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I have many conversations with my friend Jack in New York, due to the fact that we both have AT&T and can talk for free. One of our most common comments is, “ well, going out to photograph another band that nobody will ever want pictures of!” That was my week this week. It showed me that shooting pictures with no chance of ever making any money from them is just as good as making a fortune off of a shoot. Or maybe almost as good.
I have been hanging out at the Pritzker Pavillion in downtown Chicago at various times in the last few weeks trying to get a good crowd shot for one of my clients. Too hot in this city for many people to show up. They told me to come out last Thursday, guaranteeing a great crowd. The artist was a woman named Dobet Gnahore, a Grammy winning singer from the Ivory Coast. The crowd was huge, and when she walked out on stage, my problem became how to stop taking pictures. I couldn’t. She was beautiful, sang and danced beautifully, and was an amazing subject. I had to tear myself away from the front of the stage or I would have shot 1000 pictures!

The next night was the same but completely different!!

Northwestern Indiana and Weird Al Yankovic. A perfect combination. One of the most unhip guys performing on the planet, but a master of his craft. I have had many conversations lately about how young artists today don’t understand what showbiz means. When you are charging $50.00 or more for a ticket, you have to put on a show. You can’t just stand there and play your three cord based music and stare at the ground. They should all go out and watch a Weird Al show! Total showman. Costume changes after almost every song. Great parody songs. Perfectly rehearsed band who didn’t miss a note the whole show! And an audience who have been following him throughout his entire career (and brought their kids to start the whole thing all over again with another generation). This is what any band today can only wish for, but would most likely never achieve. This is what is called a career. Let’s see where the Lady GaGa’s of the world are in about 30 years!

Spent part of yesterday reading some blogs talking about massive cancellations on tours across America. Lilith Fair- Who would have thought that putting ten acts, none of whom are popular enough to play anything bigger than a small theater or club and then charging $107.00 + service charge to see them wouldn’t have worked? YIKES!!!
Last night I went to see a Chicago area tradition. Every 4th of July Bill Fitzgerald, owner of the roadhouse/nightclub named after him holds the Fitzgeralds American Music Festival, four days of great music, beer and food- thirty bands on three stages inside and out for 35.00 per day, with home cooked Cajun and southern food (cooked by the famous Wishbone Restaurant) and cheap beer available!
At 7:30 The Blasters took the stage. One of the greatest American bands of the last 30 years. Coming out of Downey, California in the early 1980’s, the Blasters signed to Slash Records, becoming label mates to Los Lobos and X, and putting out some of the best roots music of that era. I first met them early in 1982, on their first US tour. Their songs and musicianship were amazing, and their energy on stage was over the top. THEY HAD FUN ON STAGE!! What a concept!1 Last night, 28 years later, they looked and sounded about the same. Songs, energy and big smiles everywhere you looked.
Following them was the incomparable Joe Ely. Coming out of Texas in the early 1980’s, Joe combined the excitement of a great rock and roll show with country rock songwriting, Joe recorded many great albums for MCA records in the 1980’s, and then was dropped from the label because he wasn’t commercial enough! I first saw him in 1981, opening for Linda Ronstadt. Big mistake on her part- as great as she is, no one can follow Joe. Joe continues to tour regularly, solo and with the Flatlanders (Himself, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock) and put on a greats sweaty show last night to a sold out crowd.
So I guess the equation is as follows:
Put on a great show + charge a reasonable price + have fun doing it = commerce in the 21st century in the music business.

Over the last few months I have been scanning a lot of photographs of artists that are on the 20 to 30th years of their careers (lots of box sets and anniversary discs coming together). Among them are Bob Seger, Ozzy Osbourne, Hall and Oates, Tom Petty, Bon Jovi and Keith Richards. One thing I noticed that ties all of these people together is this- they are all smiling a lot and having a great time on stage. This reminded me of a quote from about 15 years ago form one of the great philosophers of the music business- Gene Simmons of Kiss

“I would rather listen to the Spice Girls any day of the week than to some band dressed like lumberjacks trying to convince me that they are suicidal and depressed when they are young, healthy, rich, famous and getting all the girls that they want.”

It doesn’t seem that the bands of today are having all that much fun. Very few smiles on stages these days!

This brings me to the last few days in Chicago. Lots of guitar players in town. It was Eric Clapton’s Crossroads guitar Festival and the town was jumping. Buddy Guys club was the epicenter leading up to the event. Thursday night was highlighted by a visit from Jeff Beck celebrating his birthday, and Friday Ron Wood, the human tornado arrived to hang and play some great guitar, after rehearsing with Buddy and Jonny Lang at the venue for yesterday’s show.

