Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,
I'm feeling back to normal. It was another hot one in the Valley today, about 85, and with no wind, so that is right in my comfort zone. The cherry trees are blossoming all over the place, full of white flowers, and it is quite a lovely thing to see. February has become the beginning of Spring for us, ever since the advent of global warming. In the past it was always a gloomy month, full of grey skies and inclement weather. I like this better, even though the promised El Nino hasn't happened and we still need water....
Today I saw several of your posts. One was your photo of James holding the multiple bags of Cheez-Its. Okay - that is exactly the kind of thing I've been talking about. With musicians, it helps to create an image that will - to paraphrase Neil Peart - elevate them from the norm. That is how Rock Stars are created. Now, James seems to understand this, and he has a natural charisma and comedic instinct that shows up in photos. The pic with the Cheez-Its is brilliant, because it's not just a bag of Cheez-Its, it's a ton of bags, and they're all arrayed. Great stuff, Elizabeth.
If you were able to access old copies of the classic Rock Star mags of the 1970s, like Cream and Circus and Hit Parader, you'd see all kinds of pics of bands goofing and posing and making Rock Stars out of themselves. To young readers like myself, who were just discovering the music, the image went hand in hand.
"Man, these guys are funny and cool, too"! Besides making great music, they were interesting because they knew how to put out a great image, in words and through pictures of themselves that took them out of the everyday populace.
These days, too many musicians don't make that effort. So many wear street clothes on stage, and while I know economics are a factor, it doesn't take much money to do something to give yourself a look. If you wear street clothes on stage, you look just like the audience, who are there because they want to see something special.
It's the same reason that movie stars look like Stars, and while films are also filled with plenty of more human-looking character actors, it is the Stars that fans come to see.
Now of course, I am not talking about Empty Stars, Hollow Stars. You've gotta deliver the goods, to paraphrase Rob Halford. In the late 80s, Hair Metal came into being, and that was all about image, with little to no substance. So you've gotta have both, the music and the image, because that is what places you above the audience (in an entertainment sense) and makes you a Star.
In another post, your friend Sarah decried the emphasis placed on appearance for female musicians, and in most respects I agree with her. The first thing you have to remember, especially in the Internet era when people can hide in anonimity behind a computer, is that many people are idiots.
Never forget that, and don't give them too much credit or emphasis. By "idiot" I mean that in the literal sense (look up the classifications of sub-normal intelligence) and often this goes hand in hand with emotional and philosophical retardation, and what you wind up with is folks making comments about how a female musician looks rather than talking about her music.
What you have to do in that situation (as you already know) is to either ignore it, or don't read it in the first place. I am sorry to have to report this, but I will because I am a guy, and that is this : females are, to some guys, the biggest threat in the world, and that is for all kinds of Freudian reasons too lengthy to go into now.
Still, having said that, if females are to grow into the rock world, and become Stars, they too need to present an image, and that can be any image in which they see themselves that sets them above the audience.
Here is an interesting question that Grimsley once posed to me about 40 years ago. I always loved the Spectacle Of Rock, like what I saw at the California Jam with ELP and Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, all of whom put on great shows to go with their great music. Punk Rock was coming out at the time Grim posed his question, and the punks were among the first to wear street clothes on stage.
We talked about the importance of image, and Grim asked, "would you go to see ELP if Keith Emerson weighed 300 pounds and came onstage wearing a greasy t-shirt"?
I thought about it and said, "probably not. I might still but their records, but I would probably not go see them".
And that's why it's Show Biz. James understands this instinctively, and Sarah does too, no doubt. Image is important (though not gender). The Runaways were the best and earliest example (1976!) of a female group who had rock star images but projected ass-kicking female power, which, while tinged with sexuality, was actually working against it. Their message onstage was very plain : "We Rock"!
And they did. I saw them blow an early-days Van Halen off the stage. They were never cheap or slutty, but still created an image. And boy, the abuse that was heaped on them, just because they were girls who dared to take on male dominated rock.
In Sarah's case, she is going more for the musical angle, but I would still tell her the same basic thing. Create an image for yourself, even just by Being Yourself, and try to create a Look onstage.
The photographer works hand-in-hand with the musician to create an image, and you are taking some great photos of James. He is a natural born character who knows what to do, and so do you as the photog.
Elevate the artist, make him or her stand out, make him or her stand above the audience, through image.
And image comes first through charisma. Then clothes and props, humor, etc.
At any rate, I am rambling on and it is late, so I will leave it at that for the moment, but keep doing what you are doing, as my rockabilly song said tonight. :)
I will see you in the morning, Sweet Baby. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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