May 18, 2020

May 12th would have been George Carlin's 83rd birthday. George passed away on June 22, 2008 and left us with some of the best comedy routines ever performed. He was making appearances right up to the end of his life.  He had just finished an HBO special and was working on another. George appeared on the Johnny Carson show multiple times and even hosted it more than once. He also hosted Saturday Night Live and to this day is the only host to not do any skits during the show. That was his idea.

The early 1970's were very good to George and afforded him his own private jet for getting to shows and back.  He made several albums as the clean dressing short haired comedian, then he transformed his look to long hair and jeans.

The seven words that you cannot say on television became his trademark, especially when he got arrested performing that routine at Milwaukee's Summerfest on July 21, 1972.

I was at that show and the photographs here are from that night!  One picture shows him being hauled off the stage to be arrested! I'll never forget that night.

The stage manager was a friend of mine. He quickly emptied out his pockets that contained cocaine and marijuana before the actual arrest that some people were enjoying!  Otherwise, the arrest would have been even worse!   That full story will be in my upcoming book that I am currently working on.

Those seven words can be said in my blog though!!  They are- shit, piss, cunt, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits!! I think I have heard a few of those since 1972 on television, haven't you?

Check out some of his You Tube classic video shows.

Here are some of my photos of that wild night in 1972.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 4, 2020

Being ordered to stay at home because of the COVID-19 virus, we are all starving for some real racing, at least I am!  The iRacing events with drivers using simulators in their homes is interesting,  but it just won't do.

Both the Indy 500 and the Kentucky Derby have been postponed this year. That has not happened since WW2. I suspect we will all remember this time period for the rest of our lives. The children will most likely remember the home schooling on personal computers.

For a blog this week, let's look at Arie Luyendyk through the years. I don't have photos of Arie during his IRL days here because my IRL files are buried in the closet and in time I will put them on my website. Here though are some good examples of Arie and his early days in CART and Indy Car.

At the time these photos were taken, I was a contributing photographer for Indy Car Racing Magazine. The magazine office was less than a mile away from the Milwaukee Mile track. The photos are from the Milwaukee Mile and Road America. See if you can figure out the year of each car for fun!

I like the style of these cars so much more than our present day Indy Cars. For sure they were not as safe as the current cars but wow, they were fast and good looking race cars!

Stay safe everyone and let's hope we have Indy Car back in action at Road America in June, with social distancing of course.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Going through the files today and finding a bunch of Arie Luyendy for a fun look back.

April 20, 2020

In the past I have written blogs about John Prine who is in my opinion is the best songwriter and storyteller in the world. Steve Goodman was a good musician and friend of John's who would have to be the second best. John Prine lyrics are just amazing and to think he wrote some of his early material during his six years as a mailman in Maywood, Illinois!

John passed away on April 7, 2020 at 74 years old. It put tears in my eyes and I'm sure a lot of other people felt the same way.  COVID-19 was stronger than John and took him to heaven. He is now with his buddy Steve Goodman who passed in 1984. When they did a show together it was really a fun time with many great songs and stories.

I had the pleasure of photographing John twice, in 1972 and then again in 1974 when I worked for the Bugle American newspaper. I have seen him probably six or seven times and every performance was just great.

My photographs of John are some of my favorite images. In 1974 when he played at Milwaukee's Summerfest Schlitz Country stage, I gave him a photo from the Milwaukee PAC 1972 show and had a few Schlitz beers with him backstage. It was called the Schlitz Country Stage after all so we had to have some Schlitz beer and it was flowing pretty good and I was only 19! John loved the photo and we joked about the 1972 photos where he had Pabst beer on his stool and now it was Schlitz! I always wanted to get a photo autographed by him and never did after all these years...

The 1974 photographs are fun to look at because it was about 100F and the Summerfest Skyglider ran almost right above the stage. John was talking to the people up there and they were talking to him which made for some interesting banter.  It also made for some great photographs of him looking up at them talking and playing around.

John had some health issues and could not smoke anymore and he LOVED to smoke cigarettes! He often said that when someone would lite up a cigarette he'd rush over to get a whiff of that first puff! He even wrote a song about going to heaven and smoking a nine mile long cigarette.

My heart goes out to his family and to our Milwaukee promoter, Peter Jest and his wife Karen who became very good friends of John.

