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.
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
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