Cover Story Interview - Storm Thorgerson on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

Subject: Dark Side of the Moon - an illustration produced by Hipgnosis (Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, producers, with design by Storm Thorgerson and illustration by George Hardie) for the cover of Pink Floyd's 1973 Harvest/Capitol Records release titled "Dark Side of the Moon".

This album is Pink Floyd's commercial-meets-conceptual equinox. No.1 on the Billboard album charts in March of 1973, this recording went on to achieve a record 741 weeks (or 14 whole years) on the 'Top 200 Albums' chart. It is the longest-charting album ever (beating its nearest rival by five years), with well over forty million copies sold to date (one of the top-five best-selling LPs ever).

The album has been re-released a number of times on CD and in collector's edition vinyl record packages. The 1992 remaster was sold as the "20th Anniversary" box set and then, in 2002, a 5.1 channel Dolby Surround version - mixed from the original studio tapes - was released as the "30th Anniversary" edition. In 2003, a collector's vinyl version of the 30th Anniversary package was released which included reprints of the original poster, stickers, and Storm Thorgerson's new 30th Anniversary artwork.

In the words of Storm Thorgerson

"The idea itself was cunningly cobbled from a standard physics textbook, which illustrated light passing through a prism. Of significance was the simple, elegant layout against black - standard textbook illustrations did not do this. Also important to the art direction, was the fortuitous decision to listen to Rick Wright, who suggested we do something clean, elegant and graphic, not photographic - not a figurative picture. And then to connect this idea to their live show, which was famous for its lighting, and subsequently to connect this to ambition and madness, themes Roger was exploring in the lyrics... hence the prism, the triangle and the pyramids.

Of minor significance was the complete appropriateness of the artwork to the record. The design is simply a mechanical tint lay, which means we drew outline shapes, black on white, and indicated what colours were to appear when printed. The prisms were airbrushed black on white and reversed by the printer.

The refracting glass prism referred to Floyd light shows - consummate use of light in the concert setting. Its outline is triangular and triangles are symbols of ambition, and are redolent of pyramids, both cosmic and mad in equal measure, all these ideas touching on themes in the lyrics. The joining of the spectrum extending round the back cover and across the gatefold inside was seamless like the segueing tracks on the album, whilst the opening heartbeat was represented by a repeating blip in one of the colours.

Pink Floyd. in their infinite wisdom, perused our 7 complex detailed roughs for this cover in a drab basement room at Abbey Road - submissions over which we at Hipgnosis had toiled for weeks - but managed to decide within 3 minutes which one they liked. No amount of cajoling would get them to consider any other contender, nor endure further explanation of the prism, or how exactly it might look. 'That's it', they said in unison, 'we've got to get back to real work', and returned forthwith to the studio upstairs.

'It all connects, somehow, somewhere.'. says Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, 'We knew that the package - the record and the cover and everything together - was going to be far, far stronger than anything we had done before.'

To look back now and reflect upon how the actual artwork itself had no colour, being just a tint lay, and how the spectrum was missing a colour anyway, and how the whole design was only cobbled from a standard physics textbook diagram (albeit cunningly), and how there was another album called "Dark Side Of The Moon" (released in 1972 by British blues-rock band Medicine Head, which didn't sell well at all! - MG) only a year previously, all of this just goes to show how such matters pale if a design feels 'appropriate'. How fitting it is to be fitting!"

-- Storm Thorgerson (via MediaBitch, his PR firm - thanks to Robin Headlee for her help in gathering materials for this Cover Story)

The "other" 'Dark Side of the Moon', just for fun...

About Storm Thorgerson (again, in his own words, in the third-person)

"Born, if that's the word, in Potter's Bar Middlesex, in 1944. BA - Honors in English and Philosophy from Leicester University (63 - 66) and finally an MA in film and TV from the Royal College of Art, London (66 - 69). Formed Hipgnosis in 1968 with Aubrey Powell (Po), a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography and working mainly in the music business designing album covers for many rock 'n' roll bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, 10cc, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett and Styx, amongst others. Started a series of books on album cover art with Roger Dean called "Album Cover Album' and, with Hipgnosis, wrote and designed 'Walk Away Rene' in 1978 and 'The Goodbye Look' in 1982, about their own stuff.

In 1983 Storm, along with Po and Peter Christopherson, formed Green Back Films and embarked on producing numerous rock videos including material for Paul Young, Yes, Nik Kershaw, Robert Plant, Interferon, Nona Hendryx, Big Country and many others and also long forms for Barry Gibb (Voyager), Yumi Matsutoya (Train of Thought), and Channel Q - a heavy metal compilation for Polygram Records. Green Back and its partners went up in smoke in 1985.

Storm went solo (because he had to) and continued making videos ("Learning To Fly" for Pink Floyd won "best director" at Billboard), and tried his hand at commercials (Tennant's 'One Great Thing' won Golden Rose in Scotland). He continued designing album covers for Pink Floyd, Catherine Wheel, Alan Parsons, Anthrax, amongst others, and branched out into documentaries, making "Art Of Tripping" for Ch 4 in 1993, a two part exploration of the connections between drugs and artists. In 1994 Storm directed six short films for Pink Floyd which were screened at concerts during their world tour, and also an hour long science documentary on the Hubble Constant for Equinox called "The Rubber Universe". In 1997 he compiled a book of his images for Pink Floyd called 'Mind Over Matter' published by Sanctuary Books. And in 97/98 he wrote and directed an hour long documentary for Discovery channel about the (non) existence of Aliens subtitled "Are We Alone?" (Or was it We Are Alone).

Storm continues to design album covers (Phish, Ian Dury, Cranberries, Pink Floyd, Catherine Wheel, Alan Parsons, Ween etc etc), to execute assorted graphics for DVDs, websites, programs, T-shirts and so on, and to direct the occasional film. He has written and designed several books including "100 Best Album Covers" (Dorling Kindersley) and "Eye Of The Storm" (Sanctuary Books).

To see all of the Storm Thorgerson-related items in the RockPoP Gallery collection, click here.

To see all of the Pink Floyd-related items in the RockPoP Gallery 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.

Every Friday, you'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.

Cover Story

Subject: "Tommy" - an illustration produced by artist Mike McInnerney for the cover of The Who's 1969 recording titled "Tommy", released on Decca/MCA Records (U.S.).

