The Stories Behind Jim Marshall's Iconic Photos

Amelia Davis, longtime assistant, sidekick and sole beneficiary of Jim Marshall's estate, shares the stories behind the legendary music photographer's iconic works.

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Image via Complex Original
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Intro

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Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, 1968

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Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, 1968

Amelia Davis:“Johnny Cash giving the finger is [Marshall's] most iconic image and a lot of people don’t know that Johnny Cash really rallied for prisoner reform. That’s why he gave the free concerts at Folsom Prison and San Quentin State Prison, to really draw attention to prisoner reform because he felt that everybody deserves quality of life even if you are a prisoner.


 

That image resonates with people for change, fuck the establishment, all that kind of stuff. A lot of people use it illegally and reproduce it.


 

“When Johnny Cash went to those two concerts, he asked Jim to be his photographer. Jim was the only photographer at those two concerts. Jim was taking some photos during sound check and he looked at Johnny and said ‘Hey Johnny, give me one for the warden.’ And that’s when he flipped his finger so that’s what that was in response to.

"That image resonates with people for change, fuck the establishment, all that kind of stuff. A lot of people use it illegally and reproduce it. Jim was very vigilant during his lifetime, and we are after his lifetime, to protect the copyright for that. Especially with the Internet, photography is very accessible. Photographs are ripped off all the time and are not credited to the photographers and that’s a big issue."

Miles Davis at Isle of Wight Festival, 1970

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Miles Davis at Isle of Wight Festival, 1970

Amelia Davis:“It’s very rare to have a photo of Miles Davis smiling. Jim first saw Miles Davis in 1960 at the Monterey Jazz Festival and he had always wanted to meet Miles. He went up to him and said 'Hey Miles, I’m Jim Marshall' and Miles just looked at him and Jim said 'Why do you have a green trumpet?' Miles looked at Jim and said 'Hey motherfucker, I didn’t ask why you have a black camera.' Jim was terrified. Jim walked away and he didn’t see Miles again or really go up and talk to him until 5 years later. He was like this guy is freaking the shit out of me and that’s kind of hard to do to Jim because you know, Jim carried guns and knives so it was funny.


 

Jim said 'Why do you have a green trumpet?' Miles looked at Jim and said 'Hey motherfucker, I didn’t ask why you have a black camera.'


 

“He was determined to make friends with Miles Davis so Miles Davis loved John Coltrane and Jim knew that. It was that one famous shot of John Coltrane that Miles Davis really knew and loved and Jim knew that. So he made a print for Miles and again, went up to him after a show and was surrounded by people. Jim said 'Hey Miles I have a present for you' and Miles was like 'Leave me alone.' So Jim forced his way up there and gave it to Miles Davis and started walking away and Miles opened the package and goes 'Hey Marshall' and Jim turned around and he goes “What’s this” and Jim goes 'It’s a present for you.' Miles said 'For me?' and Jim said 'Yeah' and Miles said 'It’s John Coltrane, I love the guy.' Jim said “I know!” and Miles goes 'Well who took it?' and Jim goes “I did” and he looked at him and said 'Why don’t you take pictures of me like this?' and Jim goes 'Why don’t you let me?'

"From that point on Jim had full access to Miles Davis and photographed him and again, was one of the very few photographers that was able to capture Miles Davis at an unguarded moment where he’s smiling.I think he just captured him in an unguarded moment."

John Coltrane at Ralph Gleason's House, Berkeley, California, 1960

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John Coltrane at Ralph Gleason's House, Berkeley, California, 1960

Amelia Davis: “Jim met John Coltrane in San Francisco in North Beach in 1960 and he had just performed at one of the clubs and Jim said 'Hey what’s up John?' and John said 'Do you know how to get to Berkeley?' and Jim said 'Yeah, why?' and John goes 'Well I have an interview with Ralph Gleason tomorrow in Berkeley and I don’t know how to get there.' Jim said 'Well, I’ll drive you.' So he picked him up the next day and they went over Ralph Gleason’s in Berkeley and Jim got these beautiful intimate portraits of John Coltrane.

"John Coltrane was a really nice guy and he was going to Ralph Gleason’s house. Ralph Gleason was the music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and so he was going to be doing a story with him. Jim just drove him over and they both said you can stay and hang out while we’re doing the interview and snap away.