We lost a good one on April 7th.  He will be sadly missed.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

April 6, 2020

I hope everyone is doing well during our pandemic right now. Here in Wisconsin we are being advised to stay at home.  There is not much traffic out there so hopefully everyone is complying and staying safe.  It's a good time to get house projects done and other chores.

We go back in time today for my blog which is about my first paying music related photo job!!! I was 17 years old, in high school and working at Camera Corner here in Milwaukee every day after school.

My boss at Camera Corner, John Dunar, was very nice and saw my interest of getting into the music photography business. A friend of John's was Dave Kennedy of Dave Kennedy Recording Studios. They were talking together in the store one day and Dave said he had a band called The Serendipity Singers coming in to record that week. Then he asked me if I would like to photograph this folk band and document their day of recording in his studios! Before I could say yes he even offered to pay me!

The day is documented here and you can even see my photo gear bag in one photo. The experience was an eye opener for me in a few ways. It was the first time in a recording studio and I was just in love with the technology that surrounded me. Dave Kennedy had THE 16 track tape machine of the time, an Ampex Master Maker 1000 16 track recorder!

The second eye opener of the day happened when I learned that my borrowed camera was stolen!  I borrowed it from Camera Corner with permission from my boss. I wanted to have two cameras available to me that day.  I put one of the cameras on a couch in the reception office for a few minutes. In less than five minutes someone took it and it was never seen again along with the exposed film that was in it. My boss at the camera store was very nice about it but it was a big life lesson for me!  Still would really like to have that film.

Enjoy the photos that I have of that very interesting day.  They even played kazoo's! Remember those?

Be safe everyone.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

March 23, 2020

On March 8, 2020 a very nice memorial tribute was held at Anodyne Coffee in Milwaukee to honor the Mighty Stokes who passed away several weeks earlier. Stokes was a major blues man in Milwaukee who influenced many people.

The last time I saw Stokes was at The Up and Under club on Brady Street about 25 years ago! Sad to say I never photographed him.

He influenced all the performers at this tribute for sure.

We stayed for a good portion of the night and got to see and hear some great music.

My good old high school mates Leroy Airmaster performed with Steve Cohen, Bill Stone, Marc Wilson and Dave Kasik doing some great music as usual.

Jim Liban and his blues combo played some rockin' blues with Perry Weber and Kurt Koenig. Milwaukee Slim even joined them for a while!

Stokes was smiling upstairs for sure.

Enjoy a look at the evening.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

John Andretti racing at the Milwaukee Mile IRL race in 2008.

March 9, 2020

On March 4, 1973, Pink Floyd arrived at the Dane County Coliseum for a show that would become a favorite show for a lot of people.

The "Dark Side of the Moon" album had just been released and the show centered around that music.

A large rotating disc with fog behind it rotated behind the band for some nice lighting during some of the show.

I remember driving in my 1972 Volkswagen Squareback with some friends from Milwaukee to Madison for the show. Loved that car and it had a great heater but we all froze waiting outside for the general admission show doors to open!

Then we ran inside when the doors were opened to get as close to the stage as possible.

The original film of black and white negatives were given to a friend years later who was doing a book on the band. She didn't look after my kids (the film), and they were never seen again!!

Recently, I found a few 5 x 7 prints and the proof sheets from the show!  It's better than having nothing at all but hard to duplicate the original film.

I photographed the 5 x 7 prints and they came out alright considering they were printed on matte finish paper in 1973. Matte paper shows a lot of grain in the fibers unfortunately.

We are working on the proof sheets but they are stuck in plastic and also printed on matte paper!

Check out what I have so far and maybe more photos will happen down the road.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Pink Floyd in March of 1973 at the Dane County Coliseum.

February 24, 2020

Lifetime Achievement Grammy Awards will be presented to Isaac Hayes and John Prine soon with a television ceremony in April.

This blog looks at Isaac Hayes when he played Summerfest in 1973. I remember it as a very hot and humid night with Isaac having a lot of fun.

Isaac continued his music career for many years with the theme song that he wrote and performed for the movie "Shaft" and then became the voice of Chef on "South Park".

Check out that hot night in July of 1973 with Isaac playing keyboards and saxophone and singing away!

He was a legend!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann