BOC: Agents of Fortune cover art anecdote.

[Jason Scruton]

>From Black-sabbath.com, Lynn Curlee had this to say about Agents of Fortune
and Heaven and Hell:

"Yep I did the HEAVEN AND HELL cover painting. I had done AGENTS OF
FORTUNE, specifically for BLUE OYSTER CULT in 1976. The band had seen a
show of my paintings in NYC where I lived at the time, and they
commissioned the magician holding tarot cards (the image was my idea) for
their cover. Then a few years later, I had moved to L.A. and I got a call
from the management of BLACK SABBATH. As I recall, the two bands had the
same management or agent or something. They had a new album and the cover
art wasn't working out so they were in a jam. So they asked if I had
something suitable. I had already painted the SMOKING ANGELS as a gallery
painting. and they chose it for their cover. You may be interested to know
that in the original painting the angel on the right side had a complete
wing that was cropped to fit the album cover.

"Both paintings are long gone, I think they were purchased directly from me
by band members, although it was a long long time ago and I don't have good
financial records from those days. Someone else might have bought either
painting. In any event, I haven't had either one of them for many years.
Those were the only two album covers I ever did. I never was really a
commercial artist - instead I showed in galleries. I occasionally get
emails from people asking about prints or posters from the album covers,
but I have never reproduced either one of them in any form. The copyright
was actually held by the record company in those days."