a photograph of the recording artist on the cover, and so London photographer Vic Singh has the distinction of having shot the image that turned out to be the only one that featured the band – and that featured the soon-to-be-sacked Syd Barrett. Vic, too, was interested in creating something unusual (and “psychedelic”) for this commission, and the result was an image that represented the “vibe” of the time exceptionally well. The “making of” this image is the topic of today’s groovy and gear fab Cover Story, so enjoy, you dig?

In the words of the photographer, Vic Singh (interviewed in September, 2007) –

In the mid-1960’s, I was a young established photographer and a member of the 60’s swinging “in-crowd”. I first met the Pink Floyd at an event – or happening as it was called in those days -under the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus in London. They were a new, unknown band and we all chatted for a while. They looked trippy and said they were making their first record album.

A few weeks after our meeting at Piccadilly, their manager (I can’t remember who called, but it was probably either Peter Jenner or Andrew King) rang me at my studio and asked me if I would like to shoot the album cover for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I agreed, and we fixed a date for a one day shoot in my studio. At that time, The Pink Floyd were a new band unsigned to any record label, and so there was no art director. I asked their manager if he or the band had any ideas for the album cover, the answer was “no”, and so it was left up to me to come up with ideas. I don’t know if the band had seen any of my work, and since I was not given much to work with visually, the inspiration would need to come from the music and the band’s image.

The band was psychedelic and their music was surreal and alien compared to other popular music of the time, so it needed a far-out image. Having to work with a small production budget (Colour labs for special effects were mega-expensive, and there was no technology like today), I decided to use a prism lens which George Harrison had given me because he could not find a use for it and I had not used it up till then, so it seemed like the perfect solution. All I had to do was screw it on my Hasselblad camera lens and the creative special effect would go straight on to the film.

The photo shoot was in my studio and was shot on a white background with flat, even electronic strobe lighting (i.e., a studio flash). I used my Hasselblad with an 80-mm lens and 2 1/4 square Kodak Ektachrome Daylight type film. As I had decided to shoot with the prism lens – which multiplied and softened some of the images – I also asked the band to bring colorful psychedelic clothes (fashionable at the time) which would stand out and provide us with more contrast as the prism lens tended to soften and loose contrast as it split the image. I don’t know how long it took the band to get the clothes together, but they arrived at the studio in the morning, put the coffee pot on, and sat around the studio chatting. There was a lot to chat about as London was buzzing – it was a time of love and peace.Finally, we decided to get on with the photos and the boys went to the changing room and started trying on the clothes. I first started with some test Polaroid shots, positioning them on the white background, which was a bit tricky as the prism lens multiplied each figure – they all overlapped each other! – so I had to get the figures positioned right or the whole thing looked like a mess. Syd got especially interested at this point and was quite intense, changing outfits and the positions of the band on the background and shooting tests on the Polaroid film with me.

(Above) Alternate takes from the session

When it was time for a lunch break, my assistant arrived with sandwiches, a couple bottles of Scotch and some joints – all quite enjoyable. After lunch, we put on some Piper music. I had a rather loud stereo system and the Piper sounds could be heard all the way down the street. With the music blasting away, we got into the session, shooting quite a few reels of film and finishing up around 6:00 PM. We had the films processed the next day and I delivered the photos the day after.They loved the photos and Syd got inspired to create the back of the album cover. It had been a beautiful day – as had the day before the shoot and the day after – I attribute it to Flower Power!

About the photographer, Vic Singh –

Vic was born in Lucknow, India, his father a son of Raja of Kalakankar, situated on the banks of The Ganges in northern India and his mother a daughter of a well-known Austrian society photographer in Vienna. He was sent to St. Christopher’s College in Letchworth, Hertfordshire as a young child and his mother decided to move to London.In his teens, he attended St. Martin’s College of Art in London and then got a job at Mayflower Studios as a junior assistant – delivering prints, sweeping the floor, making tea, etc. He then moved on to his first job as a photographer with Studio Five in London’s Mayfair, and a couple of years later, he opened his own photo studio called “Vic Singh Limited” also in Mayfair.

He worked for the fashion, advertising and music industries. Being a member of “the Swinging 60’s In-Crowd” from it’s formation, he had many acquaintances in the music industry. Besides photographing various independent artists such as Pink Floyd, Marc Bolan and others, he also worked for Chris Blackwell of Island Records with artists such as Jimmy Cliff, The Spencer Davis Group (Stevie Winwood) and others shooting PR, record covers and music video (16-mm b/w film), including The Beatles film ‘A Day in the Life’ (from Sgt.Pepper) for Apple Records.

In the last few years, Vic’s concentrated his efforts on the digital side of photography and video and is working in a new environment of the avant-garde music and fashion scene that is, at present, evolving in London.

To see more examples of Vic Singh’s work, please visit his Web site at:

http://www.vicsingh.co.uk

To see more examples of artwork related to Pink Floyd in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please visit http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/pink_floyd/list.htm

Every Friday and syndicated on The Rock and Roll Report the following Monday, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. – all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

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Cover Story – R.E.M.’s “Reckoning” & Talking Heads’ “Little Creatures”, covers by Rev. Howard Finster

September 24, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – R.E.M.’s Reckoning and the Talking Heads’ Little Creatures, with cover paintings done by the Reverend Howard Finster

The late Reverend Howard Finster (1916 – 2001) was one of the country’s most talked-about folk/outsider artists. In 1965, he said that he heard a voice from the Lord which told him to transform two acres of land in Summerville, GA into a “Paradise Garden.” Using junk, broken dolls, tools and clocks, he embedded these materials in concrete walls which surround both a 30-foot tower built of bicycle parts and his own church called “The World’s Folk Art Church.”

“Paradise Garden” was an ongoing project that expressed his religious convictions and creativity and he explained that he assembled the pieces for a purpose -”to mend a broken world.” In 1976, he had a vision of a tall man at his gate (the Lord) who directed him to begin painting “sermon art” because, “preaching don’t do much good – no one listens – but a picture gets on a brain cell.” The voice commanded him to paint this sacred art and to create individual paintings and portraits of personal heroes, religious and patriotic images and to pass on his spiritual messages to the world. Finster’s paintings have evangelical themes and inspirational images which come from his own interpretations of the Bible. Angels and saints as well as earthly characters are often portrayed, and all of his paintings contain witty, printed quotations known as “Finsterisms.”

Several of his paintings show how he was influenced by the imagery on postcards, popular magazines, cultural icons like Elvis Presley, historical figures and, of course, figures from the Bible. Some of his creations have joined the contemporary art and music world through his paintings for the album covers of the rock groups REM and The Talking Heads. Other artists to use Finster art on their record covers include Memory Dean, Pierce Pettis, and Adam Again.

Finster made art out of nail heads, gourds, bottles, cement, mirrors, plastic, snow shovels and even an old Cadillac. However, the majority of his works were usually made out of plywood or heavy canvas, with the works ranging in size from a few square inches to 8-9 feet in height. His art was original, innovative and expressive. In 1994, a portion of his Paradise Garden was installed as part of the permanent collection of Atlanta’s High Museum.

He believed he came from another world and is often referred to as “This Stranger From Another World.” Finster believed the more he painted, the more people he would save, and went on to create over 46,000 works of art. The works are presented in many forms, sometimes called “paintings in tongue,” visions of other worlds where people live in harmony. Finster had his visions for the future. “A day when one computer will run the earth and the final day when giant tidal waves will cover the world. And then the time will come for G-D to create men again – men like the Reverend Howard Finster.”

