Larry Graham, Oakland, California ©1977 In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Larry Graham played bass and sang with Sly and the Family Stone. His was the voice on their classic hit “Dance to the Music” that said, “I’m gonna add some bottom so that the dancers just won’t hide,” before he launched into a featured bass line that defined the groove of the tune.By 1977, Larry had left Sly and started a solo career, founding his own group, Graham Central Station. In addition to shooting the whole band at my place in San Francisco, I went up to his house in the Oakland hills to shoot a series of publicity photos of him relaxing in elegant style at home.Among the many memorabilia he still had reflecting his days playing with Sly almost ten years earlier was a large painting of himself, old-school style, wearing a funky red sweatshirt, a floppy-brimmed hat, and a big trademark smile, with his hands clasped in front of him.I thought it would be cool to get a shot of him standing in front of
that painting in his well-fitted, double-breasted gray suit -- a kind
of stylistic “before-and-after” in a single image, but with
the exact same hand-clasped body position and signature smile, which
was one thing that fortunately had not changed at all through the years.
Both of those personas were still pure Larry, and it was still all good. |