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Post by the Scribe on May 15, 2021 0:17:32 GMT
FEATURES: THROUGH THE LENS
Linda Ronstadt’s Album Designer, Kosh, Talks Covers
bestclassicbands.com/kosh-linda-ronstadt-album-covers-10-10-20/
by Greg Brodsky
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Kosh with Linda Ronstadt during 1978’s Living in the USA photo shoot (Photo: Kosh Archives; used with permission)
Kosh, Linda, Jim Shea in photo shoot for Living In The USA
When you’ve designed more than a dozen of Linda Ronstadt’s album covers—including three that earned Grammy Awards for your work—you’re able to share the following: “I had a call from Linda a few days ago. She was checking in on me and sounded great.”
“The thing about Linda,” says John Kosh, her longtime collaborator, and recipient of that phone call, “is she never seemed to really appreciate how good she was.”
www.facebook.com/koshart
But her audience sure did as she evolved musically through a half dozen (or more) genres. And one constant, for a long string of successes, was Kosh. The celebrated designer—everyone just calls him by his last name—had already served as art director for one of the most iconic album covers in music history: The Beatles’ Abbey Road, for which he famously, and riskily at the time, omitted the band’s name from its front side.
Kosh has designed covers and other iconic artworks for a literal who’s-who of recording artists, including, just for starters, Eagles’ Hotel California, The Who’s Who’s Next, the ELO logo, John and Yoko’s “War is Over” campaign, and covers for James Taylor, Ringo, Rod Stewart and Bad Company, among his scores of projects.
In 1975, Kosh, recently transplanted from London to Los Angeles, got a call from his friend, Peter Asher. “He said, ‘I’ve got a really great artist that you should meet,'” Kosh recalls. “I had never heard a voice like hers.” He was referring, of course, to Ronstadt, whom Asher managed and produced.
www.facebook.com/lindaronstadtofficial
The singer was beginning her longtime association with Elektra/Asylum when Asher set up their first meeting. “I was a little bit nervous,” Kosh says, “but she was enthusiastic because I came in with this reputation, having worked with the Beatles.”
Their first collaboration was for Prisoner in Disguise, which included her classic renditions of “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Love is a Rose” and the album’s biggest single (and concert crowd-pleaser), “Heat Wave.” The front cover is a small, framed photo of Ronstadt, who had just turned 29.
“She’s being imprisoned in that photograph,” says Kosh. “You can turn it over and you’ll get your money’s worth,” he says of the full-size headshot on the back. (Ethan Russell, with whom Kosh had collaborated on the Beatles’ Let It Be and on The Who’s Who’s Next, took both shots.)
For the gatefold, Kosh and Asher persuaded the songwriters—Smokey Robinson, Neil Young, James Taylor and Dolly Parton, among them—to handwrite the lyrics to their songs.
“I’m being hired, more or less, to be the conductor of an orchestra to work with the photographer, all the way from the initial meeting, to getting concepts organized, getting it finalized,” says Kosh. “I make the point of gaining the trust of that artist and I want to get in the studio while they’re [working] so I can listen to a few tracks. But what I really want to do is sit down with the artist and just enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth.”
The designer and singer got along so well, it led to a follow-up, one year later… and a bit of controversy. Kosh, photographer Ethan Russell and their crew set up a shoot in Malibu on the beach. (“It took hours to organize.”) The photo chosen for what would become the cover of 1976’s Hasten Down the Wind was shot at night. “There was a time exposure on the background and then we add a flash… a strobe on Linda. That freezes her in the frame just as a horse is riding past. Even when she was posing, she wasn’t posing.”
You don’t need to look too closely to see Ronstadt’s nipples peeking through her shirt. Kosh can laugh now but at the time, he says, “It caused a ruckus. People asked, ‘Are we selling music or sex?’”
The album, with her great version of “That’ll Be the Day,” became her third straight to sell over a million copies, a record at the time.
Related: Our Album Rewind of Hasten Down the Wind
bestclassicbands.com/linda-ronstadt-hasten-down-the-wind-8-13-200/
With 1977’s Simple Dreams, Ronstadt became as big a music star as there was. It spent five weeks at #1 thanks to a boatload of radio hits, delivering two perfect ballads (“Blue Bayou,” which was nominated for Record of the Year, and “Tumbling Dice”) and two superb uptempo numbers (“It’s So Easy” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”).