Chicago-based art gallery owner, Finster historian and owner/curator of the new Howard Finster Vision House museum (located directly across the road from Finster’s “Paradise Garden”) David Leonardis worked for a number of years with the Reverend (until his death in 2001) and spoke with him about “the making of” the two record covers he’s best-known for – R.E.M.’s Reckoning and the Talking Heads’ Little Creatures. He shared his insights with Cover Stories in a September, 2007 interview, highlight of which are detailed below…

On R.E.M.’s Reckoning – The Summerville, GA evangelical preacher and folk artist first gained national fame after collaborating on a number of projects with the Athens, GA – based rock band R.E.M.. Both Finster and the band had appeared in a documentary (released in 1987 and featured on MTV in both their Cutting Edge and 120 Minutes series) about the Athens, GA music scene by writer/director Tony Gayton titled Athens, GA: Inside/Out and, in 1983, the band chose to film the promotional video for their debut recording “Radio Free Europe” at Finster’s “Paradise Garden” compound. The following year, the band’s creative lead, singer Michael Stipe, collaborated with Finster on the painting for the cover of their second LP titled Reckoning. The relationship continued into their third record (Fables of the Reconstruction) as the band wrote the song “Maps and Legends” in honor of Finster.

Reckoning was the second studio album by the band, released in 1984 by Miles Copeland’s independent label I.R.S. Records to both critical acclaim and much improved record sales that their debut album (Murmur), reaching #27 in the U.S. and becoming the band’s first charting album (peaking at #91) in the U.K. Songs such as “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)”, “Pretty Persuasion”, “Time After Time”, “Little American” and “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” have gone on to become R.E.M. standards, and with Michael Stipe’s unique lyricism, singing style and intense stage presence emerging at this point, Reckoning has, over time, established itself as one of the most-influential records of the 1980s.

According to David Leonardis, “As an art student in the Athens, GA area, Michael Stipe had heard of Reverend Finster and his folk art church, and both were featured in the documentary film called Athens, GA: Inside/Out about the mid-1980s music scene in Athens, Georgia. As Finster recalled it, when Michael needed a collaborator for the painting for the cover of R.E.M.’s 2nd record (Reckoning), he came to Finster and started the work by drawing the outline of the snake that is at the center of the image. Howard then did the rest. I’m not exactly sure where the snake image came from – perhaps it was a sexual reference, or perhaps it was derived from Michael having seen the large ‘Snake Mountain’ that was found in the Paradise Garden, which was a cement sculpture Howard had done. R.E.M. used a similar snake-inspired design in creating a collectible bandana for fans, and also produced a poster for the band that featured Finster’s ‘Snake Mountain’.”

On the Talking Heads’ Little Creatures – The winner of the “Best Album of the Year” in 1985 in writer Robert Christgau’s annual “Pazz and Jop” poll for The Village Voice, the Talking Head’s Little Creatures (on Sire Records) found the band writing songs that were much more mainstream (though, in my opinion, no less unique and interesting) than some of their earlier records. Riding on the success of its well-received singles – “And She Was”, “Stay Up Late” and “Road To Nowhere” – and coming off of the commercial success of their Top 10 hit single/video (“Burning Down The House”) and the tour that was documented in the Jonathan Demme film Stop Making Sense, Little Creatures sold well and eventually went Platinum.David Leonardis recalls – “The Talking Heads commissioned a Finster painting for Little Creatures in 1985. There was a fine art dealer in Chicago (now in NYC) named Phyllis Kind who was Finster’s principal dealer and was also friends with David Byrne, so she acted as the producer/liaison and lead the project to create the painting. Howard had done a painting that showed himself holding the world on his shoulders, and that served as the basis for this new image. Howard received photographs of the band members and then incorporated their likenesses into the new composition. The final image was so different and appealing that it was later selected as ‘album cover of the year’ by Rolling Stone magazine. He went on to also design the covers for four Talking Heads singles, including ‘And She Was’ and ‘The Lady Don’t Mind’.

Years later, David Byrne and Finster finally met during a trip Howard took to New York (Finster addressed him as ‘David Burns’!). Byrne is an accomplished graphic artist himself (Ed. note – he was a graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design), and he owns the original painting and has it on display in his home.”

And while Howard Finster may have been responsible for introducing millions to folk art, he remained focused on spreading the word of God. He said of the Talking Heads album, “I think there’s twenty-six religious verses on that first cover I done for them. They sold a million records in the first two and a half months after it come out, so that’s twenty-six million verses I got out into the world in two and a half months!” (Finster 1989, p. 197).

About David Leonardis and the DLG Art Gallery –

At the height of the Recession in 1990, David Leonardis started collecting art. When he realized he wanted to collect more art than he could afford, he got a job working at a gallery. Eight months later, allied with artists Howard Finster, Chris Peldo, Glenn Wexler and Andy Kane, he turned a few profitable art sales into a commitment to own and operate the David Leonardis Gallery. Fifteen years later the Wicker Park (Chicago) gallery is at the forefront of 21st Century American art. In September of 2006, DLG expanded to another location in the prestigious River North Gallery district in order to reach an even broader demographic of art lovers. DLG also carries 19th century French lithographs and 20th century Contemporary, Pop, Folk Art and Photography and focuses on making people and corporations happy by selling them art. The DLG features an “Instant art collection” group show yearly. DLG suggests that you buy one of each of all artists exhibited.

http://www.dlg-gallery.com/index.html

To learn more about the new DLG-run Finster museum in Summerville, GA, please visit http://www.myspace.com/howardfinstervisionhouse

To see examples of Howard Finster’s record cover artwork available at RockPoP Gallery, please visit http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/howard-finster/list.htm

To see more examples of artwork related to R.E.M. and the Talking Heads in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please visit either/both of the following pages – http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/r.e.m./list.htm
http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/talking_heads/list.htm

Every Friday and the followinf week on The Rock and Roll Report, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. – all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

All images Copyright 2007 David Leonardis Gallery www.dlg-gallery.com
Except as noted, All other text Copyright 2007 – Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery (www.rockpopgallery.com) – All rights reserved.

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Cover Story – The Go-Go’s – “Vacation”, cover by Mick Haggerty

September 17, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – The Go-Go’s – Vacation – a 1982 release on I.R.S. Records (distributed in the U.S. by A&M Records), with cover art/photography by Mick Haggerty

In 1981, Southern California’s The Go-Go’s became first all-girl band of musicians/songwriters to have a #1 album on the Billboard Magazine Pop Charts with Beauty and the Beat. Their music conveyed a vibrant, fun-filled sense of the So. Ca. lifestyle, mixing rock, punk and surf music basics into an extremely radio-friendly package, as was well-demonstrated in their hits “We Got The Beat” (which had been released independently on Stiff Records) and “Our Lips Are Sealed”.

Signed to Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. records, home of The Police (and, within a short time, The Bangles, The Beat, The Buzzcocks, The Cramps, R.E.M, Timbuk 3, and a host of other acts), the band toured extensively, were nominated for a Grammy for “Best New Artist” at the 24th Grammy Awards (losing to Sheena Easton) and then continued on its hit-generating way with the release in 1982 of their follow-up record Vacation. While Vacation did not hit #1 again (rising as high as #8), it was home to a couple of well-loved singles, including “Get Up and Go” and “Vacation”, originally penned by bassist Kathy Valentine for the group she was in prior to The Go-Go’s and remade into the classic title track.

