Shirtless John Denver???

Cafe Society
1

I was browsing around in a used CD store and I came across this by John Denver

Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits by John Denver and the cover of it has a shirtless picture of John Denver.

Now I’m thinking what’s up with that? Was this some kind of a standard pose back in the 70s? I like John Dever and his music, but he’s not exactly a “pin up” type.

Or was this just one of those shots they take for publicity. You know like they take the shot of the guy in a swimming pool with his arms folded at the edge. A lot of male celebrities seem to have this shot.

2

I wonder if he shaved. :slight_smile:

3

Has to be a publicity shot, and an old one at that. He looks to be around 20 or so. You’d think they’d have chosen a better shot than that :confused:

4

He does look young, due to the hairless chest…but he was born in 1943, so, if he’s 20-ish in that shot, it’d be from the early 60s, and that doesn’t look quite right to me, especially not the round granny-glasses and long sideburns.

My guess would be it’s from around the time he started out as a solo artist…'69 or '70.

5

I can’t figure out the shirtless bit, I mean it’s not like he was ever a sex symbol, was he?

OK I recall Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, doing a naked cover pose, but that was supposed to be a statement of sorts.

6

It’s supposed to display innocence or vulnerability or something. Chicks used to love that stuff.

7

With the medallion resembling dogtags, it kinds puts me in mind of a young soldier in Vietnam stripped to the waist due to the tropical heat, which would have been a common image of the day.

More likely, I guess, is trying to emulate some of the images of other musicians. Jim Morrison had a similar shot a few years earlier.