Tom Wilkes

• Genres: Rock
• Instrument: Photography, Design

Biography

Graphic designer Tom Wilkes created some of the most iconic and influential images in pop music history, masterminding covers for landmark recordings including the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet, Janis Joplin's Pearl, and Neil Young's Harvest. Born in Long Beach, CA, on July 30, 1939, Wilkes funded studies at Long Beach City College, UCLA, and the Art Center School in Los Angeles by painting elaborate illustrations on friends' cars. He initially entered advertising, and was running his own agency in 1967, the year he designed his first album covers, including the Rolling Stones' Flowers and Sagittarius' sunshine pop classic Present Tense. Wilkes' design for the Mamas & the Papas' debut, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, introduced one of his recurring motifs -- a lavatory (cropped out on re-pressings of the LP) -- and also brought him into contact with band frontman John Phillips and producer Lou Adler, then in the early stages of planning the Monterey International Pop Music Festival. Wilkes went on to create all the graphics and print materials for the festival, including a celebrated psychedelic promotional poster printed on aluminum foil stock. "Most of the artwork in that particular culture was coming out of San Francisco, and what Tom did was he took a San Francisco look, or niche, and made it international," Adler later said. "You can see a lot of the posters from that period and say, 'Oh, that's the '60s.' With Tom, it isn't dated. There's a very special look to it."

Wilkes' uncommon skill for capturing the sound and spirit of his subjects did not go unnoticed by music industry executives, and in mid-1967 he was named art director of A&M Records, designing covers including the Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin, Burt Bacharach's Make It Easy on Yourself, and Phil Ochs Tape from California. He also continued accepting freelance gigs -- the graffiti-covered restroom adorning his cover for the Stones' Beggars Banquet proved so offensive to Decca in the U.K. and London in the U.S. that the labels refused to issue the album, forcing the band to substitute a banal, RSVP-inspired design. Wilkes again courted controversy when he posed Ike & Tina Turner in Pierrot makeup, feasting on watermelon, for the cover of the duo's Outta Season. Other covers were less provocative, but no less powerful: Joplin's Pearl captures the colorful singer smiling on a chaise lounge, just hours before the drug overdose that claimed her life, while the textured antique lettering that adorns Young's Harvest perfectly evokes the record's rootsy authenticity and beauty. Wilkes also enjoyed an extended partnership with blue-eyed R&B duo Delaney & Bonnie, designing their immortal live LP On Tour with Eric Clapton and continuing with To Bonnie from Delaney and Motel Shot -- additional projects of note include Clapton's self-titled solo debut, Joe Cocker's double live LP Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and Dave Mason's Alone Together, the latter unfolding into a poster three times the size of a normal 12" disc, with a pouch to house the vinyl at the bottom.

Wilkes left A&M in late 1969 to co-found Camouflage Productions with Barry Feinstein -- the following year, he created the cover for All Things Must Pass, the acclaimed solo debut from former Beatle George Harrison. Months later, Harrison tapped the artist to design the triple-album release documenting the Concert for Bangladesh, the all-star charity benefit mounted at New York City's Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971. "We did 'Bangladesh' gratis, just because we wanted to contribute to George's cause, so we just worked on expenses," Wilkes later recalled. "I spent hours looking at horrible, horrible footage, and we eventually selected this shot. I did extensive airbrushing...I kind of cleaned it up a little. Some of the other photos in the book are from the rest of the footage I reviewed. It was difficult to watch. I have a really nice letter from UNICEF thanking me." Wilkes won a Grammy Award in 1974 for his efforts on the London Symphony Orchestra & Choir's recording of the Who's rock opera Tommy, and a year later signed on as art director with ABC Records -- notable efforts from the second half of the decade include REO Speedwagon's You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish, the Flamin' Groovies' Shake Some Action, and Emmylou Harris' Blue Kentucky Girl. In addition to launching his own multimedia firm, Tom Wilkes Productions, in 1978, Wilkes served as founder and president of Interspeak, a nonprofit dedicated to environmental and human rights causes. During the 1980s, he shifted his focus away from album design into music videos, television commercials, and mixed-media events. Though diagnosed with a form of Lou Gehrig's disease in 1999, Wilkes continued working, and completed a memoir, Tommy Geeked the Chicken, just weeks prior to suffering a fatal heart attack on June 28, 2009. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide