SMILE: David Bailey, Jean Shrimpton, The Krays - The Ballad of Dave & Jean.
The song, Smile, started out as a sort of homage to the 60s, a time of change and rebellion, swinging London, The Beatles, dodgy trousers, but a breath of fresh air to many. Dave and Jean are David Bailey and his muse, Jean Shrimpton. Bailey, an East End wide boy with a talent for photography and Shrimpton, an iconic fashion model and actress.
I think many see Bailey as a ‘chancer’ but I have always admired his approach to life, his work as a photographer and artist, his irreverence and down to earth nature – he may have been a rake but he is a talented one. I drew inspiration for the song ‘Smile’ from a BBC production: ‘We’ll take Manhattan’ originally broadcast in 2012, which charts the errant couple’s affair and their one-week Vogue assignment in New York (1962) for a fashion shoot.
Bailey’s style clashed with the prevailing 1960s approach to fashion photography - the establishment way, fussy, ornate, privileged, predictable. He wanted something different, new, vibrant, of its day. He challenged the orthodoxy, and, in the end, he got his way!
‘The Waterfront and China Town’ were both locations where Bailey and Shrimpton exercised their intention to experiment, to find new ways to express themselves during the shoot in Manhattan. It was a gamble. Vogue Magazine was a society magazine. Bailey was anything but society. However, he subsequently managed the class transition with consummate ease: always a man destined to sit at the top table of life. Bailey is quite indignant that his work does not involve trying to ‘capture the soul’ of his subjects, ‘My camera stole your heart, took your soul.’ He regards this artistic intent, often attributed to him, as nonsense. ‘You can’t photograph someone’s soul.’ ‘Making money in our dreams’ is a direct quote from Bailey, no doubt delighted with his success.
Shrimpton’s career began when she was just 17, ‘Here you are at seventeen, beautiful, the Harpers Queen’ but effectively ended when she withdrew from celebrity and opted for a more conventional life running a hotel in the West Country. Her decision to become somewhat reclusive, is referred to in ‘Smile’ as ‘a shadow taken wings,’ and ‘this poor smile will hide away.’
Bailey went on to photograph many celebrities including East End celebrities, Ronnie and Reggie Kray (The Kray Twins), notorious villains that ran their local manor during the sixties. Bailey’s images of them became best sellers adorning T shirts, posters, and a whole range of other ‘earners’ that provided the Twins with a source of income after they were banged up for misbehaviour.
In the song they are represented as ‘Cousin Jack and Uncle Jill’ although at the time I had Jack McVite, another East End villain unceremoniously killed by the Krays, in mind. ‘Witty pleats and little frills’ is another Bailey quote, his view of the fashion industry.
‘In Fashion photography you have to show the frock’ (Bailey 2020)
SMILE
Smile, smile, smile, smile
Photo chrome don’t you lie
Butterfly in a sepia sky
The Waterfront and Chinatown
My camera stole your heart, took your soul
Open-up that family book
Damn your fate but bless your luck
Every photograph’s a life
A shadow taken wings
Some win, some just feign
Innocence, we played that game
Kicking down the dead of night
One day this poor smile will hide away
Here you are at seventeen
Beautiful, the Harpers Queen
Every photograph’s a life
Just us growing up
Say hello, say goodbye, stick around, ‘we could try’
Making money in our dreams
Don’t ask me where I’m going now, I’m going now
Cousin Jack and Uncle Jill, witty pleats, and little frills
Every photograph a life, that’s never clear enough
Photo chrome don’t you lie Butterfly in a sepia sky
