rip or thrash, either way

Music art director Ed Thrasher dies at 74

Monday, August 21, 2006

(08-21) 03:58 PDT Big Bear City, Calif. (AP) --

Veteran art director Ed Thrasher, who worked on hundreds of albums with such artists as Frank Sinatra and received 12 Grammy Award nominations, has died. He was 74.

He died of cancer Aug. 5 at his Big Bear Lake home, said his son, Jeff Thrasher.

Born in March 1932, Thrasher was the son of a Los Angeles city councilman. He graduated from John Marshall High School and served in the Navy during the Korean War.

Thrasher attended Los Angeles Trade Technical College and the County Art Institute before being hired as an assistant in the art department at Capitol Records in 1957.

He joined Warner Bros. Records in 1964 where he did the photography for many of the albums as well as print ads and posters. Among his work was the Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Are You Experienced?," Joni Mitchell's "Song to a Seagull," the Grateful Dead's "Anthem of the Sun," and Sinatra's "My Way."

When Sinatra came out of retirement in 1973, it was Thrasher who suggested the title of the singer's comeback album, "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back."

"Ed showed the artwork to Frank, and he just flipped, as we all did," recalled Joe Smith, former president of Warner Bros. Records. "Frank thought `Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back' was a great phrase, and it later turned out to be an ad hook when Frank was out on the road again."

Thrasher received a dozen Grammy nominations as an art director from 1962 to 1974, the year he and fellow art director Christopher Whorf won Grammys for best album package for Mason Proffit's "Come & Gone."

After leaving Warner Bros. in 1979, Thrasher formed an advertising company that created art for films, including Prince's "Purple Rain" and Mel Gibson's "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."

Thrasher, whose 22-year marriage to actress Linda Gray ended in divorce, is survived by his son; his daughter, Kehly Sloane; two grandchildren; and his sister, Marilyn Ball.