 

It’s pretty funny because Jim was a kind of a gruff and was always like 'I’m a Republican, I’m an American, I carry guns.' It’s funny that two of the democratic presidents collect his work.[Laughs]


 

"Jim did what he did best, he became a fly on the wall and they forget Jim was there. It was like Jim wasn’t there. That’s how he was able to get those really beautiful photographs of John Coltrane. John literally forgot Jim was there and he just clicked away.

"That was their first time meeting so Jim was really lucky. It was almost like he was in the right place at the right time which was great because that was very early on in Jim’s career as a photographer.

"That photo is actually hanging in the White House. That was an album cover and it was also given to Obama because he loves Jazz and he loves Coltrane so it was given to Obama as a present. Bill Clinton also has that photo. It’s pretty funny because Jim was a kind of a gruff and was always like 'I’m a Republican, I’m an American, I carry guns.' It’s funny that two of the democratic presidents collect his work.[Laughs]

Allman Brothers Band, Macon, GA, 1971

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Allman Brothers Band, Macon, Georgia, 1971

Amelia Davis: “That was the Fillmore East album cover and again, a really iconic photo. It was actually taken in Macon, Georgia and the Allman Brothers were also notorious for never smiling. I don’t know the reason but they were just very serious and they didn’t want photos of them smiling. Jim was with them and he set them up and was like 'Come on, guys, smile' and they were like 'No, we’re not going to smile.' So Jim finally said 'Alright guys, I’m the one who holds the coke so if you want any you’re going to have to smile.' And they all cracked up. They are laughing, they’re just like 'Oh my god, Jim.'

“He knew it was going to be the album cover, he got creative credit on it. He has a platinum covered album, he got one of those because he did the design of the album. That was really cool, a lot of people don’t know that about Jim.”

Mick Jagger on The Rolling Stones US Tour, 1972

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Mick Jagger on The Rolling Stones US Tour, 1972

Amelia Davis: “Jim was the official life photographer for The Rolling Stones 1972 tour on the West Coast. It’s pretty incredible. We have a book coming out this fall through Chronicle Books called The Rolling Stones 1972. It’s the first posthumous book after Jim died.

"Jim’s body of work is enormous and there’s so many photos that Jim never printed or shared with the world. This book is just of his time with the Stones for the 1972 tour. A lot of them nobody has ever seen. But this particular shot has been seen and is in the book. 


 

Jim was just really wonderful at kind of becoming a fly on the wall and being there for moments of when they had no idea he was there, and backstage.


 

"Jim was just really wonderful at kind of becoming a fly on the wall and being there for moments of when they had no idea he was there, and backstage. It was Mick Jagger just thinking about something and Jim just clicked it away. What’s great about all these photos is that you can really see that they’re unguarded and all the subjects-the musicians-felt very comfortable with Jim and he was very proud of that because that’s not easy to do. I think this photo was taken backstage at the LA Forum.

“That’s the reason we did the ‘Jack & Jim’ gallery because we partnered with Jack Daniels and Austin City Limits for the gallery. Jack Daniels was just the staple for all the rock 'n' rollers when they were touring and stuff. So we just had so many connections with Jack Daniels, the corporation itself collects Jim’s work. It’s too bad nothing like this happened when Jim was alive but we were able to do it after because we really wanted to do something together [with Jack Daniels]. When Austin City Limits at The Moody Theatre came about, Jack Daniels said we have the perfect venue to display Jim’s work it. It’s so perfect because those photos aren’t forced, they’re not fake, they’re just so natural.”

The Beatles at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, 1966

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The Beatles at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, 1966

Amelia Davis: “He was a veteran by 1966. By that time, Jim had taken so many photographs of so many bands and had album coves he was just the godfather of Rock N Roll photography.

“The Beatles were coming to San Francisco. Ralph Gleason was going to be doing some PR and stories with them so he called up Jim and Jim tagged along. They were going around the city doing different things and then Ralph Gleason put this concert together at Candlestick Park. Jim said it was insane. It was out of A Hard Day’s Night where everybody was screaming and women were fainting and crying. Jim was lucky enough to be the photographer there and they did not know at the time that that was the last public concert the Beatles did and Jim captured it.

"That’s one of Jim’s most iconic photos as well because you feel the moment and I think that’s what draws everybody to Jim’s photography. It is the moment and you can really feel it and go back to that moment."

Creedence Clearwater Revival, European Tour, 1971

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Creedence Clearwater Revival, European Tour, 1971

Amelia Davis: “Jim went on tour with them in 1971 or 1972 when they did a European tour and he was the only photographer there. He went to Europe with them. This was just another moment where they were just fucked up, having fun. [Laughs] They were in this jet and Jim said he was there, terrified, taking pictures and they went into a spin and they came out of it and Jim was like 'Blah' and threw up."

