School's Out album cover

[Dannorama]

I looked, but my question doesn't seem to have been asked. On the album cover, you each have your names/initials carved in wood. Did you guys each individually carve your names? You and Glen stand apart from Mike and Neal because of the care taken to round your letters. (AC, the dog, and the WB logo look like artwork by Ernie Cefalu.) Hope this hasn't already been addressed.

[Dreary]

This might be disappointing news but I think Pacific Eye and Ear did all of the carving.
As I recall, the dog was intended to be a foreshadowing announcement of another forming company but it never happened. I'm sure that Ernie could give us a clearer story on that.

I've always thought that I had suggested a school desk that would open up (based on a kid named Todd from my 6th grade class that had a desk full of all kinds of stuff including marbles, a pocket knife, and a slingshot. Todd was so unorganized that the teacher gave him two desks. One for all of his crap and the other had to be kept neat). I've always thought that Alice had told Joe and Shep about my desk idea, however Ernie maintains that PE&E came up with the concept so I'm questioning my memory.

Either way, it's a brilliant album cover, especially the genius idea of the panties.

[Dannorama]

This might be disappointing news but I think Pacific Eye and Ear did all of the carving.
As I recall, the dog was intended to be a foreshadowing announcement of another forming company but it never happened. I'm sure that Ernie could give us a clearer story on that.

I've always thought that I had suggested a school desk that would open up (based on a kid named Todd from my 6th grade class that had a desk full of all kinds of stuff including marbles, a pocket knife, and a slingshot. Todd was so unorganized that the teacher gave him two desks. One for all of his crap and the other had to be kept neat). I've always thought that Alice had told Joe and Shep about my desk idea, however Ernie maintains that PE&E came up with the concept so I'm questioning my memory.

Either way, it's a brilliant album cover, especially the genius idea of the panties.

Not disappointed at all! Thanks for sharing your insights, Dennis. Love your story about Todd. You sparked an old memory of mine, and I went exploring. Ernie Cefalu had indeed mentioned something right here on these pages. He wrote this on April 10, 2012: "I was the Creative Director with Craig Braun in New York and was being sent out to Los Angeles to open his West Coast office. I had already started working on the school desk concept there, knowing his manager was going to be in LA as well. So I designed it, built a working comp, and as soon as I got to LA, made a "cold call" and an appoitment with Shep Gordon Alice's manager by telling him that I had a "KILLER" cover idea for Alices new album "School's Out" and he agreed to meet with me. All this happened a month and a half before I quit Craig Braun and started Pacific Eye & Ear."

It looks like the dog logo belonged to Wilkes & Braun, who won a Grammy for their design of the "Tommy" album cover. (Ugh. BDB should have won that one.) Here is a picture of the two of them together, taken by Richard Avedon.

[Dreary]

Yep, there's the dog on his shirt.

For Pretties for You
Zappa bumped our idea of having Dali's Geopolitical Child as our album cover.
The concept was a surreal band being born.

Easy Action
Neal's idea of having us turn our backs on the camera for the front cover and then have the back cover reveal that we are guys worked. It's Cindy's favorite of our album covers.

Love It To Death
We had dark songs and relatively positive songs. Initially we planed to have positive songs on one side and dark songs on the B-side. Since the cover art had to be ready when the recordings were, that was what the album cover was intended to reflect. Then we decided the album sounded better if we didn't stick to that restriction. The cover worked anyway.

Killer
The original idea was to have every song be about some form of a killer, so Kachina was perfect. On a blood-red background with a ransom note type Title and band name. Alice handed me a piece of paper and a pen and said write it.
I used my left hand so it would look more demented. It only took about a minute. The cover represented the concept well.

School's Out
It's not hard to see that we were into album cover concepts, after all, the Beatles had set that bar high. I maintain that I thought of a school desk and told Alice, however, I bow to Ernie's story about developing that concept on his own. When you're talking about concept albums, Ernie is the man. A big tip of the top hat to him and his team.

[slickerthanaweasel]

The original idea was to have every song be about some form of a killer

I have been wondering about this for some time! I couldn't find anything on this site confirming it though. So "Be My Lover" and "Yeah Yeah Yeah" are the only two that don't really fit that theme. I assume you loosened that theme to let those songs in? Or is there some interpretation for them to be about killers?

[Ted Sallis]

The original idea was to have every song be about some form of a killer

I have been wondering about this for some time! I couldn't find anything on this site confirming it though. So "Be My Lover" and "Yeah Yeah Yeah" are the only two that don't really fit that theme. I assume you loosened that theme to let those songs in? Or is there some interpretation for them to be about killers?

I've never considered "You Drive Me Nervous" to fit the 'killer theme' either; I do know that that song and "Dead Babies" - which of course fits the theme to a T - both date from quite some time before the Killer album was made.

Ted

[Dreary]

Those songs made the album despite not fitting the concept because we didn't have enough time (2 albums that year plus heavy touring) to fully realize the album's goal and because we had to go with the best songs.

There were also songs that got new lyrics in order to make them fit the concept. One was "Desperado" which I should have gotten a writer's credit due to the overhauled song still contained some of my original chord changes and vocal melody.

I wrote "Killer" and "Under My Wheels" specifically for the concept. And I had a heavy hand in "Dead Babies".

[revinkevin]

Speaking of album covers. I have to say the back photo on the Love it to Death album has to be my all time favorite photo of the group. It just screams rock n roll. That photo is just dripping with attitude. Any memory of the shoot ?? Was it taken the same time as the cover shot ??

[Dreary]

The front and the back covers of LITD were done the same afternoon.
Photographer Roger Prigent (a colleague of Richard Avedon who later photographed the band) had a spotlight mounted on a ladder for the front cover then they set up full lighting for the back. Neal is sitting on a mirrored stand.