And while health issues, personality/creative conflicts and the disappointing sales of their subsequent records lead to the break up of the band in 1985 (although they have regrouped to do special performances – and released the critically-acclaimed “God Bless The Go-Go’s” record in 2001 – as well as continuing on with their solo careers), the band will always be remembered as one of the few bands of the era that truly enjoyed (and deserved) a broad-based appeal and throngs of fans world-wide.

One of the first truly multi-media artists on hire to the music industry, Grammy Award-winning designer Mick Haggerty was brought on to create an eye-catching package design for Vacation and, as he explains in today’s Cover Story, he used the opportunity to develop a concept that succeeded as the basis for a wide variety of promotional needs…

In the words of the artist, Mick Haggerty (interviewed September 2007) –

“I was a friend of Ginger Canzoneri (The Go-Go’s manager), as well as Mike Doud, who had art-directed their first record package. I saw the band play at Brendan Mullen’s club in Hollywood – The Masque – and met (lead singer) Belinda (Carlisle) one night with him.

I maybe have the chronology wrong, but I was also working for The Police around that time and I think that The Go-Go’s were the openers for their tour (ed. note – yes, they were!)… that is, they were the openers until they became more popular than The Police and half of the crowds were leaving before the headliners went on!

The basic idea for the cover was Ginger’s. We were both saturated in kitsch and Americana and both loved movies in which singers were filmed against obvious rear projections – like Elvis singing while he was surfing. I think she may have had a postcard of water skiers; we just started from there and let it snowball.

I had worked for A&M, their label, many times and they just let me loose to work directly with the band. Record companies around this time had only just realized that artwork and image actually effected sales, and I exploited that by presenting this image not as just an isolated cover but as a concept which could work in all media – video, press, merchandise, etc. Of course, this meant more fun and work for me, but it also pushed the promotional possibilities for the band and, if it all worked, we would all do well.

I researched the world of water skiing shows and soon found out that Cypress Gardens in Florida was known as “the best”. Since I wanted not only to shoot cover stills of the girls but also to film the backgrounds that would be used in making the video, the deal was sealed when I found out they had a camera boat I could use.

I knew I had to strip the bands heads onto the bodies of the girls I shot in Florida, so in order to get the Go-Go’s heads and someone else’s bodies to match, it meant I had to do some very careful measuring of everyone before I left. This in turn led to a quite bizarre moment when I arrived in Florida. No one there knew who The Go-Go’s were, but because they knew I needed to choose my skiers carefully, the Cypress Garden management had about sixty different women in swim suits lined up for my examination – many of them were just amazing!

But let’s be diplomatic here – I was not interested in their faces and I was not trying to match leggy bathing beauties or aqua athletes, but rather the band members who had more, lets say, “girl next door” bodies. I sheepishly got out my tape measure and ended up with a very odd choice of five girls, and the rest must have thought I was completely nuts. Luckily, the weather was fine, the sky was blue and we shot it all in one day, completing the rest of the shoot with the band on the West coast at the Charlie Chaplin stage at A&M.

I made the promotional video with C.D. Taylor, who was my partner on many video productions. We used all “old technology” – rear screen projection – not the ever-popular blue screen video. The film I had shot of the skiers was projected on to a screen from the rear as we filmed the girls – hamming it up with swimsuits, and doing their best lip-synching – in front. For the package cover shoot, I matched the lighting as closely as I could while I photographed their heads. These being the years of analog, the grain on the film had to match, so I ended up shooting from way up on the soundstage roof. We later made very saturated die transfer prints and retouched the hell out of it all for the final image.

They were great to work with and I liked them all. Looking back, it seem that there were very few problems – they were willing to try anything and, being at the start of their career, had nothing to protect or to argue about (things got more complicated down the road I think).

During one of the many breaks in the day’s activities, I remember the band and I walked out of the lot and strolled up the street and we all sat down on a bus bench on the busy corner of Highland and Sunset Blvd. and just smoked and talked and all the while with them dressing in their full tiaras and tu tu’s. This being Los Angeles, no one seemed to notice – just a few more weirdos in Hollywood.

Of course, as a designer, I went crazy with all the spin-off advertising and merchandise – we did everything from beach towels to disposable cameras. To this day, I think the package still looks like the music sounds.”

Interesting trivia bit from Mike G – “Vacation” was featured in Michael Moore’s hit movie Fahrenheit 9/11, serving as the soundtrack of footage of President George W. Bush enjoying a round of golf just prior to the 9/11 attacks.

About the artist, Mick Haggerty –

Mick Haggerty, with Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin and Kathy Valentine.

I interviewed the respected British designer, illustrator, art director, photographer and teacher just a few days prior to his leaving on a tour of Africa. Born in England, he lives, works and plays these days in Los Angeles. As a freelancer, as well as in his roles as the Art Director for Virgin and Warner Bros. Records, he has put together a hugely impressive list of accomplishments, developing memorable designs for a wide variety of musical artists. He has also influenced many of today’s best new designers in his role as chair of the Design Department at the Otis/Parsons School of Art & Design in the LA area. Here’s just a sampling of Mick’s well-known works and achievements:

Grammy Awards – In 1979, Mr. Haggerty won the award for Best Album Package (along with the late Mike Doud) as the art director for Supertramp’s Breakfast in America. And again in 1983, Haggerty, (along with Ginger Canzoneri – the GO-GO’s manager) was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album Package for The Go-Go’s Vacation

Other well-known artists/covers he’s created include:
David Bowie – Let’s Dance, Never Let Me Down and Tonight
The Police – Ghost In The Machine
ELO – Face the Music
The Goo Goo Dolls – Gutterflower
The Smithereens – 11
Stevie Winwood – Roll With It
Dave Mason – Let It Flow
Plus works for OMD, Disturbed, PiL, King Crimson, Richard Thompson, Roxy Music, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards, Aerosmith, Sammy Hagar, Roy Orbison, Boz Scaggs, the Violent Femmes and, recently, Josh Groban and Michael Buble’

To see more of Mick Haggerty’s work, please visit his website at http://www.mickhaggerty.com/

To see examples of his work in the RockPoP Gallery collection, click here.

To see other examples of artwork related to The Go-Go’s in our collection, click here.

About “Cover Stories” – Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

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Cover Story – Black Label Society – “Shot To Hell”, cover by Neil Zlozower

September 10, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – Black Label Society – Shot To Hell – a 2006 release on Roadrunner Records, with cover photography by Neil Zlozower

A band formed in 1999 by (at the time) former Ozzy Osbourne lead axeslinger and heavy metal guitar god Zakk Wylde, Black Label Society was, initially, a 2-man operation (including drummer Phil Ondich), with ZW playing all the other instruments. After a tour, another album and then a Second Stage slot on the Ozzfest tour in 2000, Wylde rejoined Ozzy’s band and has played in two bands ever since (sometimes, playing with both bands on the same day at Ozzfest).

Since that time, BLS has released new CDs and DVDs nearly every year that showcase Wylde’s songwriting abilities and musicianship, including the platinum-selling DVD Boozed, Broozed and Broken Boned, ultimately moving from Spitfire Records to metal powerhouse Roadrunner Records, who released 2006’s Shot To Hell, which featured a cover photograph that was either hilarious or sacrilegious, depending on your upbringing. Zakk’s long-time friend and member of the ZW inner circle Neil Zlozower was his co-conspirator responsible for the shot.

Beginning his career as a glorified fan, photographer Neil Zlozower (aka “Zloz”) spent as much time as possible in Hollywood record shops and concerts – bringing with him a Honeywell Pentax camera that he and his father bought in an East L.A. pawn shop and using phony backstage passes (“they didn’t have the big, fat bouncers then, so you could just buy cheap seats and walk to the front and sit there all night and shoot photos just for fun.”) – Zloz began his career as a photographer selling these photos at a record shop across from his high school, splitting the $1 he charged with the shop (he got 60%) and selling 60 photos his first month.

Since then, Zloz has gone on to become one of the most sought-after photographers in the business. He began working with Black Label Society lead guitarist Zakk Wylde when he first joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band in the late 1980’s and has photographed him ever since. He says that he’s honestly never met anyone in his life quite like Zakk, and so when he was approached to shoot the soon-to-be-controversial cover for BLS’s 2006 release Shot To Hell, he knew that he’d be in for quite a ride, as he details for us today in our latest “Cover Story”…

In the words of the photographer, Neil Zlozower (interviewed August 2007) –

“I first worked closely with Zakk alone when I was working on a photo shoot for Guitar World magazine in 1990 and had him over to my studio in Hollywood. Although he looks like he’s a die-hard bar-brawler dude, he is actually the nicest person in the world. Everybody loves Zakk – he’s the most honest guy there is – no lies or other B.S. (However, he does not seem to have any concept of time – he’ll just pick up the phone and call his friends whenever he feels like talking to you.)

One day, Zakk came to me with an idea for the cover of his new album Shot To Hell – something about nuns playing pool with the BLS logo-skull on the 8-ball – and we discussed it over some oysters and beer. Five or six months later, his wife Barbara called me and said that they wanted to go ahead with it. Now, since I’m the ‘executioner’ – the one that needs to take a client’s idea and make it happen – I wanted to better understand what he was looking for.

Zakk suggested that we get a bunch of really old women and dress them up in nun’s habits and have them play pool. I told him that I didn’t think that really old people would be able to handle a pool cue the right way, so we should get some 50-60-year-olds and a good make-up artist and do it that way.

The label had no say in the matter – they don’t know what looks good – and so we asked Zakk’s right-hand man ‘RA’ (Rob Arvizu), who also happens to be an artist and photographer, to be one of the judges as to whether we pulled it off or not. The next job was to find the right people for the cover shot.

We held a ‘cattle call’ for actors at my studio in Hollywood and about 20 older ladies and gentlemen showed up. We handed them a pool cue and asked them to make a bunch of different faces while I took photos of them. From this group, we selected the people we’d use and then Zakk and RA went to find the location we’d shoot at.

About a month later, we scheduled a full-day shoot at a bar off of the 14 Freeway in Santa Clarita (CA) called ‘The Rendezvous’ – this was a favorite place of Zakk/RA’s near where they both lived. We got there early to set the place up and then get the actors made up – which took a long time, from morning until about 3pm, and then we spent the rest of the day/night shooting (pictures and pool).

Besides the pool-playing final shot, we set up a lot of different scenes – nuns with shotguns, nuns drinking and carousing with guys made up as The Devil, nuns with really bad teeth smoking cigars, and drinking/smoking nuns playing cards. We took a lot of these images and used some of them in the fold-out booklet in the CD package. It was a very long day, but I think that we ended up with just the right shot for the cover.

You know, I’d been shooting Ozzy’s performances live in concert for magazines since Black Sabbath, so after Zakk joined Ozzy’s band in 1988, little did I know that eight years later, I’d have such a friend in him that I decided to name my own son Zak (only one ‘k’)!”

About the photographer, Neil Zlozower –

A fixture in the rock n’ roll photography business for more than 37 years, photographer Neil Zlozower has watched more than his fair share of rising stars from behind the camera.

Spending “quality time” with the likes of Whitesnake, Poison, Dokken, Motley Crue, Ratt, Gangstar, Extreme and Van Halen – as they made their way to the top of the charts – “Zloz” got to know the behind-the-music business of rock long before VH1. He is now one of rock’s most prolific photographers, with his work appearing in countless magazines and on the album covers of major artists including Alice Cooper, Slipknot, Nickelback, Eric Burdon, Steve Vai, Paul Stanley, and many others.

As part of Van Halen’s entourage, Zloz toured America with the band, becoming their primary photographer. He was their friend who had the intimate access to the band that no one else had. Whether on the stage of a football stadium, poolside at a Holiday Inn or at Diamond Dave’s dad’s house, Neil and his camera were there, and in everyone’s face..

Obviously, being a rock n’ roll photographer keeps him busy, but being “Zloz” is a full-time job. He shoots who he digs, so working with Zloz is not just working with a pro, it’s an official rock n’ roll endorsement. In his own way, he’s become as much of a Hollywood legend as the bands he’s worked with.

New Book Info – Internationally renowned independent publisher Chronicle Books, based in San Francisco, is pleased to announce the November 26, 2007 release of Van Halen: A Visual History.

Van Halen has sold 56 million records in the U.S. and 75 million worldwide. All eleven of their albums have broken the Billboard top 20, and four have hit number one. The band was among the top best-selling artists of all time and in 2007 Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band recently announced they were reuniting with the group’s original singer David Lee Roth for their first tour together in 20 years. To coincide with the tour, Chronicle Books is publishing the very first photo retrospective of the band, as seen through the lens of photographer Neil Zlozower.

From 1978 to 1984, rock photographer Neil Zlozower was the “fifth member of Van Halen”, touring, partying with, and capturing images of the band during the David Lee Roth era, a time when the band was at the height of its powers. His photos capture the all-out, spandexed, high-kicking, high energy, blazing glory and backstage antics of the band as they became legends, and helped solidify their image as the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll party band. This visual history collects more than 250 live, session, candid, and backstage photos from Zlozower’s behind-the-scenes perspective, along with testimony from the rock pantheon paying homage to the band, including members of Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, KISS, Mötley Crüe, Slipknot, and many more. The book also includes an exclusive peek inside the band with a foreword by legendary frontman David Lee Roth.

Van Halen: A Visual History – Available 11/26/07 – Hardcover * $35 * 232 pp * 260 color images * ISBN 0-8118-6304-9 * November

To pre-order an AUTOGRAPHED copy of the book, please visit – http://www.zloz.com/vhbook.htm

For more information about this and other Chronicle Books, visit www.chroniclebooks.com.

To see more of Zloz’s work, please visit his website at http://www.zloz.com

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Cover Story – Stevie Ray Vaughan – “Real Deal: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1?, cover by Robert M. Knight

September 3, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – “Stevie Ray Vaughan – Real Deal: Greatest Hits, Volume 1” – a 2006 release on Epic Legacy Recordings, with Cover Photography by Robert M. Knight.

The story of Dallas, TX born and bred guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan is legendary – a story of an incredibly gifted musician’s life of inspiration, discovery, fame, addiction, recovery and redemption, and then an untimely death. Like Hendrix before him, guitarists all over the world watched in amazement as the axe-master from Texas channeled the spirits of the blues and rock’n’roll to develop a blazing style of playing that was all his own.

