Two striking wheat pastes by American graphic pop artist Scott Caris seem to leap from the walls of Brick Lane in Shoreditch, London. One features a young Bob Dylan, his face awash in blue and green, with the poignant lyric “I’m on the dark side of the road” (from “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”) scrawled across his forehead. Beside Dylan, a bold portrait of Pete Townshend from The Who shows him strumming a double-neck guitar, eyes locked forward, as a red-and-blue mod target hovers behind him like a halo. The pairing feels like a surreal tribute to rock’s restless rebellion and cool introspection. The guy sitting on the curb never looked up from his phone.
Apparently, Jimi Hendrix Always Dressed Like This (all Post Photos By Gail, Click any Image to Enlarge)
Every picture tells a story. During his career, Photographer Barrie Wentzell collected an endless cache of unheard stories from and about many of rock’s greatest legends that would blow your head right off. From 1965 to 1975 – certainly one of the (if not the) most vibrant and fertile decades for Rock & Roll music and culture — Wentzell shot both live performance and candid, intimate photographs of everyone who was anyone: from Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles to The Kinks and Led Zeppelin for the UK weekly music rag, Melody Maker. Continue reading Morrison Hotel Gallery Presents The Melody Maker Photography of Barrie Wentzell→
On This Date, October 23rd in 1972: Filming began for the British film That’ll Be the Day, a coming-of-age story set in the late 50s / early 60s starring David Essex (of “Rock On” fame) and Ringo Starr, with Keith Moon in a memorable, drum-playing cameo. That’ll Be the Day is a fairly bleak look at life in post-war Britain and, more importantly, the central character, Jim (David Essex) isn’t a very nice guy. Continue reading That’ll Be The Day→
Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who turns 65 today. Happy Birthday Pete and thanks for all the great music, which is still better than 100% of the pop music being produced today!
On This Date, February 7th in 1969: The Who recorded “Pinball Wizard” at Morgan Studios in London. Although it was not one of songwriter Pete Townshend’s favorites, it went on to become by far the most popular song from the rock opera, Tommy, reaching #4 in the UK charts and #13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. “Pinball Wizard” remains part of The Who’s live set to this day. Perhaps they will perform it later today when they provide musical entertainment for the half time show at the Super Bowl (aka The Stupid Bowl), which I will be doing everything in my power to avoid watching!
