I don’t know anything about the band called Skyline, but they released a 12″, 5-track bootleg album in 1978 on the Four Stars label (catalogue No. FS001) with a cover picture of Manhattan. On the rear of the cover the photo was credited to “A. Warhol.”
The album had totally impossible credits beside the “Warhol” cover credit. The musicians were listed as Johnny Thunders (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Lonnie Davis (Keyboards), Peter Ford (Drums, Percussion) and Charles La Croix (Bass, Keyboards, Vocals). However, the album became a kind of underground disco hit and was re-issued with a different cover.
A few years ago Guy Minnebach, who has an encyclopaedic memory about Andy Warhol‘s art, and Raimund Flöck recognised the cover photo of Susanne de Maria as being from one of Andy Warhol‘s 1964 screen tests and is published in a book of them. And since then this version of the record has been in demand not only by fans of the disco music but now also by collectors of Andy Warhol‘s record cover art. Interestingly, the original bootleg lacked the photo credit to A. Warhol on the rear. I have been looking for a copy for my collection and saw one recently on Ebay on which I bid unsuccessfully. However, I noticed in the photos on Ebay that the cover had the “Photo by A. Warhol” credit on the rear cover and also included a photo of Susanna de Maria (note the correct spelling of Susanna), which sparked my curiosity..
About a month later the seller contacted be via a second chance offer and told me he had another copy for sale, and a deal was done. The record duly arrived and I realised this must be a reprint of the original 12″. It is on a different label–Paint the Case Productions–and has no obvious catalogue number. Included in my copy were two photos of Susanna de Maria; one with “No 49” on the rear and the other with “No 49 out of 50” on the back. Could it be that this repressing was limited edition of just 50 copies?
As anyone can see, the image is much less sharp than on the original 1978 pressing (no, it’s not due camera shake). Even the included photos of Susanna are not 100% focused.
Anyway, the album is a nice addition to my collection of Andy Warhol covers. But I suspect I’ll still look for one of the original 1978 pressings.* After a discussion with Guy Minnebach who originally recognised the photo as being from one of Andy Warhol‘s screentests, I conclude that this must be a bootleg of a bootleg! Guy pointed out that bootlegs have previously always been about making music recently an LP version of Paul Anka‘s “Amigos” album appeared. This album was only officially released on CD so the vinyl version seems to be a bootleg only produced for it Warholian cover art. This seems to be the reason for the new pressing of the Skyline album.
*I finally found a copy on 8th August 2017. Hooray!
recordart 
Hi Richard,
I am pretty sure this new “limited edition” is a direct result of my post on the Andy Earhole blog. Right after that post a 1978 copy got sold for over $1000 on eBay. That got the attention of whomever made the new edition.
Same seller recently also offered a 2 LP version of Paul Anka’s Amigos, with 3 prints of Anka portraits. Of this album there never was an official release on vinyl. I think also this new bootleg was inspired by my blog. (And I don’t know if I should be happy with that. Not, actually)
Cheers,
Guy
Hi Guy! Thanks for your input on this. You could quite easily be right that someone is trying to cash in on the rarity value of the original bootleg (thanks to your blog). But have you ever heard of a bootleg of a bootleg before?😂
Haha, true that! A bootlegged bootleg!
But this is the thing: for the original bootlegs, main focus was to bring out music for fans. This new ‘wave’ of bootlegs is just about the cover art. And if the quality of these reproductions seems to be poor, then what’s the point?
I don’t really know if I should criticise as I have made a few reproductions of rare cover art! It’s not a new phenomenon either, reproductions of The Beatles’ butcher cover began to appear (I think) in the late 70s.
Goodmorning everyone. I found this record in a collection inherited from an old musician’s uncle. It is a precious disc? I checked and mine is original. I would not sell it to keep the memory, but I’m curious and I want to know if it is an important piece. Thank you and congratulations to both of your articles. Caterina
Hi Caterina! The Skyline record is something of a collector’s item, so you are right to hold on to it. I mean, why would I publish a post about it if it wasn’t worth having?
Enjoy it. Cheers, Richard.
Thanks Richard, I just wanted to confirm this. I’m not an expert in music, unfortunately, much less than vinyl. Thanks to this small collection I inherited I’m trying to make me a culture. It’s never too late. Thanks again!