Saturday, November 22, 2008

TVD Remembers | Guy Peellaert

Guy Peellaert, 74, a Belgian painter-collagist whose fervid imagination produced surreal album covers for John Lennon, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, as well as images for a seminal book about rock mythology, "Rock Dreams," died of kidney cancer Nov. 17 at a hospital in Paris.

The book was a collaboration with the prominent British rock journalist Nik Cohn, who wrote how they intended to convey a "cinematic approach" to pop history and "approached the project, not as commentators or fine artists, but primarily as fans. Even more than the actual music, we were both obsessed with pop mythology."

"Rock Dreams" was published in the early 1970s and reportedly sold more than a million copies. It featured a bloated Jerry Lee Lewis clutching a bottle to his chest and stumbling along a neon-lit street; the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, drug-dazed and muse-abandoned, sitting alone in a garbage-strewn practice room; Ray Charles, his arm cradling a woman, cruising behind the wheel of a convertible.

A reviewer for the London Independent described Mr. Peellaert's images as rock iconography -- "almost as thrilling as the music itself, but obviously not the same thing. It was the pornography of rock. It was also its stained-glass window."

Read the rest here. (Via The Washington Post)

A TVD Orpheus Records Update: see ya' in December!

Direct from the Orpheus website as posted very early this morning: "I'm taking the leap of faith that if you are watching this site, this will be good news.... WE WILL BE OPEN IN DECEMBER..WISHING YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS.!!!!..We will be Open this WEEKEND. Friday Nov 21 & Saturday Nov 22 Noon til 10PM & Sunday the 23rd Noon til 6PM..We will also be open next weekend November 28, 29 & 30..stay tuned for specific hours & days in December. The new release & re-issue lps that have never been part of the sale are back out, still FULL PRICE. MOST OTHER LPS IN THE STORE ARE ONE DOLLAR. THAT MEANS: if the sticker says it's 99 cents it's a dollar, if the sticker says it's $9.99, it's a dollar, if the sticker says it's $29.99 or even more (not likely) it's still one dollar. ,Come on in, stack 'em up and buy as much as you can afford, or more, for ONE DOLLAR EACH. Please bring boxes if you need them, we're out..."

"Stay tuned for the Second Annual Going Out of Business Sale in January," Rick remarked to me this afternoon...only HALF joking.