"The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966" has been getting a lot of publicity because of one particular photo in the book: a mid-1960s color snapshot of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards in a blazer and jeans, with the zipper pulled down, and Richards holding his exposed penis in his left hand.
If you’ve seen the photo, it’s not as scandalous as it sounds, because Richards’ hand is covering most of his groin. And frankly, the book is filled with so many great previously unpublished photos of the band that the "Keith Richards penis photo" is just one of many memorable snapshots in this collection.
I received an advance copy of "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs" (which goes on sale on November 16, 2010), and it truly is a coffee table book in every sense of the word, since it will take the average reader less than half an hour to read and quickly flip through the 266-page tome.
The photos in the book were taken by the late Bob Bonis, the Rolling Stones’ U.S. tour manager from 1964 to 1966. Bonis (who died in 1992) was also the Beatles’ tour manager for all of their U.S. tours. It’s kind of mind-blowing to think about what Bonis may have seen firsthand during these historic tours, but he never sold his stories or the thousands of photos that he took during these experiences. (A Bonis bio in the book says he had more than 3,500 photos of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. "The Lost Beatles Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966" book goes on sale in the United States on March 22, 2011, and in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2011.)
So why are some of these photos being published now? According to the book’s preface, Bonis’ son Alex "decided it was time for other people to enjoy the memorabilia and photographs his father had saved." Alex Bonis and the book’s author, Larry Marion, co-founded 2269 Productions Inc. Not Fade Away Gallery to exclusively represent the images that were photographed by Bob Bonis.
Nowadays, with tell-all books so prevalent and with tabloids spending millions to buy "candid" images of celebrities, there is no way in this day and age that a tour manager for a band as big as the Rolling Stones would be allowed to take all these photos and keep the copyrights. But in the 1960s, things were very different, and this book is a result of the photo access that tour managers were allowed back then.
The Book’s Text
One should not write off "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs" as cheap exploitation thrown together to make some quick money, because none other than Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts writes the foreward to the book. Watts says in the foreward: "Bob always seemed to have his trusted camera with him and we were happy to have him taking photographs. More than forty years after they were taken, seeing ourselves recording at Chess Studios, or rehearsing for the T.A.M.I. show, brings back so many fond memories."
Less than 10 pages of the book are filled with text. The rest of the book consists of photos with captions for many of the images. In addition to the foreward by Watts and the preface by Marion, there is a section titled "About the Photographs," followed by a short biography of Bob Bonis.
The Book’s Photographs
While some of the photos are blurry snapshots, many of the photos look like they were taken by a professional photographer and are worthy of displaying in any top art gallery.
(Click here for information on the John Varvatos store exhibit of select photos from the book.)
The best photos, in my opinion, are in the chapter titled "Personal Time." Because let’s face it: We’ve already seen many photos of the Rolling Stones performing on stage or in the studio, hanging out backstage, or posing for publicity portraits. There are plenty of those types of photos in this book, and they stand on par with some of the best we’ve seen of the Stones.
But the candid photos of band in their free time are the most intriguing. In this book, there are several snapshots of lead singer Mick Jagger, Richards and guitarist Brian Jones lounging by a hotel swimming pool. Jagger is in tight red swimming trunks in some of the photos, posing proudly in a few of the snapshots. (Given all the publicity that Richards got for saying in his memoir that Jagger has a "tiny todger," one can judge for oneself by looking at these photos.) Whether they’re drinking bottles of beer or flipping off the camera while drinking cocktails, the photos capture the band during a heady time in their young lives. You can see how much fun they were having on these tours.
The photos also confirm what we have heard for many years about these early Stones tours: Jagger, Richards and Jones were the "party guys" who often hung out together, while bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Watts were the more reserved band members who kept to themselves. All the "drinking by the swimming pool" photos in this book are of Jagger, Richards and Jones.
In the "Personal Time" chapter, there are several photos of Jagger and Richards bowling. The Rolling Stones, called the "world’s most dangerous band" at the time, look like college students taking their bowling game very seriously in these photos. It’s a great study in contrasting public images with private lives.
Then there are hilarious photos of Richards doing the "nanker phelge": using his fingers to distort his face. "Nanker phelge" was the Stones’ pet nickname inspired by James Phelge, the roommate that Jagger, Richards and Jones had when the Rolling Stones were a struggling band. From 1963 to 1965, Nanker Phelge was also collective name of songs written by the Rolling Stones.
Jagger has a reputation for being the Rolling Stones band member with the most astute business acumen and the one who is the most concerned with the Rolling Stones’ image, so it’s telling that he’s the only member of the Stones shown in this book to be watching the band on TV. That’s not to say that the other band members never watched themselves on TV, but it’s easy to see in these photos that even in those early years, Jagger was studying the band's performances, and he’s proved to be the Rolling Stones member who is most involved in visual arts.
However, there is one aspect of being on tour that is noticeably (perhaps deliberately) lacking in this book: There is barely a hint of what the band’s love life was like on the road, aside from one photo each of Chrissie Shrimpton (Jagger’s then-girlfriend), and Watts’ wife, Shirley Watts. (Let’s face it: sex and fan adoration are two of the main reasons why musicians want to become famous and go on tour.) The book barely acknowledges the fan hysteria that surrounded the Stones during this time in their lives. As a tour manager and photographer, Bob Bonis must have captured on film a lot more of this aspect of the Rolling Stones on the road than what is published in this book.
Although the candid photos of the band are very impressive, it would be naïve to think that the photos in the book represent everything about the Rolling Stones during their 1964 to 1966 tours. If you look at it from an honest and objective viewpoint, "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs" book is a sanitized version of the Stones, portraying the band as a group of fun-loving, hard-working young men who liked to do things in their free time such as lounge by hotel swimming pools, goof around, and make faces at the camera. (The "exposed penis" photo of Richards is hardly X-rated. You can see more genitals exposed in statues and paintings at any given museum that has ancient art.)
So if you’re looking for a visual chronicle of the more decadent side the Rolling Stones (as described in numerous tell-all articles and books about the Stones), you won’t find it in this book. What you will get are numerous fascinating photos of the band taken by someone with rare access, and quite a few of the pictures are visually stunning.
"The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs" has individual chapters devoted to each of the five members of the band at the time, as well as a chapter on the Stones’ then-manager, Andrew Loog Oldham.
Given the "tough guy" image that Richards has, there are some surprising and touching photos of him backstage cutting Watts’ hair. However, people who are familiar with the Stones know that Richards is the band member most likely to describe them as a gang of brothers.
That camaraderie is apparent in many of the photos in this book, and it’s the best thing about "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs." The images are snapshots of the band in the days before scandals would threaten their existence during the latter half of the 1960s: before the drug busts, before Jones' estrangement and subsequent ouster from the band, before the 1969 Altamont concert in which a fan was stabbed to death during the Stones’ performance.
The Bottom Line
There are many other books of Rolling Stones photographs that have been published over the years. Wyman’s "Rolling With the Stones" may arguably be the most comprehensive photo book to chronicle the band’s history. But if you read Richards’ memoir "Life," it is clear that he thinks that the band’s best years of friendship were in the early-to-mid 1960s. "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs" book is a captivating, if largely sanitized, window into those years.
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