Mar 042011
In our recent Who Is It? game there was some disagreement over just how iconic Nicolette Larson‘s upturned chunky sandal was. It turns out, however, that I wasn’t the only Townsman to have had that image driven into his brain. And I’m not a foot fetishist, but it’s interesting what the mind can retain. My guess is that some of you will be able to identify more than half of the following feet. Collectively I wouldn’t be surprised if you can name all but one. What do you think?
Walk Before You Run
#1
#2
#3
#4
Too easy for you? Try our next level!
Thank goodness, I actually knew a couple of these. I was thinking I was going to have to cancel my username.
#6 – Stevie Nicks (cover of “Rumours”)
#7 – Debbie Harry (cover of “Parallel Lines”)
I’m wondering where the most iconic foot of them all is: Joe Jackson from “Look Sharp”
I wish I’d thought of Joe Jackson. Yes, you have identified two of the iconic feet. Well done!
#3 George (the gravedigger) Harrison from Abbey Road
Correct!
#4 – Joey Ramone (cover of Ramones)
#1 Elvis Costello (cover of My Aim Is True — the color threw me off, my copy has a black-and-white photo)
Is #5 a Style Council photo?
The only other one I can think of that would qualify as iconic for me would be Cyril Jordan’s star-spangled boots on the cover of Teenage Head:
http://www.academyannex.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/FlaminGroovies_TeenageHead.jpg
#9 — The Kid on the cover of Quadrophenia
#12 — Please, oh please, let that be Ted Nugent.
#12 looks like something Neil Young would have worn during his Buffalo Springfield Hollywood Indian days.
Man I KNOW #5 — I swear I do. It’s a mid-60s dude…
I GOT IT! Mick Jagger on the cover of “High Tide and Green Grass”
http://images0.wax.fm/rolling_stones_big_hits_high_tide_green_grass-NP-1-1255702381.jpeg
#6 is Stevie Nicks on the cover of Rumours.
I’m shocked at how many of these feet I know!
http://www.away-team.com/rock/wp-content/uploads/Fleetwood-Mac-Rumours.jpg
Correct.
Yes, just one more to go on the entry-level page, a foot that’s NOT from an album cover.
AWESOME call on #9, HVB!
Good guess on #12, but not right.
It does, but it’s not.
YES! The Style Council guess was a good one.
Is #12 The Friendly Giant ?? Perhaps some rare album he put out with Rusty and Jerome.
Awesome guess, but no! That shot, I believe, is NOT from an album cover.
Biggest surprises so far are that no one’s gotten #8 or #10, each taken from albums that I would guess 75% of Townspeople own or at least know pretty well.
#8 – Star Trek – the Album.
That’s funny because HT&GG was my first guess, but when I tried to find reproductions of that cover online they all seemed to cut Jagger off at the knee.
I remember being very confused by that shoe when the album came out, because it didn’t look like anything I thought was cool, but it had to be cool if Jagger was wearing it.
It took me awhile to find an image of the album cover that had that shoe! I was wearing a pair of desert boots the other day when this thread seemed to be the next logical step in a silly game. My vinyl copy shows Jagger’s foot, but I would guess it’s the different dimensions of a CD cover that made chopping off his shoe a necessity.
For all correct guesses so far I’ve linked the photos to their full photos. Just click on the correctly guessed photos if you, like BigSteve, feel the need to confirm an early guess or otherwise place the correct guess in context.
No. A host of rock nerds will be upset with themselves when someone finally guesses correctly.
Is #8 Keith Richards?
Nope. If I can find a better shot of those feet I’ll post a new version of that photo. It pains me to see people I respect so much stumped by this one.
#12 — So funny! I was in the midst of posting about how I thought I could visualize the rest of this guy’s outfit: “jester” pants, Elizabethan troubador frock, lute, etc. Then I stopped and said to myself: wait a minute — what bands fit that visual stereotype? One — and only one (Robert Plant is a medieval troubador wannabe) fit the bill. These guys:
http://img.listal.com/image/824040/600full-jethro-tull.jpg
So, yes, the foot in question belongs to Rock’s own Sadaharu Oh-stanced renaissance flautist, Ian Anderson!
