Joel Bernstein is a renowned photographer and archivist closely associated with Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Crosby-Stills-Nash, and of course Neil Young. Joel went down to Neil's Christmas party at his ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Sunday . . . while the rest of us were rockin' at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles. He brought with him a copy of ROCKIN' that I'd signed for Neil literally the first day when the book magically appeared off the boat from China, where it was printed.
Neil was very pleased to receive the book and was visibly proud to see that Joel's photo of him 'racing away' is indeed the final visual element, on the very last page (see photo here). And, that I devoted a special section to Neil and his cars--and one of his first reactions upon seeing that spread, and Henry Diltz' large photo, was to say to Joel, "hey, that Cadillac's right out front here at the ranch." Neil also laughed when he saw the promo shot of him holding the guitar above his white Biarritz (shot to promote his 1985 "Trans" LP), saying "that's me doing my arm exercises." It's also the shot which Darrell Mayabb used as inspiration for the book's jacket.
Neil and his family displayed the book on the big coffee table for all to see. Here's what Neil had to say, as paraphrased and relayed by Joel:
"Wow. I mean wow. This is so comprehensive! To see Joel's picture there . . . that's really a great, unexpected honor. Please tell everyone at Motorbooks, and tell Grushkin, that you all did a fantastic job on a great subject. I'm going to sit with this one for a long time."
1 comment:
It's also the shot which Darrell Mayabb
used as inspiration for the book's jacket.
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