Alex Steinweiss, who introduced original art to 78rpm record albums, told me in an interview in EYE #76:
“… In the 1960s, I would come into an office
in my regular business suit and the guys would be sitting around in
boots, Levis, long hair, fringed leather jackets, and they looked at me
as if I was from Mars. “Who the hell is this guy? He wants to sell work
to the record business? No way.” Rock people, who were controlling the
record labels, were only interested in sales. They were not interested
in anything that you would say was connected with beauty or idealism.
These guys were mostly Seventh Avenue salesman who came over to the
record business because the kids were getting involved in all this rock
stuff. The rock people had their own artists and designers who thought
the way they did. It was foreign to me.”