Some Girls: The Facts About The Stones' Most Notorious Record Cover
An Interview with Sleeve Co-Creator Hubert Kretzschmar
A few weeks back The Rolling Stones re-released their seminal Some Girls album. As John Carucci reported here, the new edition comes as both a double disc and box set, and includes a slew of songs that were intended to be the original LP, but got cut due to time restraints. In fact, Stones guitarist Keith Richards said rushing to market was "the same as cutting off your baby's head."
But added tracks, as kickin' as they may be, aren't the only story behind the Some Girls re-release, which is wrapped in the very same sleeve that caused such a stir way back in '78 and remains a bone of contention between its co-creators, Peter Corriston and Hubert Kretszchmar. Now that the head's been put back on the baby, song-wise, perhaps it's time we put to bed the issue over who did what with the notorious sleeve.
First, who's idea was it to use the wigs and the cut-outs?
I had been working in the mid '70s with a collage technique that used fragments and bits and pieces of heads and combinations of different elements, while Peter had been working with dye cutting in print production and similar production-related technology previous to this. In this case, it was Peter who brought the the wig ads from Jet magazine, and we experimented with various combinations of content.
Did Corriston also suggest using famous faces?
We used material from various sources in this case. Publicity pictures from entertainment tabloids were one source. Publicity stills of movie stars, and Hollywood press material came from my end. As with many commercial projects, it is often a collaborative effort and sometimes one idea builds on another.
At what point did you come in on the project?
I had come to New York from Germany straight from art school and was showing my portfolio with illustrations to art directors and designers here in the city. When I met with Peter, he was working on creating a corporate identity for a new record label called Infinity Records, for which I ended up creating the logo and quite a lot of publicity-related artwork; and Peter had just gotten a call from Jagger in Paris for a packaging project called "Lies".
Did you do much tweaking of Corriston's original idea?
My knowledge of retouching and collage was for sure a valuable contribution to the look of the project. If you look at the early sketches for the cover you can get a rough idea of the concept, but using all the graphic elements together with the type created a way more effective piece of art. I think that we had a similar aesthetic that complemented each other's ideas and contributions.
So is it fair to say that you took Corriston's initial idea and ran with it?
In the case of this particular package, I think I managed to have all the elements push convention and gave them a certain twist. When you look at the evolution of an idea and its technical refinement, only in very few cases is it possible to say with certainty, "There was a fork in the road and so-and-so made a left turn and that led to such-and-such an outcome." In the case of Some Girls, I have revisited and reworked my own archive a few times and expanded on the original concept.
What kind of reception did the artwork get once the record was released?
It was very successful and had quite a impact for its bold graphic look. Aside from the objections of some of the females that ended up being taken off the cover. An interesting little tidbit: I have been told by one of Andy's assistants, that Warhol was quite in awe of the cover and artwork when it came out!
Who took the brunt of the blame for the controversial images?
I think the label and the band got equal blame. You must remember that at that point in time the boys were infamous for their public stunts. Jagger was having an affair with Margaret Trudeau, the prime minister's wife, and Keith had been arrested in Canada for drug possession. So some of the ladies felt that they did not want to be associated with them.
After the sleeve was recalled, who handled the subsequent re-imaging?
Placing color rectangles over the offending characters was supposed to have been a temporary solution. But there were quite a few females in the limelight that wanted to be "Some Girls" and on the cover -- Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon and Britt Eckland being among them. I prepared a version that was supposed to be used as a replacement inner sleeve, but that was not utilized after the album had chart-wise gone through the roof.
Did The Stones have much input with either the initial art or the re-issue?
On all covers that I worked on for the band, Mick Jagger had final approval, but gave us pretty much total freedom in the creation of the artwork.
Why weren't you credited on the album?
This is something that I file under "lessons learned" and can only explain with my relative youth and inexperience at the time: for not being insistent enough, and for assuming that there is such a thing as fair play in business when working with professionals.
Who did The Stones turn to when they needed art for the "Shattered" single?
