Posted December 1, 2021 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com
Season’s Greetings and Happy Post-Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday cool-off period to you all. The last month has surely been both a joy (being able to see certain family members and friends in person) and a challenge as we enter the Holiday season having to deal with new derivations of COVID, the availability (or lack thereof) of some of the things we wanted to give (or get) as gifts and the general sense of “who knows what’s next” we’re all faced with, so it is with great pleasure that I’m dedicating this month’s ACHOF news summary to the delivery of interesting stories about your favorite album package image-makers both here in the U.S. and around the world.
The people responsible for packaging your favorite music products continue to astound (although, in some cases, confound) us with the results of their efforts, so this month’s edition of the ACHOF News Update and Summary includes a number of great examples of album cover artist/art news – the kind of updates you’ve come to expect in these monthly summaries. Leading off in the news department are stories about the nominees (and, in one case, inductees) in several significant album cover art-related annual polls, including those for The Grammy Awards, the Making Vinyl Packaging Awards, the Best Art Vinyl Awards and, my favorite, the Album Cover Hall of Fame. You’ll find this info in its own separate section, below.
So, before we all get lost in the excitement – and continuous white noise – of the Holidays, let’s all take a moment to relax and begin our journey into this month’s summary of these articles, posts and announcements I’ve gathered recently regarding all things regarding album cover artists and the art they produce. Their work – and our interest in and excitement about their impressive efforts – continues unabated:
Exhibitions and Gallery Show Info –
a) In what I hope was not the last show of its kind, a museum/gallery in Los Angeles called Japan House staged an exhibition that put on display the talents of a number of Japanese graphic artists, including examples of some of the album cover images they’ve created. While some – Hiroshi Nagai, Takashi Murakami and several others – have achieved a fair amount of success world-wide, there are others whose names are not well-known here in the U.S., and so it is exciting to see these artists represented in such a comprehensive show. In addition to music-related works, great examples of graphics found in the comic book/manga, animation and commercial art were also included in the WAVE: New Currents in Japanese Graphics Arts show, with a summary of what was on display and the talented individuals who created them can now be found at – https://www.japanhousela.com/exhibitions/wave-new-currents-in-japanese-graphic-art/
b) Correction and Update – As I first reported in the previous month’s summary, the Liss Gallery in Toronto, Canada had scheduled shows built around the works of two photographers with a number of significant album cover credits – Markus Klinko and Lynn Goldsmith – on display. Klinko’s show began at the end of October and I’d originally reported that Ms. Goldsmith’s was to begin in mid-November. While I was correct about the month, I was wrong about the year – inf fact, it’s slated for mid-November, 2022. Sorry about that…Mr. Klinko’s show can in fact be viewed virtually via the following link – https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=oBYLvimbrCc&wmode=opaque and some of the works you’ll see include his memorable shots of David Bowie, Beyonce, the newly-freed Britney Spears, etc.
Lynn’s show should also prove to be a compelling view, so I’d invite you to visit the gallery’s site at https://www.lissgallery.com/upcoming to confirm exact dates and learn more about what might be on display. With a resume that boasts photographs on over 100 albums (Sheik Yerbouti for Frank Zappa; Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Damn The Torpedoes; B-52s – Wild Planet; Ted Nugent – Scream Dream; Talking Heads – The Name of This Band is Talking Heads; Yanni’s Steal The Sky and The Collection; Grand Funk Railroad’s Shinin’ On; Hall & Oates – Private Eyes and many others) and editorial images in publications including Elle, Interview, Life, Newsweek, The New Yorker, People, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Time and many others, it will most-certainly be a dream visit for album art fans everywhere.
c) Ongoing – Reported here previously, the new exhibit that opened on October 14th at NYC’s Poster House Museum titled Peter Max: Cosmic Advertising continues its run through March 27, 2022. Perhaps best-known for his psychedelic paintings that helped illustrate the Summer of Love in 1967, the Apollo moon landings in 1969, the Manhattan NY phone book in 1970, Max also has done a number of fine album cover/package illustrations, including those for jazz and blues artists such as Alice Coltrane, Yellowjackets, Gary Burton Quartet and pianist Meade Lux Lewis (his first, back in 1961); rock acts such as The Band, Donovan and YES; country star Clint Black and a memorable one in 1995 for that year’s Grammy Awards compilation CD (among others). Te influence this artist has had on graphic design and illustration since launching his career in 1962 cannot be understated, so it’s wonderful to see him and his work on display in this setting. More information on this show (curated by Angelina Lippert) can be found at https://posterhouse.org/exhibition/peter-max-cosmic-advertising/?
