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Iconic Rock ‘N Roll Artist Terry Quirk Passes Away

Written by Johnson Stephen on June 2, 2020

Terry Quirk, the artist best known for painting the iconic Psychedelic album cover for The Zombies’ 1968 album ‘Odessey and Oracle’, passed away suddenly on May 31st 2020, aged 78, at his home in Salisbury, England.

Terence “Terry” Quirk was born June 22, 1941 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England. His association with The Zombies began long before the band’s formation, meeting future singer Colin Blunstone and bassist Chris White in the local grammar school. Quirk and White went on to attend art school together, and they shared a North London flat with keyboardist Rod Argent in 1967 when Argent and White were writing the songs that would become ‘Odessey And Oracle’. The musicians asked Quirk to design their album cover, and brought the artist into their recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios for inspiration.

As Quirk explained in his biography, ”I can remember sitting on some stairs, and it was around half past one in the morning, and they were thinking of titles. I had a pad and a pencil, and they were having a discussion, and out came the word ‘Odyssey’ and I just wrote it in this floral writing. And then out of it came ‘Oracle’ and I wrote that down. When the guys came back from a break, I showed it to them and said, ‘How about this?’ And they said, ‘Perfect, absolutely perfect – color it in, put some figures in. You know what the songs are about.’ And that was it.”

Quirk’s now infamous misspelling of ‘Odyssey’ in the album title – an error that went unnoticed until after the record had gone to print – is as much a part of Rock legend as the artwork and songs themselves. Released by a CBS Records subsidiary in 1968, The Zombies ‘Odessey and Oracle’ was initially considered a commercial failure, but a year later spawned the world-wide hit “Time Of The Season” and went on to be named in Top All-Time Album lists from the likes of Rolling Stone and Mojo Magazines.

At the time of his death, he was collaborating with Chris White on a musical about The Zombies.

Terry is survived by his wife Erica, their 5 children and 7 grandchildren.