A great time was had by all. It reminded me of all the great times I had with Woody on various Stones tours. Here is a guy who never stops smiling. Onstage and off he is always the center of fun. Maybe some of the new generations should ask him to hang for a while and give them a slight attitude adjustment!! He makes everyone in the room smile and have a good time!

Last weekend was blues weekend in Chicago. Along with the Chicago Blues Festival, several CD’s were recorded around the festival, of which I took a small part. The Chicago Blues Legends recorded their second CD at Joy Ride Studio both during before and after the festival, where they closed the show Saturday night with a beautiful set of music. The group includes Billy Boy Arnold (Bo Diddley’s harp player), John Primer (A Muddy Waters Band veteran), Billy Branch (leader of Sons of The Blues) Lurrie Bell (Son of Carey Bell, another Muddy Waters Band  veteran) and Carlos Johnson and Matthew Skoller, Chicago blues band leaders and many others. Guest stars included Magic Slim, Buddy Guy and James Cotton.

Besides all the great playing, the part that stood out to me was the fact that these guys just came in and played. They knew their parts and knew how to play them. Guest stars were told the song that they were going to do and what key it was in- and each guy nailed it in 2 takes (either take could have been used). The band did over 20 songs in two days. Contrast that to some bands I know that take a month or two in the studio to make a CD.

Speaking of James Cotton – while I was waiting for him to arrive, I was looking around the office I was shooting in for something to read and chanced upon an issue of Vanity Fair. It was the November, 2002 music issue, with about 40 pages of great portraits of the hot musicians of the time. Included in the spread was a two page photo title “Hot New Artists.” Remember, this was from 2002! Out of the 12 people on the page, only 3 have any kind of career today, and only one (John Mayer) is successful today. I only remember 2 other people on the page (Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton) and had no idea who the rest of them were. Does anyone remember City High? Tweet? Lamya? I certainly don’t. So is this an indictment of the music business or is Vanity Fair just really lame?

Who knows!!

I was scanning some boring photos of Bush this week and it reminded me of  my only photo shoot with the band. They had gotten big fast and were playing in Chicago for the first time at a major venue. I asked the publicist for a quick five minute photo shoot around sound check and she set it up. When the time arrived, I took the band outside near the loading dock, where there were a few doors set into the building, with a stoop leading into the alleyway. I posed them in the doorway, but no one in the band was into doing anything except stand there with bored looks on their faces. So I had an idea, which I explained to the band. Remembering all the great photos of the Beatles from the 1960’s, who would jump around and do all kinds of crazy things for the camera. So my idea was- the band would pose in the doorway, on the stoop, and at the count of three, Gavin Rosedale, the singer would jump off the stoop into the air. Pretty easy, and everyone was into it. But….. as I started the countdown, and got to two, the guitar player, ironically the bald member of the band, yelled stop. He turned to Gavin and said,  “What if when you jumped, your hair was out of place in the picture?” Gavin looked at him in relief, and said “I am glad you thought of that.” Turning to me, he said, “We had better not do the jumping thing.” So I ended up with a bunch of boring photos of four English guys in a doorway, which nobody ever wanted to use! Oh well another waste of a photo shoot.

One of the more interesting moments on the 1989 Rolling Stones tour happened backstage at one of the Los Angeles shows. Everyone knew that tons of celebrities were going to be there. During the four days of shows, everyone from Jack Nicholson to Phil Spector were seen wandering around backstage (Jack asked me if he could follow me around all night so that he could get his picture taken with everyone- of course I said NO PROBLEM!!) I found myself one night playing pool. Keith was my partner and we were playing against David Bowie and Eric Clapton- what was I doing there???? Took plenty of pictures in between, though. One of the nights I took a picture that included Mick with Michael Douglas, Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand and several other people. Quite a group! On the third night, my friend Shelly Lazar came up to me and said “So…do you want to meet him tonight?” I looked over and standing about 10 feet away from me talking to Mick was Bruce Springsteen. Shelly knew my story- I had photographed Bruce maybe 30 times up to that point, but really didn’t have any reason to meet him. Whenever Marilyn Laverty, his publicist was in town with him she would always ask me if I wanted to go back after the show and say hi. My response was always- “what am I going to say to him? Great show? Of course it was a great show- he is Bruce Springsteen!!” Although he is one of my favorite performers and subjects, I really had no reason to shake his hand. I figured that one day we would meet outside of his area, and could have a normal conversation. So I walked over and took some pictures of Mick with Bruce and his wife Patty.

