R.I.P. ANITA PALLENBERG

fair usage © 1971 Dominique Tarlè. All Rights Reserved.
 L-R: Anita Pallenberg, Dominique Tarlè (in mirror,) Keith Richards, Gram Parsons, Gretchen Parsons.

The end of an era in ultimate rock and roll consorts: word from the newswires that Anita Pallenberg passed away at the age of 73. I never met her, but my better half Mr. Twister cavorted with her, and with Mick Marianne and James and Andee the summer that Mick and James starred together in their film Performance. 

My non-degree of separation is that I fought HARD to get the above photograph for Sid Griffin's book, Gram Parsons: A Music Biography for which I did the Art Direction. Tarlè's photographs of the Rolling Stones' louche summer, 1971, in Nellcote, France to record Exile On Main Street weren't all that well known at the time of the book's writing, but Sid indeed found and paid the photographer for these shots I thought essential to explaining the country-rock connection between Keith and Gram. My reward came when a reviewer of this book claimed that this one photo spoke volumes about decadence that no words ever could approach. 

I'm also saddened at what her passing represents. This actress/model/muse/hellraiser frequently was deemed 'the woman who out-Keithed Keith.' As I noted in my review of Miss Pamela Des Barres' film about groupies (LINK)* "...What a shame that, as the decades rolled forth, the requirements for the position of rock star consort shifted away from diverse, vibrant, creative extroverts like these women into the current stasis that only 6'1" anorexics with multiple plastic surgeries i.e. international supermodels need apply."


 *http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2010/12/lets-spend-night-together-with-groupies.html