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Getting Social: Rockers Hanging Out Pt.1

Here’s a selection of photos of various rock & roll stars hanging out and partying with various friends of various bands from the 1960’s & 1970’s. It’s like one big club!

David Bowie, Iggy Pop & Lou Reed

Rick Derringer & Steven Tyler

Grace Slick & Janis Joplin

Brian Jones, Yoko Ono, Roger Daltry, Julian Lennon, John Lennon

Mick Ronson, Gloria Jones, Marc Bolan

Aynsley Dunbar, Lou Reed, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Mick Ronson

Deborah Harry, Suzi Quatro & Joan Jett

Janis Joplin & Peter Tork

Robert Plant, Linda Ronstadt & Ron Wood

John Lennon & Keith Richards

Diana Ross & Brian Jones

Eric Clapton & George Harrison

Joan Jett & Debbie Harry

Ellen Foley, Pat Benatar & Ellen Shipley

Liza Manelli, Mick Jagger & Raquel Welch

Little Richard & The Beatles

Marketing Rock Old School Style Pt. 3

Back in the 60’s & 70’s, decades before the internet and instant access to information, a lot of us didn’t know when bands were putting out new albums until we heard them on the radio. Some advanced news would filter in a head of time, minimally, in places like Scene, Creem, Circus, Rolling Stone, Rock Scene, Hit Parader, Trouser Press, etc…

For those of us who bought all the magazines and tabloids (Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Sounds) we’d often get advance word that a new album was being released by the record company advertisements that were placed in the media. They were usually timed to see print just weeks prior to releases so we’d have a heads up on what was coming out.
 
Here once again are some random samples of various advertisements hyping new album releases from back in the day as seen in various music publications.

Click on images to enlarge!

Marc Bolan & Friends

Here is a collection of photos of Marc Bolan hanging out with some of his better known friends. In addition to appearing on stage with various bands & performers throughout his career Bolan also appeared on numerous singles and albums by other performers. Just a few examples are:

Marc Bolan contributed to Ike & Tina Turner’s 1970’s singles Nutbush City Limits, Baby-Get It On & Sexy Ida. Bolan’s second wife, Gloria Jones, was a one time back-up singer/Ikette for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

Marc Bolan plays guitar on Ringo Starr’s “Ringo” album. The hit song, Back Off Boogaloo, was written by Starr as an acknowledgement of a slang term coined by Marc Bolan.

Marc Bolan was invited to Alice Cooper’s recording sessions in London during the recording of Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies. Bolan played guitar on Slick Black Limosine, Hello Hooray & Elected.

Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson & Marc Bolan

Marc Bolan played guitar on David Bowie’s single, The Prettiest Star.

Marc Bolan played dual lead guitar on ELO’s Ma Ma Ma Belle with Jeff Lynne.

Marc Bolan & Jeff Lynne

Marc Bolan played guitar and did some prodcuing for Donovan in a Munich recording studio for Donovan’s 7 Tease album.

Marc Bolan & Donovan

Marc Bolan played guitar on Cockney Rebel’s lead singer Steve Harley’s Amerika The Brave album and co-wrote the song Madmen with Harley.

Marc Bolan sang back-up vocals on Marsha Hunt’s recording of My World Is Empty Without You.

 

Bowie & Bolan

 

Marc Bolan, just months prior to his untimely death, performed with David Bowie doing the song Standing Next To You on Marc Bolan’s MARC television show.

Marc Bolan & The Rats

Billy Idol & Marc Bolan

The Ramones & Marc Bolan

Elton John & Marc Bolan

Elton John, Marc Bolan & Rod Stewart

Keith Moon & Marc Bolan

Stan Lee (!), Marc Bolan & Roy Wood

Bowie & Bolan

(c)2012 Doc Lehman/Bangagong!

