Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Rock and rock 'n' roll stars

Few music photographers can claim to have taken as many iconic, instantly recognisable shots as Mick Rock, and so picking up a bargain-priced copy of his book Exposed - as I did at the weekend - was always going to be well worth it.

Inside are his cover images for Lou Reed's Transformer and The Stooges' Raw Power (taken, incredibly, just a day apart); countless great pictures of David Bowie, including the one of him eating a meal and looking lovingly at Mick Ronson while the pair are on the London to Aberdeen train; assorted shots of the permanently photogenic Debbie Harry; and lots, lots more. Essentially, pretty much anyone who's anyone has, at some point in time, been the focus of Rock's lens and attention, and the results are almost invariably great.

And yet I can't help but feel aggrieved at the fact that the one Sonic Youth photo - a portrait of the band's power couple Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, taken in 2005 - has been placed opposite an image of simian cretins Kasabian...

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