50+ Iconic Photographs Of Rock Stars Of 70s Taken By Bob Gruen

Few photographers have spent as much time inside the world of rock and roll as Bob Gruen. Over more than four decades, he built a body of work that stands as one of the most complete visual records of popular music ever assembled. His access wasn’t accidental. Gruen earned trust from the biggest names in the business, and that trust got him close enough to capture moments that most photographers never saw.

In the 1970s, Gruen served as chief photographer for Rock Scene Magazine, putting him at the center of New York’s exploding music scene. He also worked as a personal photographer for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, a role that gave him an extraordinary window into their private lives. His photograph of Lennon wearing a New York City t-shirt in front of the Statue of Liberty became one of the most recognized images in rock history. Another shot of Lennon flashing a peace sign became equally iconic.

The range of artists Gruen photographed is staggering. From the Rolling Stones to the Ramones, from David Bowie to Tina Turner, his lens caught rock royalty at their rawest and most candid. He later curated his favorite images into a lavish monograph, complete with personal captions and behind-the-scenes stories written in his own words. The collection below draws from that archive — 60 photographs spanning some of the most electric personalities in music history.

David Bowie was one of the defining figures of the early 1970s, and Gruen photographed him during some of his most transformative years. The Ziggy Stardust era produced some of the most visually striking performances in rock history, and Gruen was there to document it.

New York City in the early 1970s was a magnet for creative collisions. Rock stars, actors, and artists crossed paths constantly, especially in the city’s clubs and party scenes. Gruen’s camera caught many of those unexpected meetings.

Gruen’s relationship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono was one of the most personal in his career. He photographed them throughout the 1970s, capturing both public moments and quieter, more intimate ones. By 1980, he was still close enough to document them together just months before Lennon’s death in December of that year.

Not every subject in Gruen’s archive was a rock musician. Michael Jackson, photographed in 1977, was still in his teens and on the edge of his solo superstardom. Elton John, meanwhile, was already a global phenomenon by 1970, just as Gruen began documenting him.

Elton John’s early partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin was the creative engine behind some of the biggest albums of the era. Gruen photographed them together in 1971, early in a collaboration that would reshape pop and rock music through the decade.

Iggy Pop was one of Gruen’s recurring subjects. Raw, physical, and unpredictable on stage, Pop represented a side of rock that had little interest in polish or presentation. Gruen photographed him multiple times across the 1970s, in Los Angeles and beyond.

The late 1970s brought punk rock into full swing, and Gruen documented that scene with the same commitment he gave to classic rock. In 1979, he caught a remarkable meeting in Cleveland between the Clash and Bo Diddley, one of the founding fathers of rock and roll — a passing of the torch captured in a single frame.

Kiss were a theatrical force unlike anything else in 1970s rock. Their face paint, platform boots, and fire-breathing stage shows made them as much a spectacle as a band. Gruen photographed Paul Stanley in Tokyo in 1977 at the height of their global reach.

Keith Moon, the ferocious drummer of the Who, appears here alongside guitarist Leslie West in 1974. Moon was notorious for his offstage behavior as much as his playing, and Gruen’s photograph catches him in a candid moment away from the chaos he was known to create.

The Ramones were one of New York’s most important punk exports. Fast, stripped-down, and deliberately simple, they stood apart from the excess of 1970s arena rock. Gruen photographed them in their home city in 1975, before the rest of the world had fully caught on.

The Sex Pistols burned through their short career like a match. Gruen caught Johnny Rotten in Atlanta in 1978, during the band’s chaotic and ultimately final American tour. Sid Vicious was also on that tour, photographed in Baton Rouge the same year.

Kiss were still a young band when Gruen first photographed them in New York in 1974. By then they had already built a devoted following in the city. Their full image — all four members in costume and makeup — became one of rock’s most enduring visual identities.

John Lennon’s personal life was as closely watched as his music career. Gruen photographed Lennon with his son Sean in New York in 1975, during the period Lennon spent away from the music industry as a stay-at-home father. It was a private chapter that few photographers had access to document.

