Earlier this week, I was asked to shoot some photos at a recording session in town. It  was for a song on Robert Randolph’s new CD, featuring Buddy Guy and his band, produced and engineered by the legendary Eddie Kramer. Eddie, along with producing and engineering records by everyone from the Stones to Hendrix, is also a great photographer.

See http://www.kramerarchives.com/ for some great stuff!

So, after a few takes of the song, something needed to be adjusted and everyone took a break. Robert started playing a simple melody on his steel guitar. Buddy, sitting next to him, without looking over, started playing along. The rest of the band, two of whom were not even in the same room, joined in. No words were exchanged, nobody looked at anyone else, and ten minutes of amazing music emerged through the speakers, while all the onlookers in the studio just stared at them with amazement. I turned my eyes to the board, and Eddie was mixing the song as it emerged. At one point, with no visible communication, the song came to a conclusion, and spontaneous applause erupted in the control room. Robert looked at Buddy and smiled, and Buddy said “Let’s get back to work.”

In my almost 40 years in the music business, I can count on one hand those kind of moments that make all the crap in the business just fall away, and the true reason for being in the business becomes apparent. MUSIC!

This month there is an interesting article in Digital Photo Pro (January 2012) concerning the concept of “Fair use.” Seems that a musician “redid” the Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue” as an 8 bit cliptune tribute to the original. First question- What the hell is an 8 bit cliptune tribute?? Beats me!!! So… the guy recreated Kind of Blues, one of the greatest albums ever recorded. He contacted the Miles Davis estate and got all of his permissions taken care of, including paying licensing fees. Then came the cover. Since, evidently, photographers don’t really matter, when he contacted the legendary Jay Maisel, who had photographed Miles for the cover in the sixties, and was told he could not use and alter the album cover, he went ahead and did it anyway, claiming fair use, a concept that is often quoted in audio commercial use, but pretty much doesn’t exist, from what I can find. So a lawsuit came about, and Jay Maisel is $32,500 richer. The point is, all photographers should protect their copyright at all costs. Know the law, and pursue claims aggressively.

I regularly get two kinds of calls about this kind of situation:

1. Publications and record companies that want to use one of my photographs as “artist reference.” Regardless of whether they want to paint something loosely based on one of my photographs, or want to copy the photograph exactly as a drawing, they have to pay me an artist reference fee. I almost always agree to this, for a small few, as it usually doesn’t conflict with my ability to license the photo.

2. A visual artist will contact me and ask my permission to paint a painting based on one of my photographs. I always allow them, as they can slightly alter my work and call it a derivative work. So why not let them use it? It is kind of flattering.

My biggest question concerning this issue: The photograph on the cover is a rather simple tight photograph. Why didn’t the producer find a guy who looked like Miles, photograph him and a horn on a black background and digitize that? Could have saved himself a lot of money!!!

I have been reading a great book by Chuck Eddy (Rock and Roll Always Forgets), a journalist that who has written about music for many years for many publications. It is a collection of his writing, divided into genres. He seems to hate most music, which makes it a hilarious read! His first section is about punk music, and on page 35, he professes his love for the Ramones. He was writing this in 1990, after seeing the “Escape From New York” tour, one of my favorite experiences of my career. The concept was simple: Put three legendary New York bands together (or at least parts of them) and send them on the road. The lineup was:

1^st up: The Ramones

2^nd up: Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie

To wrap it up: Tom Tom Club, with Jerry Harrison, basically the Talking Heads without David Byrne.

I asked for a photo pass, and was told I could shoot the first three songs of each set. Oh well, better than nothing, I thought. Then they called me back and asked me if I could get something from the tour into Playboy, my biggest client at the time. No problem. The Ramones were cool, Debbie was better. After the three songs, I sat on the side by the backstage door to watch the rest of her set. As the set end, the stage got pretty dark, she grabbed her shirt and took it off, stood in the middle of the stage for about 10 seconds, and the stage went dark. WOW- perfect Playboy shot- too bad I couldn’t shoot it!

Depressed, I walked backstage and ran into Debbie. She said “I did that for you- did you get it?” I explained why I didn’t, and she shook her head, exclaiming “That’s pretty stupid’, and walked away. She came back five minutes later and said, “What are you doing tomorrow? Want to come to Milwaukee?”

