Cal Schenkel
Encyclopedia
Cal Schenkel is an artist specialising in album cover
design. He was the main visual collaborator for Frank Zappa
and was responsible for the art and graphic design
of many of Zappa's most well-known album covers. Schenkel's work is iconic and distinctive in style; a forerunner of punk art and the new wave
era. Schenkel is an active artist who lives and works in Pennsylvania
.
and attended the Philadelphia College of Art but left after one semester and set out to build a career in the world of art. As an unemployed artist he was introduced to Frank Zappa in 1967 by Sandy Hurvitz.
design became a significant part of the emerging music and art culture in Europe
and the U.S.A, primarily as an expression of artistic vision and intent. Gatefold cover
s, and inserts, often with lyric
sheets, made the album cover a desirable cultural artifact
in its own right. One of the first artists to realise the significance of album cover design in the perception of image and artistry was Frank Zappa.
For over a decade, Schenkel, working in either an annex of the Zappa household or in his own studio, attempted to give visual form to Zappa's music while developing his own, distinctive style.
The first large project he worked on with Zappa was the cover for We're Only in It for the Money
, a parody of The Beatles
' Sgt Pepper album. Schenkel built the plaster figures, helped set up the staging for the photo (at Zappa's direction), and put together the collage of people in the background.
He also provided artwork, graphics, and/or design for Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
, Uncle Meat
, Hot Rats
, Burnt Weeny Sandwich
, Chunga's Revenge
, Fillmore East - June 1971
, 200 Motels
, Just Another Band from L.A.
, Waka/Jawaka
, The Grand Wazoo
, Over-Nite Sensation
, Apostrophe (')
, Roxy & Elsewhere
, One Size Fits All
, Bongo Fury
, Zoot Allures
, Tinseltown Rebellion, the Does Humor Belong in Music?
, The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
, Playground Psychotics
, Ahead of Their Time
, Cheap Thrills, Mystery Disc
, Son of Cheep Thrills, Threesome No. 1 slipcase art, and Threesome No. 2 slipcase art. The artwork for Burnt Weeny Sandwich
was originally done for an Eric Dolphy
album.
Though foremost an artist, Schenkel provided vocal for Lumpy Gravy
. The inspiration and title for the track "For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)" (from The Grand Wazoo
) was from an actual incident as related by Schenkel to Zappa. When Zappa came to register his son Dweezil
's birth name, the hospital refused such an unusual name and used the first acceptable names that came to mind: Ian Donald Calvin (after Schenkel) Euclid Zappa.
Schenkel was production designer for the film 200 Motels
and can be seen in the Zappa movies Uncle Meat
and Video From Hell
.
When Zappa signed with Herb Cohen
, Schenkel began work for releases on their Straight Records
, such as the Lenny Bruce
Berkeley Concert in 1969 and a number of other artists represented by Cohen. These included Tom Waits
, Tim Buckley
and Captain Beefheart
. For Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica
album Schenkel went to a local fish market to buy the carp
's head that he wanted to use on the album cover. He hollowed out the head leaving just the face, like some absurd carnival
mask. Van Vliet, easing seamlessly into character, instinctively picked it up and held it to his face — and the image of a thousand cultural references was created. Looking out at the world through the eyes of the raw stinking fish head, he sat for over two hours while Schenkel took photographs. Inside the mask the smell was choking and intense but the Captain was good-natured about the whole process. The creation of the album cover was as surreal as the album itself. At one point Beefheart picked up the saxophone
and started to play something "raw" through the mouth of the stinking fish. Schenkel has "footage" of "the carp playing sax".
By the mid-1970s Zappa's output had slowed while he was in dispute with Cohen and Warner Brothers and so Schenkel returned to his home town of Willow Grove hoping to jump-start an art career separate from Zappa and, more importantly, from the record industry. There he began his own "mail order" art business.
