Who's who on the front cover of The Basement Tapes?

Paul W · Apr 11, 2008

Danny said: ↑

Yeah, but does he say who is on the cover?
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Nope!

Paul

jamesmaya · Apr 11, 2008

janschfan said: ↑

.....The Eskimo, is a musician named Charlie Chin who was once in
a band called Cat Mother & The All Night Newsboys, who opened for The Band
at their first NYC appearance at Fillmore East......
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Also played banjo on Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird".

Thelonious_Cube · Oct 8, 2014

Reviving this thread since the official release of the complete set is due soon and all things Basement are of interest!

According to this blog, neither Neil nor Todd Rundgren is in the photo

As for the participants, besides John Scheele, Bob Dylan's friend David Blue is seen, the "man in drag" giant at upper right is Ed Anderson (who is, I believe, a recording engineer) Bill Scheele is shown (a former road manager of The Band.) Rob Fabroni was also on the scene. Fabroni was a recording engineer working on the reissue, and he has said after the shoot, he, Dylan and David Blue went swimming at the YMCA pool.
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On that page, Bill Scheele responed:

Neil Young was not there... that is me in the hat next to Rick...

neither was Rob Fraboni... and no one went swimming !
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And on this page, an interview with John Scheele, we have a bunch of cool stuff:

JS: Reid should get a lot of credit for the shoot though -- it was really his specialty. Reid had a great reputation of his own. He did those Blue Note [record label] albums -- beautiful work, and graphically very striking. His photo business in Hollywood included occasionally putting together a tableaux of unusual characters; he was like a Fellini in that still-photography world. The Basement Tapes shoot was very much his thing- including finding the place to stage it, since there aren't a lot of basements in Los Angeles. [laughs] So it was at the Hollywood YMCA, of all places...

CC: Is that where it was? Can you tell me about it?

JS: Yeah, in their boiler room -- there was an area with pipes and mechanical gear all around. He'd brought together a cast of characters to represent the Basement Tapes -- Mrs. Henry, Quinn the Eskimo, and other characters that either came out of the songs or fit in with Bob's imagery. There's a beautiful scene in I'm Not There -- the Richard Gere episode -- that reminds me a lot of his shoot and the characters Dylan created. Reid helped bring all that out...

CC: Wasn't David Blue in the shoot?

JS: Yeah, David Blue was there as well; he was prominent on the cover, an old friend and colleague of Bob's. Part of the mystique of those Basement Tapes recordings is that there are no photos of the actual sessions, as far as I know. The recordings tell it all. Of course, there are some great pictures from right around the same time and just after...

CC: Elliott's photos?

JS: Yeah, photos that Elliott took. They give you the best sense of that period, but no cameras were ever in the basement with Dylan and The Band. So Reid's cover shots represent the music, in most people's minds...

CC: What was the shoot like?

JS: Everyone was having a great time preparing for it -- getting dressed, trying on costumes.

CC: So tell me, was all that planned specifically for that shoot? I never thought to ask Rick how that getup he was wearing came about. And Richard -- that uniform. Also, the poses...

JS: Yeah, I took a few shots of everyone getting ready for the shoot. The photos naturally help me remember what was going on. You probably have experienced this -- that the act of taking a photograph creates a special memory in itself.

CC: You had a cool behind-the-scenes perspective.

JS: Reid had brought in racks of clothes, a pre-fitted selection like you'd do for a casting call, to have pieces ready that would fit Bob or one of the other guys. I know there had to be some special requests because Ed Anderson, who was one of the team by then, was dressed up as a pageant queen. It was a lot of fun, because Ed's tall and gangly and does not make a very attractive girl. [laughs]

CC: Did those guys pick their own stuff?

JS: They all tried stuff on upstairs. When we went downstairs, I didn't take a lot of pictures or intrude into the session, because it was Reid's photo shoot. I only took a few snapshots of them getting ready, kind of documentary shooting. A few pictures show Bob posing people, moving them around in the shot. Reid had roughed out the basic composition, but Bob helped everyone strike their poses, adding to the surrealism.

CC: I can't picture him doing that.

JS: It was a great moment! Bill and I are in Reid's cover shot -- back in the smoky haze. My pictures aren't the greatest quality, but they give some insight...

CC: And they are in the moment, I'm sure.

JS: Yeah, and Reid was famous for destroying his own outtakes. He would have picked his best transparencies -- in this case, color slides -- and submitted them to Columbia. He'd reduce any second-guessing by basically saying "not only are these the best shots, they're the only shots." [laughs]
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I like the idea of Dylan posing folks for the shot. Too bad about the outtakes, though

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Who's who on the front cover of The Basement Tapes?

Paul W Senior Member

jamesmaya Senior Member

Thelonious_Cube Epistrophe of Light

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Who's who on the front cover of The Basement Tapes?

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jamesmaya Senior Member

Thelonious_Cube Epistrophe of Light

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