Sammy Davis Jr. backstage at CBS TV, Los Angeles, 1972

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Sammy Davis Jr. backstage at CBS TV, Los Angeles, 1972

Amelia Davis: “This is actually one of Jim’s lesser known photos, which is pretty cool. What a lot of people don’t realize is that Jim started out photographing jazz and then he moved to New York in 1962 and came back in 1964 and it’s a good thing he did that because he was here when rock ‘n’ roll really started.

“He really just loved all kinds of music. For him it was just really natural; if he really loved somebody and they just happened to be blues, it was blues. His body of work is really incredible because he has jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, rock n’ roll. It’s amazing. 


 

When he died, I found a box of songs that he wrote and they’re really bad. They’re like 'She left me and broke my heart.' [Laughs] But Jim was a sap at heart and you’d never know it from his gruff exterior but he had a really gentle soul on the inside if you got to know him.


 

"He really loved it all which is cuckoo and people would never realize it but he loved country music. When he died, I found a box of songs that he wrote and they’re really bad. They’re like 'She left me and broke my heart.' [Laughs]But Jim was a sap at heart and you’d never know it from his gruff exterior but he had a really gentle soul on the inside if you got to know him. So people are like 'What? Jim Marshall and country!' 

"He was just down there to photograph the tribute show and again, just caught Sammy Davis Jr. at a moment when obviously he was thinking about something and wasn’t aware that Jim was there."But this photo was at the Duke Ellington tribute in the CBS TV studios in Los Angeles in 1972. The really pivotal years for Jim’s work was really 1963 and 1972 because in 1963 he got a lot of his iconic jazz photographs and then in 1972 he did a lot of rock ‘n’ roll stuff.

"The cool thing about Jim too is he used completely manual cameras - they were all Leicas so if you look at Jim’s work, it shows what a master he was. He never cropped, he pretty much composed in the camera and that’s really unusual, especially nowadays. It really is a tribute to Jim as a photographer to look at these photographs. They’re not manipulated at all, what you see is what you get. He rarely used any kind of flash, he mostly used available light so it’s pretty cool."

Bob Dylan, Greenwich Village, 1963

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Bob Dylan, Greenwich Village, 1963

Amelia Davis: "This is when he moved to New York. He established himself on the West Coast and he wanted to go out East to establish himself out there because you had the other record labels there. He was there for literally two years and he did his thing and he was like 'Okay, I’m going back.' He also met a lot of the jazz guys out there-Monk, Ray Charles, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster. Again, he went to all the little jazz clubs in New York and was able to photograph them for that. Lesser known, he was also working for TimeLife and he was in the building there when President Kennedy was shot so they were all in shock and they said 'Just go down in the street and photograph everybody’s expressions.' He’s got these incredible photographs of people-you can see their eyes and faces were just shocked and devastated and stunned.

"That was an important year for him. He was out there and Bob Dylan was coming out. He knew Bob Dylan from photographing the Newport Folk Festival so he had a rapport with him anyway and so they met early in the morning in Greenwich Village and were kind of walking and going into cafes. Dylan literally just saw a tire and picked it up and started rolling it and again, Jim was there at that moment and just clicked it. It wasn’t set up, it was one of those things that just happened and again, that has become one of Jim’s iconic photographs as well."

Thelonious Monk and Allen Ginsberg, Monterey, CA 1963

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Thelonious Monk and Allen Ginsberg, Monterey, CA 1963

Amelia Davis: “Isn't it funny? As Jim says, it looks like Ginsberg is looking at God. Again, Jim was there photographing the Newport Jazz Festival and so with all of Jim’s photographs, I think, we talked about that he captured the moment but also, it was really a different time back then. Those types of access-the all access that Jim had-doesn’t happen today because musicians have their handlers, managers. You have all of these layers that you have to go through but back then, there really wasn’t that. He would wander backstage at all of these festivals and concerts and he was able, through becoming a fly on the wall, to capture the moment.

"This was a tribute to Jim again, he saw that Ginsberg was totally stunned and amazed like 'I can’t believe I’m talking to Monk' and captured that photograph which is pretty incredible. Ginsberg was well known at that point too because of the ‘Howl’ that he had written. It’s just pretty cool for Ginsberg to be that shot.You almost feel voyeuristic when you look at that because it’s such an intimate moment for Ginsberg because it’s like wow, Jim caught it."

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