Schenkel's artwork, influenced at first by the comic strip Krazy Cat and by Mad magazine
, had by then developed its own "primitive" "ragged" surrealist style. In 1976 together with Don Van Vliet, Schenkel held an exhibition of his artwork in Greenfields Gallery, at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, where the young Matt Groening
, creator of the Simpsons was a student.
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
design. He was the main visual collaborator for Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
and was responsible for the art and graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
of many of Zappa's most well-known album covers. Schenkel's work is iconic and distinctive in style; a forerunner of punk art and the new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
era. Schenkel is an active artist who lives and works in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
Background and education
Schenkel was born in January 1947 in Willow Grove, PennsylvaniaWillow Grove, Pennsylvania
Willow Grove is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. A community in Philadelphia's northern suburbs, the population was 15,726 at the 2010 census. It is located in Abington Township and Upper Moreland Township...
and attended the Philadelphia College of Art but left after one semester and set out to build a career in the world of art. As an unemployed artist he was introduced to Frank Zappa in 1967 by Sandy Hurvitz.
Career
During the late 1960s album coverAlbum cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
design became a significant part of the emerging music and art culture in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the U.S.A, primarily as an expression of artistic vision and intent. Gatefold cover
Gatefold
A gatefold is a type of fold used for advertising around a magazine or section, and for packaging of media such as vinyl records.- LP covers :...
s, and inserts, often with lyric
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
sheets, made the album cover a desirable cultural artifact
Cultural artifact
A cultural artifact is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users...
in its own right. One of the first artists to realise the significance of album cover design in the perception of image and artistry was Frank Zappa.
- "When I first met him [Zappa] in New York, the art studio was in his apartment — but that was only for a brief period. I didn't actually live there [as widely reported], but I would commute to work at his place. When we moved to LA . . . he had rented the log cabin, I had a wing of it. It was my living quarters and art studio, which I rented separately from them."
- "I love naive and folk art, art that has an unfinished look. I don’t like the polished for the most part. Now what that means or where it comes from I’m not sure. But I was probably influenced graphically by artists I saw in school. And of course there’s the comic book look — like Krazy Kat. A part of it was just lack of skill. Trying to take advantage of my own naivety. I’d really only had a semester of art school, so I hadn’t evolved my style when I was doing all of this. It just comes natural, too."
The first large project he worked on with Zappa was the cover for We're Only in It for the Money
We're Only in It for the Money
We're Only in It For the Money is the third studio album by The Mothers of Invention, released in March 1968. The album peaked at number thirty on the Billboard 200...
, a parody of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' Sgt Pepper album. Schenkel built the plaster figures, helped set up the staging for the photo (at Zappa's direction), and put together the collage of people in the background.
He also provided artwork, graphics, and/or design for Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
Cruising With Ruben & The Jets is an album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in December 1968, and controversially reissued in an alternate mix with newly recorded bass and percussion in 1984.-Concept:...
, Uncle Meat
Uncle Meat
Uncle Meat is the fifth studio album by the Mothers of Invention, released in 1969. It is billed as a supposed "soundtrack" to a film by The Mothers of Invention which was, in the end, never made. The front cover, designed by Cal Schenkel, included the words ""...
, Hot Rats
Hot Rats
Hot Rats is the second solo album by Frank Zappa. It was released in October 1969. Five of the six songs are instrumental . It was Zappa's first recording project after the dissolution of the original Mothers of Invention...
, Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Burnt Weeny Sandwich is a live and studio compilation album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in 1970 ....
, Chunga's Revenge
Chunga's Revenge
Chunga's Revenge is an album by Frank Zappa, released on October 23, 1970. Zappa's first effort of the 1970s marks the first appearance of former Turtles members Flo & Eddie on a Zappa record, and signals the dawn of a controversial epoch in Zappa's history...
, Fillmore East - June 1971
Fillmore East - June 1971
Fillmore East – June 1971 is a live album by The Mothers, released in 1971. It was the twelfth album by Frank Zappa. It was produced by Frank Zappa, and mixed by Toby Foster.-History:This was a live concept-like album...
