Tom Waits (Frank W. Ockenfels 3, 1992)
Having just played the deranged Renfield in 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula, Waits showed up with a carful of props to use for the session. Ockenfels finally asked him to pose for a straightforward head shot, which Waits could only tolerate for a few minutes. In this final frame, Waits was growling for Ockenfels to stop.
Natalie Merchant (Jon Ragel, 1989)
Detroit: Before a show at an outdoor auditorium on a very hot afternoon, Merchant and her band, 10,000 Maniacs, wandered onto a nearby golf course. The sprinklers happened to come on, and the sweaty, uncomfortable shoot was saved.
Frank Zappa (David Gahr, 1967)
New York City: Gahr, who frequently covered the Greenwich Village music scene in the sixties, photographed the twenty-seven-year-old Zappa the night he and the Mothers of Invention appeared at Cafe Au Go Go on MacDougal Street. The Grateful Dead played upstairs at the club on the same evening.
Billy Joel (Mary Ellen Mark, 1987)
Red Square, Moscow: Mark photographed the thirty-eight-year-old Joel during his summer tour, which was being filmed by her husband. Joel was the first U.S. pop star to take a fully staged rock production to the Soviet Union. The album Kohuept documented the shows.
David Bowie (Terry O'Neill, 1974)
London: During a shoot for the post-Ziggy Stardust LP Diamond Dogs (an adaption of Orwell's 1984), the over-sized canine "suddenly started to try and sing," O'Neill recounted, "much to mine and David's astonishment."
Tom Petty (Mark Seliger, 1991)
Joshua Tree National Monument, California: This photo session was set up to promote the album Into the Great Wide Open. "The camel actually ran away with me at one point," Petty reminisced bemusedly. "I'd say all in all a miserable day."
Dwight Yoakam (Mark Seliger, 1993)
Hollywood: It was decidedly not Nashville, so Seliger rented a horse for a photo session on Hollywood Boulevard. The chaps and stance, he said, were unmistakenly Yoakam. The maverick country crooner had recently released his sixth album, This Time, and portrayed a trucker in the film Red Rock West.
Village People (Bill King, 1979)
King shot the original members -- biker Glenn Hughes, construction guy David Hodo, Navy man Victor Willis, sailor Alex Briley, cowboy Randy Jones and Indian Felipoe Rose -- as they gained notoriety for their double-entendre songs "Y.M.C.A." and "Macho Man."
The Eagles (Henry Diltz, 1972)
California: On a Western movie set, Diltz and the band were inspired by an old photo. In the re-creation, roadies, producers and a graphic artist made up the posse who killed the outlaws portrayed by (from left) Jackson Browne (with mustache), Eagles Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Don Henley, and J.D. Souther.
Willie Dixon, Big Joe Williams, Memphis Slim (David Gahr, 1961)
New York City: Gahr encountered the trio -- bassist-songwriter Dixon, forty-six; blues shouter Williams, fifty-eight; and pianist Memphis Slim, forty-six -- as they emerged from a recording session for Folkways.