Catcher In the Wry

Catcher College Monthly spreadLO, a photo by Doctor Noe on Flickr.

So what do J.D. Salinger, John Lennon and Prince have in common, and what is the relevance to Rock and Roll?

Funny how these things work out. I received an email regarding this post from a gent named Thomas de Bruin of the Dutch design firm Studio Lomox:

This is a parody published by College Monthly October 1974.
© 2010 noemedia.
© 1974. All rights reserved under international conventions. No material may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

Cover photo by Basil Pao
With retouching by Rainbow Graphics, body by Doug, hand by Noë of New York. T-shirt by Harry Gross; photo by UPI, lighting by Chris Callis, and body English by Tom King.

In this issue:

"The Catcher in the Bourbon," a parody

I edited this story back in 1974, and commissioned the art, etc. Our little publication was only limited to two highly collectible issues and was seen by not many people, but some of the things in this issue especially are memorable and – it turns out, highly prescient.

This parody of "Catcher" by Bill Majeski is a case in point. And then there is the cover story by Nat Hentoff on Lenny Bruce and a nice article on Miles Davis, bebop and new jazz by moi, Noe the G.

I've created a deluxe limited edition, signed and numbered, of this Salinger tribute. It's a collector's edition, based on a facsimile of the original, printed on TWO SHEETS OF 8.5" x 14" PREMIUM CARD STOCK.

Please contact me at noemedia@me.com and I will send you info on how to get one.


"I’m researching the artwork of Prince’s albums," said DeBruin, "and I’m currently focusing on a photo Chris Callis and Basil made together in 1979.

"Looking for Rainbow Graphics, the NYC company that that did a lot of photo retouching in the late 70s and early 80s, I stumbled upon your article on http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/2010/02/the-catcher-in-the-bourbon-a-parody/

"Do you know if Rainbow Graphics still exists, or can you direct me to anyone who used to work there? I only know its owners at the time were called Russell and Frank. But I can’t find any trace of the company.

" It was in fact Basil who mentioned to me that Rainbow Graphics did the actual retouching. But I believe Basil also doesn’t know how to contact them.

"So, I’ll just keep looking. :-)."

He will need to look for quite some time because Basil Pao is In Hong Kong and doesn't really want to be found. My buddy Bas was the genius behind some of the cooler album cover designs in the days when such things mattered:



John Lennon by Dave Gahr

Pics are taken by my friend Dave Gahr with my buddy Basil Pao. I think they were done for an album project as Basil was a designer of same in those days, but also a friend of John. He did a lot of work with Dave who I met long before in Matt Umanov's guitar store on Bedford Street. Special thanks to Mary Anne Erickson for resurrecting these from the bin of memories.

By Dave Gahr:
James TAYLOR, with Peter Asher and Danny Kortchmar, Central Park, 1970
© DAVID GAHR, 1970




These were also used in a magazine article. Reference is below:

Lennon w BasilPao x Dave Gahr_6
From the June 2004 issue of Mojo
entitled "A Day in the Life: Hell's Kitchen October 24, 1974
blogged by www.childofnaturebeatles.blogspot.com/2006/06/hells-kitch...

The enterprising Dutch designer, in his search for that Chris Callis photo, found this:

Prince - Prince (Vinyl, LP, Album)
Photography By [Back Cover] – Chris Callis



Photography By [Front Cover] – Jurgen Reisch*


... an interesting bit of vinyl at that:

Prince - Prince (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs
http://www.discogs.com/Prince-Prince/release/1825293


more images
Prince ‎– Prince
Label:
Warner Bros. Records ‎– QBS 3366
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album
Country:
Canada
Released:
1979
Genre:
Rock, Funk / Soul
Style:
Funk, Disco
Tracklist▼
A1 I Wanna Be Your Lover5:47
A2 Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?3:49
A3 Sexy Dancer4:18
A4 When We're Dancing Close And Slow5:18
B1 With You3:59
B2 Bambi4:22
B3 Still Waiting4:24
B4 I Feel For You3:24
B5 It's Gonna Be Lonely5:30
Companies etc▼
Manufactured By – WEA Music Of Canada, Ltd.
Distributed By – WEA Music Of Canada, Ltd.
Recorded At – Alpha Studios, Burbank
Remixed At – Hollywood Sound Recorders
Mastered At – A&M Mastering Studios
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Credits▼
Engineer – Gary Brandt
Engineer [Assistant] – Mark Ettel
Mastered By – Bernie Grundman
Photography By [Back Cover] – Chris Callis
Photography By [Front Cover] – Jurgen Reisch*
Remix – Bob Mockler, Prince
Written-By, Producer, Arranged By, Composed By, Performer – Prince
Notes▼
Heaven sent helpers: Bobby Z and Andre Cymone.
On labels:
℗ 1979 Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Barcode and Other Identifiers▼
Matrix / Runout (Runout A): QBS-3366-A JW
Matrix / Runout (Runout B): QBS-3366-B JW
Other Versions (Showing 5 of 22) View All ▼
Title, FormatLabelCat#CountryYear
Prince ‎(LP, Album)Warner Bros. RecordsBSK 3366US1979
_________________________________

See, that is how all things are related!

None of this would have been possible without the inimitable help of my partner in crime, Ken Anderson, who replaced Basil as the Art Director of College Monthly right after this issue was published:





Ken had the skinny on Rainbow Graphics:

Subject: Re: Rainbow Graphics

Rainbow Graphics was Basil's call, so I assume an Atlantic Recs vendor. Catcher was last published issue before me. I inherited next issue 1/2 done; stacks of typeset galleys w/ no layouts--and no cover retouching before the wheels buckled during takeoff. Did one photo shoot-- C. Callis/ color white-on-white egg for background of next Contents. I was in NYC all too briefly.

-Ken

Sadly, the issue that Ken designed never saw print.

That's how it goes in the publishing biz.