, 200 Motels
200 Motels
200 Motels is a 1971 American-British musical surrealist film cowritten and directed by Frank Zappa and Tony Palmer and starring The Mothers of Invention, Theodore Bikel and Ringo Starr. The film covers a loose storyline about The Mothers of Invention going crazy in the small town Centerville...
, Just Another Band from L.A.
Just Another Band from L.A.
Just Another Band from L.A. is a live album by The Mothers, released in 1972 . It was recorded live on August 7, 1971 in Pauley Pavilion on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. A notable inclusion on this album is Billy the Mountain, Zappa's long, narrative parody of rock operas, which were gaining...
, Waka/Jawaka
Waka/Jawaka
Waka/Jawaka is an album by Frank Zappa, released in 1972. The album is the jazz-influenced precursor to The Grand Wazoo, and, as the front cover indicates, sequel of sorts to 1969's Hot Rats. Miles Davis's Bitches Brew-era influence is readily apparent on this and its sister album, The Grand Wazoo...
, The Grand Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo is a 1972 jazz fusion album by Frank Zappa. Composed and recorded during Zappa's period of convalescence following his assault in London, the album, along with its "twin brother" Waka/Jawaka, represent Zappa's foray into big band fusion, the logical progression from Hot Rats, which...
, Over-Nite Sensation
Over-Nite Sensation
Over-Nite Sensation is an album by Frank Zappa & The Mothers, released in 1973 . It was recorded in March – June 1973 at these studios: Bolic Sound in Inglewood, Whitney, in Glendale, and Paramount in Los Angeles...
, Apostrophe (')
Apostrophe (')
Apostrophe is an album by Frank Zappa, his eighteenth, released on March 22, 1974 in both stereo and quadraphonic formats. An edited version of its lead-off track, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", was Zappa's first chart single, reaching position 86. Apostrophe remains Zappa's biggest commercial...
, Roxy & Elsewhere
Roxy & Elsewhere
Roxy & Elsewhere is a live album by Frank Zappa & The Mothers which was released in 1974. Most of the songs were recorded at The Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, California on December 8, 9 and 10, 1973...
, One Size Fits All
One Size Fits All
One Size Fits All is a 1975 rock album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. It is the last Zappa album to be released with the subheading of "Mothers of Invention". A special four-channel Quadraphonic version of the album was prepared and advertised, but not released...
, Bongo Fury
Bongo Fury
Bongo Fury is a mostly live album released by Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart in 1975. The live portions were recorded on May 20 & 21, 1975 at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas...
, Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures is a 1976 rock album by Frank Zappa. This was Zappa's only release on the Warner Bros. Records label. Due to a lawsuit with his former manager Herb Cohen Frank Zappa's recording contract was temporarily re-assigned from DiscReet Records to Warner Bros.The title is a pun on the French...
, Tinseltown Rebellion, the Does Humor Belong in Music?
Does Humor Belong in Music? (album)
Does Humor Belong in Music? is a live album by Frank Zappa. It features concert recordings from October–December 1984. It was the first album by Zappa to be released on CD only ....
, The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life is a double disc live album by Frank Zappa, released in 1991 . The album was one of three to be recorded during the 1988 world tour, along with Broadway the Hard Way and Make a Jazz Noise Here...
, Playground Psychotics
Playground Psychotics
Playground Psychotics is a two-CD live album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. It was originally released in 1992 through his mail order label, Barking Pumpkin, and was re-released in 1995 through Rykodisc. The album features recordings of Zappa and his band, the Mothers of Invention...
, Ahead of Their Time
Ahead of Their Time
Ahead of Their Time is a live album by The Mothers of Invention. It was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, England on October 25, 1968 , and released in 1993 on CD by Barking Pumpkin...
, Cheap Thrills, Mystery Disc
Mystery Disc
Mystery Disc is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was released on CD in 1998, compiling tracks that were originally released on two separate vinyl records and included in the mail order Old Masters box sets, which were released in three volumes between 1985 and 1987...
