This is the kind of movie that I can get behind, one that documents the Who’s Next Monolith. According to photographer Ethan Russell, most of the members were unable to urinate, so rainwater was tipped from an empty film canister to achieve the desired effect. The striking, partially cloudy sky seen above the site was also composited from a separate image. The photograph is often seen to be a reference to the monolith discovered on the moon in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was shot in northeast England, in County Durham right next to the ocean. North of Middlesbrough and Hartlepool in a town called Peterlee on the A19. One fan speculates ” I see the wasteland of the slab heap, and the monolith, representing the ugliness of modern society and progress in all its forms — the stupidity and narrow thinking of humanity, desecration of the planet to mine for ores, results from the ravages of human consumption, war, a lack of regard (or advancements, being that it was 1971) for sustainability practices, and all that goes with it — or perhaps it’s just the twisted logic, upper stupidity, and lack of imagination involved with an engineer’s decision to construct a useless monolith in a damn coal dump.”
– Pat Thomas is the author of the recently released work, Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975. The companion disc for the book has been named one of the ten best CDs of 2012 by Time magazine.
