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We're Only In It For The Money Notes & Comments

The Photo Shoot

When I started on this, there was an album called Our Man in Nirvana that Frank was working on. And this was an outgrowth or an evolution of that to some extent—now, to what extent, I can't say. [...] At some point, that project ended and this began, but there was material that he was working on that evolved into this. Where one ends and the other begins, I don't know. But there is certainly a point where there's some mix of the two ideas . . . [...] I think it was still spring—because I remember—it was right after I met Frank, right after Absolutely Free came out, I was living in Philadelphia and commuting to NY, I was still going to school, and I remember when it came out and everywhere you went—that's all you heard, constantly, was Sgt. Pepper. So it was like just this incredible phenomenon, and Frank immediately grasped that and wanted to do something with it, you know, so, that's really I think what's . . . and he was listening to it too. [...] I was working for him. And the assignment was, okay, this is what we're going to do now. But I had started working on Our Man in Nirvana, and like I say, I don't remember where that ended and this began exactly . . . the first point that I remember this actually being a project—was a drawing where Frank took Sgt. Pepper and put tissue paper over it and drew on top of it what he wanted as satirizing this element, that element. There were some that made it, some that didn't, obviously . . .

Photo shot in June 1967, (graphic production summer thru fall '67). Jerry Schatzberg did the photography for the cover, I did the collage of additional people at the top which was stripped in after. I helped set up the shot, but most of the direction was Frank's, I made the "wax figures" and did the production etc. This was the first cover that I worked on. I had just started working for FZ in spring '67, doing ads for "Absolutely Free", group photos, drum heads, light show -various paraphernalia for "Pigs & Repugnant", the Garrick Theater extended gig) I had a lot of help on the technicalities from Dick Roth at Queens Litho, who happened to also be printing Sgt. Pepper. This helped a lot. In fact, the "Only Money" cutout insert was printed with "Sgt. Pepper's" insert reprints on the same press sheet.

We're Only In It For The Money—I think that was done at Apostolic Studios in New York, and one of the interesting things I remember about that is doing the album cover. We all had to wear dresses; my dress was I think $200 which at the time was quite a large amount of money for a dress. They were all like that, and the set itself was quite incredible, all these mannequins and vegetables that you can see on the sleeve—it was really amazing. I don't remember much about the recording of that album, but . . . it came out and sounded pretty good.

6-67 thru fall 67—NY. Photo, photo-collage. This was the first cover that I worked on. I had just started working for FZ in spring (67), doing ads for "Absolutely Free", group photos, drum heads, light show—various paraphernalia for "Pigs & Repugnant" (Garrick Theater extended gig). Frank very carefully directed this package, I did the plaster models, collage in background & supplied whatever else was needed—with the help of Dick Roth at Queens Litho (they also printed "Sgt Pepper"). Incidentally—the "Only Money" cutout insert was actually printed with "Sgt. Pepper's" inserts on the same press sheet. 95 Ryko release restores the original cover, back cover, liner and cutout sheet with some subtle changes. The inlay pictures are neverseenbefore out-takes from the original Jerry Schatzberg photo session for the BC (which is actually the inside-out left panel on the original, but the BC on the earlier reissue . . . well, you know what I mean).

Calvin Schenkel, Cal Schenkel Magazine, September, 1981

Frank came up with the concept for "We're Only In The Money For It" early that summer, and we rushed around trying to find props and get it in the works as soon as possible. I went out and bought a bunch of old manakins to convert into "wax figures" of the Mothers. This was accomplished in an old loft, high over the Garrick Theater/Café a Go Go complex. Many hours and pounds of plaster served in the task. The photography was done by Jerry Shatsberg a real photographer, in a real New York photography studio. This was my first actual album cover and I was impressed. Other than the wax dummies and the collage in the background of the Front cover, I mostly just got to art-direct the thing. Dick Roth at Queens Litho, helped a lot with the production, supplying all of the type to the right specifications, and tying it all together. (Queens had printed "Sgt. Pepper," and in fact when they ran the insert for "Only Money" it was ganged on a sheet of Beatles insert reprints.

Frank & Cal adjust the wax figures

Jimmy Carl Black, interviewed by Steve Moore, March 29, 2000

Where was the inside cover shot done for the "Money" album. Jimi Hendrix joined you for the album picture. Do you remember how he felt, or what his attitude was toward the Mothers in dresses, and the photo experience? Some place on Fifth Ave. in New York City. I think the photographer was Faye Dunaway's husband at the time. I don't know how Jimi felt about the whole thing. I think it was good publicity for him. I know I didn't like that dress 'cause it didn't fit but I thought it was a great picture. We weren't the first band to do a picture in drag; The Rolling Stones were. If it was good enough for them then it had to be good enough for us.

In June, Cal was working on the cover design for We're Only In It For The Money. He had a little workshop above the theater where he was putting all the mannequins and things together for the cover. When he had finished them all, we went to Jerry Schatzberg who was a famous photographer on Park Avenue and that's were we shot the actual pictures. Jimi Hendrix was in the Village that week we did the album cover. He was back in America for the first time since he'd make it big in England. He'd come back to headline at The Monterey Pop Festival. He's not a cardboard prop on the album cover because he was actually with at the shoot. For the record, the other black guy on there is Tom Wilson, the guy with my high school letterman sweater on.