The inner gatefold is meant to look like a backstage shot, although it was taken in a Hollywood studio. “The front and back cover shot was very difficult to light,” recalls Kosh. “Can you imagine keeping photographer Jim Shea and the assistants out of the shot, with all those mirrors around?” Kosh shares that the shot that used was actually from a second shoot. Recalling the flak they had received with the Hasten Down the Wind cover, the Elektra/Asylum brass had objected to the original pictures with Ronstadt in a skimpier outfit.
Of 1977’s Simple Dreams, Kosh asks, “Can you imagine keeping photographer Jim Shea and the assistants out of the shot, with all those mirrors around?”
“We had to re-shoot the whole thing,” says Kosh, recalling the complicated rigging involved.
It paid off. Simple Dreams sold more than three million copies, her most up until that time. Kosh earned a Grammy for Best Recording Package. Kosh says, “She was her own biggest critic, she rarely showed off. Except for ‘Blue Bayou,’ and then she really let go.” (laughs)
Snapshot: Of 1978’s Living in the USA, yet another #1 album, Ronstadt is on roller skates. Kosh says, “We were all flying high, living in L.A. I was still here on a green card so living in the U.S.A. was still tenuous for me.”
At the dawn of a new decade, Ronstadt was recording the album that became Mad Love. “We were looking to do a film noir sort of thing. Linda had suggested she should have a strong look to match the hard drive of the music. We scouted and rehearsed it and got the lighting right and then, when Linda arrived, we went to work on her hair and make-up before she jumped into the booth.”
The cover is one of Kosh’s favorites. “We took her as far as we could to make her look both punk and glamorous. In Peter Howe’s photo, she’s sitting in the phone booth and she’s actually calling her boyfriend, who happened to be the governor of California.”
The album, yet another platinum success, included two more Top 10 singles, “How Do I Make You” and “Hurt So Bad,” as well as “I Can’t Let Go,” which Ronstadt belts with gusto.
Ronstadt spent the next year or so embracing another genre when she acted in the stage production of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance.
Her next release was 1982’s Get Closer and while it was well received, it had no radio hits. For the cover, an image taken by Aaron Rappaport of Ronstadt in a red dress with white polka dots, is juxtaposed against a reverse of that pattern.
Kosh calls it “a bit of a tour de force in terms of the graphics and getting out the creases from the dress, and the right metallic inks.” It earned him a second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
The dress she’s wearing was Kosh’s wife, Marjory’s. “A few weeks later we’re at a concert with Linda, and Marj says to me, ‘Hey, she’s still wearing my dress!’”
Related: Our interview with Peter Asher about Ronstadt
bestclassicbands.com/peter-asher-linda-ronstadt-8-4-17/
With her next move, Ronstadt stunned the music industry and her audience by releasing What’s New, an album devoted to traditional pop standards, recorded with legendary arranger and bandleader Nelson Riddle. The 1983 title, with Ronstadt’s takes on such Gershwin classics as “I’ve Got a Crush on You” and “Someone to Watch Over Me” and Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do,” was a surprise hit to everyone—the label included—and ultimately paved the way for other stars to take on the Great American Songbook.
Kosh delights in sharing “the little joke,” that he calls it, about the cover. There’s Linda, still just 37 years old in the Brian Aris photo, lying on a bed of satin in a prom dress, and just to her left is a Sony Walkman, the latest electronic gadget of the day.
What’s New sold a stunning three million copies. Its success led to two follow-ups, both of which Kosh designed.
The first, 1984’s Lush Life, earned Kosh his third Grammy. Ronstadt isn’t on its cover. The designer is asked if the label pushed back on that decision.
“No, Peter Asher and I had a lot of clout—I was also working with the Eagles at the time. As an outside art director, I’m a bridge between the artist and the record label. We didn’t put her face on the cover because it didn’t seem necessary. We had a different audience… the ones who wanted to hear the torch songs. It broke the rules.”