One of the first (and, arguably, the finest) "rock operas", Tommy was the first of two such musical works by The Who, followed in 1973 by Quadrophenia. Both were later made into feature films.

Written primarily by Pete Townshend, this now-classic story about the life and ultimate awakening of a deaf, dumb, and blind boy was both hailed as a breakthrough in modern rock composition and also banned for its subject matter in some less-than-free-thinking parts of the world. That this effort launched the band's career as superstars is undeniable. Later adaptations of the story - in concert, theaters and film, met with varying degrees of critical and public acceptance, but it was Townshend's ability to craft a complex narrative around some of rock's best songs - "PinballWizard", "I'm Free", "Sensation" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" - that ultimately establishes this work as an all-time great (who can forget Daltry's performance of "See Me, Feel Me" during the early-morning sunrise at Woodstock?).

The recording was ranked 96 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Tommy was originally released as a two-LP set with the cover artwork in a fold-out triptych. All three of the outer panels are spanned by Mike McInnerney's painting, which is the subject of today's Cover Story. Executives at The Who's record label insisted on having the band members pictured on the cover, so another version featuring small images of their faces inserted into the gaps in the central sphere was created for this purpose. Recently released remastered CDs were packaged with Mr. McInnerney's original artwork.

Mike McInnerney was the art editor for the International Times underground British newspaper when he met Pete Townshend in 1967 at a gathering organized by the paper. An active member of the UFO Club and an ardent follower of Meher Baba, McInnerney introduced Townshend to the teachings of M. Baba and these influences ultimately shaped (to a certain degree) Townshend's budding rock opera. As their relationship grew and as the recording process advanced, Townshend finally commissioned McInnerney to do the cover. Pete Townshend adds - "As ever, Mike overflowed with visual ideas, many of them influencing the way some of the songs - at that time in raw demo form - were to turn out.." With this as the background, let's now turn to the words of Mike McInnerney for the rest of this Cover Story...

In the words of artist Mike McInnerney

"It was 1968 and the world was full of messages. Everyone was promoting some kind of message - feminism, expanded consciousness, meditation, revolution, God, drugs, love, the environment. Rock was doing its usual up-to-the-minute job of transmitting them - if rock could do it, I thought, so should illustration.

By the time Pete commissioned me, the recording was well advanced. He gave me some tape cassettes from the recording studio, filled me in on the libretto, and left me to it. Tommy was a lovely vehicle for the visual interests I had at the time. I had been exploring ways of creating images that could picture my pre-occupation with spiritual ideas. I particularly liked the patterns and rhythms of Op Art and its concerns with perception and illusion and the language of Surrealism - not for its subversive qualities but rather its transcendental possibilities - like finding poetry in the ordinary.

The project started off as a double album cover job and grew into a triptych with 12-page booklet. The Opera had a strong libretto which I used to develop the images...I chose to do images that acted as symbols for key moments in the story. I hoped the images would be viewed like painting and sculpture are viewed - that is, in a contemplative way, with a long look at images layered with references.

I liked the 'idea' of the Tommy character. Rather than trying to portray him, I wanted to picture his experience of being in a world without conventional senses. I thought it would be limitless and unbounded, yet trapped in an environment made for people who have all of their senses.

The outer and inner covers seemed to be the appropriate places for this statement. The outer cover has its globe (Earth/Self) hanging in an endless infinite space that can never be touched - only imagined. The inside cover has its wall and wall lights, a symbol of domestic space - the room we all live in. The light from these lamps, however, does not fix things as in our sighted world - it shifts and changes for Tommy.

The work took two to three months to complete (According to Pete T. - 'Mike worked constantly under a single ordinary lightbulb. He entertained and pontificated from his drawing board at one side of the room, stopping only to eat...Behind him on the wall was a picture of the young, craggy-looking Meher Baba...As an illustrator, he was constantly up against impossible deadlines, and in the case of Tommy, he worked indefatigably to produce the cover art even though the actual album completion was continually delayed by technical and financial problems.'). During that time, I had the feeling that I was working on a special project. That's why it kept expanding.

I have this memory snapshot, back in '68, sitting in Pete T's kitchen, showing him the finished artwork for the Tommy cover and trying to find a way of bringing God into the cover copy. The Indian word for God is 'Avatar' and, for us, his name was Meher Baba and the cover credit list was where we put him. Somehow, giving God a job description on the album, juxtaposing the ordinary with the extraordinary, seemed appropriate to the project. It was a contrast that wove its way throughout the Opera."

As Townshend put it - "The poetic mysticism of his work, its simplicity and bleakness, mirrored the music precisely. As ever, Mike's response was explosively positive."

About Mike McInnerney - by Pete Townshend

"Michael McInnerney was an important figure in my life in the late 1960s. His move to Richmond and later to East Twickenham near the River Thames attracted me to look at the area, and when we got married my wife and I bought a house near Mike and his wife Katie.

They were a gregarious couple. Their hippy wedding in Hyde Park made the national papers and their dilapidated-but-aristocratic flat was always full of life."

McInnerney was art director for the underground paper International Times, which was part of the network of underground press in the UK at the time. After the release of Tommy ("I was in Morocco when it hit the shops"), his career "took a turn for the better". He went on to produce well-regarded art - posters and more cover art, including images for Rod Stewart and The Faces.

Text adapted from 1990 essays by Mike McInnerney and Pete Townshend for the descriptive text to accompany the limited-edition prints published by Record Art, New York.

To see all of The Who-related items in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please click on the following link:http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/the-who/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.

Every Friday, you'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.

Cover Story

Subject: Led Zeppelin II - an illustration and limited-edition print created by artist David Juniper for the cover of Led Zeppelin's 1969 Atlantic Records release titled "Led Zeppelin II".

Led Zeppelin II was released in October, 1969, and became the first LZ album to go to 1 on the U.S. album charts, unseating "Abbey Road" by The Beatles for the top spot. It was the first recording with engineer Eddie Kramer (famous then for his work with Hendrix) and his expertise, combined with their desire to "keep it raw" in the studio, produced a record that influenced every heavy metal/hard rock record (and act) that followed.