As they walked away, Shelly called after him and introduced us. He thanked me for taking good pictures of him (Shelly made him aware that I took the photo of him that was on the cover of Newsweek four years earlier) and he walked away. After the show, someone threw the Stones a big bash at Morton’s in LA and we were all driven to the party. After standing in the buffet line listening to Lisa Marie Presley complaining about the long line right behind me (I let her get ahead of me) I walked over to a corner table to sit with two of the tour publicists. While we were eating, I saw their eyes get real big, as a familiar voice over my shoulder said “Hey, can we sit with you guys?” and Bruce and Patty sat down to eat dinner with us. The ensuing half hour conversation consisted of Bruce asking us what the Stones were like, as if he was a little kid! That is the way to meet one of your idols. As we got back in the van to go back to the hotel, all three of us commented that we were so tired that we weren’t even going to go to the party- luckily, we dragged ourselves there!!

So, I spent about 3 weeks with Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos in November and December of 1988, traveling coast to coast with the coolest guy in Rock and Roll. The tour ended on Keith’s birthday, with a huge party after the show backstage at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The Replacements, who were the opening act that night, asked me if I could take their picture with Keith. I told them to hang out and when he was through cutting the cake I would ask him. He of course said OK, so we went back to the Replacements table (This was about 15 minutes later,) and two of them were gone and the other two were passed out at the table. Keith and I just looked at each other, smiled, shrugged and went about our business.

The next day I flew home to a huge pile of mail in my entranceway. In the middle of the pile was the latest issue of Rolling Stone, with a short Random Notes item saying that the Stones were getting back together to make a record (Steel Wheels) and start a world tour in the US in September. So I figured it couldn’t hurt to send a quick note to Keith’s manager. Same 2 lines!

“Heard you are going on the road this fall. If you need a tour photographer, give me a call.”

In August, My neighbor Don was asked to go to Philadelphia to interview the band for the Chicago Sun Times. He asked me to come along, so of we went. I spent an entire evening listening to and photographing a concert/rehearsal in an empty (and crumbling) Veteran’s Stadium and came home thinking I had lived my dream- walking around on stage while the Rolling Stones were performing!

About a month later, I got a call from the Stones management asking me if I would like to spend a month on the road with the band. I had about 16 hours to pack for a month, get some sleep and get myself to Boston. I walked into the Four Seasons, went to the production office, was given a pass and was told to leave my non-photographic luggage in the corner of the room and be ready to get in a van outside in the driveway at 2PM. 2PM about 10 vans headed to Foxboro Stadium where I photographed my first Rolling Stones concert from the stage with 70,000 people behind me. After the show, we got back in the vans, and with a police escort headed to the airport, got on a private jet and at 3AM landed in Birmingham, Alabama. That was my first day. No one on the plane knew who I was except for Keith and his manager, but by the time I landed I was part of the team. My month stretched out to three and a half months, ending with an amazing Pay-per-view concert at the Trump Casino in Atlantic City, with special guests Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker and Axl and Izzy from Guns and Roses. What a way to end the tour!

More stories next week.

First off, to continue last weeks post. Didn’t hear anything from Keith’s camp. So I forgot about the letter that I had sent. About a month later, on Thanksgiving Eve, I got a call from Keith’s manager saying “Want to come on the road with us? Be in Memphis in 48 hours. Of course, I went, starting the first trip I have ever traveled with a band. (Might as well start at the top). Three weeks and a few cross country trips later, I finished up in New Jersey on December 19^th for the last day of the tour, and Keith’s birthday. I learned as I went, having to find photo labs in many strange cities, get film processed and editing in my hotel rooms. I must have done a good enough job, because ten months later, I was on a private jet touring the country with the Rolling Stones on the Steel Wheels Tour

On another note, last night (5/15/10) I spent an amazing four hours photographing and listening to one of the greatest songwriters of my lifetime. I got a last minute call asking me to shoot stills for a documentary following John Prine as he came home to play in the auditorium of Proviso East High School, his alma mater. This was a benefit for a Maywood, Il. dance studio that had burned down a few months ago. Because it was a hometown show, the stories in between songs flowed.

