Happy Birthday, Peter Wood

I created Everybody I Shot Is Dead to keep the memory alive of the musicians I photographed who have passed away. The bonus is having the opportunity to raise awareness of the musicians who were not huge rock stars, but were great talents none the less. So, I am extra excited to celebrate Peter Wood's 59th birthday today because he is one of those musicians you may not know. Or may know but just didn't know you knew.

He may be best known his co-writing credit on the Al Stewart number 1 hit, Year of the Cat. He also played on Pink Floyd's The Wall tour, and toured with Lou Reed which you may see below if I can't find anything new on youtube. He's British but transplanted to New York, where he did a lot of session work, so you've probably have him somewhere on your itunes.

We became fast friends when he I shot him (and he shot me) when he was touring with Al Stewart. The picture of me on the cover of Everybody I Shot Is Dead was shot by Peter Wood. We had other strange encounters in the years after I met him in Vancouver, some which continue to remain a mystery. I think he would get a laugh at the story I wrote on him in the book. It has to do with my confusion over all the Peters I encountered back then.

I love this picture I took of him backstage...

Peter Wood

4/9/50-9/18/94

Okay, no Lou Reed this time...you can see that footage on last year's birthday post . This time I found something from The Wall. It's Cyndi Lauper singing and you first see Peter around the 4:14 mark and then he has a solo at the 5:00 mark.

You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Peter Wood and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Rick Wright

Rick Wright
July 28, 1943 – September 15, 2008

You should know by now that I hate it when someone I've photographed passes away. The mid-seventies was such an amazing and magic time for music. I wish I could have stopped time so all of us could relive those times in eternity. Rick Wright and the work of Pink Floyd was a huge part of the magic of the time.

These are two of my photos of Rick Wright, previously unseen, first time out of the box.

The following is an amazing video I found on youtube. I'm guessing you haven't seen it since it's only had 2800 views. Rick Wright is featured in the studio playing piano on his song, Us and Them. Well worth a look. According to Wikipedia, this was a staged session shot in January 1973, while they were mixing Dark Side of the Moon, and is on the 1974 re-release of film, Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.

Oops...

...I owe a memorial post to Rick Wright of Pink Floyd who passed away on September 15th. I shot Pink Floyd sometime in 1975. Barely. I have 18 bad (as in the 'bad' bad, not the 'good' bad) black & white frames and 14 semi-not great color slides. I don't remember much about shooting the show and don't remember if I even met them. I'd like to say I was on LSD or something...but I wasn't.

I remember seeing them, and meeting them, years later - around 1992 - in Los Angeles...the show with the giant floating animals, but then again, Rick wasn't with them then. And I didn't take pictures at that show.

Hopefully, I will have a chance to scan a photo of Rick tomorrow...after I meet my new accountants so I can get my 2007 taxes done.

Also, I am wishing Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein speedy recoveries. I never photographed Blink 182. But I did allow Jaimie to go to their concert at the Hollywood Palladium - her first - with some friends when she was fifteen. When I picked them up, Jaimie proudly lifted her shirt. Written in a fat black Sharpie on her abdomen was:

Travis
was
here.

With a big arrow pointing downward to you-know-where.

Of course, she was thrilled. And I thank him for making her first concert a memorable one.