Amazingly, this record took 8 months to record, since the band was touring the U.S. and the U.K. most of the year, and so they'd go to the studio during breaks to lay down tracks whenever possible. Although they could not spend that much time writing new songs, their re-workings of the rock and blues standards ("Bring It On Home", the hit "Whole Lotta Love", and others) let them add the Zeppelin touches - guitar solos, extended drum solos, pounding bass lines - that turned these tracks into what would become "classic Led Zeppelin". Robert Plant was able to exhibit his song-writing prowess, however, on new tunes such as "Ramble On" and "What Is and What Should Never Be", and it is pretty obvious that Kramer and Jimmy Page twirled many a knob on the mixing board creating the psychedelic center section of "Whole Lotta Love" (creating a 6-minute hit song during a period where 3-minute hits were the norm).

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album 75 on their list of "Greatest Albums of All Time".

Interesting LZII trivia
The band opened many of their live shows in 1971 and 1972 with "Immigrant Song" followed immediately by "Heartbreaker", while during subsequent tours it was often played as an encore. "Heartbreaker" and "Communication Breakdown" were the only songs to be played live during every year that the band toured. However, on commercial radio, "Heartbreaker" typically segues into the next song on the album, "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)," However, they would never be played this way during live concerts because (apparently) Jimmy Page did not like playing "Living Loving Maid".

The making of Led Zeppelin II, in the words of the artist, David Juniper

"In the late sixties in London, anything seemed possible!! I was employed at the time in a boring Art Director's job, so I got a lot of satisfaction out of moonlighting on speculative stuff.

The music of Led Zeppelin I had blown me away and so, on spec, I mocked up a fold-out design for the second album and took it to (Zeppelin's manager) Peter Grant and Micky Most at Rak Records. I had a few friends starting to get into the music industry and helped to point me in their direction.

The combination of collage/photography and airbrush illustration was groundbreaking for me, because the traditional airbrush technique was very tricky, especially when compared to today's digital equivalents. The cover imagery was completely experimental and I liked the combination of the abstract ghostly Zeppelin shape along with a faded sepia WW1 photo of German Aviators.

All the faces were replaced or altered (sunglasses & beards on some of the pilots!). In amongst the four band members (airbrushed in from a publicity photograph) are Miles Davis (or was it Blind Willie Johnson?), a girlfriend/muse of Andy Warhol (perhaps Mary Woronov) and the astronaut Neil Armstrong. The original photo of the Jasta Division of the WW1 German Air Force came from an old book about the 'Sopwith Camel', which was a famous British bi-plane from WW1.

I used bright inks to make the illustration parts really pop. I just presented it to the group and they went for it, with only a few changes to the inside spread (see below). The outside cover went through as it was proposed.

The inside image is full-on psychedelia, in contrast to the original idea discussed, which had a Zeppelin flying past the Statue of Liberty. They did not want something on the inside with a similar feel to the outside, so I just went for a colourful painting as a complete contrast to the outside. I remembered a documentary film of 1920/30's German architecture and thought this approach would give the image a heavy rock/blues feel.

Anyway, from that point forward, the group's management was all very friendly and used me on other covers for some of their other artists, including Donovan and Lulu.

Another great treat was to be asked down to Olympic Studios in Barnes while they worked on the recording, but what pleased me the most was that cover was nominated at the 68' Grammy Awards!

About David Juniper (again, in his words)
I grew up in Epson Surrey UK, as did Jimmy Page, and we went to art schools in the same area. This area was a great place for music fans, and I would have liked to have taken the time to learn the guitar, but decided instead to concentrate on drawing and painting. I still wish I had done both.

I have been a professional Artist and Designer for 40 years including stints in Ad Agencies, a Studio (Wurlitzer) partnership and freelance illustrating/designing. My Web Site contains loads of images www.davidjuniper.com if you'd like to see what I'm up to these days.

To see all of the Led Zeppelin-related items in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please 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.

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.

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.

Cover Story

Subject - "Lynyrd Skynyrd Road Series - Blue" - a painting and limited-edition print created by artist Michael Cartellone and used in the CD booklet of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 2005 release on Universal Music's UMTV records titled "Lynyrd Skynyrd's Greatest Hits".

Greetings - As those of you who visit the RockPoP Gallery site and have read my past "Cover Stories" columns know, our focus has been on trying to elevate the status within the fine art world of people who earn their living creating the artwork and photography that grace your favorite album/CD covers and other music-related promotions and packaging. All of the artwork and photographs featured to this point were created by talented individuals who make their living on "the graphics side" of the business. This Cover Story, though, is quite special, as it features the work of someone who has earned his fame as a much-praised studio/tour drummer (and continues to enjoy a fantastic career as the drummer for some of the most popular musical acts of all time, 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Lynyrd Skynyrd).

That's right - this issue we're featuring the fine art of Michael Cartellone, who's recorded and toured with an amazing list of acts, covering all genres of music - John Fogerty, Peter Frampton, John Wetton, Freddie Mercury, Cher, Adrian Belew, Accept and, my favorite, multi-platinum "supergroup" Damn Yankees.

As busy as he is with his musical career, Michael's first love was painting, and while his career kept him on the road constantly, he found himself relaxing and refocusing his energies by painting in his hotel rooms and on the tour bus. As it is that he works to create hyper-realistic images of life on the road (hence, his most recent prints, which are used to illustrate the booklet included with "Lynyrd Skynyrd's Greatest Hits" - the 30th anniversary compilation on UMTV records - are named the "Road Series"), I'm not quite sure just how he relaxes while he works, but let's ask him to give us some insight…

"I'm very proud of the Road Series Paintings. The three years (during three World Tours 2001, 2002 and 2003) I spent painting the five canvases were very satisfying creatively. I was being fed musically at night, playing with Skynyrd, and artistically during the day, painting in my hotel rooms. I enjoyed this so much that I can't imagine touring without painting now. In fact, this year I'm working on a painting of a Carousel, which has been an idea stored in the back of my head for a dozen years.

So, when my friend Michael Goldstein of Pop Rock Gallery, asked me to contribute a piece to Cover Stories, I thought I'd focus on one of the Road Series Paintings - "Blue".

Blue is easily the most personal painting of the five, as it illustrates my working perspective (which no one else shares) of Life On The Road. Only I see that view, day in and day out while on tour. So, I thought it would be interesting to share it with others. Any drummer will tell you, when sitting at their kit they feel a comfort zone. It's one constant for us, in an ever changing, city to city, venue to venue environment. I feel this comfort when I look at Blue.

Blue also gives away some of the "behind the scenes" attributes of the Road Series Paintings: the ever-present half an orange (for sticky hands to hold drumsticks), the bottle of Gatorade, the tape on the pedal board for a little bit of traction and last, but not least, the homage to all my drum endorsement companies.