Local College Grad Makes Good: Duncan ‘Zowie Bowie’ Jones

Last week I’m in a retail store and on the way out I run into an old acquaintance of mine that I hadn’t seen in a number of years. We get to talking about the old days, the music we were into, the concerts we attended, all that. For some reason the College of Wooster came up (a college about 6 miles from where I live), we may have been talking about some of the concerts that were held there, but he laughed and said a long time ago he heard a rumor that David Bowie’s son, known as Zowie Bowie back in the day, had attended and graduated from the College of Wooster.
 
He was slightly taken aback when I confirmed that, yes, Duncan ‘Zowie Bowie’ Jones had indeed attended and graduated from the College of Wooster. He seemed dumbfounded that the son of an international superstar would attend college in a small, quaint, rural community in Ohio. C’mon, you even see, on occasions, an Amish buggy slowly meandering down a street.

Well, he did, as I explained, and it wasn’t really a secret and that word was most everyone treated him as just another student. He still wasn’t convinced until I told him my brother was a supervisor at the College of Wooster during Jones’ time there and in fact, commented at the time how cool it was that David Bowie and his wife, Iman, had attended graduation ceremonies. And yes, it made the local papers.
 
Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones was born on May 30, 1971, and at the time David Bowie and then-wife & mother Angie dubbed the young boy Zowie Bowie. On Bowie’s Hunky Dory album the song, Kooks, was written for his then newborn son. After the couple divorced in 1980 David Bowie was awarded custody and raised his son. (In 1992 Bowie married model Iman and they subsequently had a daughter born on August 15, 2000 named Alexandria Zahra Jones.)

 Entering the College of Wooster, he then decided on using Duncan Jones as his personal and professional name. He graduated in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and then pursued a PhD degree at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee but departed to attend the London Film School, where he graduated as a director.
 
Why the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH? Jones once told an interviewer it was because of it was “Comfortable, multicultural and multinational.”

In this Daily Record staff photo proud father David Bowie is shown taking photos of his son’s graduation at the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH in 1995.

Jones appreciated his time at the College of Wooster, a private liberal arts college that has a renowned Independent Study program. Jones once told a College of Wooster publication:
 
“Wooster hit me at just the right time in my life. I was just starting to get excited about what I could do with my life. I took creative writing and art classes, and tried to spread out as much as possible. One of the wonderful things about Wooster was it gave us all a sense of empowerment. We wanted to make a difference and do things that people would notice.”

Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones

Since graduating he has went on to become a highly successful film director and has garnered respect and attention with the science fiction films Moon, in 2009 and Source Code in 2011, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal.
 
For a while Jones was one of the leading candidates to direct the upcoming Superman reboot film and the next X-Men film. He turned down the director’s role for the upcoming Judge Dredd film instead writing the script for his third, still untitled film.

Son & father

During the past couple weeks Jones has made another big step, becoming engaged to photographer Rodene Ronquillo, his long-time girlfriend. Ronquillo, after the engagement became public, joked on Twitter, “Even if he is just after a green card, he’s all mine now.”
 
Whatever the future holds, we haven’t heard the last of Duncan Zowie ‘Bowie’ Haywood Jones.

Duncan Jones & fiancee Rodene Ronquillo

(c)2012 Doc Lehman/Bangagong!

Rock ‘N Roll Eye Candy

The previous post featuring the Sunset Strip in 1974 sparked some memories after seeing the Mott The Hoople and David Bowie billboards. I can remember once in the mid-1970’s driving north to Cleveland and being shocked to see a billboard along I-71 advertising KISS’ Destroyer album. I knew they had the coolest rock ‘n roll billbaords in New York, London and L.A. cause magazines like Creem, Circus, Hit Parader and the like would on occasion publish a photo of one. Seeing rock ‘n roll themed billboards promoting new albums and upcoming concerts (World Series of Rock, etc…) would be a bit more frequent over the next couple years around Cleveland and Akron but like all things, they too faded.

Here’s some billboards from ‘back in the day’, the glory years of rock ‘n roll. Click on images to enlarge!

Time Traveling

The Sunset Strip in LA in 1974. Photo taken by the great Larry Jandro. Bet there were some amazing gigs happening in LA the day this was taken.

Click on image to enlarge!