"We're Only In It For The Money," Mojo, March, 1994, p. 21-22

This was the first of many parodies of Sgt Pepper and very much in the Mothers' irreverent style. Cal Schenkel: "It was Frank's concept, and it was just a question of parodying what existed. First Frank did a little sketch of the cover and said, I want to find all these people and get them and put them in the picture. And there were like 100 people. We started to try and get people and it was just impossible. Jimi Hendrix was the only live person there other than the Mothers and the corporate members and Herbie Cohen, Tom Wilson and a few other people like Gail. The rest were either just found images: some of them came out of Frank's High School Year Book and there were some old pictures I had. "We put the cover together in three pieces, foreground, the Mothers and the foreground people, then the rest was all collaged and stripped in. The photography was done by Jerry Schatzberg who was a pretty famous fashion photographer. We went to his studio, a really upscale New York fashion studio, and there were like ten assistants. It was great!" "Frank approached me," remembers Jerrold Schatzberg, "because he'd seen the sleeve that I did on the Stones' Can You See Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadows? when they were in drag, and he had an idea that he wanted to do a combination of that and Sgt. Pepper. And instead of flowers and wonderful dreams, he wanted garbage and old food and what you see around on the floor. We both knew Jimi Hendrix so we asked Jimi to come in, so Jimi sat in there as one of the faces. Frank knew exactly what he wanted, and we discussed it, and stuff just started coming in and we started setting it up and preparing it. It took us, I think, the better part of a day and a half to actually shoot it and I remeber finishing quite late at night, but the studio was an absolute mess afterwards, all those vegetables rotting. Cal Schenkel: "This was the first job I did. It was a very complicated piece and I had no idea what I was doing, but the printers for MGM were acutally printing the Sgt Pepper job so they were able to help me match the look really well, in fact we printed the insert sheets with the Sgt Pepper sheets on the same press run. "There were a lot of things we had to do legally, but they mostly came from MGM's paranoia: putting bars over the faces of anybody who was alive. Turning it inside out. They just wouldn't take the chance."

Jerry Schatzberg

I had shot a photograph for the Rolling Stones in drag for the U.K. release of their single "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?". Zappa had seen that and after seeing the cover of Sgt. Peppers, he had the idea the he wanted to do a spoof of that image, with the principals in drag. I had met Zappa a couple of times before that, but we'd never worked together, so I was intrigued when I was told that this was going to be the cover of his next record. We had a couple of weeks to produce this, and keeping the Sgt. Pepper's cover in mind—with its elaborate costumes, flower-filled foreground, and its amazing cast of celebrity guests who were featured on the cover, both of our staffs set out to find the clothes, the props and some "celebrities" who would be part of the final composition. We all agreed that it'd be very funny if we'd use fruit and vegetables and other junk in the foreground (instead of flowers), and since both of us knew Jimi Hendrix, we asked him to take part (you'll find a real-live Jimi Hendrix on the far right-hand side of the shot, the second person to the right of Zappa, who's posed in a mini-skirt). Zappa and his record company then decided on the rest of the background imagery and then a series of photos were taken. I submitted all of my tests over the two weeks and then the final one was selected. No special effects or lenses were used—the final photograph contains just the props and the people you see. Everyone was very happy with the results.

There used to be a genuinely charming poster of the Mothers that leered down at the hapless motorists from atop the Sunset Strip. If you haven't seen it, it showed the Mothers dressed up in drag, similar to the Rolling Stones on the cover of their Can You See Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows? LP; and the name of the group was tastefully spelled out in garbage, satirizing the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had "Beatles" spelled in flowers. That picture, as you may have heard, was also to serve as the cover for the third Mothers' LP, We're Only In It For the Money. "Everybody we showed it to dug it," Frank Zappa explains, "except for Capitol." The upshot was that Capitol was so miffed at this insult to "their product," the Beatles, that attorneys for the firm sought and obtained an injunction preventing sales of the Mothers album with that cover. Consequently, a new cover had to be shot, printed, and glued to the albums, all of which has caused a postponement of its release.

The Date

The Schatzberg shoot was done in New York's Village on July 18, 1967.

18 Tuesday

New York City, "Warwick Hotel"—Interviews.

New York City, "Mayfair Recording Studio Inc."—Studio recordings for "The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice."

Frank Zappa attended one of the "Mayfair" recording days. Neville Chesters: "Quite a few people dropped in on that session. It was a really shitty studio, it was about six or eight floors up . . . midtown New York, a pretty dreadful place. It was just like offices and they converted it into a studio, most odd . . . I remember a photo session [with Frank Zappa for the LP We're Only In It For The Money] came out of that. It was the same day or later in the day of that session."

Kees de Lange, "Mr. Satire & Mr. Phenomenon," UniVibes #27, December, 1997