A 1982 performance of his band Double Trouble at the Montreaux Festival caught the eye of David Bowie, who asked Stevie Ray to play on his new album Let’s Dance. This was quickly followed by a record deal with Epic and the release of the band’s first album, the chart-busting Texas Flood. That record was followed up by a quick succession of others (Couldn’t Stand the Weather and Soul to Soul), along with the band’s embarking on a relentless tour schedule. This continued until 1987, when Vaughan’s drug and alcohol use caught up with him and he checked himself into rehab. After this much-needed break, the band continued to tour (although at a slower pace) and then released their most-successful album – the Grammy-winning In Step – in 1989. In the spring of 1990, Stevie Ray and his brother Jimmie (of Fabuous Thunderbirds fame) recorded an album (Family Style) which was scheduled for release in the fall of the year. Then on August 26, 1990, after the band played an Alpine Valley, WI show (which featured a “guitar superstar” encore jam of “Sweet Home Chicago” played with brother Jimmie, bluesman Robert Cray, and SRV’s guitar idols Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton) on a warmly-received American tour, the 35-year-old Vaughan boarded a helicopter headed for Chicago. Minutes later, the helicopter crashed and killed Vaughan and 4 other passengers.

In 2006, after a string of posthumously-released recordings, Sony’s Legacy division put out a remastered and updated 16-track retrospective of SRV music titled Real Deal: Greatest Hits – Vol. 1 and went to well-known SRV photographer and friend Robert M. Knight to find just the right image to grace the cover. Robert was the only photographer on hand that night in Wisconsin and took the last photos of SRV in performance and prior to his boarding the helicopter. Reaching back into his archives also brought back a flood of memories – some happy and life-affirming; others quite painful – when he chose an image for this package from another concert in 1990 where he’d caught SRV “in the light”. Robert recounts some of the details of his relationship with Stevie Ray, the photos he took of him that fateful night, and more in today’s edition of “Cover Stories”…

In the words of the photographer, Robert M. Knight (interviewed August 2007) –

“There was a point that night that Stevie wanted me to come back to Chicago with him to go see Buddy Guy play. I did not like the idea of flying at night in helicopters as they do not have any sort of radar, so I didn’t go.

A guest in the hotel room I was staying in had set the alarm clock to turn on a news station, and the next morning I awoke at 9AM with the news about the crash. Soon my phone started to ring with calls from magazines that wanted my photos from the night before to illustrate their stories. However, Stevie was my friend and I could not bear to have my images of him used alongside of photos of a helicopter crash. I sat on them for two years before I let them be used.

As for this particular shot, I had just come off working with Sony/Epic on the re-release of Jeff Beck’s 1969 album Beck Ola, where the label had used about 12 of my shots done in 1968 for that package. When we finished the project, Sony asked who else I might have in my archives as they were working on many re-releases of classic albums. About 80% of my album projects have been when the labels are looking for good shots that have already been done. Once they see what’s in your archive, they call back over and over for other projects.

I had been working with Stevie Ray since 1989, when I photographed many dates on the Stevie Ray/Jeff Beck tour. I also shot several magazine covers during pre-production at Prince’s Paisley Park in Minneapolis and got to know Stevie very well.

This image of Stevie on stage in Minneapolis was one that had been fooled with early on using a process I developed in the late 60’s using “Kodalith” film in special chemicals that prevent the silver halide from linking together – giving the illusion of blackness – but the dark areas are actually made up of the actual grain of the film.

I only got to know Stevie when he was sober. A lot of time, he would come into Los Angeles, give me a call and we’d just hang out and talk. Stevie basically died of drugs and alcohol 6 years earlier in Switzerland and after rehab he became sober and came back to life and was walking, I feel, “in the light”. Whenever I photographed him, I tended to get shots of Stevie in “The Light”.

Over the years, I have done many album projects with Jeff Beck, Robert Cray, John Lee Hooker and have also done many dozens of magazine covers with every one in rock and roll. Currently, we are in production of a major documentary on my life and work by producer Tim Kaiser (Will and Grace/Seinfeld) and will cover a lot of the Stevie story as part of the project. I’d seen a true ‘guitar legend’ in Stevie, so it was great to have this image of him on the cover of this ‘Greatest Hits’ record – he was my friend and ‘the real deal’.”

Editor’s note – After his death, then Texas governor Ann Richards declared his birthday – October 3rd – as “Stevie Ray Vaughan Day” in Texas and there’s been a fund-raising concert (for the SRV Memorial Scholarship Fund) each year in Central Texas to commemorate this date. http://www.srvrideandconcert.org/

The city of Austin also commissioned and unveiled a statue of SRV (which is now a popular tourist attraction that stands in Lady Bird Lake park) and Fender Guitar has issued 2 different commemorative (and hot-selling) models of his best-known guitar – his beat up ’59 Stratocaster known as “Number One”.

Later this year, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of SRV & Double Trouble’s debut at Montreaux, Epic will be releasing a newly-remastered re-issue of the 1990 DVD package titled Pride and Joy that, according to the label, “has been updated, upgraded (to new Stereo and 5.1 surround-sound mixes), and expanded to more than twice its original length. The new DVD edition of Pride and Joy reprises the original eight segments, and now adds a bonus promo video clip (“Little Wing”), three acoustic numbers from the original MTV “Unplugged” series, two television commercials, and performances with Stevie Ray’s older brother Jimmie in the Vaughan Brothers (along with the EPK created for that band). The new 17-track DVD will arrive in stores November 6th on Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.”

About the photographer, Robert M. Knight –

Raised in Hawaii, and now based on the West Coast, Robert is a long time advertising photographer who also specializes in the Rock’n’Roll music industry. His career spans from 1968 to the present. Constantly working in the music industry for international record companies, publications and musical equipment manufacturers, Robert is best known for his “Guitar Legend” archive, having worked with such “classic” artists as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton and such contemporary artists as John Mayer, Steve Vai, and Maroon 5. His limited-edition prints are represented by the prestigious Limelight Agency (www.limelightagency.com).

Robert is also part of Guitar Center’s “Hollywood RockWalk” team, working alongside RockWalk director Dave Weiderman. Robert and partner Maryanne Bilham have an exhibition of 10-foot-tall photos on the outside of the more than 200 Guitar Centers around America., making it one of the largest outdoor gallery shows of original photographic art.

Robert has published several books, including 50 Rock Guitarists (1995 Shinko Music) and Hollywood’s RockWalk – The First Decade (1996) and was part of the 1996 book Led Zeppelin – The Photographers. His most-recent venture is an artistic collaboration called “RockMachine” – an entity that produces fine art and design for the rock culture.

In July, the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas honored Robert and guitarist Slash by dedicating a case of memorabilia on the main casino floor, which was then followed by a dinner party for 50 rock celebrities and friends at Kerry SIMONS restaurant. Billy Morrison (The Cult, Camp Freddy) jetted in as host DJ. The party continued at Body English with a audio/visual retrospective of Robert’s career as a top rock photographer.

To view Robert’s archives and purchase prints of his best-known images, please visit -www.nikonrocker.com

Every Friday and syndicated on The Rock and Roll Report the following week, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. – all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

All images Copyright 1990 & 2007 Robert M. Knight www.nikonrocker.com
Portions of text Copyright 2004 Robert M. Knight
All other text Copyright 2007 – Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery (www.rockpopgallery.com) – All rights reserved.

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Cover Story – Queen – “Queen II”, art direction and photography by Mick Rock

August 28, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – Queen II – a 1974 release by Queen on EMI/Elektra Records, with Art Direction, Cover Design and Photography by Mick Rock.