In 1987, a dozen years after their first collaboration, Ronstadt made another significant “about face” with her choice of repertoire.
Born in Tuscon, Ariz., on July 15, 1946, Ronstadt is actually of Mexican descent on her father’s side. She chose to record an album, Canciones de Mi Padre (Songs of My Father), to celebrate the family’s musical roots.
For the cover, she’s wearing a flowing dress in Bob Blakeman’s photo, with the back cover featuring her father’s painting. “It’s a very personal album cover,” says Kosh, “very ethnic looking. She’s got those gorgeous brown eyes, and looks very innocent. It was my gift to her.”
Though the album peaked at just #42 on the Billboard chart, it was nonetheless a significant seller, certified double platinum, and is listed as the top-selling non-English album in U.S. history.
All these years later, Kosh is asked about his longtime friend. “She’s the most fascinating woman, along with my late wives, that I’ve ever known.
“She was just the sweetest and loveliest client. And she’s still my pal.”
Related: Kosh talks about some of his iconic cover for other stars
bestclassicbands.com/john-kosh-interview-11-17-15/
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Post by the Scribe on Jul 18, 2021 7:06:53 GMT
Making Sights for Sounds: The Art of Kosh : It all started with ‘Abbey Road.’ In 20 years since, John Kosh has become a living legend with innovative album covers for pop superstars.
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-03-18-ca-1193-story.html
By DAVID WHARTON
MARCH 18, 1990 12 AM PT
No, Paul McCartney wasn’t dead. Yes, Pete Townshend did urinate in public.
Recollections of a lifetime in rock ‘n’ roll. . . . John Kosh sits in his Hollywood studio on a warm Tuesday morning, speaking in a working-class English accent, reminiscing.
Back in the late ‘60s, Kosh was a young Londoner fresh out of art studies at Hornsey College. He was working for the Royal Opera, designing advertisements and looking for something better.
“I got this phone call one afternoon and the voice said, ‘Hello, this is John Lennon,’ ” Kosh said. “I thought, ‘Oh yeah, sure.’ I figured it was one of my friends talking with a Liverpool accent.”
But it really was Lennon, and Kosh found himself enlisted to design a cover for the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album. The resulting artwork--a simple photograph of John, Paul, George and Ringo walking across the street--has survived as one of pop music’s most memorable images.
In the 20 years since, Kosh has designed covers for Rod Stewart, the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett and 10,000 Maniacs. He made The Who look infamously mischievous. He made Randy Newman look young again. Linda Ronstadt uses him for all her albums, three of which have won Grammys for their artwork.
“He’s amazing,” Ronstadt said. “An album is real personal and so the cover has to be real personal. He understands that. Whatever my fantasy is, he’s good at making it fit into a design.”
At 44, with graying hair and beard, Kosh talks about his job as if it were play, as if he’d crashed some party that won’t seem to end. He never intended to do this sort of work but he’s still at it, having moved from England in 1973 to set up shop amid Los Angeles’ record companies. Kosh talks about his career like a man who won the lottery.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” he said. “I don’t really know how it started or how it happened.”
It started with “Abbey Road” and the rumor that Paul McCartney was dead.
Lennon called on Kosh because he had seen the young artist’s work at the opera. The two men met several times. Yoko Ono was keeping Lennon on a macrobiotic diet and Kosh used to sneak him cookies. Kosh was soon hired by the Beatles.
Meanwhile, reports of McCartney’s demise--which dated to 1966--were continuing to circulate. People said he was killed in a car accident and replaced by a look-alike. The band, reportedly guilty over concealing the death, offered clues on subsequent albums. When the song “I’m So Tired” is played at slow speed, Lennon can be heard mumbling “Paul is dead, miss him, miss him.” At the end of “Strawberry Fields Forever” come words that sound like “I buried Paul.”
The “Abbey Road” cover fueled more rumors. The band was pictured in a funeral-like procession. McCartney was out of step, dressed in black and barefoot. A nearby car bore the license plate “28 IF,” supposedly meaning that he would have been 28 had he survived the 1966 crash.