I am particularly proud of the fact that I found a *different* photo of Anderson’s wandering minstrel boots. I further submit that if the boot you depict is not Anderson’s — though they are clearly made by the same cobbler — I deserve extra credit, *and* RTH needs to find out who England’s medieval cobbler to the stars was!
Future generations should study your SUCCESSFUL approach to this problem, HVB. Bravo! You may now click on the photo of that boot to see it in its full Elizabethan glory.
Funny, beside the still-unidentified #2, I think the remaining unidentified cropped images of iconic shoes are all boots: #8, #10, and #11.
I’m surprised that The Clash aren’t reflective of one of the photos. I keep trying to squeeze Paul Simonon into # 10.
It pains me that no one’s gotten #10. This is the sort of cropped foot image for which the doors of the Hall remain open. Kind man that I am, I have provided an expanded view of that boot. Good luck!
#10: Lou Reed, as his feet were always meant to be shod!
No, wait: Sterling Morrison. Or is that Doug Yule? I always get them confused.
I’m more obsessed with #2. Who’s foot IS that?
Morrison it is – and the answer comes from a well-known VU hater! The rest of you may click on the expanded image to better kick yourselves.
I’m pretty sure this image has run before in its full glory in some other RTH post. Same goes for #8.
#11, on the other hand, is from a personal fave of mine. I know I’ve talked about the album a couple of times, but I’ve yet to write up an in-depth piece on the deep meanings that album and its cover hold for me.
#11 is Joe Cocker?
Yes! You may now click on the cropped shot to see that album cover in its full front-cover glory. So much more, however, is contained in the gatefold, a subject I must cover one day.
It was driving me crazy, because I kept mentally panning back on the image and getting this:
http://www.minilps.net/rolling-stones/sticky-fingers-vjcp-27001/inner-sleeve-photo-17#bigpic
Something about the sideways stance finally clicked.
That’s funny. I was originally thinking I’d find a shot of Cocker’s feet that would clearly show the big heel on his foot attached to the shorter leg. In the batch of goodies my uncle brought me from attending a show on that tour there was a clear image of his larger heel, which fascinated me as much as another unusual piece of footwear that entered my consciousness at that time, former Saints/Eagles kicker (and New Orleans bon vivant) Tom Dempsey’s stub foot cleat:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/tom%20dempsey%252527s%20shoe/lwiedy/tr0205247-1.jpg
Of the handful of cool things I’ve thrown away or lost over the years, that haul from the Joe Cocker show my uncle brought me may top the list. There was some face-size cardboard poster on a stick that had a close-up of Cocker’s face on one side and the actual, non-doctored cover shot of the album on the other side. So cool!
Hey — which is the foot we’re not supposed to be able to guess?
Ha, I finally got #2. Tina Turner!
It was a complicated algorithm of period of shoe x female artists of that time period x Mr. Moderator’s mind x recently music on RTH listings (such as the last Saturday Night Shut In!).
You guessed it: Ian Anderson. I figured Joe Cocker would be hard too, but was hoping one of my fellow hippie sympathizers, like BigSteve, geo, or gregg, would deliver. BigSteve came through!
Well done! Yet another lesson for future generations. The full image is now available for view.
I can’t take it any longer: a visual mercy clue has been provided for #8 on pg 2 of this post. If you don’t get it now I’m blocking all of your IPs!
Not Ron Ashton, the other one.
Finally! The site will remain up.
Mystery solved: Some of the difficulty in identifying this seminal photo is that the 8-track cover has a cropped image that does not show these boots, and the cassette and cd pressings do not have the photo at all. I have to admit that Mr. Royale and I spent many, many minutes (hours!) trying to research this photo today, and yes, we do own this cd. Mr. Royale is indignant “that we will never be compensated for our time.” Honestly, we were going bonkers trying to figure out those damn boots.
THIS is true rock nerd-dom.
I think the lesson is that Funhouse was meant to be listened to on vinyl:P
cdm sent me the following informative and shocking link regarding Iggy Pop’s modern-day footwear:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1063926/Rock-Crocs-Iggy-Pop-enjoys-uplifting-stroll-Cannes-customised-Crocs.html
Although I must say that listening to it last night on the kitchen cd player while chopping onions for dinner was a pretty exhilarating experience.