d) Update on the promised article on the Argyll, Scotlabd Album Art Show – It’s been several months since I first reported about the impressive Art On My Sleeves album art show – curated by collector and album art fanatic Jules Seamer (a man after my own heart) – that was on display in late Summer at the Dunoon Burgh Hall in Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland. Jules has sent me a treasure trove of information about the show and the art featured in it and, as such, it was my plan to work to release a series of articles that highlight the various subject areas that were on display in the show. A family emergency that extended for several weeks (all under control for now, thanks) and the voting for this year’s class of inductees for the ACHOF greatly delayed the start of that work. Barring any other emergencies, I promise to have the first of the articles up and available for your review sometime before the end of the year, so thanks to both Jules and you, my readers for your patience. I think that you’ll find that it will have been worth the wait.
Brief Bits/Ongoing:
e) Design fans can still tour the Pushpin Graphics show now on at NYC’s Poster House (titled The Push Pin Legacy and running through the 6th of February, 2022) built around the collective output of such great designers/artists as Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, Reynold Ruffins, Loring Eutemay, Herb Leavitt and dozens of others. More on the show is available on the museum’s web site at https://posterhouse.org/exhibition/the-push-pin-legacy/
f) Continuing Exhibition – The Pink Floyd touring exhibition “Their Mortal Remains” (originally staged in 2017 at the V&A Museum in the U.K. before moving to Italy, Germany and Spain in 2018-19) continues its run now through the 9th of January, 2022 at the Vogue Multicultural Museum on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles.
Tickets and more information on this immersive exhibit, which includes container loads of Pink Floyd’s artifacts, stage sets and items from a number of private collections can be found on the museum’s web site at https://www.vmmla.com/the-pink-floyd-exhibition/
Artist News and Interviews –
a) As a nice adjunct to the premiere of director Peter Jackson’s much-anticipated Get Back docu-series about the last days of The Beatles as they worked on their final records and live performances, Rock Cellar’s Ken Sharp interviews photographer Ethan Russell about the unique opportunity to be a “fly on the wall” (a fly with a camera, that is) during those last days of The Beatles – https://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/the-beatles-photographer-ethan-russell-interview-let-it-be-rooftop-concert/
b) Recent ACHOF Inductee Lou Beach has applied his formidable talents to a new record package coming out this Friday on Stones Throw Records by DJ Harrison called Tales From The Old Dominion. In addition to the cover art, Mr. Beach also produced animations of it as well as two songs on the album. https://www.stonesthrow.com/store/tales-from-the-old-dominion/
c) The Economist’s arts team takes us inside the shared studio of artist Stanley Donwood and his collaborator, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke – https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/11/10/inside-the-shared-studio-of-thom-yorke-and-stanley-donwood This pair has been responsible for a number of great cover images – so many so that, this year, they were inducted into the ACHOF in the “MUSICAL ACTS WITH A LONG-STANDING COMMITMENT TO GREAT ALBUM COVER IMAGERY” category.
