Photography, Bondage, and the Beginning of the End of Van Halen
I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge Van Halen fan, but I seem to inevitably get sucked into the band’s mythos whenever an article like this surfaces. I find David Lee Roth, back in the day, to be this stunningly good-looking front man, and it makes me imagine a time when these four were at the height of their fame.
In The Private Photo Shoot that Sparked a War Inside Van Halen, we get an inside look at the start of when things begin to turn within the group.
Roth finds an opportunity to get photographer Helmut Newton to photograph the band, and this photo session ultimately produces a bondage-esque photo of Roth, chained to a fence. This image was only included in the first million vinyl pressings of the album Women and Children First.
The other band members were less impressed with Newton, and the few examples included in the article seem to support this. Perhaps they weren’t familiar with Newton’s work, or perhaps they disagreed with what Roth was hoping Newton would produce for the group. Or perhaps, as some suggest, it was all about Dave and never about the group to begin with.
The photo (featured above) is actually by Norman Seeff, who was later called in to do another photo shoot. Hearing the tensions within the band described, it’s kind of amazing that it doesn’t manifest in the photos by Seeff.
I don’t know what it is about this particular band, but I just find this stuff fascinating.
As a follow-up, I highly recommend checking out David Lee Roth Will Not Go Quietly – another great read.
[via MetaFilter, photo by Norman Seeff]
Related:
David Lee Roth Will Not Go Quietly
Van Halen and the Legend of the Brown M&M’s
David Lee Roth Explains the Truth Behind Van Halen’s Bizarre Request for “No Brown M&M’s”
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