The late, great B.B. King observed, “Playing the guitar is like telling the truth—you never have to worry about repeating the same [lie] if you told the truth. You don’t have to pretend, or cover up. If someone asks you again, you don’t have to think about it or worry about it because there it is. It’s you.”
Photo: Andy Freeberg, BB King at Montreux, 1980
King lived his life in this truth and gave this truth to the world. He who had said, “I never use that word, retire,” continued to play live performances until just months before his death, earlier this year, at 89 years old. King, one of the greatest blues musicians of our times, showing us that music is not just in your blood, it is in your soul. He understood the power of music to bring people together, to reach them in a way that nothing else could. He sagely advised, “You only live but once, and when your died your done, so let the good times roll,” and he set those words to song.
We feel his joy, long after he is gone, not just in his music but in the photographs taken of him throughout the years. “I want to connect my guitar to human emotions,” King said, and we are reminded of the power of his intention when gazing upon Andy Freeberg’s photograph of BB King at Montreux, 1980, which is currently on view in the group show It’s Only Rock and Roll, on view at Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco, now through September 16, 2015.
Freeberg’s photograph resonates with vibrant life, with a man who understood his purpose while on this here life was to create art for all people to enjoy. Freeberg’s photograph is but one of the icons on display at It’s Only Rock and Roll, and shows itself as part of a larger continuum of the development of an art form that swept the world.
Photo: Ebet Roberts, Sid Vicious/Sex Pistols, 1978
Featuring photographs of legendary rock music icons including Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, The Who, and Sid Vicious, It’s Only Rock and Roll includes photographs by masters of the medium including Baron Wolman, Bob Gruen, Jim Marshall, Ebet Roberts, and Michael Zagaris.
With the passing of time, we are able to reflect on the ways in which the second half of the twentieth century gave birth to a style of music that is distinctly American in its origins. By combining blues, boogie woogie, jazz, and gospel music with bluegrass, swing, and country music at a time in this country before Civil Rights took hold, rock and roll was born. It brought together black and white artists and it spoke to the youth, shaking up the establishment as nothing else had.
Photo: Michael Zagaris, The Last Note, Pete Townshend/The Who, Winterland, San Francisco, California, 1976
This challenge of the status quo has been inherent to rock music for as long as it has existed. When it traveled overseas and hit Britain, it unleashed a force ready to explode. Whether it was The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, or The Sex Pistols, the rebellious spirit of the music continued to bring new artists to the fold, and what remains all these years later is the music, and the photographs that we can joyously behold.
It’s Only Rock and Roll is on view at the Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco, now through September 16, 2015.
Header: Baron Wolman, Jimmy Hendrix with Guitar, 1968
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