d) Also perfectly-timed to enhance the overall feelings of Beatlemania we’re all experiencing due to the new Get Back film, photographer Bob Gruen – a close friend of former Beatle John Lennon during the years John spent as a resident of New York City – speaks at the Fotografiska Museum’s NYC outpost about his new autobiography Right Place, Right Time: The Life of a Rock & Roll Photographer (Abrams), now out in paperback and audio book versions– https://www.newjerseystage.com/articles/2021/11/08/fotografiska-new-york-presents-in-conversation-with-bob-gruen-on-november-16th/
e) Atlanta, GA-based artist and Wonder Graphics’ principal Flournoy Holmes, has worked for a veritable “who’s who” in Southern Rock music since the 1970s, including The Allman Brothers Band, Capricorn Records, Charlie Daniels, Dr. John, Kansas, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, The Outlaws, Sea Level, Wet Willie, Hank Williams Jr. and many others. In this recent interview article on the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s web site by Brenda Stepp, Holmes shares the story of how he began his journey in the arts world as a youngster, through his schooling at Yale, how a post-concert meet-and-greet with Wet Willie got him his first gig with Capricorn records and then more details about his long-term relationship with the Allman Bros and the covers he did for them – https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/flournoy-holmes-talks-allman-brothers-and-his-famed-album-covers/BGNKQE2DABB4TLWSJJVAOSS2GU/
f) Famed designer Aubrey Powell updates Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason cover for the band’s latest archival release (Momentary Lapse of Reason: Remixed & Updated), with coverage and in-depth interviews with the designer available from Bill Kopp on the Goldmine Magazine site – https://www.goldminemag.com/interviews/hipgnosis-aubrey-powell-looks-back-at-his-iconic-album-designs as well as in a Gary Graff article on the Ultimate Classic Rock site – https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-momentary-lapse-of-reason-remixed-cover-interview/
Basing his new work on another photo taken of fellow Hipgnosis creative whiz Storm Thorgerson’s massive staging of 500 iron beds on a beach, Powell’s new take still leaves the viewer wondering “what’s going to happen next” (and what was the relationship between the French maid and the man sitting on one of the beds). Time marches on and continues to inspire.
g) Andy Cohen’s career has allowed him to show off his prodigious talents as a TV writer on Late Night with David Letterman, an essayist via his contributions to publications including The Atlantic, The New Yorker and others and as a thoughtful and well-adjusted human being as expressed in his answers to the hundreds of questions posed to him during his twelve-year run as “The Ethicist” for The New York Times’ Magazine. For his “Person Place Thing (with Randy Cohen)” podcast’s web site, he’s interviewed scores of talented and impressive people from all aspects of Life, asking them to share some of what’s inspired them to do what they do and, in a recent posting, he’s shared an interview with multi-award-winning designer/graphics artist Bobby Martin, whose company (Champions Design) has produced memorable imagery for clients including the NBA, Carnegie Hall, The Studio Museum in Harlem and MTV. His inspirations include the baseball cards, comic books and album covers he grew up with (sound familiar?) – learn more at https://personplacething.org/373-bobby-martin/
h) The album cover art fans curating the Muse By Clio site gave us two articles of interest in November, the first one titled “9 Great Covers, chosen by Vivienne Bourcherat” (an album cover artist and musician from UK) – https://musebycl.io/art-album/9-great-album-covers-chosen-vivienne-boucherat; with the second item tempting us to think outside the static image in “13 Album Covers Begging to be Animated”, by Lucy Dawkins of Yes Please Productions, who creates visualizations called “lyric videos” – https://musebycl.io/art-album/13-album-covers-begging-be-animated-chosen-lucy-dawkins-yes-please-productions Looking to answer the question “How would this look if it was animated?”, Lucy selects covers that, if you stare at them long enough, tend to come along on their own!
Brief bits:
h) Writer Steve Fairclough’s latest installment in the series he’s been writing for Amateur Photographer brings us the story behind one of Pink Floyd’s best-known and most-confounding album covers – that being the one found on the band’s classic 1975 album Wish You Were Here. This Hipgnosis-designed and executed cover project was done pre-Photoshop, so the lengths the team went to make this image a memorable one were truly incredible and convinced me to NEVER volunteer to be used on the cover of a Pink Floyd record – https://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/latest/photo-news/great-album-photography-wish-you-were-here-pink-floyd-156113
i) Issue Number Two of the Wax Poetics publication (produced in cooperation with the Amsterdam-based fashion retailer Petta) continues to highlight the talents of designers whose works have impacted the music world, with the new article focused on NYC-based designer/mixmaster Gerard “Ge-Ology” Young, a man whose impact on hip-hop visuals cannot be understated.
j) Cleveland based photo-journalist Janet Macoska talks about her relationship with the fantabulous Tina Turner as she’s inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaKTOwPQtSc
Items for Sale and/or at Auction –
a) Be on the lookout in early December (see below) for my almost-annual ACHOF Gift Guide, a helpful article that will point you in the direction of a number of nice things that album cover lovers would most-surely enjoy finding under the tree (or, on that nice parcel table you might have in your building’s front lobby, for the less-formal gift-getters on my subscriber’s list). Artwork, books and other unique collectibles…just right for gift-giving.
