Classic Photos of Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin Celebrated at Gallery Opening

Last night in New York, the Morrison Hotel Gallery opened its doors to showcase the first morsel of Sony BMG's legendary archives. The newly released photographs, mostly taken by unsung music photographer Don Hunstein, reveal intimate details from Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio recordings. Tony Bennett, in front of his own fulsome smile, noted, "These are pictures of a great time in music — the Fifties and Sixties. It was horrible that they tore down the 30th Street Studio, with all the history, all the talent that happened there." Through the collection however, 30th Street lives on in images like Billie Holiday singing with a half-burned, unfiltered cigarette and Bob Dylan curiously plucking at a Fender bass. Rock photographers Mick Rock and Bob Gruen perused photos of the Brubeck crew snapping their fingers the first time they ever heard "Time Out," while Paul Ellington stood before an image of his grandfather, cross-armed and looking aimless the year he won three Grammys. The real focus of the room, however, was Aretha Franklin. People seemed to gravitate toward the evocative portrait of the then-18-year-old Lady Soul gazing meditatively beyond the slanting mike before her. "It's not who she is, it's about the expression in her eyes," Gruen said. "In these pictures, you can hear Bennett laugh; you can hear Dylan sigh. These pictures have feeling. That's why they're so good."

• Photo Gallery: Dylan, Franklin and More at Columbia's 30th Street Studio

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Trance' Is Intelligent, Multi-Layered
• 
  TV Don Draper Exposed
• 
  POLITICS The Shame of Three Strikes Laws

Song Stories

“Everything in Its Right Place”

Radiohead | 2000

Thom Yorke hit rock bottom the moment he walked offstage after a 1997 concert in Birmingham, England, which initially left him unable to speak and later led him to write the eerie, discombobulated “Everything.” “Lots of people say that song is gibberish,” he told Rolling Stone. “It’s not. It’s totally about that” – the mute paralysis that had swept over Yorke after the Birmingham show, which stayed with him through the simultaneous recording of Kid A and Amnesiac. Quoting the song’s repeated line, “Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon,” Yorke twisted his face into a ferocious grimace, explaining, “That’s the face I had for three years.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter