I’m reliably told that photographs are polysemous—that is they have multiple meanings which can change depending on mood or understanding of what the image represents. Seems legit.

So let’s take, for example, the picture posted above of three long-haired guys hanging around some city street in the 1970s. It kinda looks like a regular snap of buddies hanging together. But, as soon as we realize its a pic of John Deacon, Roger Taylor, and a rather cool-looking Freddie Mercury of Queen, this picture takes on a whole new meaning.

Now that we know who it is, we probably want to know where this picture of Freddie and co. was taken. The trio was photographed standing outside 143 Wardour Street, Soho, London, in 1974. Next, I suppose we might ask, What were they doing here? Well, from what I can gather, it was taken during a break in the recording of the band’s second album, Queen II at Trident Studios directly opposite. Then we might inspect the image to glean what feelings these young nascent superstars are showing.

Photographer Watal Asanuma beautifully captured the personalities of these three very different individuals (and to an extent their hopes and ambitions) in a seemingly unguarded moment. Queen was on the cusp of their chart success with the “Seven Seas of Rhye” and the imminent release of “Killer Queen.” This photo now has a historical importance because of what we know this trio (and Brian May) went on to achieve.

I guess some of us might even want to go and visit the location to see where exactly Freddie or Roger or John stood and maybe even recreate the photo for the LOLs. It’s a way of paying homage and drawing history into our lives.

For those who can’t make it all the way to London, Music History, the Twitter presence of Rock Walk London, has been compiling selections of such pictures and making composites of the original image with a photo of what the location looks like today. Okay, so it saves the airfare but more importantly It’s a fun and simple way of bringing to life London’s rich history of pop culture in a single image.

If you like this kinda thing and want to see more, then follow Music History here.
 

 

 

 
More then and now pix of Jagger, Clash, Floyd, and more, after the jump…
 

 
It’s hard to say that punk ever died, given that both its distinctly non-hippie anti-authoritarian spirit and its fashion sensibilities have survived over four decades now, but its ongoing vigor doesn’t stop its own lifelong adherents from proclaiming it dead anyway. Some would pin the death of punk on the Sex Pistols’ Winterland concert. Others still peg the death of punk at the time of death of a given leading figure from that scene (much of that sort of sentiment accompanied the recent passing of Tommy Erdelyi, the last original Ramone—definitely a very sad milestone), evidently blind to the reality that a sufficiently compelling ethos will survive the last gasps of its originators. But if boring social media poutrage is our metric, punk dies anew literally every time a goofy punk-related consumer product hits the shelves, whether it’s Sex Pistols credit cards or Sex Pistols shoes. It’s invariably a lot of semi-coherent hurfdurf about rebellion being co-opted for corporate consumer products that ignores the plain fact that all those Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash and DEVO albums have themselves always been corporate consumer products.

Look for those exact comment threads to be repeated today, as Converse has announced two styles of Chuck Taylors—inarguably one of punk’s go-to uniform items—honoring the Clash. More specifically, their issue this week is pegged to the 40th anniversary of the 100 Club Punk Special festival, a historically significant two day event at which the Clash appeared with the Sex Pistols. The bill also featured Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Damned, and the Buzzcocks. Seriously, what would you give to be able to time-travel for that? Both of the shoe designs feature skull motifs that featured in the band’s graphics, a pink pair wallpapered with the “Radio Clash” skull-and-lightining-bolt imagery, and a black leather pair with the artwork from the “Straight to Hell” single stitched in.
 

 
More after the jump…

 
Local news stories about underground music can always be counted on to cluelessly pander to the paranoid grandparent demographic, which makes this 1978 Minneapolis public TV segment on the Ramones such a gem—it takes punk’s aesthetic merits seriously and keeps to a minimum the then-typical hysterics about audience violence. An announcer calls punk “the theory of minimal art applied to rock ‘n’ roll,” right there much more gravitas than the subject usually got from hinterlands journos.

The interview segment sees the band talking about the punk bands in England (the voice-over announcer misidentifies England as punk’s “ancestral homeland,” apparently not knowing the Ramones were Ur-punks who beat the Brits to the punch by a couple of years). Dee Dee dismisses them with a blanket “they stink,” and Tommy downplays that scene’s vaunted political engagement, singling out the Clash & Sex Pistols as exceptions, while heavily qualifying the latter group. Johnny handwaving the British punks’ political leanings as “a bore” and lumping them in with Joan Baez is funny in hindsight, as most of us know by now what an arch-conservative he turned out to be.

Watch this fun 11-minute feature after the jump…
 

Bernie Rhodes, Clash manager
 
If you’re a Clash fan who has 20 minutes to kill, check out the website of their former manager, Bernie Rhodes. It promises “Punk, pop philosophy, interesting stories, rare music and debate,” and delivers post-Situationist rants about the economic crisis, revisionist accounts of the punk years (“Many years ago under similar circumstances, I formed the Sex Pistols/Clash etc”), and a seriously busted web design that is a joy to behold. I think the reason the average page uses about thirty different fonts in about forty different colors is that it’s supposed to approximate Jamie Reid’s ransom-note typography, but what do I know? Rhodes says the site’s design is old-fashioned punk social realism: “So if it doesn’t flicker*flash*fast*, following the latest glitzy graphics, it’s as real life!” Wake up and smell the sans serif, you glitz-guzzling poseur!
 

 
In the “Did You Know” section, you’ll find a full-throated defense of the Clash’s almost universally despised final album, Cut the Crap:

1985’s “Cut The Crap” was the final album The Clash released. At the time the album received harsh reviews and the album sold less than expected. The original reviews are still remembered, and since relatively few people have actually heard the album, “Cut The Crap” has been unjustly neglected. This is, in fact, a solid punk masterpiece. It is what it was intended to be: an all-out return to the punk ethic that the band had recently been straying from. They perform with a raw aggression tempered with progressive musical growth; this is definitely a great band at work. The songs are all brilliant, addressing the political issues of the day exclusively (almost; a few copies of this have included their raucous, dirty cover of ‘Louie Louie’).

On the homepage, there’s a short URL reproduced as a graphic, so you have to type it into your browser.
 

 
This takes you to the single video YouTube user “Frank Fresh” has uploaded, a totally blown-out recording of the Clash’s “This Is England” overlaid with samples of Joe Strummer praising Rhodes. “I think it was good luck to meet Bernie, the best bit of luck I ever had,” Strummer says; this particular sample is repeated twice, in case you missed the point. Mr. Fresh uploaded this video yesterday (November 17).
 

A not-quite-subliminal message flashes toward the end of the video’s montage of council estates, Clash photos, pirate ships, motorcycles, and English celebrities:
 

 
Ouch. But the real scoop is that Rhodes is (I think) scouting fresh new talent! Alas, I am too old to take advantage of this exciting offer, but younger Dangerous Minds readers who have hot demo tapes and experienced lawyers on retainer might want to join Rhodes’ “Young Rockers Club.” He doesn’t promise fame or fortune, but how could he possibly pay worse than Spotify? If that’s even what this means?
 

 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Clash’s forgotten years, 1984-1986

 
Before he went off to make a mint singing about the main market street in Brixton, Guyanese-born London resident Eddy Grant put together the Equals, one of England’s most stomping multi-racial soul-rock bands.

Before the Equals scored their first hit in the UK with “Baby Come Back,” it went #1 in Germany, from which the first clip below originates, featuring a rather bossy 19-year-old Grant. It would take Top of the Pops a full year until they booked the Equals to perform the same tune. Oh yeah, they tossed over the song in clip #2 to a bunch of punks a few years after they recorded it in ’69.

Original North London skinhead psychedelia!