Wish These Were Better Quality But Whatever SIGH - Blog Posts

LINDA EASTMAN, 1967.

“ I became a photographer because I was turned on by the black and white photography of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Cartier-Bresson. While I was shooting the musicians who feature in the book -- Morrison, Hendrix -- I was still taking other stuff too, whatever I saw. There are so many great moments, but... my first 'greatest moment' was going to an Alan Freed Rhythm & Blues Show at the Brooklyn Paramount in about 1957 when I was a junior in high school. Little Richard, The Crickets, Chuck Berry -- who did 'School Days' for the first time and actually said, 'I just wrote this last night' -- The Big Bopper, Screaming Jay Hawkins, The Dells, The Moonglows, Richie Valens, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, all the acts that I loved. They even had people like Bobby Darin and Fabian just MC'ing. Alan Freed was my hero as a DJ. It was obvious he only played the music he loved. — But seeing and hearing and hanging around Hendrix, oh, I can't even put it into words. That man... the greatest moments weren't when he was playing a concert. It was more sitting in a hotel room with him and he'd start to play and just jam all night. Or at the Speakeasy when everyone had left he'd get up and play till they switched the lights on and kicked us out. Oh, I tell you maybe the best memory of Hendrix was when he was recording Electric Ladyland, those sessions when he was playing guitar, organ, drums, everything. And then there was Otis Redding live. What a thrill. He played a concert outdoor in Central Park when I was in New York with The Animals and they asked me over to see Otis. I think he was the greatest vocalist of all. ”

— Linda McCartney.