So the next morning I called the publicist and asked for 5 minutes with each band after sound check in Milwaukee. Done, and I packed to head up to cheese country, 90 miles away. After sound check, I did three photo shoots in about 10 minutes, and Debbie told me to be ready at the end of their set later that night. I was!!

Back in November of 1979, I went to a club to see David Johannson, former singer of the New York Dolls. I have always been a Dolls fan, and wanted to see what he would do solo. Opening the show was a little girl in spandex, who, although she had a great voice and some great songs, basically got booed off the stage by all the Dolls fans in the audience. So, between bands I headed to the rest room, which is situated next to the opening act’s dressing room. The dressing room door was open, and Pat was sitting by herself, crying while her band was breaking down their equipment. I knocked on the side of the door and asked if I could come in. We talked for a while, and I told her not to worry about the booing, as that happened a lot in Chicago. (I had just seen Van Halen get booed off the stage while opening for Journey- TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW! She smiled, dried her tears, and agreed to do a quick photo shoot in the hallway, and we became friends, (sort of). I photographed her several times in the next two years (several times with David Johannson opening for her) as she quickly became a superstar.

So, now we turn to November 1982, and she was playing the big hockey arena in town. I called her publicist to request a photo pass, and was told that Pat does not allow photographers at her shows any more. In those days, I very rarely took no for an answer, so I went to the show anyway, and snuck my equipment in. I found a pretty good spot and shot the whole show. The next day I sent photos to all the major rock magazines, and made a killing off of them, as there were no good photos around.

I have always thought that that was the start of the “no photos” era of the business. I tried to fight it for a while- I knew a lot of the security guys at the local venues, and they always let me sneak in, but I soon realized that the photos weren’t as good, it was too much of a hassle, and if they didn’t want me there, I would just as soon stay home. Oh well, the beginning of the end.

Sometimes sports takes over for music (every Sunday afternoon in the fall, for example). Last Sunday, the Chicago Bears were playing the Denver Bronco’s and a few friends came over to watch the Bears dismantle Tim Tebow. For the first 50 minutes of a sixty minute game, they did just that. Shortly before the end of the game, the Bears were up 10-0 and Tebow was three for 16 passing. At this point, Tebow ran in from the sidelines and I turned to my friends and said “Here we go- the Bears are going to lose the game.” Sure enough, that is exactly what happened!

Yesterday (Saturday) I watched an ESPN Special on Tebow, documenting the time between the end of his college career (Heisman trophy and 2 national championships at Florida) and the moment he was drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos. During the entire period documented, the show kept on cutting to so-called experts explaining why Tebow would not make it as a quarterback in the NFL, and would most likely be drafted in the 3^rd or 4^th round of the draft. In between these glowing testimonials, the show followed him dedicating himself to making himself an NFL quarterback, including one amazing scene of him pushing a full size SUV down a country road and getting it up to 10 miles on hour!

So this year, Tebow was made the starting quarterback, out of desperation, and has led the Broncos to seven wins in the last eight games, and has brought them to first place in their division. Today (12/18) he goes head to head with the best quarterback playing in the NFL right now (Tom Brady and the New England Patriots). We shall see who prevails.

I would love to see someone go back and ask all the “experts” what they think now. It always galls me when I go to see a band, they give it their all, and I read the next day in the paper about how bad the band was! I always want to call the critic and ask to hear his recordings, or ask when he is next playing live!

Last weekend was very interesting. About a month earlier, I got a message from a friend of mine at the State Department. He was bringing a Malaysian folk singer and a documentary film crew to Chicago to film the singer studying Chicago blues. He wanted some suggestions, so I volunteered to set some stuff up for them and be their guide for a few days. What a cool experience! I met them Friday morning at a Muslim community center on the south side and led them to the Chicago Cultural Center where the singer (Halim Yazid- check him out on uTube; he has had 800,000 hits) performed in front of a noontime audience. We then went on a short tour of Chicago blues landmarks, and ended the afternoon at the Chess Records Museum. Later in the evening, we met at Buddy Guy’s club, where I got them an interview with Buddy and also with Lurrie Bell, who was performing that night. Shortly after that, they witnessed and filmed a jam session with Lurrie, Buddy and Billy Branch, a legendary blues harmonica player.