“It was just a series of coincidences,” Kosh said. “The photo session didn’t take more than an hour or two. We paraded them back and forth across the street and the photographer kept shooting. At what stage Paul lost his shoes, I don’t know. He just took them off at some point.”
Such coincidences may have been staged by the band as part of a running gag. Kosh pleads ignorance to any such plot, though he admits that Apple Records was deliberately vague on the matter and instructed him not to deny any McCartney death rumors.
Fact or fiction, the album sold millions of copies and the commotion brought particular attention to its cover.
By 1971, Kosh followed up with “Let It Be” and The Who’s infamous “Who’s Next.” Again he produced a simple picture--the band standing around a giant concrete block they appeared to have urinated on.
“I’m afraid they did,” Kosh said. “You know how Englishmen drink beer. We were all drinking a lot that day so there was constant urination going on.
“The joke was that the movie ‘2001' had just come out with that obelisk and we found an obelisk out in the middle of nowhere. It was a piling for a freeway overpass they were building. What better thing to do than go and (urinate) on it?”
Such images linger. They elevated Kosh to lofty status among rock ‘n’ roll musicians and artists.
“He’s a legend, a living legend,” said Tommy Steele, art director for Capitol Records. “He’s one of the guys that, well, we all saw his work as we were coming up.”
Kosh demurs. He says his early photo sessions were guided by whimsy, his technique no more than “wonderful naivete, trying anything and everything.” It was a time, he recalls, when the unpredictable likes of Lennon, Jagger and Moon ruled London’s music scene.
“We were just being outrageous. Everything was going so fast that you didn’t have time to sit back and take notice of what you were doing.”
Beer and naivete notwithstanding, certain formulas govern album design. There are four basic categories: a simple photograph like Carly Simon’s “Playing Possum”; an elaborate set like “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”; an illustration such as Led Zepplin’s first album; or a logo, as on every Chicago album.
Or, these elements may be combined.
Certain marketing strategies come into play. Some musicians need their faces on the cover to forge an identity with the buying public.
“ELO, for instance, wasn’t a particularly photogenic band,” Kosh said. “They needed a logo.”
The image is the key, and the image must be strong because an average shopper browsing through the racks will glance at a cover for two seconds, industry executives say.
“The record cover should draw the eye,” said Jeff Adamoff, vice president of creative services at MCA Records.
“The bottom line is creating an image,” said Steele, of Capitol Records. “We’re image makers.”
Images are Kosh’s forte, and his reputation has grown steadily with three Grammys and three more nominations. He now works with the help of artists Larry Brooks and Amy Dakos. They have settled in a small studio in Crossroads of the World, an odd office complex on Sunset Boulevard fashioned like a ship.
Musicians and record companies seek out this place, wanting to commission a Kosh cover. The record companies have market-related ideas for the artwork; musicians have their own vision.
“You get very vain musicians who only want their picture on the cover,” Kosh says. “I was hired to do Rod Stewart’s ‘Blondes Have More Fun.’ He wanted to dress up in full Nazi regalia. I didn’t want to do that, so I got my marching orders.”
Ronstadt asks for specific colors on her covers. For the “Get Closer” album, which won a Grammy, she wanted polka-dots and Kosh’s wife, Marjory, found a polka-dot dress for her to wear. Randy Newman brought in childhood photographs to sift through for his “Land of Dreams” album.
Next comes the music. Kosh visits the studio to hear the band. If he can get a tape, he drives with the car stereo playing.
All this preparation leads to brainstorming sessions between Kosh and his co-workers. They may come up with an illustration. They may decide to use the band’s existing logo.
Adamoff recalled the time he was a free-lance artist competing against Kosh for Chicago’s 16th album. He was agonizing over how to use the band’s familiar logo in a fresh way. Kosh--facing the same dilemma--decided to print the logo on a microchip. He then photographed a magnifying glass being held over the chip.
Kosh got the job.
“It was off-the-wall, brilliant,” Adamoff said. “I said, ‘This guy is great.’ ”
Even the simplest cover--a photograph of the band--can be agonizing. Photo sessions drag on for hours. Some musicians are difficult. Others loathe the camera.
“I’d rather dig a ditch,” Ronstadt says.
