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Photos: The “divine Miss Deborah” Harry (above and top
right). Freddy doing his best “Marlene Mercury”. Debbie Harry
photos COPYRIGHT © Mick Rock 2004.
HE PALLED AROUND WITH BOWIE, BLONDIE AND QUEEN
IN THEIR HEYDAY, AND SURVIVED YEARS OF "CHEMICAL HABITS" AND
"WANTON BEHAVIOUR." NOW ROCK PHOTOGRAPHER MICK ROCK
IS USING HIS INFAMOUS PAST TO MOVE INTO THE FUTURE. AS HE TELLS SEAN
PLUMMER, "I DON’T KNOW WHAT BORING IS."
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICK ROCK
NEW YORK – “If we didn’t need f**kin’ art, we
wouldn’t have to deal with f**kin’ artists – and
they’re a subversive lot at the best of times. If I had my way,
I’d take them all out at dawn and put a bullet in the backs of
their heads.”
Mick Rock is being outrageous again. The self-described
“lanky bugger from London” with the dry sense of humour (as
demontrated above) is waxing eloquent on a myriad of topics in a busy
Starbucks across from New York’s Union Square. When the opportunity
arises – which is not often – I ask a question. Before I know
it, two and a half hours have passed.
Mick Rock is a great talker. Luckily he has lots to
talk about. The notorious photographer has spent more than 30 years
documenting – and perpetuating the mythology of – some of
the most influential figures in recent popular culture, many of whom
he also calls friends. They include David Bowie, Lou Reed, Freddy Mercury,
Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry. Then there’s the drugs, the sex, the
brush with death, and the rise from the proverbial ashes – all
of which we touch on. Rock is generous with his time and doles out countless
anecdotes. This story could go on for pages and you’d be fascinated
every step. So let’s begin, shall we?
• • •
Who is Mick David Rock? You may not know the name but you likely know
his work. He produced many of the ‘70s most iconic rock images,
some of which adorn these pages. There’s Bowie (as Ziggy Stardust)
fellating Mick Ronson’s guitar. He did the album covers for Iggy
& The Stooges’ Raw Power, Queen’s Queen II
and Lou Reed’s Transformer. Blondie singer Debbie Harry’s
Penthouse cover was his. More recently, he has photographed the
Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kate Moss, and shot fashion for magazines like Nylon
and Playboy.
Like his rock star friends, the London-born Rock,
who relocated to New York in the late ‘70s, lived fast for many
years and very nearly died young. His body finally caught up with his
habits in November 1996 when he had a heart attack during a photoshoot
along New York’s West Side Highway. Years of admittedly “wanton
behaviour” culminated in successful quadruple bypass heart surgery.
Suitably chastened, Rock detoxed and threw his considerable energies
into his work. He’s published seven books of photography since
1995 and overseen exhibitions of his photos in galleries as far apart
as Tokyo and Liverpool. There are more books planned (Transformer,
a Lou Reed retrospective, is next), and he’s working on a novella
which he plans to turn into a movie. Ask him why he stays so busy and
he replies, “I remember when I wasn’t.”
Seven and a half years ago, he notes, “my boat
was almost dead in the water, and so was I. So in seven and a half years
it has changed dramatically. Obviously I’ve been very focused,
obviously it’s come to me, but I’ve also worked at it.”
Much of our time is spent discussing Debbie Harry
and Queen, the subjects of his two most recent books. Picture This:
Debbie Harry and Blondie (Sanctuary Publishing) documents Harry
(and her Blondie bandmates), from early CBGB gigs in the summer of 1976
through glam shots at the height of their popularity in 1979 to a 1998
reunion shoot with the singer (captured on an accompanying DVD). Killer
Queen (Genesis Publications) is a gorgeous, limited edition hardcover
that compiles images from Queen’s early years, from their seminal
Imperial College gig in ‘73 through to the career-defining, black
& white-themed Queen II album cover shots and beyond. Both
are essential documents for anyone interested in the history of rock
& roll.
• • •
So what do you get from Debbie Harry, Mick?
