It's already our 5th week on what's proved to be one of the most popular features of this blog--Found photos from the collection of my wife, Gillian "The Fang" McCain. This snap shot has the date January 64 printed in the border. What can I say about this one? Boots and hair is what comes to my mind. Is he the leader of the hot, local band with a pair of sister groupies? A budding Charlie Starkweather or Charles Schmidt ("the Pied Piper of Tucson")? Were the characters in John Waters' Cry Baby based on these people? They sure look like Drapes to me. What would the guys hair look like in twelve months, after Beatlemania set in (they would arrive a month later and either save or ruin rock'n'roll, depending on your viewpoint)? Would this fellow start combing it forward or stay true to his greaser roots? Do the white socks mark him as a southerner? How about the way the girl on the right holds her cigarette, is she a debutante slumming? So many questions....What do you think?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Gillian's Found Photo #5
It's already our 5th week on what's proved to be one of the most popular features of this blog--Found photos from the collection of my wife, Gillian "The Fang" McCain. This snap shot has the date January 64 printed in the border. What can I say about this one? Boots and hair is what comes to my mind. Is he the leader of the hot, local band with a pair of sister groupies? A budding Charlie Starkweather or Charles Schmidt ("the Pied Piper of Tucson")? Were the characters in John Waters' Cry Baby based on these people? They sure look like Drapes to me. What would the guys hair look like in twelve months, after Beatlemania set in (they would arrive a month later and either save or ruin rock'n'roll, depending on your viewpoint)? Would this fellow start combing it forward or stay true to his greaser roots? Do the white socks mark him as a southerner? How about the way the girl on the right holds her cigarette, is she a debutante slumming? So many questions....What do you think?
My guess is this cat would initially dismiss The Beatles as "fairies," but eventually feel compelled to change his hairstyle, always a leetle behind the curve.
ReplyDeleteIn the mid-seventies I met a guy named Earl who still had the regulation duckass greasy pompadour (and an iron cross tattoo). Then one day I saw him and he'd converted to the "dry look" disco hair.
PBS has been running stuff from Johnny Cash's TV show. Last week I saw Waylon Jennings with a greasy pompadour -- and a turtleneck and a "mod" suit. The transition look.
He's in for a lot of lovin'
ReplyDeleteHe is their loyal stable boy. Both girls are wearing riding britches ans seem quite snarky.
ReplyDeleteHe cleans their stalls.... if you get my drift.
Later becomes a Lennon freak to meet "oriental" chicks.
I agree with J.D....guys like this didn't start growing their hair by '65, they probably just slowly "transitioned" but didn't let it cover their ears until the seventies (think Steve Cropper...there are several pictures of him from the '68-'69 era where his clothing is on the mod side but his hair is still stubbornly short...then by 1970 he said fuck it and just let his shit GROW...and GROW...).
ReplyDeleteAs far as the women...let's just say that there's nothing like a pair of shiny leather boots to make a woman's sex appeal jump up 200 percent!!!
I agree. Young feller is bein' ridden hard and put away wet.
ReplyDelete"...think Steve Cropper..."
ReplyDeleteAnd James Burton!
And how about the old blues cats that traded in the farmer clothes for Eleganza suits?
"Young feller is bein' ridden hard and put away wet."
And he ain't complainin'!
I think ridden hard an put away wet is the key to all these comments. He is a happy lad, no matter.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I think The Hound has a pretty high per capita rate of JDs in his fan club.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should change my middle initial, then I too can become a JD. I always liked the name Delmore.....that can be my new middle name....
ReplyDeleteThe guy in the photo is not Charles Schmidt ("Smitty"). I was in Sophomore English, Mrs. Eisenstat(?) in 1961 at Tucson High. Smitty and I sat across the aisle from each other. Smitty was a gymnast, muscular and proportionate, though miniature. The guy in the photo is not Smitty.
ReplyDeleteBill Karns
Sherwood, Oregon
Graduated THS June 2, 1962
"The guy in the photo is not Charles Schmidt ("Smitty")"
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't think it was, I was joking. He does have a bit of Smitty's charisma though.
Yes..."Smitty" had charisma on the one hand, and he had the cold detachment of an Anaconda on the other hand, and there was no middle-ground.
ReplyDelete