In late April, Sotheby’s auctioned a work of art well known to Steely Dan fans: a painting by the artist Zox, featuring skyscrapers capped by the heads of monstrous beasts. Originally made for Van Morrison’s album Naked in the Jungle, the piece was repurposed for the cover of The Royal Scam in 1976.
Over the phone recently from his home in Los Angeles, Zox told me it was difficult to let go of what is probably his most famous work after having it in his possession for 50 years.
“There weren’t very many paintings of that size that were done specifically for album covers,” he said of the canvas, which measures eight and a half feet square. “It was one of those pieces that didn’t fit in anywhere, partially because of its size. It was shown in art galleries over the years, but it didn’t get displayed very often. There was no place in my studio that I could put it without it sticking out into a room.”
The winning bid was $28,000. “I thought I’d get more, and everyone around the auction said they thought so as well. But hope springs eternal,” Zox said with a chuckle. “Things are only worth what people are willing to pay, and you’ve got to find those people.”
Ultimately he would like to see the painting hanging one day in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. “One of the guys at Sotheby’s who worked on the auction also works with the Rock Hall,” Zox said. “He told me he’d talk to the people over there and also talk to the guy who bought it,” to explore the potential for a donation. “I haven’t heard back about that yet.”
In 2024, Expanding Dan spoke to the photographer and art director Ed Caraeff about his work on the Steely Dan albums Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, and The Royal Scam. Zox’s recollections, meanwhile, were buried in that story as a footnote. Now, as we mark The Royal Scam’s semicentennial, here are the painter’s comments about his role in creating a haunting piece for the record’s cover.
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No one can accuse Steely Dan of caring too much about appearances. When Walter Becker and Donald Fagen moved to Los Angeles from New York in the early 1970s, they were made queasy by what Fagen once described as California’s “much more visual culture.” Even the most forgiving Danboy would have to concede that the band’s aesthetic choices over the years were a bit … uneven.
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