UPDATE – Here’s the link to this year’s ACHOF Gift Guide – https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2021/12/03/album-cover-hall-of-fames-holiday-season-gift-buying-guide-2021/
b) Update to item posted 11/10) Bonham’s Head of Pop Culture Claire Tole-Mor recently shared an article of some of her favorite items that were going up for bid at their 11/11 “Pop X Culture” and 11/17 “Rock and Pop” auctions – https://www.bonhams.com/video/33186/? The works of some of rock music’s best-known image-makers (Neal Preston, Gered Mankowitz, Bob Gruen, Jill Furmanovsky and many others) were represented in these collections:
At the Nov. 11 auction (in London) – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26828/ the highlight of the auction (for album art fans) was the sale of a set of six original studies done in the late 1980s by designed by the Grey Organization’s Toby Mott for the cover of De La Soul’s 1989 debut album on Tommy Boy Records titled 3 Feet High and Rising, which sold for $46,919.00.
The Nov. 17 auction (in London) also was a success – https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26822/ , finding new homes for a number of desirable items including a promo model of “Frank The Robot”, adapted from Frank Kelly Freas’ designs used on the cover of Queen’s News of the World album (sold for $6788.00).
Bit of trivia – the Nov. 17th auction included items from the estate of the late actress Diana Rigg (who played Emma Peel on The Avengers on TV and appeared in many musicals). What’s the ACHOF connection? She served as the cover model for The Cuff Links’ 1969 album Tracy that contained the hit single by the same name.
Brief bits (and lots of ‘em):
c) Legendary designer John Van Hamersveld teams with young pop artist COldie to release a series of NFTs currently being auctioned off at Bonhams (final bidding takes place on December 10th) – https://www.bonhams.com/online_auctions/27505/?
Want to know more about collecting NFTs? Watch this video – https://www.bonhams.com/video/32391/? before placing a bid – you’ll come away with a much-better understanding of the upsides and downsides of owning works in this new category of art.
d) Perhaps the best-known teddy bear in the world of hip-hop is going up for sale – Kanye West’s College Dropout cover bear (i.e., the costume used, based on designs by Sam Hansen), has been in the hands of Eric Arginsky, whose mother has had it for nearly 20 years and who now wants it out of the house. Asking price is a cool million $$ – any takers? https://allhiphop.com/news/kanye-wests-college-dropout-bear-on-sale-for-1-million/
e) In addition to the “usual” list of signed album covers and the like found at rock memorabilia auctions, once in a while you’ll find some unique/one-or-a-few-of-a-kind items like these I found in a recent auction at Julien’s, such as a Berry Feinstein print of the cover photo for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass (sold for $2880.00); a Winky pitcher that was used on the cover of Frank Zappa’s Broadway The Hard Way album ($1280.00) and the original Stan Watt’s painted artwork of the straight-jacketed person found on the cover of Quiet Riot’s 1983 megahit metal record Metal Health, which was sold for well over the pre-auction estimate of $20-$40,000, changing hands for $44,800 (only one bidder, but he obviously wanted to win it!) – https://www.julienslive.com/auctions/catalog/id/391?page=1&view=list&catm=any&order=order_num&xclosed=no&featured=no&key=album%20cover
f) Ongoing – While the London pop-up for The Stones might have beat them to the punch, the people behind a new pop-up store in NYC have responded with a lot of panache with the emporium that opened on October 25th to celebrate David Bowie’s 75th birthday (which will be up and running thru late January 2022). Variety’s Jem Aswad toured the store – which includes a mini-museum of Bowie memorabilia, music, performance videos and even a photo booth shaped like the famous phone booth found on the cover art for Bowie’s 1972 Ziggy Stardust LP – and shares text and pix in this article – https://variety.com/2021/music/news/david-bowie-75-pop-up-store-1235097165/
Also continuing on in London town is the pop-up store on Carnaby street, just a few doors down from a similar retail space featuring Rolling Stones merch, that’s called Queen The Greatest that gives fans access to a wide arrange of Queen-branded merchandise. December’s shoppers will see the shop explore the theme of “Magic”, adding Christmas items as well (cards, wrapping paper, etc.), while visitors will be treated to video reels of Queen performances and other special opportunities to interact with the content they’ll see and hear there. Additional info can also be found on this article published by Forbes Magazine – https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfaithfull/2021/09/28/queen-rock-up-on-carnaby-street-to-celebrate-50-year-anniversary/? and on the Louder Sound site at https://www.loudersound.com/news/queen-pop-up-shop-opens-on-londons-carnaby-street
g) Ongoing thru the Holidays – I would be remiss not to remind you that several of the unsold items from my old RockPoP collection that were in the mid-2021 auctions staged by Jacques and his team at Backstage Auctions are still available for sale (at wallet-friendly fixed prices) in the Backstage Auctions online store – https://www.backstageauctions.com/store/ with most items found in the “Fine Art Prints & Lithographs” and “Photos – Limited-Edition Prints” sections. If you think that there might be something nice there to add to your collection (and, they make great Holiday gifts as well), so I do hope you’ll go take a look.
