Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Rock's Iconic Images



What are the most iconic images in rock and roll? I've always been partial to this shot of Johnny Cash taken prior to a concert at San Quentin prison. Legend has it the photographer asked Cash for a shot "for the warden" and this was the result. He's flipping off authority, the Nashville establishment and record buying public soon to abandon him, not to mention you and me. No other image captures the essence of rock and roll any better.

Here's 21 more... what other rock images have been seared into our collective consciosness?



Then you've got Chuck's duckwalk (inventing rock and roll wasn't enough... Chuck invented rock cool too), Jimi torching the guitar and audience at Monterey and Townsend's classic windmill pose.
Prince brings sexyback as rock and roll auteur, Marley makes Third World One World and Jim Morrison, king of L.A. decadence.
Iconic logos - the Dead, the Stones, PE.
Nirvana explodes from the underground to every mall in America, the Ramones puncture the 70's bloat with gabba gabba hey and KISS rules!!
The power of rock and roll - the exuberance of Elvis as he blasts into the stratosphere, Springsteen's rock evangelism goes worldwide and The Clash combine the two (plus a dash of The Who) in a heartbeat and save rock and roll.

John and Yoko in what became an epitath without words, the magical mystery of Dylan, and Woodstock, three days that changed the world.

And of course, in the end, there is The Beatles.

1 comment:

Scott McClatchy said...

Dude - tough to pick one for Bobby Z. - he's had so many great images throughout the years ... but you did pick one of the best.

Rave On!!
Satch