The Clash’s 1980 American tour produced some of Gruen’s most energetic documentary work. Joe Strummer was at the forefront of the band’s political and musical vision, and Gruen photographed him on that tour as the Clash pushed further into the American market.

Queen were still establishing themselves in America when Gruen photographed them in Memphis in 1974. Freddie Mercury’s stage presence was already a force of nature, and the band’s ambition was clear from the start. Gruen captured them again in New York in 1976 and 1977 as their American profile continued to rise.

Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa represent two very different sides of 1970s rock, but both passed through Gruen’s lens in New York during the mid-decade years. Dylan in 1974 was in the midst of a creative resurgence, while Zappa in 1975 was as prolific and unconventional as ever.

Some of Gruen’s most remarkable photographs are group shots that place multiple legends in the same frame. In 1972, he captured John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Mick Jagger together in New York — three of the biggest names in rock sharing a single photograph. Three years later, he documented an even more astonishing gathering that included David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Roberta Flack.

Debbie Harry and Blondie were central figures in the New York punk and new wave scenes of the late 1970s. Gruen photographed Harry on multiple occasions — in Boston in 1977, and with the full Blondie lineup in Toronto the same year — as the band moved from New York clubs to international stages.

Freddie Mercury photographed in New York in 1976 shows the Queen frontman in full command of his presence, even off the stage. Rod Stewart, also captured in New York in 1974, brought his own brand of flamboyant showmanship to the decade, and Gruen caught him at his mid-70s peak.

Aerosmith were still a young band on the rise when Gruen photographed them in New York in 1973. The Boston group had released their debut album that year, and the photograph is a rare early document of a band that would go on to define American hard rock for decades.

One of Gruen’s most crowd-packed photographs brings together Tina Turner, Elton John, Ann-Margret, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend in a single 1975 frame. The image came from the world surrounding the film Tommy, the Who’s rock opera adaptation, which united musicians and Hollywood in an unusual overlap.

The worlds of punk and mainstream rock collided in surprising ways throughout the late 1970s. David Bowie’s 1978 photograph alongside Joey Ramone, Linda Stein, Dee Dee and Vera Ramone places Britain’s most theatrical glam rocker in the same room as New York’s most deliberately unglamorous punk band.

The New York Dolls were one of the key bridges between 1970s glam rock and the punk explosion that followed. Gruen photographed Johnny Thunder and David Johansen in 1973, then captured the full band in New York a year later, documenting a group whose influence stretched far beyond their commercial reach.

The friendship between Alice Cooper and John Lennon is documented in a 1974 New York photograph that also includes May Pang, Lennon’s companion during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono known as the “Lost Weekend.” It’s a candid window into one of the stranger periods of Lennon’s personal life.

Joan Jett appears in two separate Gruen photographs from 1978 — one in Philadelphia alongside Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and another at the Sunset Marquis in Los Angeles. Jett was then a member of the Runaways, a band Gruen had also documented on Long Island in 1976 during the group’s early days.

Led Zeppelin at their New York peak in 1973 represent one of the high points of Gruen’s archive. The band was in the middle of their Houses of the Holy tour, playing to sold-out arenas across North America. Elton John and Stevie Wonder, photographed together on the Starship — the private plane Zeppelin and other rock acts used that era — show the unexpected social world that formed at the top of the music industry.

The Runaways were one of the first all-female rock bands to gain serious commercial attention. Gruen photographed them on Long Island in 1976, a year after the band formed. Joan Jett’s later solo career made her the most recognized alumna of the group, but at this point they were still building their reputation on the road.

One of the most historically significant photographs in the collection shows Elton John and John Lennon together in 1974. The two had collaborated that year on the recording of “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,” which became Lennon’s first number-one solo single in the United States. Elton John’s appearance on the track was the direct result of a backstage friendship that Gruen was positioned to document.