Special Award Show updates –
In addition to the late-November announcement of this year’s inductees into the Album Cover Hall of Fame (read our press release at https://albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2021/11/26/announcing-the-2021-inductees-into-the-album-cover-hall-of-fame/ for all the details), there were several other award-related items I want to share with you.
a) The nominations for the upcoming Grammy Awards were announced during a live streaming event that took place on November 23rd (which you can re-watch on the Grammy Awards site – https://live.grammy.com/) that will be awarded as part of the 2022 Grammy Awards Show taking place on January 31st, 2022 (with major awards ceremony broadcast on CBS, hosted by Trevor Noah). Here are the nominations in the three packaging-related categories:
In the “Best Recording Package” category, the nominees are:
American Jackpot / American Girls for Reckless Kelly – Sarah Dodds & Shauna Dodds, art directors:
Carnage by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis – Nick Cave & Tom Hingston, art directors;
2nd Generation Falangao Singing Group & The Chairman Crossover Big Band’s Pakelang – Li Jheng Han & Yu, Wei, art directors;
Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger – Dayle Doyle, art director, and
Zeta by Soul Of Ears – Xiao Qing Yang, art director
In the “Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package” category, the nominees are:
All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Edition by George Harrison – Darren Evans, Dhani Harrison & Olivia Harrison, art directors;
Soccer Mommy’s Color Theory – Lordess Foudre & Christopher Leckie, art directors;
The Future Bites (Limited Edition Box Set) for Steven Wilson – Simon Moore, art director;
77-81 by Gang of Four -Dan Calderwood & Jon King, art directors, and
Swimming In Circles by Mac Miller – Ramón Coronado & Marshall Rake, art directors
And while we don’t “officially” cover this category, here are the nominees in the “Best Album Notes” category:
Beethoven: The Last Three Sonatas by Sunwook Kim – Ann-Katrin Zimmermann, album notes writer;
The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia And RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946-1966 featuring Louis Armstrong – Ricky Riccardi, album notes writer;
Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology featuring Willie Dunn – Kevin Howes, album notes writer;
Etching The Voice: Emile Berliner And The First Commercial Gramophone Discs, 1889-1895 – David Giovannoni, Richard Martin & Stephan Puille, album notes writers, and
The King Of Gospel Music: The Life And Music Of Reverend James Cleveland – Robert Marovich, album notes writer
Congratulations to all of the nominees. Of course, you’ll get the news about who won in each category as soon as they’re announced, right here on the ACHOF Breaking News site.
b) Voting has also commenced for this year’s Best Art Vinyl Awards (2021), with this year’s judging panel including designer Matthew Cooper (whose done packages for Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and Noel Gallagher and who was the Best Art Vinyl winner in 2016 for Last Shadow Puppets’ Everything You’ve Come to Expect); Rob O’Connor of Stylorouge Creative Consultants (a 2019 inductee into the ACHOF whose done great work for Blur, Squeeze, Morrissey and others); artist/painter Russell Oliver (winner of Best Art Vinyl in 2020 for IDLES Ultra Mono); Bill Smith, author of the book Cover Stories: Five Decades of Album Art; Alison Fielding, Head of Creative at the Beggars Group record label and, of course, Andrew Heeps, founder of Art Vinyl and artvinyl.com and the producer of the Best Art Vinyl Awards. Cast your vote at https://artvinyl.com/best-record-cover-design-competition/ with the winners announced on the 6th of January, 2022, during a ceremony at the Hari Hotel in London.
