F

Flavorwire

Mick Jagger

Music

Exclusive: David Bowie-Themed Animations to Celebrate 40 Years of ‘Aladdin Sane’

By Jennifer Lewis on

Break out the red-and-blue face paint, Bowie kids, because Aladdin Sane turns 40 this month. The iconic album was released on April 13, 1973, and quickly surpassed Bowie’s five previous albums in popularity in both the UK and the US. To honor this special anniversary, we’ve created an animated illustration for each of the ten songs on Aladdin Sane. Click through to check ‘em out, then mix yourself a celebratory David Bowie cocktail and dance around like the man… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. It’s Google Zeitgeist time again! Here’s an exhaustive look at some of most popular searches and search trends throughout the year, a list topped by Whitney Houston, Gangnam Style, and Hurricane Sandy.

2. Mick Jagger stopped by Letterman last night to deliver the Top Ten things he’s learned after 50 years in rock and roll. Watch the hilarious clip here. … Read More

Celebrity

“Brown Sugar” Inspiration Selling Mick Jagger’s Love Letters

By Judy Berman on

What’s it like to be romanced by Mick Jagger? It’s a question we imagine many women asked themselves in the ’60s and ’70s. And now, we stand a chance of finding out. The Guardian reports that Marsha Hunt, the singer/actress who was the mother of Jagger’s first daughter and the inspiration behind “Brown… Read More

Music

Intimate Photos of Rock Stars from 1960s and ’70s ‘Melody Maker’

By Tom Hawking on

We were always big fans of now-defunct UK music weekly Melody Maker — it was always rather less self-important and more lighthearted than the NME — so we were chuffed to see that the Morrison Hotel Gallery in NYC is hosting a retrospective of work by one of the publication’s staff photographers, Barrie Wentzell. Wentzell shot for the magazine in the 1960s and 1970s, and the exhibition covers the years 1965-75, including portraits of Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and various other luminaries of the era. The gallery has been kind enough to give us a sneak peek at some of the images, along with commentary from the photographer. See the photos and hear the stories behind them… Read More

Pop Culture

Vintage Photos of Pop Culture Icons in Drag

By Emily Temple on

Cross-dressing, whether for pleasure or for mischief (or for plays or films), is no new phenomenon. Every little child experiments with putting on the opposite gender’s designated garb, all on-stage women in Elizabethan theatre were played by men, and many people of both sexes have dressed in drag for a variety of reasons, from personal to professional. So why should our pop culture icons be any different? Click through to join in our celebration of drag in all its forms, and see some of our favorite musicians, artists and writers (though by no means a complete selection — we couldn’t find any photos of J. Edgar Hoover) indulging in a little cross-dressing from as far back as… Read More

Music

Are the Rolling Stones Recording New Material?

By Caroline Stanley on

Earlier this summer when the Rolling Stones celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first gig, Mick Jagger surprised plenty of people when he told reporters that the band would perform a few live gigs some time this fall. Vague, but nonetheless, exciting! Now Mick has tweeted a photo of himself looking extremely happy… Read More

Music

Your Favorite Musicians’ Unexpected Favorite Records

By Tom Hawking on

You may have read recently that Mitt Romney Paul Ryan is the world’s most unlikely Rage Against the Machine fan, and the spectacular WTF-ness of his inexplicable declaration of fondness for left-wing agitrock will endure as one of the stranger moments of the 2012 campaign trail. The whole strange business also got us thinking: well, there are plenty of features around wherein artists have been asked to choose a selection of their favorite albums or songs. Surely there are some wacky choices in there? We got reading, and yep, there are some real winners to be found… so here’s a selection of such choices that we found particularly interesting — either selections we’d never heard of, or selections we just wouldn’t have expected. Who’d have thought that Bradford Cox was the only person in the world to like the second MGMT album, or that Frank Black was into weird faux-Greek music, or that both Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull were experts on reggae? Read on for more… … Read More

Photography

Wonderful Photographs of Famous People Snapped By Their Famous Friends

By Emily Temple on

It’s well known that famous people often run in packs (rat, brat), and we’ve even heard rumors that they do normal things like hang out and take pictures of their friends. Since we’re obsessed with the ephemera of pop culture, we spent some time tracking down a few of those snapshots, whether staged or candid, rare or widely recognized, taken by everyone from Truman Capote to Lady Gaga. Click through to see our gallery of photographs of famous people snapped by their famous friends, and you may just begin evaluating your own photo albums for potential stars after you’re through. … Read More

Pop Culture

Fascinating Obscure Film Performances by Famous Musicians

By Tom Hawking on

Occasionally, we get into conversations here at Flavorpill central about truly pop-culture geeky things — like, for instance, the best obscure films featuring performances from well-known musicians. The catalyst for this particular discussion was our own Judy Berman’s recent viewing of Copkiller, a straight-to-video Italian B-movie starring none other than Johnny Rotten (and Harvey Keitel, bless him). The sorry spectacle got us thinking about similar performances — either films you’ve never heard of featuring musicians you have, or films you’ve heard of that you never knew your favorite musician was in! We’ve rounded up our favorites, and welcome your suggestions in the comments. … Read More

Photography

Jim Marshall’s Intimate Images of Legendary Musicians

By Paul Laster on

The only photographer allowed backstage at the Beatles’ final concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park and the primary photographer at the legendary Woodstock music festival, Jim Marshall carved out a reputation as one of the best documentarians of the diverse and dynamic American music scene of the ’60s and ’70s. From pictures of Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop to Johnny Cash performing for enthusiastic audiences at Folsom and San Quentin prisons, Marshall had his lens on the counterculture that inspired one of the last revolutions to totally sweep the world.

“I worked hard but I never really considered it work,” Marshall has said. “I always enjoyed myself and only took an assignment if I had complete control and access. My reputation was such that managers didn’t f*ck with me. I had the trust of the artist. I would work with them and they knew I wouldn’t f*ck around or do anything they didn’t like.”

Marshall passed away in 2010, but his legendary work still lives on — with a lot of his documentary shots getting visibility for the first time since they were frozen on film. A striking solo show of pictures from his intimate interactions with such jazz greats as Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and John Coltrane; influential folk singers of the day, including Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan; and fabled rock ‘n’ roll stars that defined the era, counting Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, and The Who, opens today at New York’s Steven Kasher Gallery. A new monograph, published by Chronicle Books, engagingly captures Marshall’s photos of the Rolling Stones 1972 recording session for the Exile on Main Street album and the band’s monumental US tour — 40 years after the fact and 50 years after the group got its start. Click through to view some of the Stones photos, along with other amazing pictures snapped by the magical Marshall during that time. … Read More