Mick Rock’s cover photo for Queen’s 1974 recording has the distinction of being an image that both served to establish the band’s unique “class act” image and, later on, provided the setting and inspiration for the video production that convinced record labels and music fans that “the music video” could be much more than simply “promotional”.

Queen II was the second album by the band and featured two different themes – their “white”/emotional side (side A) and their “black”/fantasy side (side B) – as well as their individual and collaborative songwriting and performing abilities. And while not a commercial success when compared to later releases (while it was their first Top 5 album in the U.K., it only reached #49 on the U.S. album charts and did not “go gold” until many years later), it showed the band maturing and a new confidence in their abilities to produce over-the-top glam/prog songs and still rock with the best of them. They certainly were not trying to be a “pop” band – only one song (“Seven Seas of Rhye”) even attempted to serve as a “pop single” – but it set the basic formula and dramatic tone for the next records, starting with Sheer Heart Attack later in 1974 and then A Night At The Opera (which featured the aforementioned music video – for the epic “Bohemian Rhapsody”).

Photographer Mick Rock had a feeling about this young band and their approach towards their music, their image, and how the two could be artfully combined to show just how special they were. They knew that, based on Rock’s success with Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and others, they’d found someone with the creative chops to establish their “look” from that point forward. How did he do it? Let’s let him tell you in this edition of Cover Stories…

In the words of the photographer, Mick Rock (interviewed August 2007) –

“One day in the late summer of 1973, while recording ‘Pinups’ with Bowie, David’s co-producer/engineer, Ken Scott, told me that there was a new band who was very interested in working with me. They were signed to a production company, Trident Audio Productions, who also owned Trident Studios in London where Ziggy Stardust and Transformer, among many other classic albums, were recorded. Ken Scott, was also managed by Trident. They were virtually unknown at the time (I didn’t know anyone who’d heard of them). They told me that they were especially impressed with the work I had done with Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, and so I agreed to meet with them.

Later that year (in October 1973), we met in the board room at Trident Studios. Their first album Queen had been released and had garnered little interest. They wanted to grab some of the ‘glam’ allure that was the hot image at the time. It was almost certainly Freddie’s idea. And of course I had all the right credentials!! They were very articulate and confident and when they played me the Queen II acetate I understood why – it was a unique and powerful sound. ‘Like Ziggy Stardust meets Led Zeppelin,’ was my immediate response. And that was what they wanted to hear from my mouth – I’d ‘gotten it’ immediately – it was ‘the sound of success’! So the game was afoot. They needed two things from me – a publicity session to try to help their first album get some attention, and then a package for their new album. The publicity photo session took place in December of ’73, and then it was on to the cover for Queen II. As was often the case in those days, I served as both the art director and the photographer for the Queen II cover (no one got paid very muck for either job back then, so it made sense to do both if I could!). The band’s brief to me was: it had to be a gatefold cover (those were the days!!), it had to have a black and white theme and it had to feature the band. After that I was on my own.

From the power of the music and the palpable ambition of the band I knew that the image had to have a ‘grand’ quality. I really only came up with one basic idea. I had recently come across a photo of Marlene Dietrich on the set of Shanghai Express with her arms crossed, fingers spread. I showed it to Freddie and he got it immediately and corralled the rest of the band. This would be the ‘black’ image. Of course there was also the ‘white’ image, and we shot both on the same day (there was no budget to shoot a second day!).

It was just the band and me. No one else was needed. They were very strong-minded, and even though they hadn’t sold many records, they were masters of their own destiny and insisted on doing it their way from the start. I had to make sure I had clean black and white seamless paper. I had an assistant and a makeup artist and the band bought or brought their own black and white clothes. Everything else was about lighting and composition.

It did take a few Polaroids and a lot of adjusting to get the angle and the band’s heads lined up in the right way to achieve the required effect and Queen were a very lively (if inexperienced) band. This was only their second ever studio session (after the publicity shoot I had done in December so they did have some experience of working with me ); they already knew that I was a fan of their music. I took a lot of frames in both black and white and color film, though of course it was the color ones that ended up on the cover.

The tricky part was the politics of deciding which image would go on the outside of the cover and which would go on the inside. This was left open when we actually did the session. For a while afterwards Brian, John and Roger were leaning towards the ‘white’ one. They were somewhat concerned that the obvious power of the ‘black’ one would leave them open to criticism that it was ‘pretentious’ since they were a virtually untested band. As I recall this was a word that one of the few critics who had bothered to review their first album had applied to their music and it bothered the three of them somewhat. But not Freddie. He and I were firmly and unshakably in the ‘black’ camp from the start! And as seemed to be the case for most things visual about the band in those early days, Freddie could always armtwist the others in the final analysis. ‘Pretentious’ was not a word that could scare Freddie!

The management and record company had no involvement at all in the process, and we didn’t show them anything or even describe it to anyone. There were no comps or sketches. They were going to have to use what we came up with. The band was not at all interested in their comments. They trusted me and their own instincts. It was entirely their decision to work with me. Because of my own rising star at the time I don’t think anyone had any objection, but the band wouldn’t have cared if they did!!

As Brian May says in the introduction to our beautiful photobook Killer Queen, ‘We were full of ideas and precocious enough to want to control everything. But in Mick Rock we had found our match, our foil, stocked with his own ideas and his own matching stubbornness.’”

About the photographer, Mick Rock -

Often referred to as “The Man Who Shot the Seventies”, legendary rock and roll photographer Mick Rock first met David Bowie in early 1972. Most of the memorable images of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust were shot by Mick Rock in his capacity as Bowie’s official photographer.

Rock was instrumental in creating many other key rock ‘n roll images such as album covers for Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, Lou Reed’s Transformer and Coney Island Baby, Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power, Queen’s Queen II (recreated for their classic music video ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) and Sheer Heart Attack, the Ramones’ End of the Century and Joan Jett’s I Love Rock ‘N Roll. He was the chief photographer on the films The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus. He also produced and directed the seminal music videos for Bowie to be found on Bowie’s Sound and Vision DVD collection: ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’, ‘Jean Genie’, ‘Space Oddity’, and ‘Life On Mars’.

Mick’s massive (186 prints) 2003 retrospective exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography was dubbed ‘one of the finest collections of pop art to ever reach these shores’ in the local press. Mick Rock’s enthusiasm for his art has remained undimmed and he has continues to capture the musical spirit of succeeding eras through his work with musicians of the 1980’s and 1990’s and the new millennium.

His 150 print exhibition at Manchester, England’s Urbis Cultural Centre (which ran from Sept 2005 to Jan 2006) was voted Manchester’s # 1 exhibition for 2005, and after reviewing it the London Times dubbed him ‘ the music world’s top snapper’. In the feature Mick, talking about how he shoots, is quoted – “I’ve never felt like a voyeur, although I’ve certainly done plenty of looking! I work from the inside out. Like a cook, I gather all the ingredients and keep mixing and stirring and tasting until this kind of effluvia starts to rise, then I’m off to the races. It’s an addictive kind of a feeling that I need a regular shot of otherwise I don’t feel right…”

He has had major exhibitions in London, Liverpool, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oslo, Stockholm and Rotterdam, with upcoming ones for 2008 in Milan, Paris, Adelaide and Helsinki.

