Willie Nelson, Aerosmith, Elvis Costello, The Boomtown Rats and more

CBS Records' BIG RED Zine!

Some time in late 1978, Arthur Levy, the head of the Columbia Records Publicity Department, approached me about drawing the cover for a new publication: Big Red. He showed me the first covers they used: It wasn’t a pretty picture. So we came to terms and he described the ideas for a cover drawing, which featured the best-known CBS Records music talent with new releases to promote all having Thanksgiving dinner together. I was given a bunch of publicity photos and a pile of free records (the best perk back in those days!).

Can you recognize everyone in the drawing? I can’t remember why I drew a rabbit on the cover. (I think it might have been Arthur’s idea to put a critter on every cover someplace.) And I have no idea who the “new wave guy” holding a saxophone was. I did all the drawing for this cover, including the “Zip-A-Tone background and a color overlay for their character “Big Red.” (That red, round guy is supposed to represent the Columbia vinyl record label, which were always a bright red.)

Of course, Arthur and everyone at CBS loved it! When they asked for another Christmas-themed cover, Bruce Carleton, Patricia Ragan and I were busy working on our “10th Street Cartoon Factory” and collaborated on cover ideas. You can see a lot of the subtle details that Bruce Carleton added to his illustrations: The record covers, the cityscape, and sled were mostly his drawing, as was the coloring. (My big sister Anne was always a big Streisand fan, so she’ll be surprised to see that I ever had anything to do with one of her records!)

The last cover we contributed to Big Red starred The Boomtown Rats. Looking back, I think someone at CBS decided that putting so many recording artists on the cover was a bit confusing, and they really wanted to promote their “new wave” band The Boomtown Rats. From the photos, it looks like they might have taken the photos with the idea of adding in the ski equipment—what do you think?

The band scored the first United Kingdon #1 chart hit “Rat Trap” and had a huge US hit: “I Don’t Like Mondays” (which caused a lot of controversy because the lyrics referred to a school shooting). Lead singer Bob Geldof later became world-famous for his activism in Live Aid and the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas”. “Saint Bob,” some people called him. (By the way, Bobby London and Roberta Bayley did an interesting interview with Bob in PUNK #16).

Sadly, our collaboration with CBS Records ended after that. I think they pulled the plug on Big Red, since inflation was up and record sales were down. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

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