From the beginning, Marshall trained his camera on what was to become his exclusive subject, the documentation of people. And his response - both emotional and photographic - was strongest to musicians.
There was an integral part of Jim that always liked fast things and things that made his heart race, whether it was cars, guns, women, music, drugs. But maybe it started innocently enough back when he discovered he was an above-average runner – he was a miler in high school and told me that, for a time, he held the record for the mile in the Air Force.
The tagline on the Jim Marshall Photography LLC website and blog is Cars, Guns and Cameras … and there is a reason Jim always listed cars first. In my opinion these fast, sleek beauties were the true love of Jim’s life. Even though he was cutting out pictures of cameras and pasting them into scrapbooks at the age of 6 or 7, I think cars – the mechanical qualities, and especially the power and simple, elegant, loud-assed danger of hot rods – blew right past cameras as an object of his obsessive affection.
Bob Dylan was born in Hibbing, MN 70 years ago today. I’m listening right now to one of Jim’s favorite Dylan album’s “Blood on the Tracks,” specifically “Tangled Up in Blue,” Jim's favorite song on the album, and now one of mine.
Perhaps it’s the unseasonable cold we’ve been having lately here in the SF Bay Area, or perhaps it’s all this talk of Dylan and Baez and love and NYC in 1963, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Jim and staying warm and new beginnings. The early ’60s was a more innocent time for Jim and Dylan. They were both full of boundless energy, promise and ambition, just beginning to do great things, dreaming of spotlights. It was the time before fame and infamy; 1963 was also the year I was born.
You can’t talk about Bob Dylan’s early career without acknowledging Joan Baez’ catalytic effect on his work, his outlook and his emotions. They met at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village in 1961 when Baez (Joanie as Jim called her) was on tour. The 20-year-old Baez was already a big star on the folk scene; Dylan, the same age, was just a compelling wannabe.
Bob Dylan is turning 70 on May 24 and it seems fitting to spend this month combing through the archives to share with you some of Jim’s classic Dylan photos as well as Dylan shots that will be unveiled for the very first time here on this blog.
Inarguably, Jim’s most famous Dylan shot is the one he called, “Dylan With Tire,” seen here in all its enigmatic glory. It’s one of Jim’s in-the-moment shots that I find especially compelling for many reasons. I think it captures such an optimistic and ebullient and inspiring time in Dylan’s life. And also Jim’s, come to think of it.
You just never know where Jim’s photos are going to take you. We start out to do a post on Ogden Nash and William Saroyan and end up with Jim’s mom. It’s a journey, indeed, a trip. Go figure.
With our ongoing focus on Jim’s lesser-known and/or pre-rock ‘n roll body of work, I find myself tickled again and again to be able to focus on Jim’s burgeoning talent and passions and, especially, his incredibly productive few years in New York City.
Jim could get a bit reactionary. Yeah, that’s an understatement. I think what helped me deal with his right-wing rants was a deep down knowledge that beyond the Second Amendment, his first and truest love was No. 1, freedom of speech. It think it’s why he always considered himself a visual journalist, a teller of truth at his core, no matter how poetic his images or how many prints sales and gallery shows he had.
Another secret about Jim and his poetic passions: He loved theater and musicals, seemingly the sappier, the better. It’s not something he broadcast much – I would hazard a guess that he didn’t go share just how much he LOVED Carol Channing or a great Cole Porter number or Rodgers and Hammerstein’s work with his mechanic or the guys he got his guns from – but, if he thought you were receptive to the power of it all, he’d definitely bend your ear.
