Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Image of the Day

Courtesy of the eternally cool Jaan Uhelszki (of CREEM fame and much more): Behold, in breathless wonder, one of the most amazing photos I have ever seen.

From December, 1976, this is apparently the very first meeting of the two great Smiths -- Patti and "Sonic" Fred of The MC5.


The picture was taken in the dressing room of some small club after a Patti show at the Masonic Temple in Detroit; the photographer was Jaan's sister JoAnn, who as Jaan notes "always had the knack of being at the right place at the right time." Jaan herself can be glimpsed at the top right of the image, chatting with MC5 bassist Michael Davis.

In any case, words fail me.

4 comments:

Anna said...

I've been lucky...I useta live in Ann Arbor when the Patti/Fred courtship started, and was there till '80. Patti was always at those great Sonic's Rendezvous Band shows at Second Chance, dragging people out on to the dancefloor to shake it to "City Slang", etc. So, yeah...I got to frug with Patti Smith for a couple of minutes. *Definitely* one of the highlights of my life.

Anonymous said...

Look closely at the photo. Patti's looking at the camera, Fred is trying to see Patti's breasts under the MC5 T-shirt. Love at first sight!

Capt. Al

Anna said...

Capt. Al–with all due respect, I think Fred was probably staring into the void (which was staring back).

God, I miss the good ship CREEM and all who sailed with her. Although Mom trashed all my back issues (wah!), I've still got my Iggy centerfold from CREEM tucked inside "Raw Power".

Anonymous said...

When one meets their future wife they check them out. I know I did!

I use to get a lot of shit from my wife over reading Cream. Not a classy read like Rolling Stone. But by the mid seventies Rolling Stone was a political magazine not a musical magazine. Rolling Stone totally missed what was happening musically in the late 1970's. Cream covered Punk & New-Wave.

Capt. Al