Kosh has tricks. He sets the studio clock back an hour so the musicians don’t think they have been there so long. With Ronstadt, he plays her favorite Neville Brothers album. With Jimmy Buffett, he keeps up a banter of jokes and a long-running argument over who is younger.
“I’ve always used him because he’s such a pleasure to work with,” Buffett said, “and he’s older than me.”
“Sgt. Pepper’s,” as one of the first high-cost, concept album covers, is credited with acting as a springboard for much of what came after. Suddenly, record companies were willing to spend freely to decorate their products.
The Eagles’ “Hotel California"--designed by Kosh--cost $27,000 for photography alone. For Rod Stewart’s “Foot Loose & Fancy Free,” Kosh built a life-size, watertight hotel room and flooded it.
“We were going to put him on the bed with a pair of shoes floating in the water and masses of steam floating out the bathroom door,” Kosh said. “So the first day, he didn’t show up. The second day, he didn’t show up. The third day, he showed up and said ‘Nah, I don’t like that idea.’ He left me sitting on $10,000 worth of set.”
The cover ended up as a simple photograph of Stewart walking along Mulholland Drive.
A reputation for expense follows Kosh. Set construction and photography for his covers cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 or, on occasion, much more. That is not unusual in the record industry. But, as one of the top names in town, he commands an additional design fee of $5,000 to $15,000 per cover.
Such expenditures are crucial to record companies. Compact discs and cassette tapes, which rule the market, are smaller than albums. Design must compensate for lack of space. In the old days, Kosh might have opted for shock value.
“That law of upsetting mothers--if the mother hates the cover, the kids will buy the album,” he said. “But I’m getting too old to go out and be deliberately offensive anymore.”
He’d rather use an artistic approach. And it occurs to Kosh that he has been pretty successful as an artist. Just about anyone who owns a stereo has some of his work. There are Kosh prints in millions of homes around the world.
“It’s all been by accident,” he said. “I’m just a cockney kid who came around at the right time when London street kids were turning the world upside down.”
David Wharton is a feature sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times.
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Post by the Scribe on Aug 15, 2022 2:29:20 GMT
Album Cover Hall of Fame.com
Dedicated to rock and roll album cover art makers active 1960 to present.
Interview with Kosh – Linda Ronstadt’s Lush Life album cover
albumcoverhalloffame.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/interview-with-kosh-linda-ronstadts-lush-life-album-cover/
Posted on May 9, 2014 | 2 Comments
Interview with Kosh about the making of the album cover art and packaging for Linda Ronstadt’s Lush Life, a 1984 release on Asylum Records
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by Mike Goldstein, Curator, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com
You may recall my recent interview with David Larkham about his long-standing creative collaboration with Elton John and the many album cover projects they worked on together. What I neglected to mention was that there were a number of such partnerships that produced many of our favorite images for record packages (and merchandise, stage sets, music videos, etc.) over the years. Other examples include historic couplings such as Pink Floyd and Hipgnosis, Anton Corbijn and U2, George DuBose and The Ramones, Peter Travers and The Moody Blues, Roger Dean and YES, Cal Schenkel and Frank Zappa, James Marsh and Talk Talk and many others. These examples help illustrate the importance of the establishment of a “shared vision” between a musical act and the person/people entrusted to build a visual identity for that act and, once that synergy has been established, how it can grow into an integral part of how that act is seen – and appreciated – by its fans.
One sterling example of such a relationship is that between recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Linda Ronstadt and the Grammy-winning designer/art director known as “Kosh”. Since the young designer met the singer in the mid-1970s (after her success with her Grammy-winning country-rock masterpiece, 1974’s Heart Like A Wheel, with design by Rod Dyer and photo by her friend Eve Babitz), the two talented artists have joined forces to release two dozen (!!) great albums, with Kosh and his team winning three Grammy Awards for “Best Recording Package” for their work over the years. The third Grammy was awarded in 1985 for Kosh’s cover designs for Lush Life, the second of three albums of big band jazz-era pop standards, with arrangements – and musical bed – provided by bandleader Nelson Riddle.
