Photographer Bob Gruen On His New Book: Rock Seen

Bob Gruen, who has been taking rock and roll photographs for the since the early 70s,  stopped by the Sirius XM Studios to talk with Ron Bennington about his new book.  Rock Seen shows the last 40 years of rock and roll through the Bob’s eyes and lens and includes photographs of the Clash, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and CBGB’s, Max’s Kansas City and more.

While most of his life has centered around rock and roll and photographer, the camera his first love.  His mom taught him photography when he was three and he got his first camera when he was eight.  At that time, rock and roll hadn’t even been born yet.    His early photos were of his family,  local celebrities and sports figures, but he caught a big break when the Band Glitterhouse, who were friends of his, were discovered by Bob Crewe.  They were hired to do vocals for the movie Barbarella, Bob’s photos were used for the publicity, and the rest was history.

Bob shared stories with Ron about some of the artists he photographed over the years.

Bob Gruen on Ike Turner:

Ike Turner kinda got a bad rap in the movie ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It.’  The movie was a very important movie; I think it made a very important point about domestic violence, but I don’t think that Ike necessarily was the poster boy for that. Ike was the father of rock and roll, people say he made the first rock and roll record. And he was a very generous person who gave a lot to a lot of people.  He supported a lot of people– at one point he had over 100 musicians on his payroll that he was being the agent and producer for a lot of different bands, and he did a lot of good for a lot of people, and certainly he taught me a lot. I think the movie could have been, what happens to the nice guy who takes too much cocaine and gets violent.  I’m not condoning what he did but just saying that he did a lot more than what’s shown in that movie.

Bob Gruen on The Clash:

[The Clash was] the only band that really matters. But they were the most powerful band.  The power and the fury.  But also they had a powerful message.  It wasn’t just moon spoon kinda love songs.They always had an important message that they cared about.  And they cared about their fans.  And they always gave a good show, and wanted to give their fans their moneys worth.  So if they did a double album or even a triple album they sold it for the price of one album because they were fans themselves.

Bob Gruen on KISS:

There’s something about then being in their plain clothes, in the suits, you know, with their faces, as if you could disguise a face like that.   They’re just so in your face, and up front and obviously so different and expressing their difference and to me, rock and roll is all about expressing your feelings, loudly.

 

Gene Simmons said, you don’t really need a grasp of the English language to review a KISS show, it’s not really about the music.  When you walk out of a KISS show you only need to know three words, and that is WOW WOW WOW.

Bob Gruen on CBGBs:

Well CBGBs was much more fun.  I used to get an assignment to go shoot a big band like Led Zeppelin or Boston or Kansas, or whatever the bands were that were playing Madison Square Garden And I couldn’t wait until it was over to head down to CBGBs or Max’s Cause down there it was much more friendly, you know, Madison Square Garden, you’re sitting a block away from the band– they’re somewhere down there, but you don’t have any contact with them.   Whereas at CBGBs, one of the nice things about Cbs was that the bathrooms were located behind the dressing rooms.  You had to go down a staircase, and so you had to walk past the dressing rooms to go to the bathrooms.  So there was never any backstage pass, the whole club was open to all the people.  So anybody could just walk back there and say hello to a band and meet the musicians that were going to be on stage in a few minutes, or just came off.  So there was a lot more interaction.  You could actually sit at the bar, meet a girl.  You have a lot more fun downtown.

You know a lot of people are very sad that CBGBs closed, but CBGBs was just a room.  What was great about CBGBs was Hilly Cristal, and Hilly passed away, so there could never be another club like CBs without another man like Hilly.  Because it was his attitude and the way he let kids do whatever they wanted, and they way he let any band that could play a little bit, they could come into CBs and learn how to play and learn how to get better and that’s what hilly encouraged people to do so, it’s all about the ownership and how the club is run, it’s not the shape of the room or even the location.  Its how the club is run and how the owner relates to the musicians that play there and the audience that he lets in.

Bob Gruen on The New York Dolls and David Johansen:

Yea every rock star loved David.  The press loved David Johansen and the Dolls      but the mass public just never really got it.  He had a hit with the cover song, you know, Hot Hot Hot, but other than that, he was, kind of known to a lot of people but never had that single that put them over the top.

A lot of people were pretty shocked when they saw the Dolls pictures.  No boys dressed like that.  A lot of people said they were dressing like women but I never saw any women that dressed like that either.   They may have bought a shirt in the women’s department but they wore it in their own unique way.  They were actually the most macho gang of guys I hung out with.

Bob Gruen on Bob Dylan:

Yea, when I was a kid I remember trying to explain something to my mother, and I played It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding and I’ don’t know if she got it but I did.  But I never actually worked personally with Bob Dylan which is kinda fun for me cause it leaves at least one person that I can still be a fan of that I don’t actually know.  But I’ve always been a big admirer.  My first photo pass was for Bob Dylan at Newport folk festival in 1965 when he played with an electric band and some people were very shocked by that and they were booing and other people were actually cheering and they were yelling at each other right in the seats.  But for me it was kind of a declaration where Bob Dylan declared that rock and roll was the folk music of America.

Bob Gruen on Green Day:

They’re straight ahead rock and roll.  They play a fantastic show.  They hit the stage running, and they go on for two and half hours nonstop, longer sometimes.  I’ve seen them play as their alter-ego the Foxboro Hottubs, which is one of the best punk bands around today. I mean talk about a long rockin show.  They play two and a half hours, and I remember at like 2:30 in the morning they started playing a quick When Wally’s Away that goes on for 15 minutes, which is a whole mini-opera, and then they go on to play another couple of songs, they’re just full of energy and full of excitement, AND they have a strong message.  I always like music that’ actually saying something, and that’s not only love songs.  They have political consciousness. And when you see twelve-year-old kids, fourteen year old kids singing, I don’t want your majority, I wanna be a minority, I don’t need you’re authority, that’s very impressive.

Bob’s book, Rock Seen is on sale now.

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