Songs about photography

[JohnL]

Look at that old photograph, is it really you?

Kris Kristofferson, This Old Road

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Duran Duran - Girls on Film

Of course! How did I miss that?

Then there's The Cure: "Picture of you"

 

[pesphoto]

Then there's The Cure: "Picture of you"

Very good!

 

[micromontenegro]

Let's get obscure: There's an Italian progressive rock song titled "Photos of ghosts" by Premiata Forneria Marconi.

 

[Joe Mondello]

Did anyone mention "Pictures Of Lily" by The Who?

There is a song called "Polaroids" by Shawn Colvin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MThw1Zbc88g

 

[Mohan]

How about the album

Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic

or the bands
the hidden cameras and camera obscura

 

[photogdave]

I just listened to this again. He also sings "heartbreakin' motor drive"!

 

[Kyle]

Flashbulb by the Murder City Devils

I hope you brought your flashbulb baby
To the show tonight
Take a million dallor picture honey
Of the band tonight
There's only one place
Only one place
I feel alright... up here
On stage tonight tonight tonight tonight tonight
You know where to find me
Baby on a saturday night
You know where to find me honey
On a saturday night
I hope you brought your flashbulb baby
To the show tonight
Take a million dallor picture honey of the band tonight
There's only one place
Only one place
I feel alright... up here
On stage tonight tonight tonight tonight tonight

 

[manfromh]

Ruja - Noore Fotograafi Uppumine

The title in english would be "Young Photographer's Drowning"

 

[markinlondon]

Let's get obscure: There's an Italian progressive rock song titled "Photos of ghosts" by Premiata Forneria Marconi.

My, PFM! I always preferred Stormy Six in Italian prog, but then I did support them once 🙂

How about the album

Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic

Ben Folds has been known to post at p.net

 

[UnclePaul]

"Photograph" by Natalie Merchant & Michael Stipe, from the "Born to Choose" benefit album.

 

[Sparrow]

Leica rollin stone…….Bob Dylan


Sorry if it’s already been posted

 

[Rogrund]

Not a song, but a band: Glasgow New Wave band Aztec Camera.

And of course, there's "Red Light" by Siouxsie & The Banshees:

She falls into frame with a professional pout
but the polaroids ignite on seeing their subject
and the aperture shuts - too much exposure

 

[wilt]

In "Sex dwarf" by Soft cell, Marc Almond sings about photography.

Slightly off topic, there's the cover of Big Beat (1976) by Sparks; not one of their strongest albums, but the b&w cover is shot by Richard Avedon.

Also, there's a fairly famous Kraftwerk picture where the Kraftwerk dolls (seems to be from the Man Machine era) are posing with various cameras.

 

[kbg32]

Mission of Burma - "This Is Not A Photograph"

 

[wlewisiii]

Here's a couple of more obscure titles:

Having My Picture Taken
The Boomtown Rats

My camera,
Sees things my eyes can't see.
I have it focused,
From here to eternity.
Catch the moment, catch the light, catch your breath
Let me freeze your frame.
We'll synchronize machine and brain,
But don't mind me...
I'm having my picture taken.

I can choose
Each day who I want to be.
You can choose
Each day who you want to see,
We'll scan the crowd and pan the rounds of all those
Distant scenes,
Immortalize a slice of time,
Hey don't mind me...
I'm having my picture taken.

Flash: another instant in an instamatic,
Click: another reflex set on automatic,
Snap: another moment of the life dramatic,
You really should have been there it was so fantastic

*written by Bob Geldof and Pete Briquette
*taken from the album "The Fine Art Of Surfacing"

The Buggles I Am A Camera

Memories how they fade so fast
Look back there is no escape
Tied down now you see too late
Lovers they will never wait

I am a camera
I am a camera

Take heart I will never let you go
If you wanna let your feelings show
Lovers all how they never broke your heart
You lose them if the feeling starts

I am a camera, camera, camera
I am a camera, camera, camera

There by the waterside
Here where the lens is wide
You and me by the sea
Taken in tranquility

Take heart I will never let you go
If you wanna let your feelings show
Lovers all how they never broke your heart
You lose them if the feeling starts

I am, I am a camera
I am a camera, I am a camera

I am, I am a camera
I am a camera,I am a camera

There by the waterside
Here where the lens is wide
You and me by the sea

 

[Nebulon]

Rush "The Camera Eye"

 

[wilt]

"Super 8" by German retro-futurists Welle:Erdball. Here's the video clip on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p7NPOsqX_A

 

[sevres_babylone]

Another selection from the Kinks' Picture This:
Picture book, of people with each other,
to prove they love each other a long ago.

And from Graham Parker's "Discovering Japan"
But lovers turn to posers show up in film exposures

 

[Kent]

Some German band once wrote a song called "Polaroid Photo" in German that "praises" the great quality of polaroid instant cameras. 😉

Beneath other things they metion are "pale skin" and "red eyes". Funny!