“What do you mean by a question like that?”
Rock asks, mock aghast. “‘What do I get from her?’ Like
favours, do you mean? Well, obviously I deal in image, especially rock
& roll image. Somebody like the divine Miss Deborah is custom-built
for me. I can invent people but it’s much easier when they’re
self-invented and I can riff off that.”
What Rock focused on during their sessions was “this
punk Marilyn thing” the music press had tagged her with. Rock,
a fan of blondes, says, “I don’t give a f**k about the punk.
It was the Marilyn bit that I was excited about.”
At the time, as far as influential New York females
were concerned, Debbie Harry rarely got the credit she deserved, Rock
says. Instead, Patti Smith ruled while Harry was dismissed as “just
something kind of trivial. But uh uh, uh uh. Passage of time has turned
out to tell you that Debbie Harry is much more important than Pat. And
not that Patti doesn’t have her place, but in the grand order of
things I think [Debbie’s] way more important.
“Certainly just take it from my point of view,
the photogenic point of view. She’s by far the most photogenic
creature to come down the rock & roll pipe, and she’s always
very post-modern. She understood early on that she could be a sexy lady
and still be a feminist... at the same time. She didn’t have to
have hairy armpits or not bathe, not use make-up or not have clean underwear
to be a feminist. You can totally play to the female part of your gene
system, and it’s totally authentic. I think the passage of time
has proven that.”
• • •
“Did people realize [Freddy Mercury] was gay? Well, he was hip.
He was clearly ambi, he was clearly androgynous and bisexual, and that
was what was important. ‘Do they do it with boys? Don’t they
do it with boys?’ It didn’t matter. That was all part of the
game. That was what everybody was excited about. So was Freddy gay?
Well, it was sort of obvious, and the band was called Queen.”
Rock obviously retains a deep affection for Queen
singer Freddy Mercury (né Frederick Bulsara), who died of complications
from AIDS in 1991. “I loved his strong attitude about himself,”
he says. “It was tempered with a certain personal humility. His
public persona was a little different privately. He was a sweet guy.
His was a generous heart, a generous spirit. I don’t know if he
was ever that in love with himself. He loved theatre; yes, of course
he did. And he was flamboyant, he was camp. But I don’t know that
he necessarily loved himself. I think he was, like most of us, beset
with insecurities.”
Not that those insecurities manifested themselves
on film. The quartet of Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger
Taylor and bassist John Deacon captured in Killer Queen is both
confident and regal, sure of its rightful place in the rock & roll
pantheon even before the massive success of 1975's ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
single. Still, it took Mercury’s belief in the power of image to
convince the others that Rock’s provocative ideas, including shooting
the band naked from the waist up (see image below), were good ones.
“The rest of the band was slightly intimidated by that, but Freddy
thought it was fabulous because they got some interest finally.
 “As
we who have been around the media a bit all know, it don’t matter
how you get that initial attention,” Rock says. “First get
the attention, and it’s up to you what you make of it. I mean,
no one gave a f**k about Paris Hilton until there was this video of
her on the Internet getting porked. She was around, but no one really
cared that much until there was a moment that people could criticize.
“Freddy thought, ‘Who cares about pretentious?
If you don’t pretend, you’re never going to be.’
He had more of an Oscar Wilde attitude to this stuff, and so did I.
I’d seen it happen with David [Bowie]. If the music’s good
enough, get the attention.”
Needless to say, the music was good enough and the
band’s legacy remains intact. As for comparisons between Queen
and new English rock heroes The Darkness, who have been slagged off
in some corners as a poor man’s Queen, Rock refuses to get drawn
in. “I think it’s apples and onions, to be fair to both of
them.”
Rock’s photos of the band also retains their
power. We Will Rock You, the Queen musical written by British
comic Ben Elton and funded by American actor Robert De Niro, opens in
September at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Caesar’s attempted
to license Rock’s famous Marlene Dietrich-inspired Queen II
album cover image to use in their promotional materials. Rock, turned
off by their attitude, turned them down.
