August 2007
[Extracts taken from the GQ article on rock photographer Mick Rock]
Pages 139, 141, 142, 143
THE 2007
GQ MUSIC
SPECIAL
THE BEST ROCK ALBUM IN THE WORLD… EVER
From Bowie to Blondie, the Killers to Queen, Mick Rock’s photographic archive includes many of music’s most enduring images. Here he talks Andy Morris through a life in pictures.
After shooting Bowie, Pop and Reed, Rock went on to photograph Queen (his image for the cover of Queen II inspired the “Bohemian Rhapsody” 
video) and then went on to capture the birth of New York punk. “I remember going down to CBGB’s in 1974, thinking, ‘What a shithole!’ There were 20 people there and three bands played. The Ramones, who were the ugliest bunch of rock’n’rollers I’ve ever seen, Television with Richard Hell, and Blondie, with the divine Miss Deborah Harry!”
The significance of the gig was somewhat lost on Rock. “To be honest, the only reason I went was because I heard William Burroughs was going to be there.” Despite such literary distractions, Rock soon developed a friendship with Blondie’s frontwoman, a relationship that continues to this day. He even once shot her for a Penthouse cover. “She was fully clothed, in black up to her neck. But with that face, you didn’t need to take anything off.”
“My immediate impression of Mick was that he was very tall, very handsome and quite mad. It seemed he was using sleight of hand during our sessions. If Mick were to be a drag queen his name would have been Miss Direction.”
(Debbie Harry, Blondie)
