suicideblonde:

Queen II (1974) album photographed by Mick Rock

The band had hired Rock because they wanted to, in Rock’s words, “graft some of [the trademark] decadent ‘glam’ sensibility” of his work with artists such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. Describing it as a “sort of a knockoff of an old Marlene Dietrich shot”, the photographer took inspiration for the cover from a still of the actress from the 1932 film Shanghai Express. ”And of course no one was ever more ‘glam’ than the divine Ms Dietrich”, Rock said.

Although the band almost rejected the photograph because they felt it too pretentious, Rock convinced them otherwise; “It made them look like much bigger a deal then they were at the time, but it was a true reflection of their music.” The image was reused by Queen for the promotional video of their 1975 single “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “One Vision”  in 1986.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------