I will say that of all five paintings, the hardest thing and most time consuming to paint was the cymbal in Blue. I spent a month alone on that cymbal. Upon close inspection, you'll notice the ridges changing color throughout. This effect required a lot of attention and many, many coats of paint to achieve the final result. I knew I would be happy with that cymbal once finished, but I honestly was surprised how involved it was to paint. I love this painting and it's my favorite of the five.

Looking back on the Road Series paintings, I couldn't be happier that they were how I officially kicked off my art career. Even though I had shown and sold work through the years, these paintings enabled me to enter "the Art World" with a real splash. Doing so, it enabled me to use my art, to paint about my life in music. It's the perfect example of two halves making a whole."

Michael Cartellone
May 2007

Lynyrd Skynyrd Greatest Hits - released June, 2005, on the Universal Music TV label, UK.

This 'greatest hits' package brings together some of the finest moments from Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd's back catalogue. This two CD set acts as the perfect introduction into the band's mix of hard rock, blues, and country and features 30 of their biggest hits, including "Freebird", "Sweet Home Alamba", "What's Your Name", "Gimme Three Steps", and many others.

Formed by high school friends in Jacksonville, FL in 1964 and adopting the name Lynyrd Skynyrd from the name (Leonard Skinner) of an antagonistic high school PE teacher, the core of the band at the time - singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Gary Rossington, guitarist Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson, and drummer Bob Burns - release their first single in 1968. Their debut LP - 'Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd' is released and goes gold. In November they open for The Who on their 'Quadrophenia' tour. Al Kooper then discovers Lynyrd Skynyrd in an Atlanta club and signs them to his Sounds Of The South label. From that point forward, the band released a series of hit singles, charting with "Sweet Home Alabama" in 1974, then with "Saturday Night Special", followed by "Freebird" (from their debut record, but re-released as a single in 1975).

During the next 30 years, the band recorded and toured continuously (including a tour with the Rolling Stones), with musicians moving regularly in and out of the band, and a series of tragedies - culminating with the horrible plane crash in late 1977 that killed 4 band members (including founding member Ronnie Van Zandt) and injured many of the others - only served to motivate the surviving members to continue to play, ultimately re-grouping in 1987 (with Ronnie's brother Johnny on vocals) and continue producing Skynyrd music, bringing their unique brand of Southern Rock to good ole' boys everywhere to this day. In 2006, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which featured a performance by many of the musicians who had played with the band over the years.

Michael Cartellone bio
Michael Cartellone was born June 7, 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio. He began painting at the age of four and drumming at the age of nine. Music and art would be a simultaneous learning adventure throughout his childhood.

Michael's music career began at the age of 11 when he played his first bar. After many years on the club circuit, he moved to New York City when he was 22. After playing with former Roxy Music/UK keyboardist Eddie Jobson, and then former Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw, Michael found himself a member of the multi-platinum selling band Damn Yankees. This was the springboard for a career that has included recording and touring with John Fogerty, Peter Frampton, John Wetton, Freddie Mercury, Cher, Adrian Belew, Accept and, since 1998, drumming for 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Michael's art career has included New York-area gallery shows, two shows in suburban Washington, D.C. and dozens of paintings sold to individual collectors.

RockPoP Gallery is pleased to be able to offer Michael's "Road Series" images which, as the title would indicate, were done while he was on tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd. In addition, he's recently added an image that pays homage to another musical hero of his - John Lennon. To see all of this artist's work available in the gallery, 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.

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.

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.

Cover Story

Subject - "God Told Me To Skin You Alive" - a mixed-media collage created by artist Winston Smith and used on the cover of Green Day's 1995 release on Warner/Reprise records titled "Insomniac".

"Insomniac" was the fourth studio album from Bay-area punk rock band Green Day. The follow-up to the very successful predecessor "Dookie", it was released in October 1995 and although it went to 2 on the U.S. charts (selling 2 million + records), its slightly darker approach to song-writing and lyrics kept it from spawning any mega-hit singles (as their previous record did in droves).

Their traditional punk roots kept the songs tight and fast, but their eagerness to experiment with some "punk-pop" tunesmithing, less-traditional chord progressions, all coupled with a more hard-rock-oriented studio mix, produced a recording that was a bit more tame (but, in my opinion, more musically interesting) than the more balls-to-the-walls approach of their previous releases. While their music may have been a bit less raw, their selection of Winston Smith as the illustrator for the record's packaging could not have been more punk. With a pedigree that included works for the Dead Kennedys that were banned in some countries and lambasted by the Religious Right, Mr. Smith found a group of young collaborators eager to create a cover that would stick a pin through the eyelid of their fan base. Let Winston explain, in his own words...

"I met (Green Day drummer) Tre (Cool) when he lived up in Northern California. One day a couple years later he gave me a call and asked if I'd do a record cover for the band he was in, Green Day. Without knowing anything much about them I said, 'Sure.' And the next thing I knew, Tre and Billie Joe (Armstrong) - I think Mike (Dirnt) was out of town that day - were sitting in my studio pouring over photocopies of almost everything I'd ever created. The image that grabbed them the most was the pair of figures appropriated from Jan van Eyck's 'Wedding Portrait of 1434', in the picture 'Til Death Do Us Part' (page 17 of his book 'Artcrime'), so I used that as the nucleus for my composition.

My title for the piece, 'God Told Me to Skin You Alive', was a reference to a comic book-style religious tract that Biafra and I used for the fold-out poster included with the first Dead Kennedys' album, 'Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables'. This phrase was also Biafra's first line on side one of that album. (My cat, 911, now wears it on his collar tag...) Bill instantly got the reference the moment I showed it to him. He asked how long it took me to create and I said that, not counting the two weeks prior which were consumed with locating and high-grading hundreds of images for the winnowing-out process, I'd spent the last 38 hours working on the assembly of the composition. He asked me how it was possible for me to stay awake that long and I said, "It's easy for me. I'm an insomniac".

Interestingly, the original working title for the album was to be "Tightwad Hill". I don't know if my remarks inspired the final title of their record, but if not, then it's a weird coincidence.

When the Green lads were examining the new cover art I'd created for their album they noticed that there were two skulls in the composition. I told them there were in fact three skulls, one for each band member. They couldn't locate the third skull until I held the picture flat and pointed out that by looking at it from that oblique angle, what previously appeared to be a blurry piece of driftwood protruding from the fire came into focus as a perfect human skull.

