Danny Fields
Danny Fields, a native New Yorker, is one of the most unique characters and a true original innovator in rock & roll history. he has seen it all, been everywhere, met everyone and done everything. As A&R man at major label Elektra he signed the Doors, the MC5 and the Stooges. He introduced America to the Bay City Rollers, was a peripheral member of Warhol’s Factory crowd, introduced some of rock & roll most iconic couples like Nico to Jim Morrison and later on Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Punk pioneer and beyond, Danny's taste and opinion, once deemed defiant and radical, has turned out to have been prescient.
In 2015 film-maker Brendan Toller named his acclaimed documentary about Fields after the song “Danny Says” which Joey Ramone wrote to him on the Phil Spector produced Ramones LP “End of the century” (1980).
He served as the Ramones manager for their most important and prolific era (1975-1980) and got them signed to Sire Records in 1975. Not only he was there to witness it all and be part of the action by eye and ear but also taking some of the most iconic photographs of their most golden era. His first book of pictures “My Ramones” was published in 2016 and featured hundred of never-before-seen and some of the better-known pictures of NYC’s Fast-Four. His Ramones images reflect the unique look and energy of the band, and in some instances the innocence and naivety of the band in their early years, showing the original line-up of Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy Ramone on and off-stage at their absolute peak of creativity.
Exhibits
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Ramones Exhibition
Queens Museum. New York
Queens Museum
April 10th – July 31st 2016
Documentary
DANNY SAYS is a documentary on the life and times of Danny Fields.
Since 1966, Danny Fields has played a pivotal role in music and "culture" of the late 20th century: working for the Doors, Lou Reed, Nico, Judy Collins and managing groundbreaking artists like the Stooges, the MC5 and the Ramones. DANNY SAYS follows Fields from Harvard Law dropout, to the Warhol Silver Factory, to Director of Publicity at Elektra Records, to "punk pioneer" and beyond. Danny's taste and opinion, once deemed defiant and radical, has turned out to have been prescient. DANNY SAYS is a story of marginal turning mainstream, avant garde turning prophetic, as Fields looks to the next generation.
Book
"The Ramones knocked me over like an atomic wind." - Danny Fields
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Danny Fields first saw the Ramones play at CBGBs in New York in 1974, and instantly offered to manage them, also setting them up with a record deal. Originally published in a rare limited edition, My Ramones features more than 200 photographs from Danny's personal collection of one of the most loved and well-known bands from the last four decades.
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Danny managed the band from the ground up, accompanying them across Europe and America, while also photographing them at work with fans and during more informal moments. Taken between 1975 and 1977, Field's photographs offer a rare insight into the lives of the band on tour, backstage and recording their first album. The images are further brought alive by his accompanying commentary and memories and recollections from Michael Stipe, Seymour Stein and David Johansen. This is a unique and special volume
of a mythical time.
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A legendary manager, publicist, journalist and label exec, Danny Fields (born 1941) was at the heart of every significant movement in rock music for two decades and was present for for the birth of punk in both America and the UK. He was a significant player in launching the careers of the Doors, the Ramones, the MC5, the Stooges and others, and was the ultimate scenester of the '60s and '70s, hanging out with Warhol, Nico, Linda McCartney, Edie Sedgwick, Alice Cooper and Lou Reed. In a recent documentary on his life, Danny Says, Alice Cooper remarked that he "seemed to be at the pulse of the underground, " and Iggy Pop observed that "Danny's a connector, he's a fuel line, a place where things are liable to erupt."
Selected Works
Selected Press
Cult heroes: Danny Fields – the 60s and 70s scenester who made punk happen
The former Doors publicist and Warhol Factory member who got the Stooges a record deal and managed the Ramones was there during the most epochal moments of rock history. You can blame him for the Bay City Rollers, too
Danny Fields: the coolest guy you've never heard of – until now
He managed the Ramones, helped launch the Doors, and hung around with Warhol. A new documentary puts the man behind the scenes front stage
My Ramones: Danny Fields is still the coolest guy in the room
Punk rock legend looks through the photographs he took of the Ramones during one of the most exciting times in music
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Danny Says: How Danny Fields Changed Music
Danny Fields on The Doors, the Ramones and introducing Bowie to Iggy...
The Guy Out Back
¡Whether you take The Doors, The Stooges or The Ramones as the birth of American punk rock, they all owe something to a guy called Danny Fields
He Was Present at the Birth of Punk, and He Took Notes.
Danny Fields on photographing the Ramones and kidnapping Jim Morrison.
After Danny Fields discovered the Ramones, he spent the next five years managing
and photographing the band.
Punk in Pictures
Rock Figure Danny Fields Shares His Photo Archives With Billboard