His recent subjects include Michael Stipe of REM, Kate Moss, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Chemical Brothers, The Rapture, The Killers, Razorlight, The Libertines, Queens of the Stone Age, New Order, The Editors, the Magic Numbers, The Flaming Lips, Kasabian, The Scissor Sisters, Snow Patrol, The Fratellis, The Horrors, Mika, The Klaxons, Peaches, Franz Ferdinand, Fat Joe and old friends Bowie, Lou Reed and Debbie Harry.

In recent years, he has published a series of books, many based on his classic images, including: A Photographic Record 1969-1980 (Century 22 Books 1995), Glam: An Eyewitness Account with foreword by David Bowie (Omnibus Books, Spring 2006)), Psychedelic Renegades / Syd Barrett (Genesis Publications 2002), Moonage Daydream / Ziggy Stardust (with David Bowie)(Genesis Publications), Rock ‘n Roll Eye (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography 2003), Killer Queen (with Brian May and Roger Taylor) (Genesis Publications 2003), Picture This – Debbie Harry & Blondie with foreword by Debbie Harry (Omnibus Books 2004), Raw Power – Iggy & The Stooges with foreword by Iggy Pop (Omnibus Books 2005), Rocky Horror with foreword by Richard O’Brien (Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Autumn 2006) and Classic Queen (Palazzo Editions 2007)

Upcoming publication: Exposures – a 35 year retrospective (Palazzo Editions, Autumn 2008)

To see and buy the beautiful co-signed and slipcased limited-edition Killer Queen photobook featuring the photos of Mick Rock , please visit the Genesis Publications web site at www.genesis-publications.com

As mentioned above, Mick has a new book coming out in the U.S. at the end of September called Classic Queen. For more information on this item, please visit the Sterling Publications web site at www.sterlingpublishing.com

To see more Queen-related items in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please follow this link – http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/queen/list.htm?1=1

About “Cover Stories” - Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

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Cover Story – Elvis Presley – “50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong”, artwork by Bob Jones

August 22, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong: Elvis’ Gold Records – Volume 2 – a 1959 recording by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Records and featuring design and art direction by Bob Jones.

With the marking this week of the 30th anniversary of the untimely death of Elvis Presley, this week’s Cover Story will be presented in a slightly different format, with the details behind the making of this iconic record cover coming from a variety of different sources, most notably the descriptive literature produced along with a series of lithographs produced in the early 1990s by a now-defunct publisher called “Record Art”.

Released just prior to Elvis’ return from his stint in the Army, this record was the first “Greatest Hits, Volume 2” rock & roll compilation (with his first Greatest Hits album coming out in early 1958, just before he entered into his military service) and consisted of all five of his Top 5 singles released in ’58-’59 (both “A” and “B” sides). His records sold so well that even the “B” sides charted in the Top 40!

Included in the compilation were a number of songs that showed just how mature a performer he had become while still being able to rock the socks off his competition. All the more impressive was the fact that these songs were recorded while Elvis was in the Army (when the set was re-released in the late 1990’s, the re-mastered recordings improved the sound dramatically), so you’d think that he’d have been slightly distracted, but cuts such as “I Need Your Love Tonight” and “A Big Hunk of Love” proved that he’d be even more formidable once he was out of the Army and back in the studio.

According to Bob Jones, who served as art director for RCA Records for this (and many other) recordings – “To the best of my knowledge, Elvis was indifferent to his image and to the graphics on his covers…the overwhelming number of Elvis Presley’s album covers were produced according to a formula – a large color photo of his head; a bold, horsey hand-lettered ELVIS, a title and the repertoire. During my brief and infrequent visits with him, the subject of covers never came up. It was just another matter of business that The Colonel (Tom Parker) took care of.

For several years during his career, the sales of Presley product accounted for well over 20% of all of RCA Victor Records’ gross income. At the time, RCA had at least one hundred contract recording artists on the label, and my department was producing over 400 LP and 45EP covers each year. The ‘man behind the man’ was Colonel Thomas A. Parker, and he was a far more interesting and complex character than his artist. As the music and motion picture industry knew, he was an aggressively shrewd and calculating man. He sensed from the beginning that Elvis was “product”. The Colonel was a master of promotion, merchandising and exploitation.

Of the more than 70 combined LP and 45EP covers I was responsible for, the only departure from the Parker formula was the 50,000,000 Elvis Fans cover. My final stab at trying to bring a fresh look to Presley’s covers came when I took samples of some big name illustrators to the Colonel in L.A. I took portraits by Bob Fawcett, Austin Briggs, Al Parker, Victor Kalin and even young Andy Warhol. I had hardly started my pitch when it was brought to a screeching halt. ‘Damn it, I’ve told you I don’t want any of your artistic stuff!’ However, The Colonel had been unable to come up with a single gimmick to promote the album. He then gave me a picture of Elvis in a gold lame suit and told me to come up with something.

While Tom and Harry Jenkins – the RCA V.P. – started discussing merchandising schemes, I started making a few thumbnail sketches for a cover. The Colonel looked over to me and asked to look at what I had been doing. With barely a glance at the sketches, he chose the one with the full figure surrounded by the six or eight smaller ones. He said ‘That’s it, but I want at least a couple of dozen of the little pictures in there’. I later sent him a mechanical and he approved the image with less than two dozen figures (ed. note – there are 16 pictures of Elvis on the record cover).

The album sold well over $1,000,000 worth of product. The Colonel loved that gold lame suit. He kept it in one of his closets in his home for years. Elvis Presley hated the damned suit from the first time he put it on…”

The now-famous cover photo montage of multiple Elvises (or would that be Elvi?) dressed in his gold lame’ “Nudie Suit” – as well as the record’s title – has inspired many knock-offs record packages, including (in descending order) Bon Jovi’s 100 Million Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong, 1,000,000 People Can’t Be Wrong by Blues Traveler, 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong by The Fall, and Phil Och’s 50 Phil Ochs Fans Can’t Be Wrong!.

About the artist – Bob Jones -

Bob Jones – Art Director, RCA Records – won a Grammy Award in 1965 for “Best Album Cover, Photography” for Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts, an RCA recording featuring a shot by photographer Ken Whitmore. Other credits include covers for Hall & Oates (Rock ‘n Soul: Part 1 – Greatest Hits) and many other RCA artists. He is considered one of the early pioneers of LP/45 cover design, working at various points with other classic cover artists such as Jim Flora and Alex Steinweiss.

To see more of the Bob Jones lithograph that is available for sale at the RockPoP Gallery, please follow this link.

Every Friday, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. – all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

“Elvis” and “Elvis Presley” are Registered Trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

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Cover Story – The Eagles – “Hotel California” artwork by Kosh

August 14, 2007 by Sugartune

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Subject – “Hotel California” – a 1976 recording by The Eagles, released on Warner/Asylum Records and featuring designs, artwork and art direction by Kosh.

The follow-up to the successful 1975/early 1976 releases – the Grammy-nominated One Of These Nights and the huge-selling Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 – Hotel California was the first album to feature guitarist Joe Walsh, whose playing and song-writing influence brought the band from their more country-leaning efforts towards a more mainstream rock audience.

During the year and a half spent in the making of the record, drummer/singer/lyricist Don Henley emerged as the “featured player”, and much of the record’s tone and subject material reflected his commentary on success (and the excesses it can breed), love lost and just how strange life in California can be.