This distended skull was originally from the 1533 painting by Hans Holbein the Younger titled "The French Ambassadors". It is an anamorphic image; that is, it changes shape when viewed at an angle. Trompe-l'ceil art of this kind was popular during the Renaissance. I have somewhat re-adjusted it in order to show how it would look from the proper angle. This re-formed version appears in the Tijuanna No! Contra-Revolucion Avenue composition (Ed. note - see page 52 of "Artcrime").

Winston Smith Bio
(Portions excerpted from the winstonsmith.com Web site)

Winston Smith (born Patrick Morey in 1952 in Oklahoma City, OK) is an artist armed with razor blade and a fiendish wit. His modus operandi since the 1970's has been to kidnap "innocent" images from the pages of vintage magazines and then to diabolically glue them into compromising or politically revealing positions in his surreal collage landscapes. "Perhaps the most vibrant collage maestro since Max Ernst," wrote popular underground artist Frank Kozik, who goes on to credit Winston with being "single-handedly responsible for an entire generation's graphic style." Smith's name is a reference to the character of the same name in George Orwell's novel "1984"(Smith was the main character and a clerk at the Ministry of Truth, where he worked on re-writing history books to appear in line with the current Government's portrayal of historical events).

After studying in Italy, Smith moved to San Francisco in the 1970s, working primarily in the road crews of Bay-area rock bands such as Santana and The Tubes. In the mid-70's Smith, along with fellow artist Jayed Scotti, wrote, illustrated and published a satirical magazine titled "Fallout", while also producing and posting flyers for non-existant gigs in San Francisco (just to confuse the heck out of people).

To illustrate an article in Fallout about organized religion and our obsession with money, Smith created a shocking 3D work fashioned from a real crucifix covered with money (titled "IDOL"). After a color photocopy of this work was submitted to a local art show, a friend of the Dead Kennedy's leader Jello Biafra told him of this work and asked for samples of this and other works. This led to a long-standing series of collaborations with Biafra, the Dead Kennedys and their "Alternative Tentacles" label, creating logos (the famous DK and Alternative Tentacles logos), CD covers, and numerous related works.

Since then Smith, once known only to DK fans and the punk underground cognoscenti, has been gaining popularity in mainstream culture. He's had one-man shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London and Rome. His debut book, "Act Like Nothing's Wrong", was published in 1994 by Last Gasp of San Francisco was favorably reviewed a wide variety of regional and national magazines. His eighteen month (1995-97) sojourn as illustrator for SPIN magazine's Topspin political page further brought his work to national attention as did his award for "Best Cover Illustration" from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in 1997. On the musical front, his bizarre "Insomniac" alum cover for the popular neo-punk band Green Day was voted a favorite in a 1996 readers poll in Rolling Stone Magazine.

A version of Smith's IDOL illustration (which had graced the cover of the DK's 1981 release "In God We Trust, Inc.") was later featured on the cover of the April/May 2000 issue of The New Yorker magazine. His works have also appeared in Playboy, Wired, Spin, Utne Reader, and many other punk-related publications.

Two decades down the line, Winston's style continues to not only to have political punch, but it has also developed an almost classical surrealism. His recent album cover for Tijuana No!'s - Contra Revolucion Avenue has been called the collage equivalent of a cross between Picasso's "Guernica" and the social realism of a Diego Rivera WPA-era mural. Another fine example of his new style is Apocalypse Wow!, a full page spread commissioned by SPIN magazine that depicts a swirling end-of-the-world populated with a mind-blowing array of whimsical images from sword-carrying angels to flying poodles.

The growing demand for Winston's humorous and controversial collage illustrations prompted the release of his second and third books, "Artcrime" and "All Riot on the Western Front", and the production of his first-ever series of collectible archival prints. The jumbo scale and fine quality of this new print series hugely expands the already powerful visual impact of Winston's work. Intricate collages, formerly seen only in miniature on CD covers or in newsprint, take on a whole new life when blown up and printed on archival papers. We have arrived at the threshold of the twenty first century. It's time to call off the art police. The work of mischievous art-criminal Winston Smith is finally being brought to full color justice.

In 2006, Smith married artist Chick Fontaine, with Bay-area icon Wavy Gravy performing the ceremony.

Click here to see this work in the RockPoP Gallery collection.

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, 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.

Cover Story for April 27, 2007

Subject - "Unbelievable", a mixed-media image created in 2006 by artist/illustrator Howie Green. Used on the cover of Mick Boogie's "Unbelievable: A Tribute to Biggie Smalls", a 2007 release on Bad Boy records.

"Unbelievable: A Tribute to Biggie Smalls" - from the mickboogie.com (producer) web site.

On the 10th anniversary of the tragic passing of Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace, Mick Boogie and newcomer Terry Urban of the League Crew team up to release Unbelievable: A Tribute To Biggie Smalls, a project that many critics are calling "the best Biggie mixtape ever." Hosted by Sean "Diddy" Combs, this 100% creative mixtape features Biggie material remixed the way it was supposed to be done. Original beats and special guest appearances, as well as plenty of crazy remixes, are abundant throughout the project.

Unbelievable: A Tribute to Biggie Smalls - the cover, by Howie Green

I always find it interesting when small personal projects, like my Biggie Smalls portraits, strike a chord with a public audience and go on to have life of their own. Being of a certain age I wouldn't exactly call myself a rap or hip hop aficionado - but I do know a great face when I see one and Biggie Smalls was one cool looking guy. I came across some photos of the Notorious B.I.G. when I was researching possible images for a mural project I was working on - a 30' x 15' wall of my album cover paintings. The mural, now located in Jacksonville, FL, needed to have a wide cross section of musical styles represented and I was looking for recording artists that were well known to most people. I found two vintage black and white promotional images of Biggie that reminded me of the kind of old school look that the jazz cats of the 1950s and the Blues guys of the 1930 used to have - "Cool" as they could possibly be.

I listened to a bunch of Biggie's tracks and I could see why he had become such a popular rapper and why he's become a legend since his death. His musical contributions are public record but what most interested me most was the way he looked. Most rappers dress up in big sneakers and street clothes and cover themselves with all manner of accouterment, but not Biggie. Biggie was a style maven and when it came to his look he had it going on! I know that an accident made him have to use a cane to walk around but the man turned the cane into a cool accessory. I appreciate anyone who can wear a hat and no one in recent history looked cooler in a hat that Mr. Smalls.

