Anton Corbijn and the Curse of Death

I tell you what: if I ever get famous, I’m not letting Anton Corbijn take my photos.  Or direct my videos.

In 1994, when I was a senior in high school, I singled out photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn as a marker of bad luck for bands.  At the time, Corbijn was best known for his work with Depeche Mode.  Also at that time, Depeche Mode lead singer Dave Gahan was battling a heroin addiction and had become painfully thin, as evidenced in the 1991 video for “Halo,” where Dave’s appearance as the “Strongest Man in the World” was pitifully ironic.  It only got worse when he did their videos for 1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion. Dave Gahan looked bad.  And he hadn’t before Anton Corbijn had begun taking pictures of the band with great regularity.*

Thus, armed with stacks of Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, and NME, and thoroughly addicted to watching 120 Minutes, I began to notice something.  Most of the bands that I liked (and quite a few that I didn’t) had encountered Anton Corbijn, and they were all doing poorly.

At the time, most of my evidence against the photographer consisted of hyperbolous declarations of how he made people suck, especially REM and U2, who were–in my opinion–at their height of lameness in the early 1990s.  Then, things started happening that indicated that the Curst of Anton Corbijn was a little eerier that that.  As in, members were dying, finances were going down the drain, and bands started to suck.**

So, here’s the list of bands I had back then, updated a bit:

Joy Division, by Anton Corbijn

1. Joy Division.  If you watched Corbijn’s Control, the biopic of Ian Curtis, on DVD, you might have watched the interview with the director in the extras section.  Notably, Corbijn talks about his photos of the group.  Before Corbijn takes a photo: band is on the ascent.  After: Ian Curtis dies.

2. REM.  The band was awesome in the 1980s, right?  Who doesn’t like “Radio Free Europe”?  Who does like Automatic for the People?  Before Anton Corbijn: Awesome American band that was political but not always preachy.  After: Bill Berry has aneurysm on the 1994 tour for Monster; Michael Stipe becomes overwhelmed by hubris.

3. Echo & the Bunnymen.  The English band was perhaps the first indicator of the Anton Corbijn Curse of Death.  The band released some completely awesome and weird albums in the early 1980s, chief among them Ocean Rain. Corbijn direct the videos for “Seven Seas,” “Bring on the Dancing Horses,” “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo,” “The Game,” and “Lips Like Sugar”–all, except “Seven Seas,” post-Ocean Rain.  The band broke up in 1988, and their drummer Pete DeFrietas died in a motorcycle accident the next year.  Before:  Weirdest and best use of a symphony orchestra by a post-punk band.  After: Band breaks up; drummer dies.

Anton Corbijn's take on U2

4. U2.  Oh, U2.  Anton Corbijn’s photographs for The Joshua Tree (1987) are perhaps the most well known and iconic photos of the band.  And surely his photographs of them did not really hurt the band, did it?  Especially considering how great an album The Joshua Tree is, and how it gave the band their biggest hits, and how it’s one of their “masterpieces.”  But was Bono’s weirdness all that evident beforehand?  No, he was primarily known for being socially conscious and for pulling that girl out of the audience at Live Aid and dancing with her.  After: Sunglasses galore.  Giant, malfunctioning mechanical lemons, descending from the heavens.

5. Nirvana.  Now, this is really one of those things where the universe was making fun of me.  I put the “Anton Corbijn is a curse” column in the March 1994 issue of my zine.  I write, “Thus far, Corbijn’s curse has not really affected Nirvana that much.  But who can tell what the future holds?”  I think we all know what the future held.  (I swear, if I did, I would not have written another item in that issue of the zine, which was “The Top Ten Reasons Why Nirvana Should Be Taken Out Back and Shot.”  I blamed myself for Kurt Cobain’s death for years.)  Before:  Successful and promising band, albeit one with a singer with serious problems.  After: Death of a really talented fellow.

Since noting this blog entry would appear, I’ve had a lot of people noting that Corbijn’s involvement with other bands has brought them bad luck, or at least made them suck.  One of these is Metallica.  Another is the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  If anyone else has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

In addition, Corbijn has directed videos for Naomi Campbell (????) and Bryan Adams (“Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman,” no less!).  While I’m pretty sure that Naomi Campbell should stick to modelling, and that Bryan Adams always sucked, I thought it was worth noting that Anton Corbijn does not seem to work with strict artistic principles.

*I even have a photo book, somewhere, called Strangers, that includes ONLY Corbijn’s photos of Depeche Mode.  Yes, I was a hardcore fan.  Do not mock me.

**Of course, this entry is tongue in cheek.  I don’t really think that Anton Corbijn is a curse.  However: you’ve got to admit that Corbijn’s own website is a little strange.  His self-portrait section consists entirely of him portraying dead celebrities.