“They’re so greedy about the money. I say,
‘No, f**k you.’ I don’t mind if I don’t make the
money. I just don’t want to be looking in going, ‘Oh, give
me this piddling amount of money, but you guys are making fortunes.’
I’d rather say ‘no, f**k it.’ I don’t need the money.
I’d like to see the things out there more but bollocks. I have
to deal with the animals, you see.”
• • •
It is safe to say that the Mick Rock of 2004 is less of a wild man than
he was twenty years ago. He no longer prowls lower Manhattan in search
of the next thrill. Instead, he, his wife and their 14-year-old daughter
live in a house near the Staten Island Ferry. But the manic energy is
still there, as evidenced by our 150-minute conversation and the long
list of projects Rock has lined up. If he seems to have his life figured
out a bit more than he used to, well, it wasn’t a straight path.
“There was no route for a rock & roll photographer,”
Rock says of his brilliant career. “Especially when I started out,
people thought it was the end of rock & roll. Certainly David, Lou,
Iggy and I all thought, ‘It’s the last days coming up’
– which only adds piquancy and intensity to the experience. And
then it becomes punk. ‘Oh no, this is the last days of rock
& roll!’ So I’ve lived through the last days a few times.
Then I nearly finally died so I nearly had a last days. So those
things add a certain amount of drama.
“And then I had a lot of dead friends, not only
Freddy and Mick Ronson but [Thin Lizzy’s] Phil Lynott, Rory Gallagher,
Bill Gibb the fashion designer, Pierre Laroche the make-up artist. On
the other hand, some people, like David, Lou and Iggy, should have been
f**kin’ dead a long time ago! And however wild my lifestyle was
– and of course I used to think it wasn’t so wild ‘cause
these are the f**kin’ people I’m comparing myself to –
you go, ‘Hang on a minute, man. Compared to the rest of the universe
it was pretty damn extreme.’ But it’s a relative world.
“I’ve not been bored,” Rock concludes.
“People talk to me about boring, I say, ‘Don’t bother
with it. I don’t know what boring is.’ I know what ‘f**ked
up’ means. I know what ‘down’ means. I know what all
these things mean. I don’t know the word ‘boring.’”
ROCK ON... Some of the veteran snapper’s many opinions:
ON DAVID BOWIE: “David is a star in the biggest sense of
the word. He transcends the music. He is embraced on that other level.
He’s like an uber-star, and he’s unique. And, of course, he
still looks extraordinary. You go, ‘That f**kin’ David, man.
Show me the f**kin’ painting in the attic one day, will you, Dave?’”
ON POLITICIANS: “I always believe that you should hold any
politician’s feet to the fire 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
F**k all this ‘you’ve got to support the president, the president
is the country’ that the right wing preaches. The president isn’t
the f**king country. You start believing that, you have Nazi Germany.
As far as I’m concerned, he’s just a public servant. F**king
George Bush acts like he’s the king of the world.”
ON KAREN O. OF THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS: “She will tell you I
did the best pictures of her. I’m very into Karen O. I think she’s
terrific. Plus, she’s half Korean; she’s the first Oriental
to front a western rock & roll band. I think she’s taken aback
by all the attention they got because clearly... she wasn’t doing
anything very obvious to be successful. That’s what I love about
it. Relatively speaking, they may not be selling so many [records] yet
but she’s creating a great space for herself to have a very fabulous
career if she wants it.”
ON NEW YORK POST-9/11: “There’s nothing you can do
about New York. You can blow up Manhattan, maybe that would work. It
stunned New York for quite awhile and that is true. For that kind of
disaster to have happened, I do not believe that any city in the world
– and that includes my beloved London – could have recovered
the way New York has as fast as it has. New York will keep going anyway.”
KILLER QUEEN
(Genesis Publications)
Info: Limited edition of 2,500 craftsman-bound copies, each one
numbered and signed by Mick Rock, Roger Taylor and Brian May
Toll-Free number: 1-888-241-0246
Online: www.genesis-publications.com
for orders and more information |
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