george Carlin
I believe it was in late in the year 2000 or maybe early in 2001 that I was contacted by Atlantic Records about designing an album cover for a project that the comedian George Carlin was making for his new HBO Special. I had always admired Carlin’s appearances on late night television from the early 1960s (Jack Paar, Steve Allan, Johnny Carson on NBC's legendary Tonight Show).
George’s comedic style was sardonic, irreverent, scalding and totally right on. He was completely hilarious. Even when he was making a blistering comment about the status quo. I hadn’t seen him since the late 1960s so I was pleasantly surprised to discover him all over again in the ‘70s and ‘80s and ‘90s.
So when Atlantic approached me for his album artwork I kept asking them what the title of the album would be since that would help me select images from which I could design the collage composition. Oddly enough, no one at Atlantic Records seemed to be very comfortable telling me the album title.
Finally I was returning to San Francisco after doing a big show with the amazing painter Niagra at C-Pop Gallery in Detroit. My girl friend and I had stopped in Chicago to see friends and relatives and got a call from George who’d been going through my first two books to check out my style. He really seemed to dig my work and we discussed multiple possibilities for the album cover.
That’s when he finally told me his title for the album: "I Kinda Like It when a Lotta People Die”, he said dryly. Following that up with “That’s Kinda, K-I-N-D-A and Lotta L-O-T-T-A." That left no room for misconstruing the album’s (very peculiar) title. But since we both already saw eye to eye about most things in a “separated-at-birth” kind of way I enthusiastically told George that he’d come to the right place. “I've got ships sinking, cars crashing, volcanos erupting, you name it. Leave it to me.” So George was totally tickled that I got the joke right away.
And no, he was not rejoicing in tragedy or suffering, he was only making a reference to how oppressive people can be in great masses. George was a notorious misanthrope but he was able to express his exasperation in the most hilarious terms. But only a crabby old irishman like him could pull it off and leave you in stitches. Carlin was indeed one-of-a-kind.
Later he flew us out to Las Vegas where he put us up at the MGM Grand and put us on the guest list for his show there. Back stage we were discussing my artwork, his comedy career and the fact that both of us had shoplifted funny books from the local dime stores as incipient juvenile delinquents. We seemed to have a lot in common. With that my girlfriend said, “Watch out George. You’re actually a nice guy. If word gets out that could spoil your reputation!” In response he shot back, “Naw, I like people one-on-one. It’s just when they’re in crowds that I can’t stand them!"
A few nights later we were back home. The next morning the attack on the Twin Towers in New York City shocked the world and nothing was ever the same again. And while anyone who owned a television set stared in horror at this colossal (but not all together unanticipated) catastrophe the phone rang. It was George calling from LA. He said, “Ya know that title I had in mind for the new album? Well, I’m probably going to call it something else. I’ll think of something. But we can keep the same general theme, is that Ok?”
Outside of the completely weird circumstance of receiving a telephone call from George Carlin in the midst of such a globally tragic catastrophe, I gathered my thoughts and stammered “Well, under the circumstances that’s probably a good idea.” We yakked for a few minutes more and then went back to the national nightmare that was to go down in history as 9-11.
In the end I finally saw the album “Complaints and Grievances” on display at a record store in New York City. I was only disappointed because the record company said it would be a proper 12” release. I had designed the composition to be a triple-gate fold record cover to show all the rich detail of the images I searched high and low for. But once all the complicated imagery was reduced to a 4” x 4” CD 90% of the composition was impossible to see. I made the damn thing— and even I couldn’t see what the cover was. Damn. I think the original collage is at least 10 or 12” x 30 or 36”. The back cover was reduced to be super small but it can still be read, since it wasn’t as complex as the front. I guess they made some large poster prints for the event (but I never got one…). Boo Hoo.
I believe that may have been George’s last album before he passed on. I often wonder what his reaction would be in today’s current socio-political atmosphere. Fortunately his general comedic cynical attitude means he probably wouldn’t be in the least surprised. When he left us he left us laughing.
Live everyday as though it were yer last and someday you’ll be right.
