OTR- Nugent Style

For this installment of the Off The Record Project, we are going all the way back to 1977 for the third album by guitarist/singer/songwriter Ted Nugent. Cat Scratch Fever was a big hit for Nugent, going multi-platinum. His crazed look helped to make the album cover very memorable.

The Original

The original album actually has a wrap-around cover – with the cover image continuing on the back of the album- but more on that later.

The photo was a very basic setup. Just find a guy with crazy hair and an even crazier expression. The simple grey background helps to draw all the focus to the subject. Pretty cut and dried- no photography tricks or elaborate lighting involved at all.

The OTR Version

My friend Chris Varney came up with the idea for this one very early on. We struggled with how to handle the hair and finally settled on a wig. It doesn’t look terribly realistic, but with this image, it almost makes it funnier. This one is really all about the crazed expression- and Chris pulled that one off perfectly.

From there, the only issue was replicating the faded, lo-tech look of the original 70s photography. I don’t know that I got it exactly perfect, but I think we are in the ballpark. For the title, I decided to go with Wife Scratch vs Cat Scratch, since his wife was helping him with the extended version of the portrait.

Some Extra OTR

Although I don’t usually include the back cover of an album, this one is kind of an exception.

If you open up the album, you will see an extended view of the portrait, with hands coming around from behind scratching his chest. Chris went all out on this one and brought along his wife as a hand model. Although it won’t really fit with the other album covers, it ended up as a great addition to the blog post!

Ladies- we will see about printing out posters of this version if you want a copy.