It was interesting to see some contrast here. Last month, I had to photograph Muse. Three guys on a stage that took 50 people to build and about 20 trucks to move around the country. Even with all of that crap, I was bored to tears by the second song! John, on the other hand, put on a mesmerizing show with three guys on stage. Other than instruments, the only prop on the stage was a table with 2 bottles of water and some picks for him. But, oh man, were his songs great!! Whether they were written last year or 40 years ago, each song (and each story) was like a small novel, entrancing the audience (average age about 50). No one left before the end, when he brought his three brothers and his three sons up to sing one last song with him. Talk about minimalism!!

I just finished reading “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” the autobiography of Sam Cutler, the tour manager in the sixties for the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. I also spent the last three weeks scanning Rolling Stones photos, so I was reminiscing about my time with the Stones.

My career goal was always to work with the Rolling Stones. I figured if that happened, I would have achieved the pinnacle of my profession. I photographed them a few times in concert (in 1978 and 1981), but that didn’t really count. In 1988, Keith Richards put out a solo album, and my neighbor, Don McLeese, who was the music critic for the Chicago Sun Times was offered an interview with Keith in New York City. Of course, the Sun Times was too cheap to send a photographer. So Don asked me if I wanted to come along. I would have to pay for my own flight, and he offered me a prime spot on the floor of his hotel room. Couldn’t pass that up!! I figured that I could sell enough photos to the Sun Times to pay for the flight, and I would get to photograph my idol. So, off we went.

At the appropriate time, we gathered our stuff and walked over to Keith’s managers office. We were ushered in and told to wait in the lobby. I was too nervous to sit down, so I was leaning against a door when the door in front of us opened and out stepped the coolest guy in the history of rock and roll. He looked me in the eye, and the first words he spoke to me were “If you don’t move, I’ll piss all over your shoes!” I realized that I was leaning on the bathroom door!!

While he was doing his business, I set up my equipment and when he returned he sat down for an amazing 10 minute shoot. (I could have shot for 4 hours, but he didn’t have the time.) He moved over to start the interview while I was packing away my stuff. During the interview, I heard him tell Don that he was going to tour in a few months with the band he had made the album with, the X-Pensive Winos. I filed that away for future use.

When I got home the next day I immediately raced to the darkroom and developed the film. I found a couple of great portraits, Keith smiling with his hands up around his face, showing his skull ring and a cigarette between his fingers. I printed some stuff up and made enough to pay all my NYC expenses- the Sun Times used a lot of photos!

It wasn’t till about a year later that someone looked at the proofs and saw a photo that I had missed- in one photo he had given me the universal sign of respect at the bottom of the frame!

http://natkin.net/category/genres/rock

About a week later, I put a few prints in an envelope with a simple note to Keith’s manager:

“I remember hearing during the interview that you are going on the road this fall. If you need a tour photographer, give me a call.”

Sealed the envelope and dropped it in the mailbox! I never expected a response, but it couldn’t hurt to try!

More next week.

Thursday night I was assigned to photograph a band at the Metro, a local rock club. Upon arriving at the event, I noticed that there were 11 photographers in the (very small) photo pit. So I decided to stay out of the way until they were all finished with their three songs. The show started and the first thing I noticed was that the band (Yeasayer) was playing in almost total darkness. The only lights for the show were behind the band and on the floor under them. There was absolutely no light directly hitting any of the band members. But, during those first three songs, the 11 photographers were merrily snapping away (one guy was using an iPhone as his camera of choice). Once they all left, I entered the pit and began to shoot. The light started getting a little better, but not by much. Because of the amazing chip in my camera (Nikon D700) I was fairly confident that I was getting some pretty good stuff, as it is known as a low light camera.

During my drive home, I started a conversation with myself in my head (nothing much else in there to get in the way). With cameras and outboard equipment and tools getting so much better year after year,  does one need any photographic talent anymore? (last night I was photographing a play, and backstage before the performance, I was standing next to Tim Kazurinsky, a legendary Saturday Night Live comedian and writer, who was cleaning his glasses. He asked me if I needed his cloth to clean mine, and then joked “ Oh yeah, autofocus, you don’t need to see to take pictures any more.”).

The morning after the show, I edited my photos. The colors were kind of weird- when you go to high ISO, the camera doesn’t reproduce color like at low ISO, but the images were pretty nice. Not my best work, but perfectly usable images- images that couldn’t have been taken 2 years ago.

So, what does this all mean? With cameras getting to the point where anyone can shoot a picture, and with most photo usage being web based, does one need to have any photographic talent any more? Is photography getting to be like recording music, where the person sings whatever they like as badly as they want, and the engineer “Fixes it in the mix?”

I am not so sure, but those conversations in my head are sure getting interesting!