Music: The Father of the Blues, Golden Age of Jazz, and David Bowie | History in Photos
In this clip from the Rest Is History Club's exclusive mini-series on photography and history, host Dominic and photographer Chris Floyd discuss iconic music photography, focusing on the Aladdin Sane album cover. They explore how David Bowie's image-making differed from earlier musicians like Robert Johnson and the jazz musicians of Harlem, and trace the lineage of Bowie's iconic lightning bolt from the Templar Christian Brotherhood through Elvis Presley.
Summary
This clip is an excerpt from an exclusive mini-series for Rest Is History Club members, hosted by Dominic and featuring renowned photographer Chris Floyd. The series explores the intersection of photography and history, with this episode focusing specifically on music photography. Topics teased include Robert Johnson, the 1950s Harlem jazz portrait known as 'A Great Day in Harlem,' David Bowie, and Grace Jones.
The central discussion in this clip revolves around the iconic Aladdin Sane album cover photograph of David Bowie, taken in 1973 by Brian Duffy — one of the so-called 'Black Trinity' of 1960s British photographers, alongside Terence Donovan and David Bailey, all working-class East Enders who rose to prominence in high-end photography. Chris Floyd shares that Bowie's manager, Tony DeFries, deliberately instructed Duffy to make the album cover as expensive as possible, operating on the theory that the more a record company invested in a project, the more committed they would be to making it succeed. The shoot employed top makeup artists and used a costly dye-transfer printing process — involving separate color plates for red, green, and blue — carried out in Switzerland, making it exceptionally expensive.
The conversation then broadens into a comparison of image-consciousness across musical eras. The hosts contrast Bowie's deliberate, constructed persona — cycling through characters like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke — with Robert Johnson, who existed in a pre-mass-media era and had no concept of himself as a musical celebrity with a marketable image. The jazz musicians in 'A Great Day in Harlem' are noted as sharply dressed but individually expressive, without the calculated contrivance of Bowie's persona.
A fascinating historical thread traces the lightning bolt on Bowie's face: it originated with the Templar Christian Brotherhood's TCB logo, was appropriated by Elvis Presley and his Memphis Mafia (rebranded as 'Taking Care of Business'), and then borrowed by Bowie. The discussion also touches on how Bowie's obsession with image led him into darker territory, including controversial statements about Hitler being a rock star, which Bowie later acknowledged as taking the idea of 'playing a part' too far.
Finally, Chris Floyd reflects on his own experience photographing Bowie — describing him as 'surgically funny' about other celebrities, including a pointed remark about Bryan Ferry — and discusses the broader philosophical difference between creating a constructed image for an album cover versus capturing a compelling, truthful portrait for editorial purposes.
About this episode
**Unlock the full episode and the complete History in Photos mini series by joining The Rest Is History Club at therestishistory.com** Why are there only three confirmed photographs of Blues-legend Robert Johnson? How did Art Kane’s photo of 1950’s NYC Jazz musicians Great Day In Harlem serve as a symbol of American segregation? And, what is the connection between David Bowie’s face paint on the Aladdin Sane album cover, Elvis Presley, and the Templar Christian Brotherhood? In today’s episode of our new member’s-only mini-series, Dominic is joined by photographer Chris Floyd to discuss iconic photographs of the most famous and influential 20th century musicians. Getty Images has one of the largest and oldest privately held archives globally with access to over 150 million images dating back to the beginning of photography. From historical images created in the early 1800s to more contemporary 1990s imagery, the Getty Images archive houses a wealth of socially significant, historical photos, videos and prints, and includes content from over 40 editorial content partners including Gamma-Rapho, Paris Match, The Bettmann Archive, Sygma and Motorsport Images. Our archive video collection contains 3.1 million hours of offline video footage and includes partners such as NBC News Archives, ITN, Sky News and the BBC Motion Gallery. _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Video Editors: Jack Meek, Harry Swan + Adam Thornton Social Producer: Harry Balden Producers: Tabby Syrett & Aaliyah Akude Senior Producer: Callum Hill Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Key Insights
- Bowie's manager Tony DeFries deliberately engineered the Aladdin Sane cover to be as expensive as possible — using dye-transfer printing in Switzerland — on the calculated theory that a record company's financial investment would force them to commit resources to making the project a commercial success.
- Chris Floyd argues that Bowie represented a qualitative shift from 'star status' to 'superstar status,' with his rotating alien personas being pure contrivance — a stark contrast to Robert Johnson, who existed in a pre-mass-media era with no concept of a marketable musical image, and even to the jazz musicians of Harlem who dressed sharply but in their own individual, uncontrived ways.
- The iconic lightning bolt on Bowie's face has a traceable lineage: it originated with the Templar Christian Brotherhood's TCB emblem, was appropriated by Elvis Presley and rebranded as 'Taking Care of Business' for his Memphis Mafia entourage, and was subsequently borrowed by Bowie — illustrating how rock iconography is built through successive layers of theft and reinvention.
Topics
Transcript
Hi everybody it's Dominic here from the Rest Is History. So we are in the middle of an exclusive mini-series for our Rest Is History Club members about photography and the way it has been interwoven with the story of history and in today's episode with the great photographer Chris Floyd we are looking in particular at music so we'll be talking about the great bluesman Robert Johnson who sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. We'll be looking at the great titans of jazz assembling in Harlem in the 1950s for a group portrait. We'll be talking about the career of David Bowie and we are talking about an iconic image of Grace Jones from…
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