Steve Khan Eyewitness Compilation Designs by Janet Perr

    One of the great misconceptions about the music business is that "the artist" has certain rights pertaining to their albums, their work. But, the sad truth is that, if the artist does not own their recordings, the artist has nothing to say about how they might be used, repackaged, etc.! Worse than that, the record label in control is under no obligation to inform the artist of any plans that they might have. Also, when these kinds of reissues happen, and it is not all that often, the label doing the reissue is not required, for example, to give the artist a box (30 promos) of his/her own album! Yes, that's the truth.
    When I learned, via an e-mail through the CONTACT STEVE page here, that BGO Records(UK) was going to be doing a reissue packaging "TIGHTROPE"-"THE BLUE MAN"-"ARROWS" on 2 CDs, I was thrilled. I then investigated and viewed the BGO Records website, it was easy to see that they had created a "look" for their reissues that always included the original album covers in miniature on the cover, usually 2 or 3 of them, and some rather generic photo of the artist involved. From a design standpoint, this creates a potentially very cluttered look. Add in a couple of key promotional phrases, and space comes at a premium. In my case, one positive thing that I had going for my albums was that all 3 covers featured the beautiful images of Jean-Michel Folon, so I thought that it might be a great idea to use a previously unused piece of his, instead of having a photo of me on the cover. For many years now, Jean-Michel's wonderful and very kind widow, Paola Ghiringhelli Folon had granted me the rights to use any image that I desired for a cover, and whenever I needed them. This is something that I have always valued as the great gift that it was. So, armed with that bonus, I approached BGO Records about allowing me to have the brilliant graphic designer Janet Perr design a cover, in the BGO style, and we would present it to them. Lucky for me, they loved and appreciated what Janet had done, and a nice relationship was forged between us all.
    As the 1st reissue seemed to be enjoying a nice reception, and some degree of success in this area, I thought that it might be a good idea to see if I could convince BGO Records to consider a reissue that would involve the first 3 Eyewitness albums, even though they are now controlled by Universal Music. I mention this because it seemed that BGO had more of a direct connection to the old Columbia Records catalog, now controlled by Sony Music. To strengthen the position of my proposal, I decided that I would ask Janet to design a few possible cover versions, so that BGO could see, in a visual way, exactly what such a reissue might look like. Again, as all 3 of those albums had Folon images on their covers, we could take a similar approach, but give it a nice new look.
    Below, you have the rare opportunity to actually view the presentations that Janet designed and I presented to BGO Records. Their initial response was very positive and they began the slow process of seeing if Universal Music would grant them the licenses for this reissue package. Yes, it took a number of months to make it happen, but just recently, during November of 2015, I was informed that everything was in order and that the reissue was now scheduled for April/May of 2016. Again, I was so excited about this. I have decided to present the covers in the order that I felt might best represent the music and the spirit of the look of those 3 albums. In the end, I felt that the image for Design #1, titled "Dialogue" was best, as it bore a direct resemblance to the original cover for "EYEWITNESS." Design #2, titled "L'Enfance" was a very close 2nd. It is a familiar looking Folon character, who a dear friend affectionately called "Maze Boy," and it was really the only other suitable image for this package.
    Designs #3 and #4, though different, both are titled "Guitare," but, the albums by our group, even though they all appeared under my name, they are so much more than just "guitar" albums, or "guitar music. To represent our work that way just did not feel right to me. On the level of the art of design, for me, these are really spectacular designs by Janet, and I just love both of them. I am proud to share them here with you. Design #5, Folon's famous Blue Eyeglasses, though actually titled "La Double Vue," also could not have been a real choice, but only because I did not have a really high-quality image scan to use. So, though what you see here might appear to be good enough, but to Janet's keen eye, it was, in fact, not good enough!!! And there you have it. That's the story, I hope that everyone who happens to find this page will enjoy seeing these beautiful cover designs, and that it will whet your appetite for the eventual 2016 reissue release!!! From Anthony Jackson, Steve Jordan, Manolo Badrena and me, we all want to thank each and every person who has, in one form or another, expressed their enjoyment of the music that we created between 1981-83. Thank you so much for your support!