"Shattered" was supposed to be released as a 45 single and I had a meeting with Mick that resulted in me creating artwork for it. I used a contact sheet of head shots of Mick that I'd taken and that he had marked up. In that case I was experimenting with Color Xerox, a process that was quite new and visually exiting for me at the time. The record was released in November '78 in quite a small run. I saw it listed as a very rare 45 sleeve in a catalog for vinyl singles recently.
Did Corriston play any part in that sleeve's creation?
Peter art directed and I created the illustration based on the aforementioned contact sheet that Mick had marked up. In most of our dealings with musicians, Peter usually handled negotiations and contractual details.
What about Jagger (or the other Stones) -- did they have much input?
Working on various covers for the Stones, Mick and Keith were the two individuals that had approval and at times were of quite different mindset about visuals. In most cases it was Jagger who approved art and signed off on it. I was in a few meetings where Charlie Watts was present, in which he killed quite a few of our concepts with loose remarks that he made.
What artwork will The Stones be using for the Some Girls re-issue?
I have not spoken with anyone at Universal in London, and can only assume that they are using material that they have in their archive. I have in my archive the original sketches and markups for the various presentations and meetings and a lot of the art that was not used and was consequently not published.
Have they consulted with either you or Corriston?
I have not had contact with Peter for quite a while professionally, but was asked to clear some of the images legally that I had created after the initial release.
Don't you have a veritable treasure trove of artwork from the original series?
I am in possession of the first sketches and quite a few of the various incarnations that the album cover went through. I have also created and reprinted some of the Hollywood fems versions that had originally been planned. I have a updated version that is a veritable altarpiece to pop art.
I still think that the concept has a lot of possible applications, besides it being appropriated by almost every young kid that puts his picture into the cutouts and all the other bands that use the cover's iconic status as a invitation to pay their homage to it.
In what other ways have you revisited the concept?
I did a "Some Girls Bar" as a conceptual work of art in Basel, Switzerland, together with a young architect named Christian Wassman a few years back. And I have designs for a three-dimensional structure and a deconstructed version that turns into a tunnel-like structure filled with the art. Then there are of course a bunch of ideas for interactive content for the digital set.
Do The Stones know about either your archives or you subsequent creations?
I have not had much contact with Jagger or Keith after Undercover was released in 1983, so I think it is safe to say that they are not aware of any of this.
What about Corriston?
I know that Peter has been trying to get a tablet application together for this, but I have not been asked by him to contribute anything.
Will you be showing some of the Some Girls art coincident with the album's re-issue?
If there is interest and opportunity, I might consider opening my vault -- what I call the "Area 51 of graphic art" -- and show some of the treats that have been slumbering there for the past thirty years.
Do you think you'll finally be credited?
I think I would have to hire a lawyer and do some legal arm wrestling to get them to add my name at this point.
This wasn't the only time you worked with Corriston or The Stones, was it?
I have worked with Peter on and off, for a good portion of the last thirty years, in addition to Some Girls there was Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You, Undercover, Jagger's She's The Boss, and a solo album for Keith Richards. But after 9/11 our paths diverged. Peter moved away from NYC to the countryside. He gets to listen to the bees and I am still here in Manhattan getting the buzz from the street, so to speak.
Were you credited on any of your other Stones' cover work?
My work on Emotional Rescue and my contribution as the photographer of the cover of Tattoo You in 1983 has also not been credited in print. I received credit on Undercover, for which I did all the art.
How do you feel about not receiving credit where due?
It is nice to get one's ego stroked by seeing one's name in print and receiving professional accolades. But creative people and artists are only tapping into a big stream of ideas that exist out there in space. We are just conduits of ideas, and as such, we make the ideas appear, so sometimes just being able to do the work is reward enough.
Will you be revisiting the Undercover series ala Some Girls?
I might turn my collection into a book or a catalog if I find the right publisher for it -- and if I feel the need to set the record straight.
What is your main objective vis-a-vis the Some Girls re-issue?
I've reached out to the label, but have received no response yet, so I can't say at this point if they'll take advantage of my input. It would be nice to launch something in tandem, or to start up the Some Girls Bar as sort of a franchise. I am keeping an open mind.
posted by John Hood. @ 10:51 AM
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