The paintings are all your own…
Back in November when we reported the death of artist
First up was the front cover of Rock Dreams. The first editions of the book didn’t include Bowie, but reprints issued from 1973 considered this relative newcomer already worthy of a spot next to Presley, Lennon, Dylan and Jagger, above.
A wonderful portrait of Lou Reed and David Bowie appeared inside, see below.
On the strength of his Rock Dreams paintings, Bowie commissioned Guy to produce the cover of the 1974 RCA Diamond Dogs album with the controversial dog’s genitalia sleeve, below, which was quickly withdrawn for the offending parts to be airbrushed out before the record hit stores.
However, it seems a version of the artwork, below, (which predates the above RCA sleeve) had less obvious parts at this point. One wonders if the male member was added mischievously. If it was, it was a masterstroke as the sleeve couldn’t have got any more publicity.
Or perhaps it was just that Bowie felt he had had enough female comparisons for one career by 1974. Also note that the original artwork has ALIVE instead of Bowie.
Post-RCA versions of the sleeve reinstated the hound’s chap, but if you’re currently holding an RCA cover with the cock in your hands, it’s worth many times more than one with a bush. Which may be the origin of the saying: “A bird in the…etc.” (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Around the same time as the Diamond Dogs sleeve was painted, Guy also made the painting below which was only ever made available as a poster through the official fan club along with a poster of the censored front cover.
Both of the fan club posters, which each measure 39″ x 22″, turn up on eBay from time to time. But, on the rare occasions that they do these days, they command very high prices. Particularly when one considers that the set would have cost you just $5 plus shipping back in 1974!
Rumour has it that the ‘leaping dog’ painting was originally intended for the inside gatefold sleeve of Diamond Dogs.
Guy didn’t do another Bowie painting until he was commissioned for the Bowie At The Beeb cover in 2000. Below is a very limited edition promotional print signed by Guy and DB, of which I believe there were only ten copies produced…that’s one you won’t find on eBay!
I should point out that the large signatures on these works are for reasons of copyright and don’t actually appear on the original artworks.
I’ll leave you with a short bit from Bowie chronologist Kevin Cann who recalls working with Guy on Bowie At The Beeb…
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Working with Guy on Bowie at The Beeb was one of the highlights of recent years for me. I was a great admirer of Rock Dreams and of course the amazing Diamond Dogs sleeve, which was a brilliant collaboration between David and Guy. In the late 90s he brought out 20th-Century Dreams, with text again by Nik Cohn, and it got me thinking.
I wrote to him on the off chance when I was roughing out ideas for Bowie at The Beeb and was thrilled when he called almost straight away. He said he would do the new cover artwork “because of the history”.
I?ll never forget his studio near the Bastille in Paris. If you are interested in art and design it was a bit of a Mecca, I couldn?t get enough of it. He had a massive library of photos and images that he had collected for 50 odd years, carefully filed in these huge leather-bound, numbered volumes all around the studio and in the basement. These files were partly the resources used for his collages. That afternoon he took me to his favourite local cafe and over lunch told me about working with Scorsese on the Taxi Driver poster, like it was yesterday. He was still excited about that commission, perhaps more than anything else he had done.
He threw himself into the Bowie at The Beeb work with great enthusiasm and we had lots of fun messing about with different ideas until we settled on the final concept. I?ve never seen anyone able to manipulate images the way Guy did. He was a massive talent and a very nice man too. He spoke with the broadest French accent ever, though I know he was Belgian.
The last time we spoke was about a year ago. He called to ask if I knew how to find Kate Moss as he had an idea for a picture. I could feel that same excitement of another new idea brewing.
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Thanx Kevin, and thanx to Mr Peellaert for some beautiful work and for one of the very best Bowie album covers of all time.