Playlist: Mick Rock picks his five favourite songs
Alongside legendary pop artist Andy Warhol, Mick Rock was responsible for some of the most important visuals of rock music’s rise to punk. The British photographer sadly died in 2021, aged 72, and is widely remembered as “the man who shot the 1970s”. The most prominent chapter of Rock’s portfolio follows the rise of glam-rock, punk and new-wave music throughout the culturally effervescent decade.
Rock’s work boasts iconic exposures of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Queen, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Blondie and many other immortal icons. As Warhol’s artwork was used to enhance the appeal of seminal albums like The Velvet Underground and Nico and The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Rock’s photography was frequently used to market now-seminal albums. These included Iggy Pop’s Raw Power, Lou Reed’s Transformer and Coney Island Baby, Queen II, Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, Ramones’ End of the Century and David Bowie’s Pin Ups.
For Rock, photography was a labour of love; his manifest dream was to befriend, trail and photograph rock icons, a dream he inspired many to follow subsequently. He had a knack for capturing these performers at their most visually powerful moments and quickly built a reputation as one of the most important photographers of his generation.
In 2015, Rock was invited to guest DJ on KCRW alongside host Anthony Valadez. As someone who spent much of his time hanging out with stars like Bowie, Reed and Blondie, one would place good money on a discerning set; he certainly didn’t disappoint. Introducing his first song, Rock said: “‘Peggy Sue,’ by Buddy Holly. They were very big in England. I don’t know how big they were in America in those days. As time has gone on, people appreciate that Buddy Holly and the Crickets influenced so many people, including… the Beatles! Because I mean, Beatles…Crickets…I mean, it’s not a big hop, is it?”
Discussing Bob Dylan’s ‘Visions of Johana’ from the 1966 masterpiece album Blonde on Blonde, Rock continued: “In 1965, someone took me to see Bob Dylan at the Albert Hall and, the first half was acoustic and the second half was when he brought the band up. And I do remember one of the tracks he played was ‘Visions of Johanna’, very mysterious, I found it.”
“He certainly changed the way lyrics were written, and obviously, he was doing that from the earliest records,” Rock elaborated. “But ‘Visions of Johanna’… you know, it’s about love in a sense. You know? But with Bob Dylan, you’re never quite sure.”
Next up, he picked out one of The Velvet Underground’s early pretty songs that juxtaposed with the likes of ‘Heroin’ and ‘Venus in Furs’ perfectly. “Obviously written by Lou Reed, but actually sung by the amazing Nico,” Rock said, introducing the track. “They had an affair; I mean, I know from the lips of the master. It was the very first album that says it was produced by Andy Warhol. Basically, Andy just sat there, and every time they played him something, he said ‘fabulous’.”
“But obviously, the Andy connection, they thought, would help. And, of course, this gave, in retrospect, the Velvet Underground this art reputation. They were the first band to be talked about in terms of art. And even though it’s definitely rock n’ roll, obviously, the Andy connection had a lot to do with that. And it’s a very unusual lyric. He wrote it for her to sing to him, so she was going to be his mirror.”
Penultimately, Rock paid tribute to his longtime subject and friend, David Bowie. Picking out ‘Life on Mars’ as his favourite, Rock explained how the song led him to the Starman. “Well, ‘Life on Mars?’ would have been early 1972, and I had access to Impala records,” he said. “They were promotional records, and you knew they were promo records because they had a little hole punched out in the corner”.
He continued: “And in those days, you picked up the arm, and if you want to repeat the song, you had to actually pick up the needle and plunk it down where you thought it should go. So I played it so many times in that first night that I actually fucked it up. Which meant the next day, I had to go out and actually lay out money to get a new copy of it. Which I did. I mean, I used to live off freebies”.
“As a result of that, I sought out Bowie and, in those early years, not only did I shoot, but I would also do little interviews, and I would provide a picture,” Rock continued. “That way, they got a cheap deal, and I could get a double whammy.”
Below is the list of Mick Rock’s selections. Follow the Spotify playlist if you like what you see.
Mick Rock’s favourite songs:
- Buddy Holly – ‘Peggy Sue’
- Bob Dylan – ‘Visions of Johanna’
- The Velvet Underground – ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’
- David Bowie – ‘Life on Mars?’
- Ramones – ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’
Picking out Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’, Rock described the nostalgia the track evoked. “When I shot the Ramones at the end of the century – I would call it – I had a wife and a house in London, and I had a girlfriend and an apartment in New York,” Rock recalled of his drug-fuelled adultery. “I was taking advantage of my English accent because that got you lots of places! You could get away with a lot. You could lie about everything. I mean, there were no cell phones, there’s no bloody internet, I mean, that’s blown a lot of young gentleman’s cover, you know.”
“But back in those days, you could,” he added. “I…and I had this space, and it was a commercial building, but after six o’clock, there’s nobody in the building, and I was right on the top floor. And I would, you know, I mean, this is cocaine gone mental. And it’s all disco and punk.
“But this track, I would come back, whoever I was with, and you carry on partying until, you know, the dawn, because now I look back, I go you fucking needed to be sedated, Mick. You were bouncing. So, I mean, I like the track anyways, but I do associate it with the late ’70s, early ’80s, in New York, and uhh, and cocaine.”