I did paintings of both the photos I found and proposed them for the mural but for various reasons they were not used and I put them in my online gallery for folks to see. About 6 months later I got contacted by a fellow named Mick Boogie who told me he was producing an album of Biggie's tracks and wanted to know if I would allow them to use one of my Biggie portraits as the cover artwork for the CD versions. I was happy that my art would finally get some use so I agreed and the album, by LCMG Productions, came out in early April to great acclaim and is making a lot of noise among the hip hop community. Before the album's release I got my pre-release copies and was surprised at the stellar lineup of talent on the tracks including none other than Sean "DIDDY" Combs as the album's host. In addition to P Diddy the tracks include The Clipse, NAS, Jay-Z, 2Pac, Lil Kim, Lil Wayne, Mobb Deep, Kayne West and others.

Several days after the album came out I was very surprised to get a photo emailed to me by Mick Boogie of him and P Diddy holding the CD with my album cover artwork (see below). I have received several emails from folks who appeared on the album expressing their appreciation of the cover and Mick is having me do a very large version of the cover done that will be given to P Diddy to hang up in the offices of Bad Boy Entertainment."

Howie Green Bio

Howie's design and illustration work has won over 40 awards from regional and national design competitions. Howie's portrait "Madonna Smoking" was featured in the 2004 British Art book "Madonna in Art" by Mem Memet. Recently one of Howie's album cover paintings won First Prize in the Absolut Vodka 25th Anniversary art competition in Boson, MA.

In 1992 Howie Green came to national attention as a painter and artist with the publication of his book "Jazz Fish Zen: Adventures in Mamboland". His colorful and whimsical artwork has been featured in 18 group and solo shows and has adorned 9 public and private murals. He regularly creates privately commissioned portraits and corporate logo paintings.

Born in Rochester, NY and raised in Rochester and Clarence Center, NY, Howie Green has a unique artist's eye for the colorful fun that springs out of our popular culture. Images from comics, celebrities, movies, TV and various other flotsam and jetsam that washes up on the rocky shores of our popular media all make their way into Howie's colorful and fun Pop Art creations.

When Howie entered art school in the mid-60s at RIT in Rochester, NY, it was an explosive time in popular culture. While there Howie was exposed to color guru Josef Albers, typographic master Hermann Zaph, sculptor Wendell Castle and most importantly color theorist, painter and architect Fritz Trautman. Later, when Howie was art director of "New Age Journal", he was contacted by Peter Max after he had done a Max-like illustration for the magazine. Howie recalls "Peter saw my illustration and called me to see if we would like to use him to do artwork for the magazine. I was thrilled! Not only did he do artwork for "New Age Journal" for me, but I also worked with him for several years on projects for the University of New Hampshire. I'm also proud to say, Peter did his very first sports painting for me for the cover of the Boston Celtics Media Guide."

Howie has continued through the 1990s and into the new millennium to paint and create new images and works that combine his endless curiosity, technology and color...lots and lots of color! Regarding his use of color Howie said, "I was in art school during the era, of Peter Max, Yellow Submarine and the San Francisco rock posters. What can I say? I guess it "colored" my thinking!"

Today, Howie uses a pop-fauvist color palette and has an eclectic, upbeat, approach to his subject matter. Howie says a lot of people tell him that they love "his colors". Howie comments "My colors? They don't belong to me. Colors are out there floating around. I just happen to use them all!"

Howie's celebrity portraits combine digital technology and traditional painting to reflect the genre developed by Warhol and Max, but in a whole new approach, unique to Howie. "I was looking for a way to do something with my art and with my growing pile of computers and technology and I found it."
Indeed...

In 2006, Howie created an album cover-covered cow sculpture for the 2006 Boston "Cows on Parade" display to benefit the Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. His album cover cow - which featured 39 album covers by Boston-based bands - sold at auction for over $6000. Another work - his "Flower Cow" - sold at auction for $8500. Both cows were sold at the final auction in September 2006, with all the money going to benefit the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. His 2007 began with an installation at the Mellow Mushroom restaurant in Fleming Island Florida (featuring over 50 of his record cover recreations!), and his commission for the new Notorious B.I.G. tribute album cover (available soon as a print, click here to preview this item).

Click here to see all items in stock from this artist

Cleveland-based DJ/producer Mick Boogie sourced the title for this tribute record from "Unbelievable", a track from Biggie's 1994 release titled "Ready To Die". Ready to Die was a hugely-influential hardcore rap recording, as it established the Notorious B.I.G., his record label (Bad Boy) and label impresario Sean (Puffy/P.Diddy) Combs as the ones to beat on the East Coast.

"Unbelievable" Track List

1. Diddy Intro
2. Biggie and The Clipse: Blow
3. Biggie and Ray Cash: Gimme The Loot 2007
4. Biggie, Game, and Darien Brockington: On Top (Produced by The Kickdrums)
5. Biggie and AZ: Brooklyn
6. Biggie and Grand Agent & Liv L' Raynge: Motherf*ckers
7. Biggie and Big L: Let The Games Begin
8. Biggie: Live For The Funk (Produced by Khrysis
9. Diddy Interlude
10. Biggie and Jay-Z: Get Money (live)
11. Biggie and Kanye West: Kicks Open Doors
12. Biggie and Jadakiss: All Day Every Day
13. The Madd Rapper: Still Mad Interlude
14. Biggie and Lil Kim: Only One Thing
15. Biggie and Young Chris: Young G's 2007 (Produced by Moss)
16. Diddy Interlude
17. Biggie and Jay-Z: The Commission
18. Biggie, Black Rob and Ness: Live at the BBQ (Produced by D-Dot)
19. Biggie and 2Pac: Party and Bullsh*t (live)
20. Biggie and Lloyd Banks: Never Been
21. Biggie and Nas: It Ain't Hard
22. Diddy Interlude
23. Biggie and Ab: The East Coast Overdoser (Produced by Terry Urban)
24. Biggie and Prodigy: Escape From NY
25. Biggie and Puff: Lyricist Lounge Freestyle
26. Biggie and Lil Wayne: If You See Me (Produced by Garbs)
27. Biggie: Let It Go
28. Biggie and Mobb Deep: Last Dayz 2007
29. Diddy Outro

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, 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 usical 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.

