BOB WELCH – THE OTHER ONE

About this image – my wife Sandra and I were in Paris, and one night we went to a burlesque club with Mick Fleetwood and his security man, Dennis Dunstan. There was a great atmosphere in the club, a smoke-filled room in dark red and black tones, with people from all over the world and everyone drinking champagne. In between the very sophisticated striptease acts were comics and other entertainers, one of which was a hand shadow artist. He didn’t just make rabbits and dogs – he made portraits of Nixon and Reagan and other elaborate shadows. When I returned to LA I received a call from my friend bob welch wanting me to do his new album called watch the animals, which was later changed to the other one. Having just seen this remarkable shadow artist, i suggested an animal shadow as the cover image. Bob liked the concept and it still made sense even after the title change. Liz Sowers was the photographer, and here is a photo of bob and I taken back in 1979 at the photo shoot in my apartment.

That is Bob’s hand making the shadow. Bob was a good friend and, besides being a talented musician and writer, he was very smart and had a great sense of humor. Bob died in 2012.