THIN LIZZY. VAGABONDS OF THE WESTERN WORLD. ALBUM COVER. 1973.
‘My very first Thin Lizzy artwork! Poet and publisher Peter Fallon introduced me to Philip in Neary’s pub in Dublin and we hit it off straight away. We had a love of American comic books, poetry, Ireland and all things Irish and a shared fatherless upbringing.
I was absolutely delighted when Philip asked me to do the cover and poster for the upcoming ‘Vagabonds’ album and I had a couple of roughs over to him in London the following week. He loved the gatefold rough I prepared but the record company knocked it on the head so we went for the best part of the design and worked it up. The logo was based on Tim Booth’s design –I just glossed it up a little –and the Marvel comics influence is very much in evidence. ‘Vagabonds’ has so many happy memories for me and I wish Philip was still around to share them one last time.’ -JF
The making of the album cover artwork.
I have always had a soft spot for ‘Vagabonds of the Western World’.
The obvious reason is that this was my first gig with Thin Lizzy and Philip Lynott. Philip and I were talking by old-fashioned landline all the time after we first met a few months previously in Neary’s Pub in Dublin; we were trying to find that elusive sense of connection that Philip felt was so important to both of us if we were to collaborate.
I had a couple of serious advantages that I slowly recognized as vitally important to Philip: I was abandoned by my father at an early age, my mother had to work as a fashion buyer while my granny was left to raise me and look after me most of the time. I grew up a very single-minded only child, a loner, a bit of a wanderer, a little of the vagabond like himself.
Philip regarded me as a kindred spirit from the start. He described his childhood to me in great detail and there is no doubt he identified with me; he was an only child, abandoned by his father and raised by his granny, Sarah, while his mom lived and worked in England. He laughed when I described how I wandered all over the country right up to my late teens. I often went missing for long periods and he did the same. We both loved a scrap too but that’s another story.
Philip was very charismatic, tall like myself -over six foot, a very good looking and personable young man. He was also a black Irishman and that was unusual in those days; there were only a few men of color around Dublin back then and I knew all three.
When Philip asked me to produce artwork for ‘Vagabonds’ I was absolutely thrilled….
I was no slouch; I had spent a few years as an advertising Art Director and knew my stuff. I knew how to prepare artwork for reproduction; I knew what could and could not be done. I had won quite a few awards for my work too. I had produced an endless stream of wild graphics and my work was well known, in fact, Philip told me what attracted him to ask me to work for the band were my crazy graphics for Tara Telephone, a Dublin beat group, and the poster-poems I produced for them, all printed in wild psychedelic colours.
I had worked for other bands, mostly Irish, and even got a shot at a cover for Led Zeppelin and ended up developing that quasi-comic book style first for a house style project for Led Zep. In fact the background of ‘Vagabonds’ echoes very much the style and substance of one of my graphics for them.
I produced quite a few roughs as I loved to play around with ideas and concepts until we finally narrowed it all down to two roughs. I developed one as a double page gatefold cover but the record company knocked that on the head, nevertheless both they and Philip love the direction I was taking and so the artwork was commissioned and I produced the cover images most Thin Lizzy fans know well.
Philip had a huge hand in the cover art, constantly encouraging and supporting me and cajoling me as we went along. He loved the result and maintained the link with another mutual friend, artist Tim Booth, by having Tim design the cover logo while I worked it up and added my touches to finish it off for publication along with my cover art.
In the original printing of the ‘Vagabonds’ sleeve artwork, Philip added an extra; a photo page of all his favourite stuff including a photo of myself taken by snapper Tom Collins, another mutual friend.
I hope the above gives the reader some idea of the character of Philip Lynott; a kind considerate, powerfully talented young man who wanted to bring all his many friends along with him on his own deeply personal journey. He forgot no one, remembered us all and included us in his life, his family and his art, the beautiful early lyrics and his wonderful music. We shared his triumphs and in the end we shared his sadness and mourned his loss.
In my art for Thin Lizzy, the obvious influences are Marvel comic book art which both myself and Philip loved and referenced hugely in the art for ‘Jailbreak’ and to a much lesser extent here for ‘Vagabonds’.
One could easily point out that the Thin Lizzy logo and title art are designs based on the lettering of classic US car logos like Chevrolet but that begs the question: was this a deliberate choice of artist Tim Booth, who did the original logo roughs and which I took and more or less polished up to prepare for the final finished artwork? Who knows? My guess would be that both Tim and myself saw a chance to be different and creative and the influences simply fed into the art as it progressed. I doubt if Tim had a Chevy logo handy but we both knew it well so it just metamorphosed and transferred from conception to solid pen-work, from the creative mind to practical pen, ink and paper.
The album cover art was all my own work and evolved also from a number of early sketches to a more developed pastel and watercolour rough spread over two pages as a gatefold design which was declared a non-runner by Decca, the record company for obvious financial reasons. The drawings were all done on a wing and a prayer as I had only a few poor photos of Brian and Eric while myself and Philip ducked into a passport photo machine in Grafton Street for a few good pix as reference. I always notice the fine, if exaggerated, likeness of Philip is much better drawn than either Brian or Eric and the reason is simply: better reference material.
The foreground is a lunar landscape and is just an invention; the added Newgrange style carved stones are my own idea while Philip added the little spider and a few other jokes for me to include. The spaceship was Eric’s mythical ‘Lizzy mobile’ but that was lost in translation somewhere.
Philip and myself coined the phrase ‘Cosmic Cowboys’ to describe the look of the cover for press release and it played well in the press notices of the time. Not as good as our friend B.P. Fallon’s ‘T-Rextasy’ for Marc Bolan and co, but not bad either.
The artwork was first executed in pen and ink only, from a number of preparatory drawings approved by Philip, then photographed by me and transferred to clear litho film, the colour was then added on the clear film mostly on the reverse side as in a cartoon cell. The colour choice was very influenced by the darkened colours being used in Marvel comics of the time and the comic book influence is everywhere, from the Ben-Day dot matrix added to the space clouds by hand (via Letraset repro dot sheets) to the Kirbyesque spaceships and the moon and the tiny edifice on the rocks. The carvings are based on Neolithic Irish carved stone art, as in Newgrange, and there is a nod to Zeppelin added on one of the stones.
The back cover was not my work but Philip added the shamrock himself to show his affinity to Ireland.
The poster of Vagabonds I think is actually better than the album cover and that’s what I will continue with in another post.
Check out the print of Vagabonds of the Western World!
Click here to see more of my Thin Lizzy and Philip Lynott artworks!
Here is the first example of a more in depth post about a specific work of art. I’m going to do as many of these as I can for as many of my artworks as possible, I hope you enjoy!
Please ask as many questions as you like!!! 🙂