c) Designer Spencer Drate and his cohort Patrick Bamburak recently interviewed Bryan Ekus, co-founder (along with journalist Larry Jaffe) of the Making Vinyl organization and one of the talented people who’ve put together and presented the prestigious Making Vinyl Packaging Awards events, one of the most in-depth efforts to showcase the talents of the music world’s most-impressive album package producers. This episode of Indie Cage 2wo gives us the history behind the organization and their efforts to highlight the close correlation between the resurgence of interest in physical media (LPs, 45s, box sets, special edition recordings, etc.) and the quality of its retail packaging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJdnmbIkac8 (approx. 52 minutes)
Miscellaneous Items and other Brief Bits –
As always, I’m going to have to keep these short-and-sweet (well, most of them, anyway):
OBITS) November included two significant ripples in The Force of the album art/imagery world, with two notable and well-respected artists – photographer Mick Rock and designer Virgil Abloh – both having moved on to another astral plane during the month…
On 11/19/21, I had the very sad duty to have to report that legendary rock shooter Michael David “Mick” Rock had died. Well-known as “the man who shot The Seventies” in reference to the huge number of albums, magazine articles, books and museum/gallery shows that featured his photos from that era, he was 72.
Mick Rock first met David Bowie in early 1972 and most of the memorable images of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust were shot by Mick 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, Queen’s Queen II (recreated for their classic music video ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) 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 and 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’. Other notable examples of Rock’s album cover work include the covers for Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby; Iggy & The Stooges’ Raw Power, Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack and End of the Century for the Ramones.
Tributes from fans and many of the people who knew, worked and loved him have been pouring in from all over the world, as you’ll find in the obituaries and articles referenced in the links posted below:
NME – https://www.nme.com/news/music/legendary-music-photographer-mick-rock-has-died-aged-72-3099649
uDiscovermusic.com – https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/mick-rock-queen-photographer-dead-72/
Planet Rock.com – https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/mick-rock-dies/
I had the pleasure of corresponding with him several times over the years and, back in 2007, he helped me put together an article about his work on the cover for the 1974 hit record Queen II, which features one of his best-known images of the band. He was kind enough to also share some other shots that came from that photo session, so I’d invite you to read more about this project and the man behind it by clicking on over to https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2007/08/cover-story-que.html
Take a dive into this great talent’s work by visiting his website – https://www.mickrock.com/ – where you’ll also find a statement from his daughter, Natalie, who is also quite the talent. A man as unique as his work, he’ll surely be missed.
Then, just a few days ago, on November 28th the design world was shocked to learn that Virgil Abloh, a major name in the fashion industry who was famous in hip-hop circles for his Off-White brand of clothing and accessories and who’d previously served in the position of Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton’s Men’s collections, had succumbed to a rare form of cancer at the age of 41.
He met and befriended rapper Kanye West in the early 2000s after having worked at Fendi and then launched his own space – the RSVP Gallery in his hometown of Chicago – while also taking on the role of Creative Director for Kanye’s DONDA design agency. His thorough understanding of his audience and his unique fashion sense found him applying his talents to a number of memorable album covers, too, a retrospective of that work being found on the XXL Magazine site at https://www.xxlmag.com/virgil-abloh-album-covers/? A giant in the industry, we can now only imagine where he’d have taken his talents had he been given the chance to do so.
a) Mick McStarkey of Far Out Magazine was on a tear this month, taking us first on a tour thru the portfolio of famed designer Peter Saville – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/peter-saville-ten-greatest-album-covers-joy-division-new-order-pulp/ . He then shared the story behind another Led Zep classic image – the runes found of Led Zeppelin IV (the one with “Stairway To Heaven” on it) – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-led-zeppelin-picked-symbols-for-iv-album-cover/; staying on the topic of Led Zeppelin covers, McStarkey then works to explain the controversial images (by the team at Hipgnosis) found on the band’s Houses of the Holy cover – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-cover-uncovered-the-apocalyptic-image-of-led-zeppelins-houses-of-the-holy/ and then finishes his work for the month with an article on why guitarist Jimi Hendrix was typically unhappy with his album covers – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/siouxsie-and-the-banshees-perform-jigsaw-feeling/ . I’d interviewed the photographer for his first three covers – Karl Ferris – several times over the years and he shared the same sentiment, except when it came to his own covers, which Mr. Hendrix was most-enchanted with – https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2008/02/index.html
b) Now, this should be interesting…as you have seen reported here several times over the years, no fewer than four artists/art directors – Craig Braun, Ernie Cefalu, John Pasche and Ruby Mazur – have all laid claim to having created the “Lips & Tongue” logo for the Rolling Stones, with each presenting their take on their roles in the development and production of this iconic (and very valuable) logo image. I’ve worked hard to remain neutral in the discussion, but one thing I have tried to point out is that, other than in certain examples of fine art prints that have been produced, none of these artists has been officially authorized (by the band and their licensing arm) to produce “big money” artworks, so based on this article I just saw about Mr. Mazur’s upcoming foray into the NFT world (in partnership with a company called Cosmic Wire), using iterations of one of his original works as the basis, it’ll be very interesting to see whether he’s going to enjoy any long-term success on this project or whether, as has been the case many times over the years, the sheer power of the band’s legal team brings the whole thing to a screeching halt – https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/21/11/p24259080/legendary-artist-ruby-mazur-and-cosmic-wire-partner-with-launchpad-by-byt-the-team-behind-neo-toky
c) The ongoing saga of Nirvana baby vs. everything good and kind continues, with the record company continuing on their merry way with the original cover image on the 30th anniversary package – https://loudwire.com/nirvana-nevermind-30th-anniversary-original-album-cover/ Later on in November, the original lawsuit was amended to include some evidence that, as an alternative approach to the baby underwater cover, Kurt Cobain had tossed about the idea of having the baby dressed up as Playboy Magazine editor Hugh Hefner – https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/54872/1/baby-on-nirvana-nevermind-cover-was-depicted-as-hugh-hefner-kurt-cobain-journal
This lawsuit and its underlying arguments have received a lot of coverage, as exemplified by comedian/social commentator Bill Maher’s recent opinioms in about the Nirvana baby’s lawsuit – on Loudwire – https://loudwire.com/bill-maher-nirvana-baby-stop-being-such-a-fucking-baby/ and on Spin.com – https://www.spin.com/2021/10/bill-maher-nevermind-baby-lawsuit-reaction/
d) Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd has just released a new solo album and, as you’ll see in this article on the Loudwire site by Chad Childers, he’s always appreciated the close connection between music and art (“I’ve always felt that music and art were joined at the hip”). To help illustrate his love of music-related art, he’s shared his own top 10 list of album covers, which include examples from “the classics” in the genre (inc. the covers for Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures and Abbey Road by The Beatles) and a number of covers for film soundtracks – some well-known (Star Wars, E.T. and others) and some a bit more obscure (Goblin’s score for the 1977 Italian horror film Suspiria – https://loudwire.com/10-best-album-art-pieces-chosen-incubus-brandon-boyd/
Brief(ish) bits:
e) A UK collector shares “the best of the worst” of his collection of horrible album covers – Happy Holidays! – https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-59173827
f) Sir Paul McCartney was recently caught strolling across the zebra-striped intersection made famous on the Abbey Road album cover (not only is he wearing shoes this time, but he’s also sporting a nice mask!) – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10175977/Paul-McCartney-recreates-iconic-Abbey-Road-album-cover-strolls-zebra-crossing-London.html
g) To help celebrate/promote the release of the new Peter Jackson film about the last days of The Beatles (Get Back, streaming on Disney +), actor/Jedi knight Mark Hamill posted a special, Star Wars-ified image featuring all your SW favorites in a setting quite familiar to fans of Beatles album cover design – https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1463796198515482628
Additional details on this major modification of a classic cover image can be found at https://screenrant.com/star-wars-beatles-sgt-pepper-cover-edit-image/
That’s all for now – stay tuned and be on the lookout for timely news alerts on our news feeds (sign up below to get an automatic email every time there’s something new on the ACHOF site). I’ll be returning right around the first of next month with another news summary for you. Until then, Happy New Year, with Peace and Love and wishes of Good Health to you all.
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