Well known and Well Loved

Not all Top 100 entries come from anthropological sources. Like anyone else I do enjoy recordings from the contemporary music industry from the good old United States. Three examples of some exciting popular music happened to be up for painting conforming to their respective position on the lists. These are the number 9 of 2021, and numbers 68 and 70 of 2020.

Miles Davis with James Mtume, 11x14 inches, oil

Rated X by Miles Davis was recorded as part of the On the Corner sessions in 1972. The song didn't make it to the On the Corner album but was then released on the compilation Get Up With It. Rated X is one of those rare Miles tracks in which he does not play the trumpet but sticks to an organ. For the double portrait I paired Miles with percussionist James Mtume. The image is taken from a still from a 1973 concert in Vienna.

Wayne Coyne and Yoshimi P-We, 11x14 inches, ink

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 2 by the Flaming Lips was next in the 2020 series that are all on 11x14 paper. I paired the main singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne with Yoshimi P-We, who was the inspiration for the song and album it appears on from 2002, and whose cries and yelps are heard on this otherwise instrumental song. Yoshimi P-We is the drummer of the legendary Japanese band the Boredoms as well the singer of the all female OOIOO. The other Flaming Lips members at the recording sessions for the Yoshimi album are Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins.

Lana Del Rey, 14x11 inches, ink on paper

Then at number 70 is the song Love or Young and in Love as it's sometimes called. It was written and performed by Lana De Rey. This is the first time I did a portrait of Del Rey. Some of her peers (read: Cat Power, but also Fiona Apple) have been portrayed multiple times. Love comes from her 2017 album Lust for Life.