Released in November, 1984. the immensely popular record quickly became a platinum-seller, with Linda earning a Grammy Award nomination (in 1986) for “Best Pop Vocal Performance – Female” for her rendition of the title song, Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” (while she didn’t win for this particular song, Linda did go on to win 11 Grammys during her illustrious career). The first record in the trilogy of recordings dedicated to “the great American songbook” – 1983’s What’s New – established the now-popular practice of rock singers adding their own unique stylings to the classic tunes of a bygone era, with its commercial and critical success proving the viability of such projects to other artists and record labels going forward. The Lush Life record project would again be honored by the Recording Academy when Nelson Riddle, who died in late 1985, was posthumously awarded a 1985 Grammy Award for “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying A Vocal” at the 28th Annual Grammy Award ceremony in early 1986 for the title track, “Lush Life”.
With Ms. Ronstadt’s induction into this year’s class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame fresh in our memories, I contacted the still quite-busy Mr. Kosh in his studios in the Los Angeles area to ask him to give us his take on the making of the package for Lush Life, along with his feelings about his team, his creative partnership with Ms. Ronstadt and the general state of music packaging and graphics these days. I think that – quite understandably – this relationship thrived on a mutual sense of admiration of the talents each party brought to the table, as you’ll see evidenced in the following transcript…
Interview with the designer, Kosh (conducted via email April/May, 2014) –
Mike Goldstein, Curator, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com – Kosh, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to work with me on this. I know you’re busy, so let’s get to it – Can you tell me how and when you first met Linda Ronstadt? Did you meet her directly, or through her manager or record label? Had you worked with any of them before?
Kosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winner
Designer Kosh with artist Linda Ronstadt
Kosh, designer/art director – I met Linda when I first arrived in LA. Her manager was Peter Asher whom I knew well at Apple records, where I was art director. I had been in London, designing album covers and other promo projects for The Beatles at Apple and also with John Lennon and Yoko Ono for their “War Is Over” campaign. In 1974, I’d moved to the U.S. and landed in Los Angeles, where I was exposed – and soon became part of – the West Coast music scene. I met up with Peter again, as he was now managing both James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt from his offices there, and he introduced me to the folks at Linda’s record label, Asylum (Editor’s Note – Asylum was also home to another country-rock act, the Eagles, for whom he’d create the album cover for their Grammy-winning record Hotel California in 1977 – see link for interview about this cover) and then to Linda herself. We discovered a mutual admiration.
rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2007/08/cover-story---t.html
Mike G – What impressed you about Linda and, in your opinion, what made her and her music different from other artists in the business at that time?
Kosh – She had a wonderful voice and I had an impressive portfolio so, in 1975, we embarked on Prisoner In Disguise. This was the era of the California Sound and, in my opinion, her artistry rose above all others.
kosh, linda ronstadt, prisoner in disguise, interview, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, lush life
Prisoner in Disguise album cover by Kosh
MG – Can you tell me what the inspiration was for your creative approach to the album package? Did her music or performing style provide you with some inspiration as to how to develop the record’s style? Were you able to hear any of the music that was going to be on that particular record for inspiration?
Back cover comp and finished product
Kosh – Lush Life was going to be her second collaboration with Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra and, since Linda was immersed in the big band period and the fashion of the era, I told her that I was going to put her in a hat box. I then worked with photographer Robert Blakeman and my associate, Ron Larson, to develop the overall concept. I heard all of the final and rough mixes of the album as we were working on expanding our approach to the design.
Kosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winner
Record label comp
MG – How did you ultimately choose the talent who would work with you on this effort? Also, can you please clarify who actually did the graphics, photography, lettering, etc.?
Kosh – Ron Larson was – and still is – a brilliant artist who could create the image of the hat box from my initial sketches. Bob Blakeman was a photographer that had such a rapport with Ms. Ronstadt that, even dealing with the difficult dogs for the liner photo – I knew he would have no trouble getting a great shot for us.
MG – How involved was Linda or her management or record label in the process of deciding what you should produce, and did they provide you with any direction? Did they give you enough money and time to do what you wanted to do?
Kosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winnerKosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winner
Front cover comps with gold foil call-outs
Kosh – Linda always gave me free reign to do anything I want. Obviously, she’d give me some direction – I want to look “Roaring Twenties” or I want to look “punk”, but our relationship was really smooth and sweet. I can say that, of all my clients, Linda Ronstadt was most pleasant, easy and delightful to work with. Peter Asher, her manager, gave me carte blanch and kept the label at bay while we produced what we knew was going to be a Grammy winning package. At that time money was no issue, but the deadline certainly was. We needed to create 3-D mock-ups for the printers for budgeting and scheduling so the label wouldn’t come down on me like a ton of bricks at the last moment. I was asking for “gold” foil on the lettering, etc., which never happened but we got the requested die cutting. And the Grammy.
MG – How long did it take you to develop the finished package, from concept to final product? Can you recall if there were any special processes, equipment, or other aids used to give us that great set of album images?
Kosh – I would guess that, from approval of final concept, including gathering input from printers and fabricators for the package, a period of two to three weeks from the initial shoot to the delivery of the art and mechanicals would be a close estimate. It was all shot on Ektachrome film with a 2-1/4″ square Hasselblad camera using Balcar strobes & a variety of wide lenses with various diffusions. It was all shot in Blakeman’s studio in downtown Los Angeles.
MG – Any other comments or anecdotes about what your experience was during this project? I’d appreciate any other anecdotal info you’d be willing to provide us…
Kosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winnerKosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winner, Airedales
 
Inner sleeve comp and finished product
Kosh – It was all hard work and enjoyable work with a great team. Even the dogs were well behaved, thanks to their wrangler. I believe that I forgot to mention that the beautiful dogs on the liner photograph were trained Airedales and that Linda deliberately got wrapped in there leashes for great effect. All of this was shot against a white background so we could strip in the deco/moderne airport scene. Nice pun…
MG – as is customary in my interviews, I’d like to ask you a few more questions about some general topics I’d be interested in getting your opinions on. First off, with the electronic delivery of music products growing at a fast pace, are you noticing any more or less enthusiasm on your clients behalf to invest time and money in packaging that stands out?
Kosh – The enthusiasm is still there, but the budgets are shrinking right along with the delivery formats.
MG – What are your feelings about album artwork and design these days? Are there any designers or musical acts that you think are keeping the field alive or important? Do you think album art matters anymore?
Kosh – Yes, the kids are alright! And imagery is still always important.
MG – How do you think album cover art images help us document human history? Personally, I believe that iconic album cover art in many ways has had a noticeable effect on Pop culture, so I’d like to get your take on this is the imagery and music providing the direction, or is it reflecting the culture, or ??
Kosh – Album cover art has greatly documented and influenced popular culture since Sgt. Pepper’s. It’s been a two way street – Art influences life and life influences art. It could be argued that art helped end wars, and it certainly played a role in smoothing the tension between the races and the sexes in the 60s & 70s as each group sought more equality. And, of course, it influenced trends in fashion.
MG – Finally, can you tell us what happened to the original artwork for this release?
Kosh – It probably ended up over the fireplace of some record executive’s home. Who knows at this point…
Kosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winner, Beatles, Lennon, ELO, Eagles, Ringo, The Who
A small sample of works from Kosh’s album cover portfolio
About the artist, Kosh –
Notable album cover work examples include – The Eagles – Hotel California and The Long Run; Linda Rondstadt – Simple Dreams, Lush Life and Get Closer (all Grammy winners), The Beatles – Abbey Road and Let It Be; The Who – Who’s Next?; ELO – Out of the Blue and A New World Record; T. Rex – Tanx, Zinc Alloy & The Hidden Riders of Tomorrow and Bolan’s Zip Gun; King Crimson – Red; Rod Stewart – Atlantic Crossing; Humble Pie – Smokin‘; REO Speedwagon – High Infidelity; James Taylor – Greatest Hits and JT
This winner of three Grammy Awards (with seven total nominations) for “Best Recording Package” met The Beatles in the 60’s and joined them as the creative director for Apple Records after working earlier that decade with the Royal Ballet, the Royal Opera and as art director for Art & Artists Magazine. His iconic designs for the band – he was responsible for design, promotion and publicity – led to additional work creating memorable images for artists such as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Electric Light Orchestra, T-Rex, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and many others (including Spinal Tap’s Break Like The Wind!). He was also the art director for John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous “War Is Over” campaign, making him a fixture in the London art underground.
Kosh became well known in the London avant-garde art scene, designing and producing exhibitions, posters and books. After garnering several awards with the London Design & Art Directors Club, he was elected to the British Art Directors’ Jury before moving to Los Angeles in 1974 where he served as faculty member of Otis Parson’s Institute of Art and on the Board of Governors of the National Recording Academy.
Kosh, John Kosh, designer, art director, Linda Ronstadt, album cover, record cover, record sleeve, package, sleeve, Lush Life, Grammy, Grammy Award, award winner, portfolio, Beatles, The Who, REO, ELO, Eagles
More samples of Kosh’s music industry work
Kosh’s client roster has included Capitol Records, Tri-Star, Disney Studios, Fox Television, CNN, MCA, MGM, NFL (he designed the Super Bowl XXI logo), Disney, Sony Records and Warner Bros., Records. An extended list of artist clients include Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles (including Hotel California – voted #6 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “100 Best Album Covers of All Time”), Humble Pie, Randy Newman, Pointer Sisters, Bob Seger, Ringo Starr, 10,000 Maniacs, The Who and many others. A display of his more prominent graphics was exhibited at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum.
Susan Shearer and Kosh formed Ten Worlds Productions in 1995. Ten Worlds achieved critical acclaim for their work on The Last Days of Kennedy and King for TBS and the ten hour documentary 100 Years -100 Movies for the American Film Institute and CBS. In 2006, Ten Worlds produced and directed DECLASSIFIED: The Rise and Fall of the Wall, which shed new light on the Berlin Wall for The History Channel.
Ten Worlds also produced a 13-part series of DECLASSIFIED documentaries on subjects such as John Lennon, Fidel Castro, the Tet Offensive, Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Stalin and World War 1 for The History Channel, with Kosh directing. Aimed at younger audiences, these shows combine interviews with U.S. presidents, top echelon politicians and rarely seen archival footage, overlaid with innovative graphics and searing rock soundtracks. Kosh and his cohorts are presently developing a “rock doc” feature on Apple Records and 2 animated series – one with comedian Lewis Black and the other with Tea & Chesse from the UK. Recently, Ten Worlds reached a deal with SPS and Nomad to create and develop projects with and around Robin Petgrave and his Tomorrow Aeronautical Museum.
From his L.A. offices – formerly used by another talented Englishman, director Alfred Hitchcock – Kosh and Ten Worlds continue to work on projects with a wide roster of clients.
To see more of Kosh’s work, please visit – www.tenworlds.com/ or www.facebook.com/koshart
Kosh/Ronstadt collaborations –
Prisoner in Disguise, released in 1975;
Hasten Down The Wind, released in 1976;
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1, released in 1976;
Simple Dreams (photo by Jim Shea), released in 1977; Grammy winner (note- Kosh was also nominated in the same category that year for his album cover design for Melissa Manchester’s Singin’)
Living In The U.S.A., released in 1978;
Mad Love, released in 1980;
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, released in 1980;
Get Closer (with designer Ron Larson), released in 1982; Grammy winner
What’s New, released in 1983;
Lush Life (with designer Ron Larson), released in 1984; Grammy winner
For Sentimental Reasons, released in 1986;
Round Midnight with Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra, released in 1986;
Canciones de mi Padre, released in 1987;
Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind, released in 1989;
Mas Canciones, released in 1990;
Frenesi, released in 1992;
Winter Light, released in 1994;
Feels Like Home, released in 1995;
Dedicated To The One I Love (design and cover photo), released in 1996;
The Linda Ronstadt Box Set, released in 1999;
A Merry Little Christmas, released in 2000;
3 For 1, released in 2000;
Original Album Series, released in 2010;
Duets, released in 2014
About this AlbumCoverHallofFame.com interview –
Our ongoing series of interviews 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.
In each interview feature, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. – all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.
We hope that you enjoy these looks behind the scenes of the music-related art business and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow fans about what role these works of art – and the music they covered – played in your lives.
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