The next afternoon we went to Billy Branch’s house, where he and Halim jammed together in the basement and wrote and performed a song together. Just a really cool couple of days.

The following day, for something completely different, I photographed a band called Straight No Chaser. That was a challenge- 10 guys singing acappella and moving around like crazy! The guys were really nice, and put out the challenge- to get a good shot where you could see all 10 of them. Very tough, but I got a few.

Right before the show, I went out to find a good shooting spot and watch the opening, very funny video. Halfway through the video, the announcer started outlining the rules and regulations- no smoking, etc. When they came to the part of the announcement talking about no photos allowed, the video screeched to a halt and a new announcer yelled “Wait, not for our show. We want everyone to shoot as many pictures as you can, and post them to as many websites as you can. We also want anyone with a video camera to shoot as much as you can and post videos to uTube!”

WOW, WHAT A CONCEPT! And it really didn’t hurt their draw, they played in front of 10,000 people in 24 hours in Chicago.

Just got an email from my friend Joe telling me that it was nine years ago this week when a bunch of us got on a few buses in Lincoln, Nebraska and traveled around the Midwest visiting universities and churches talking about the problems in Africa.

The group was led by Bono, Ashley Judd and Chris Tucker and hit Lincoln, Des Moines, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville and ended up in Nashville. Each day was headlined with a performance at a college auditorium or a church, with Bono doing what he does best- doing his part to save the world. He would always start off each event with this comment: “There is nothing worse than a rock star with a cause.” Then he would disprove it, at least in his case. There is nobody better than him at distilling an argument down to it’s essential issues. And putting it forth so you see it in a way that makes you want to follow him anywhere. Both Ashley and Chris are brilliant speakers, and all were very funny.

Ashley’s sister Wynonna substituted for her on the final day. Not a lot of music but it put me in the mode of realization that the world can be a better place if people stop talking and start doing. I was also reminded of this trip when reading an interview with Bono in this weeks Time Magazine, where he made another impassioned plea for help in ending the AIDS epidemic- and explained how it could be done.

There were some lighter moments, as when Bono and Chris jumped up on stage with the hotel band in Cincinnati to sing covers with them at a Friday night singles party. Also in Cincinnati, at an AIDS clinic, I was standing next to a balding, middle aged guy in a blue sweater with a nametag on his sweater that said Peter Frampton. I thought that was pretty cool that a guy in Cincinnati had the same name as the famous English rock star. Then he started talking and lo and behold, it was the actual Peter Frampton, who now lives there!

Also, during that 10 day period, Bono was working on a newfangled thing called a blog! Every night about 1AM, the phone in my room would ring and this Irish voice would say “OK, let’s look at some photos.” I would grab my laptop, walk over to his room and we would go over the days photos. He would find the ones that matched what he was writing about, and I would go back to my room, size them and email them to some guy at a website that I had never heard of till that week- www.aol.com. Cool idea! I wonder if that blog thing will ever catch on.

Between all the laughs, awareness was raised in a lot of places, and maybe went a small way toward making the world a better place.

It was approaching Thanksgiving of 1988, and I got a call from my friend Larry White from Warner Brothers. He was traveling with a new band called Jane’s Addiction. They were coming to Chicago to play the day before and the day after Thanksgiving, and were going to be stuck in their hotel on Thanksgiving Day. He asked me if he could bring them over for a photo shoot. Although I had never heard of them, I said “Why not”?

Thanksgiving morning, to prepare, I went to the grocery store and bought some sliced turkey, a loaf of Wonder Bread, some mustard, some beer and a pumpkin pie. Early afternoon a taxi pulled up in front of my house. Out of it walked four tired LA musicians, and a tired Warner Brothers guy. They immediately dug into the food (It was kind of a joke on Thanksgiving, but they were real hungry).

After a great two hour shoot, I piled them into my car and gave them a tour of great gangster sites on the way back to their hotel! A good time was had by all.

