Robert Lockhart has nearly a hundred Discogs entries for his design work and could turn his hand to many different styles. Above is his interior gatefold for Gene Harris of the Three Sounds LP from 1971 which displays a fine grasp of the airbrush as well as collage. Below, his Bloodrock sleeve mixes S. Clay Wilson with Milton Glaser and comes up with something in the middle.
Above’s Bob Seger LP back cover displays more affection for the Milton Glaser style that was so popular back in the early 70s and below Lockhart whips up a fine collage for the front and back of Quintet’s ‘Future Tense’ LP, then channeling Michael English/Richard Hamilton for the cover of Steely Dan’s ‘Can’t Buy A Thrill’.
I’ve shown this before; Ravi Shankar goes psychedelic (for the cover at least) and below that an oddity of the Pablo Light Show providing visuals for a ‘Heavy Organ’ recital of Bach in San Francisco with cover illustrations very reminiscent of Victor Moscoso.
Fantastic cover art for Can’t Buy a Thrill, and I have this album, and remember when out came out in 1972. Its good to know Robert Lockhart is still with us, and his work emulates Milton Glaser (1929-2021) who I studied briefly in his night class at The School of Visual Arts in NYC, in 1978) And, if you have seen Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest masterpiece film, as I have last week in a movie theater, not online, One Battle After Another from 2025, and sure to win Best Film and Best Director, Best Actress, Infinity Chase, and, perhaps, Leonardo De Caprio’s (as Bob Ferguson) second Oscar after his first for The Revenant at this years Academy Awards on March 15th from The Kodak Theater in LA. The Steely Dan song (from Can’t Buy a Thrill, itself taken from a Bob Dylan song from his 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited, It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry. In the film, One Battle After Another, the Steely Dan (named after a William S. Burroughs device (a Dildo) song “Dirty Work” can be heard as sung by Steely Dan vocalist, Dave Palmer.
There’s one bit of trivia, I once read, that Walter Becker (RIP) and Donald Fagen, who after the Gaucho LP in 1980 until the band regrouped in 2002 for Two Against Nature and the final LP The Last Mall (2003), they were, as I read, were the backing band for the mid 60s pop rock group, Jay and The Americans, who had a hit song with Only In America. Anyway, that’s what I read.