Cover Story for April 20, 2007
Subject - "Frampton Comes Alive", a photograph taken in 1974 by Richard E. Aaron, used on the cover of Peter Frampton's 1976 2-record set titled "Frampton Comes Alive", released on A&M Records.

The biggest-selling live double album of all time (such a big-seller that, in the movie "Wayne's World 2", Mike Myers' character Wayne states that "everybody in the world has 'Frampton Comes Alive'. If you lived in the suburbs, you were issued it free along with samples of Tide."), the record made Frampton, who'd made a name for himself as a "teen idol" in the UK with his band The Herd and then with his guitar chops both in the studio and with the band Humble Pie, a household name. His band's powerful live performances, as well as his use of the "Talk Box" effects device, made hit singles of songs such as "Show Me The Way" and "Do You Feel Like We Do". The record was a compilation of a number of performances recorded in 1975, including shows in California at the Winterland Ballroom and the Marin County Civic Center, as well as 2 New York area performances. There was so much material available that A&M decided to make it a 2-record set, doubling the studio workload of the band and master engineer/remixer Chis Kimsey (see photos, below). Once it was decided that this would be a double album, A&M's art department needed to create an eye-catching package, and so our story begins...

In Richard's words - "One day Peter Frampton, whom I had photographed many times by the early 70's, called and asked if he could take my photo portfolio of him to A&M headquarters in Los Angeles. The senior art director was looking for a photograph for Peter's next record, a live concert album. Of course I agreed but thought nothing more of it. Although I was already in demand as a photo-journalist, I had pretty much given up on ever having an album cover credit; art directors, it seemed, preferred studio shots.

A few weeks later, I got a message on my answering service that Peter had called and that it was "very important" that I return his call in L. A. By this time, his career was beginning to take off, and the answering service operator was impressed that he had called -- "Do you really know Frampton?"

The message came in at 9:30 a.m., which made it only 6:30 a.m. in Los Angeles. I reached Peter immediately, and he said, "Richard are you standing or sitting?" " Why?" I asked. "Well you should sit. You not only got the cover of my LP but you also got three out of four of the shots inside the double album. " (Editor's note - Richard's photographs of Frampton, guitarist and keyboard player Bob Mayo and bassist Stanley Sheldon were used on the inside of the gatefold). I was in shock. Finally, after three years, I got my first album cover, and it was from a musician who's music I actually liked and who was also a friend. He knew that it was my first album cover and he congratulated me.

A few months later at a party for Peter in New York, he showed me a mock-up of the cover -- a gatefold with a performing shot of Peter that extended over both outer sleeves. This was the first time I had seen the photo A&M had picked (Ed. Note #2 - interestingly, the shot used was taken at an earlier concert at Madison Square Garden in NYC and is not from one of the shows featured on the recording). The art department had put an extra diffusion filter over the photo to give the hypnotic effect to the viewer, a dreamy effect. The two background stage lights to the side of Peter's head had been re-positioned to make it more symmetrical, and also some coloring added in selected areas on the print. At the time, the only thing that really bothered me was that the focus wasn't sharp; I was trained to believe that every photo had to be technically perfect -- no exceptions. What would my professors at New York School of Visual Arts and the Brooks Institute say when they saw it?

Through the years, colleagues would good-naturedly kid me about the focus. At first, I would say that I had purposely used a diffusion filter. Then, about 10 years later on a radio interview, I came clean -- I told everybody it was out of focus. The album went on to become the biggest selling live LP in history, which just goes to show you: teachers, and critics, aren't always right".

Bonus Material
For this story, Richard went into his archives and provided us with 2 additional never-released photos he took to document the making of this classic recording. Both images were taken at Electric Lady studios in New York City in late 1975 during the mixing sessions for the "Frampton Comes Alive" record.

The first photo shows Peter with his then-girlfriend Penny McCall (long before their famous palimony suit), the late Bob Mayo, and studio/mix wizard, producer Chris Kimsey. Richard was invited by Peter to the studio - his first visit to the Hendrix-built complex - and asked if he could bring along his camera.

The second photo shows the three lads in deep concentration - they'd just been notified that this record was going to be a double LP and now they had twice the work to do!

Richard E. Aaron biography
In a career that spans over three decades, Richard E. Aaron has shot still photography for a wide variety of media, ranging from feature films, television and video to corporate public relations, entertainment publicity and album covers.

Perhaps best known for his music photography, he was honored by Modern Photography Magazine as one of the "10 Best Rock Photographers" in the world, he has more than 50 album covers to his credit including "FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE," still the biggest selling double live LP. He shot the first photographic rock 'n' roll cover of Time magazine - Paul McCartney/Wings Over America. All told, his work has appeared in more than 6,000 magazines, newspapers and books worldwide.

His extensive work in music photography (4,000 groups photographed) led to his first tour assignment, "Fleetwood: The Visitor in Africa" (RCA Records), a tour shot on location in Ghana West Africa. Similar projects for many top rock & roll groups around the world followed. He traveled through the People's Republic of China for several months in 1986, where he documented the first Western rock group to record an album and tour.

He still he shoots music - as in music videos, CD jackets and publicity. A native of New York, Mr. Aaron and his photo agency have been located in Los Angeles since 1980.

He is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts (New York City) and of Brooks Institute of Photography (Santa Barbara, California) - BA,BFA,MA.

Click here to see all of Mr. Aaron's works in the RockPoP Gallery collection.

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, 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.

Cover Story for April 13, 2007
Subject - "Bob Dylan - Infrared", an Elliott Landy photo most-recently used on the cover of "The Collection, Volume 4 - Nashville Skyline/New Morning/John Wesley Harding (Reissue), released in 2005 on Sony records.

This three-disc entry in Sony's "The Collection" series of classic album compilations delivers fans three of Mr. Dylan's most experimental and exciting recordings – 1967's John Wesley Harding (which introduced "All Along The Watchtower" and introduced us to Dylan's "country side"); 1969's Nashville Skyline (which featured the timeless "Lay Lady Lay" and a host of Dylan-penned country classics – including a duet with Johnny Cash called "Girl From The North Country" – as well as another great Landy cover shot); and 1970's New Morning, which included Dylan standards such as "If Not For You" and "One More Weekend". Sony, it seems, did not want to include music from Dylan's Self Portrait album, which was released earlier in 1970 and confused/frustrated the heck out of critics and fans alike (although it did include a striking album cover painted by Dylan himself).