, Son of Cheep Thrills, Threesome No. 1 slipcase art, and Threesome No. 2 slipcase art. The artwork for Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Burnt Weeny Sandwich is a live and studio compilation album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in 1970 ....
was originally done for an Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...
album.
Though foremost an artist, Schenkel provided vocal for Lumpy Gravy
Lumpy Gravy
Lumpy Gravy is the first solo album by Frank Zappa, originally released in 1967, but not generally available until May 1968. Zappa was credited as conductor on the album cover and he described the contents as "a curiously inconsistent piece, which started out to be a BALLET, but probably didn't...
. The inspiration and title for the track "For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)" (from The Grand Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo is a 1972 jazz fusion album by Frank Zappa. Composed and recorded during Zappa's period of convalescence following his assault in London, the album, along with its "twin brother" Waka/Jawaka, represent Zappa's foray into big band fusion, the logical progression from Hot Rats, which...
) was from an actual incident as related by Schenkel to Zappa. When Zappa came to register his son Dweezil
Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor.-Early life:Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of musician Frank Zappa and Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business. He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger...
's birth name, the hospital refused such an unusual name and used the first acceptable names that came to mind: Ian Donald Calvin (after Schenkel) Euclid Zappa.
Schenkel was production designer for the film 200 Motels
200 Motels
200 Motels is a 1971 American-British musical surrealist film cowritten and directed by Frank Zappa and Tony Palmer and starring The Mothers of Invention, Theodore Bikel and Ringo Starr. The film covers a loose storyline about The Mothers of Invention going crazy in the small town Centerville...
and can be seen in the Zappa movies Uncle Meat
Uncle Meat
Uncle Meat is the fifth studio album by the Mothers of Invention, released in 1969. It is billed as a supposed "soundtrack" to a film by The Mothers of Invention which was, in the end, never made. The front cover, designed by Cal Schenkel, included the words ""...
and Video From Hell
Video from Hell
Video From Hell is a video released in 1987 by Frank Zappa. It is a compilation of pieces of music and video from a series of projects that Zappa presumably planned to finish and release for home video, including a companion video for the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series of albums, but...
.
When Zappa signed with Herb Cohen
Herb Cohen
Herbert "Herb" Cohen was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Life and career:Cohen was born in New York...
, Schenkel began work for releases on their Straight Records
Straight Records
Straight Records was a record label formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by...
, such as the Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
Berkeley Concert in 1969 and a number of other artists represented by Cohen. These included Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
and Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
. For Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1969. Produced by Beefheart's friend and former schoolmate Frank Zappa, it was originally released as a double album on Zappa's Straight Records label...
album Schenkel went to a local fish market to buy the carp
Carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...
's head that he wanted to use on the album cover. He hollowed out the head leaving just the face, like some absurd carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
mask. Van Vliet, easing seamlessly into character, instinctively picked it up and held it to his face — and the image of a thousand cultural references was created. Looking out at the world through the eyes of the raw stinking fish head, he sat for over two hours while Schenkel took photographs. Inside the mask the smell was choking and intense but the Captain was good-natured about the whole process. The creation of the album cover was as surreal as the album itself. At one point Beefheart picked up the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
and started to play something "raw" through the mouth of the stinking fish. Schenkel has "footage" of "the carp playing sax".
By the mid-1970s Zappa's output had slowed while he was in dispute with Cohen and Warner Brothers and so Schenkel returned to his home town of Willow Grove hoping to jump-start an art career separate from Zappa and, more importantly, from the record industry. There he began his own "mail order" art business.
Schenkel's artwork, influenced at first by the comic strip Krazy Cat and by Mad magazine
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
, had by then developed its own "primitive" "ragged" surrealist style. In 1976 together with Don Van Vliet, Schenkel held an exhibition of his artwork in Greenfields Gallery, at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, where the young Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
, creator of the Simpsons was a student.