The following year, their publicist asked me to come to LA to do a new shoot with them before their homecoming show there. I lined them up outside the LA Palladium, and did a quick shoot with them. Not a single guy in the band remembered me, the shoot, the gangsters or the food!

Oh well, maybe I should die my hair orange.

In May of 1983, I was asked by a publicist if I wanted to do a shoot with a new band from Georgia called REM. So a week later, I drove over to a venue called Park West in Chicago, and found four very quiet and shy guys lounging around the dressing room after sound check. I dragged them all outside across the street and posed them on a statue in a small park.  They had no idea why they were there, but they were very nice about the shoot.

In April of 1985, their publicist called me and asked me if I would like to go down to Athens and spend a day with them. The had a new album “Fables of the Reconstruction” coming out, and I was offered the band for a day of photography. I flew down to Atlanta, rented a car and drove to Athens and pulled up at their manager’s house. He jumped in and we drove to Michael Stipe’s house, where the band was waiting. Stipe jumped into my car, the rest of the band jumped into another car, and Stipe started directing me through the woods to one great shooting location after another. I kept waiting to turn the corner and see guys on a porch with banjos playing the theme to “Deliverence” but no such luck. After about five hours of this, we went back to Stipe’s house where I had left some lights and backgrounds and we did a few studio sessions. In my entire career, both before and after, I have never produced as much rich and varied material in a one day period!

It seemed that every time they came to town, I would do another shoot with them for one purpose or another. One trip to the suburbs found me hanging around with the band and Gary Zeckley, the guy who wrote “Superman” on of their big hits.

In March of 1989, I flew to Iowa to photograph them for Time magazine for an article about their “Green” album. Put them on stage and had their lighting guy turn on all the green lights on stage.

Then the band became huge, and access was immediately cut off. I never shot them again, but I ran into Peter Buck a few times when I was working with Brian Wilson. He was like a little kid around Brian. Every time we would play Seattle, he and Eddie Vedder would be waiting in line to get backstage to shake Brian’s hand after the show. It was always fun to help them out in those situations.

Last week the band called it quits. It will be interesting to see what they do next.

Seems like the good old days!

Wednesday:

Photographed a band called Mona. They were opening for some flavor of the week band. They look like they want to be today’s Clash. Nice guys, 2 from Ohio, 2 from Kentucky. They are getting big in Europe (they just spent 6 months there) and are close to getting a US following. Some really good songs, and great stage presence.. They only played for about 40 minutes, but I got the impression that they would be moving on to bigger and better things.

Friday:

A day with Mastadon. The loudest day I have spent in quite a while. The four guys from Atlanta rocked Chicago. Offstage, they have a quite southern charm. When they hit the stage, it sounds like you are in front of a jet plane ready for takeoff! The band is very smart- their lyrics are way above the level of the normal hard rock band. Not a lot of movement on stage, as all four of them sing and have to stay close to their microphones, but man do they rock!

Saturday:

I first photographed Judas Priest in 1978 at the Rockford Speedway (I think they were opening for Ted Nugent at the time) and have been a fan ever since. I have photographed them about 30 times since, including a 1980 portrait of Rob Halford on a Harley that graced the cover of Creem Magazine in 1980. They have always been extremely nice to me and very easy to work with, both band and crew.

So, down to Indiana to hang with Judas Priest. In the history of hard rock, they get a full chapter! One of the greatest shows on earth. They have smoke, lasers, a mirror ball, AND……..some of the greatest hard rock music ever played. The lineup has changed over the years, but the constants remain- Glen Tipton’s great guitar playing, Ian Hill holding down the bottom on bass, and Rob Halford, the most amazing voice in the history of heavy metal. The band was on their Epitaph tour, and rumors were flying around that this was their final tour. I asked Rob about that and he laughed. He said it only meant that they weren’t going to do any more 2 year world tours- Just 2 or 3 months at a time when they felt the need to rock. Then they proceeded to rock the house for two and a half hours, going back through their entire career, ending with about 40 minutes of their biggest hits.

One final note: before the show, I met the Global president of the company that makes and sells One Million Sharpies a day worldwide, and am now the proud owner of two limited edition Judas Priest Sharpies! A great time was had by all.