With their arena-rock-ready musicianship now well-honed (Don Felder and Walsh on guitars and Henley and Randy Meisner providing the rhythmic fundamentals), the band was now ready for the big time and Hotel California proved that they could create music that could both sell countless millions of albums (the record went platinum in 1 week!) and make a countless millions of fans in stadiums around the world cheer loudly as they sang aloud every word of every hit song. Hotel California won the Grammy in 1977 for Record of the Year and the songs “Life in the Fast Lane”, “New Kid in Town” and the epic “Hotel California” (which you can never leave) became enduring classic Eagles tracks.

As the designer of some of the most well-known album cover images in history, Kosh has always appreciated a challenge (and a nice production budget), and so when the Eagles’ manager and record label called looking for an image to properly illustrate the release of a record by a “new” Eagles band – and a band that needed no introduction – Kosh and his team braved the California winds in a death-defying effort that produced an iconic cover image and one very exciting Cover Story…

In the words of the designer, Kosh (interviewed July, 2007) –

“I had been designing album covers and promotional material in London for The Rolling Stones, The Who (Who’s Next?) and The Beatles (Abbey Road) at Apple and working closely with John Lennon on his ‘War Is Over’ campaign. Peter Asher was head of A&R at Apple Records at the time.

After a 6-month stint in New York, the family moved to LA in 1974 and I soon fell – with great enthusiasm – into the West Coast music scene. Heady times. I began working with Peter Asher again, who was now managing James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt in LA. This led me directly to Linda’s label – Asylum – and the Eagles. Irving Azoff, their manager, called me in to meet Don Henley and Glenn Frey (they were still friends at this point so the conversation was fresh and lively). Don Felder was also there, along with the amazing falsetto, Randy Meisner. It was a jolly affair – the Eagles were huge, enjoying hit after hit, and the California rock scene was burgeoning. Their producer and engineer, Bill Szymzyk, brought in an acetate of Hotel California – destined to be the first cut on, and the title of, their next album. It was an obvious hit.

For the album cover, Don wanted me to find and portray THE Hotel California – a hotel which would best-exemplify a classic ‘California hotel’, and to portray it with a slightly sinister edge. Photographer David Alexander and I set out to scout suitable locations. We photographed three hotels (including some with a rather ‘seedily genteel’ character) that fit the brief and large prints were made for approval. By now I was dealing mostly with Henley – the rest of the band would saunter in as we progressed and mutter their approvals – and he preferred more sumptuous images. The shot of the Beverly Hills Hotel against the golden sunset was deemed the favorite.

To get the perfect picture, David and I had perched nervously atop a 60′ cherry picker dangling over Sunset Boulevard in the rush hour, shooting blindly into the sun. Both of us brought our Nikons up in the basket and we took turns shooting, ducking and reloading. We used high-speed Ektachrome film as the light began to fade. This film gave us the remarkable graininess of the final shot.

Beautiful dye-transfer prints of the chosen frame were made by the great Ted Staidel. I designed and drew out the master Hotel California logo which was to become the theme of the package and the promotional materials. The script was almost impossible to bend in real neon and so, after many experiments, Bob Hickson was commissioned to airbrush the neon effect on the logo – which he did wonderfully – and it was pasted over the Beverly Hills Hotel sign on Ted’s print. The whole piece was then re-photographed, re-printed on the same stock as the original image and retouched to match the grain and hide the surgery.

Next we organized the gatefold spread – a photo of the band surrounded by friends in the hotel lobby. This was shot inside a cleverly re-decorated flop house, called The Lido, in Hollywood by David Alexander. Our combined rock ‘n’ roll friends were all invited. Nobody knows what the sinister figure lurking in the balcony window is doing – or who he is. I assume he must have been a benign spirit as Hotel California went platinum immediately (and then some!).

A lot of great talent contributed to this LP’s packaging. Photographer Norman Seeff was commissioned to shoot portraits of the band, which were arranged as a gritty black and white fold-out poster montage that was to be inserted in the package. Throughout the package (and the related promotional items), the graphics were carefully coordinated to retain the unique color and typographic schemes. It was, for its day, and expensive effort, but a very satisfying one.

It is interesting to note that I got tangled in the same heated debate with Asylum Records over the using of the band’s name on the cover that I had years earlier with EMI in London. I thought it unnecessary to use the words, ‘The Beatles’ on Abbey Road considering the album was so eagerly anticipated and The Beatles were the biggest band in the world at the time. Such was the case with Hotel California. By 1976 the Eagles were the biggest band in the world and eventually only the title, ‘Hotel California’ appeared on the original cover of the album.

Subsequently, as the sales of Hotel California went through the roof, lawyers for the Beverly Hills Hotel threatened me with a ‘cease and desist’ action – until it was gently pointed out by my attorney that the hotel’s requests for bookings had tripled since the release of the album.”

About the designer, KOSH –

As a designer and art director, KOSH became prominent in the mid-1960s with the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera. He met up with the Beatles towards the end of the decade and, as creative director at Apple Records, was responsible for design, promotion and publicity for The Beatles. His clientele expanded to cover the cream of the British rock bands including the Rolling Stones, the Who, and many others. He handled John Lennon’s crusades including the “War Is Over” campaign in 1969 and art-directed and produced the world-renowned Abbey Road and Who’s Next? album covers, among many others.

Kosh became well known in the London avant-garde art scene, designing and producing exhibitions, posters and books. After garnering several awards with the London Design & Art Directors Club, he was elected to the British Art Directors’ Jury before moving to Los Angeles in 1974. A seven-time Grammy nominee, Kosh won three of the coveted awards for his work for Linda Ronstadt (Lush Life, Get Closer and Simple Dreams). He served as faculty member of Otis Parson’s Institute of Art and on the Board of Governors of the National Recording Academy.

Kosh’s client roster has included Capitol Records, Tri-Star, Disney Studios, Fox Television, CNN, MCA, MGM, NFL (he designed the Super Bowl XXI logo), Disney, Sony Records and Warner Bros., Records. Artist clients include The Beatles, Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles (including Hotel California – voted No.6 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “100 Best Album Covers of All Time”), Humble Pie, Randy Newman, Pointer Sisters, Linda Ronstadt (Kosh has prepared all her graphics since 1974), Bob Seger, Electric Light Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Spinal Tap, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, 10,000 Maniacs, T. Rex, The Who and many others. A display of his more prominent graphics was exhibited at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum.

Susan Shearer and Kosh formed Ten Worlds Productions in 1995. Tenworlds achieved critical acclaim for their work on The Last Days of Kennedy and King for TBS and the ten hour documentary 100 Years -100 Movies for the America Film Institute and CBS. In 2006, Ten Worlds produced and directed DECLASSIFIED: The Rise and Fall of the Wall, which shed new light on the Berlin Wall for The History Channel.

Tenworlds is presently producing a 13 part series of DECLASSIFIED documentaries on subjects such as John Lennon, Fidel Castro, the Tet Offensive, Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Stalin and World War 1 for The History Channel, with Kosh directing. Aimed at younger audiences, these shows combine interviews with U.S. presidents, top echelon politicians and rarely seen archival footage, overlaid with innovative graphics and searing rock soundtracks. Ten Worlds is also in pre-production for a documentary celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Beatles’ Apple Corps.

To see more of Kosh’s work, please visit – http://www.tenworlds.com/.

To see more of Kosh’s images that are available for sale at the RockPoP Gallery, please follow this link – http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/john-kosh/list.htm?1=1

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