Left to right: Iggy, James, Elton. Richards, Atlanta, 1973.
James Williamson: ‘Yeah, so Elton John is in town for whatever reason, and I think he was kind of a fan of the Stooges or else he wanted to get some action with somebody or whatever. Anyway, he showed up in a gorilla suit and came onstage while we were playing. Everybody’s looking at this guy like, “Who the fuck is this?” and he was pretty close to getting in some real trouble onstage with us. You know, like getting hit with a guitar or something. Anyway, I think he sensed that and took his head off and showed us that he was Elton.’
“For a couple of seconds, as Elton emerged from the wings in his gorilla suit, Iggy thought he was hallucinating, or else a real gorilla was raiding the stage. The Creem photograph documenting the event is hilarious, showing James Williamson transfixing the uppity ape with a malevolent glare that signals, he says, his intent to ‘take him out. He lucked out, because he was smart enough to take his head off to let people know who he was, just in time.’”
DAYTONA BEACH, 1999
In 1999, award-winning Magnum photographer Eli Reed set off to document spring break in Daytona Beach, Florida. Having watched the white kids getting hysterically drunk and “trying to crawl up inside the backside of uncaring contestants” in wet t-shirt competitions, he moved on to the black spring breakers who were doing much better things, like driving around with albino pythons and stuff.