In Elliott's own words (from his book "Woodstock Vision") - "Everyone liked the Big Pink photographs I'd shot for The Band, and shortly afterward Al Aronowitz, a writer and friend of Dylan's, asked me to photograph Bob for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post."

"I rented a little VW bug and drove up from the city to Bob's house in Woodstock. This was during the height of his fame, when he had been seen publicly only once in a couple of years, and many people thought he had died in a motorcycle accident." Aronowitz introduced us. Bob told me how much he liked the Band photos, grabbed his guitar, sat on an old tire, and began playing while I took pictures. It occurred to me that millions of people would be thrilled to be ten feet away from Bob Dylan while he was playing, but he was so casual, it seemed normal to me."

"He suggested some other things. 'This is what I do up here, take a picture,' he said while putting the garbage cans away. He sat on the step of his equipment van and then in front of an old British cab he had. After a while he asked to use the camera. For some of the pictures I used infrared color film, which made the leaves bright red."

"Although he was comfortable with me, he was nervous in front of the camera, and his uneasiness made it difficult for me. I was never the kind of photographer to talk people into feeling good, I let them be the way they were and photographed it. Usually it worked out, because I flowed with whatever mood they were in, without resistance until things lightened up."

"He asked me to come back with the pictures when they were ready, which I did the following week. He liked the photos, and we started to hang out a bit…He was very happy, in love with his lovely and gracious wife, Sara, and his family. He was hiding from the world, savoring the magical experience of having young children. That's why I didn't publish the pictures for many years. He cherished his privacy and didn't want any media attention on his family."

"I was very impressed with Bob. He was a very special person. He intuitively understood what was going on in a situation. There was a feeling you got when you were with him that was exciting. I believe it was the flow of creative energy surrounding him that sort of spilled over onto you. Over the years I've seen him walk into rooms, even in the presence of other very famous people, and suddenly everyone's attention becomes totally focused on him. It's difficult to have this type of charisma: people always want a piece of you."

Shot at his Byrdcliff home in Woodstock, NY, 1968

Elliott Landy Bio
Elliott Landy, born in 1942, began photographing the anti-Vietnam war movement and the underground music culture in New York City in 1967. He photographed many of the underground rock and roll superstars, both backstage and onstage, from 1967 to 69. His images of Bob Dylan and The Band, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Joan Baez, Van Morrison, Richie Havens, and many others documented the music scene during that classic rock and roll period which culminated with the 1969 Woodstock Festival, of which he was the official photographer.

After that, Elliott moved on to other inspirations and art forms, photographing his own children and travels, creating impressionist flower photographs and doing motion and kaleidoscopic photography in both still and film formats.

His photographs have been published worldwide for many years in all print mediums including covers of Rolling Stone, Life, the Saturday Evening Post, etc. and album covers, calendars, photographic book collections, etc. He has published "Woodstock Vision, The Spirit of A Generation", in book and CD-ROM format, and authored the book "Woodstock 69, The First Festival".

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, 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.

Cover Story for April 7, 2007
Subject - "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars"
released in 1972 on RCA Victor records

Always in the top 50 of everyone's "Greatest LPs of All Time" listings, this record tells the story of a visiting Martian, who's on a mission to save the world from its day-to-day humdrum. Of course, this is best accomplished via sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, with the Messianic main character being torn apart by fans in the end (so much for a "Peace & Love" message).

The Spiders From Mars featured Mick Ronson on guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass and Mick Woodmansey on drums. A note on the album cover suggests that it is "to be played at maximum volume".

The Brian Ward photograph that serves as the basis for this cover image shows Bowie-as-Ziggy standing on London's trendy Heddon St. (just off of Regent St., a popular shopping area in the West End). Many Bowie fans seek out this spot on trips to London (although the phone booth shown in the background as removed years ago).

In the words of artist Terry Pastor - "I was given a black and white photograph printed on matte paper - David Bowie's management wanted some colour put into it. I also did the cover for his previous LP, Hunky Dory. This was also a black and white photo that I coloured up in the same way. Perhaps this is why the label decided that the Ziggy cover would be similar? I applied the colour using photo-dyes with an airbrush (a DeVilbiss Super 93). The lettering for the front cover (which isn't included on this print) was lettraseted (rub-down transfer lettering) - a very hands-on way of doing things, but in 1972 that was the way things were done. No Mac computers in those days!

I was working on the back cover one evening at my studio, which at the time was in Covent Garden, London when I received a phone call from David asking how the cover art was going. I told him I had finished the front and was working on the back cover photograph. He was very excited hearing that, having no idea there was an image for the back cover. He asked me what the image was, and said that he was really looking forward to seeing it. From that you can assume David didn't have any real input into the art direction at this stage of the cover. He probably had much more input when the photograph was being shot. The back cover, featuring Bowie in a phone box was done in exactly the same way.

Also an interesting point - before this album was released, I would bump into David occasionally in the West End (Central London) or meet up in a pub, and he would go totally unnoticed. Within a matter of months from the release of Ziggy Stardust, he became a mega-star and would get mobbed if he appeared anywhere in public."

Click here to see the limited-edition print - signed by Terry Pastor and David Bowie - available at RockPoP Gallery

Terry Pastor Bio

Mr. Pastor has worked over 30 years working as an illustrator and photographer. Traditionally working with an airbrush, the last few years has found him working with design and illustration in digital formats.

With a focus on food photography, he works alongside his wife Carol, who is a Cordon Bleu-trained cook, writer and food stylist for national magazines and cookery books.

A self -confessed motorhead, he is passionate about cars (particularly Corvettes, as a proud owner of a 1984 Crossfire) and motorcycles (he's produced some amazingly-detailed illustrations of classic bikes and cars – you can find (and buy) editioned prints of some of his favorite machinery on his website at http://www.terrypastor.co.uk. (Editor's note - I personally bought one of his prints of a 1947 Indian Chief, as I'm an Indian rider myself. It is REALLY a fantastic print).

His clients include: Sony, Nintendo, Ford Motor Company, Psygnosis Software, Lever Brothers, NASA, Akai, Saab, Phillips, RAF Red Arrows, Playboy Magazine, G.M.Corvette Division, Nissan, IBM, Honda, MacDonalds, most major book publishers and record companies.

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, 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.