27 July 2008

Stars

I'm generally cranky about contemporary American celebrity worship, but it's not that I don't get the appeal. The pleasure of following celebrities is the same as telling stories about old friends, catching people in a moment vividly reflective of their character. Which is why this is one of my favourite pictures ever, taken at the Grammy awards in 1975:

That's David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon. I happen to own a better print of this photograph, so I can tell you that Mr Garfunkel is wearing a tuxedo t-shirt and jeans, and if you squint you can see the Mr Lennon is wearing a large rhinestone pin on his jacket that reads “Elvis.”

That's them, all right.

I just stumbled across video from that evening: Lennon and Simon presenting the award for Record of the Year. If the photograph charms you the way it charms me, you might want to have a look.

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