This Is The Full And Unaltered Photograph From Which My Iconic Avatar And Most Widely Published Photograph

This is the full and unaltered photograph from which my iconic avatar and most widely published photograph “Half Pic” came from. This is the first and only time it has ever been published. ~ Trabue Gentry

This is a bridge in Paris. You hang locks on it with the name of you & your boyfriend/girlfriend/best-friend then throw the key into the river. So even though the friend/relationship may end, you can’t remove the lock. It stays there forever, as relevance to someone once a part of your life.

Cool concept. Good or bad, all relationships are a part of our individual history. They help to shape us and define us. And we should be respectful of our current partner’s past relationships. They were important once and they will always have a certain relevance. ~ Unknown

PARAMOUR by my good friend Nigel Morgan

LET ME BE YOUR PARAMOUR YOUR COVERT OVERT LOVER VOULEZ LE VOUS AMOUR JE' TA DOUR

LET ME BE YOUR PARAMOUR YOUR COVERT OVERT LOVER VOULEZ LE VOUS AMOUR JE' TA DOUR

JE SUIS UN LOVER WITH A LUTE AND GUITAR TO SERENADE WHERE EVER YOU ARE

SHINING HAZEL EYES A MILKY COMPLEXION NO ROMANTIC LIES IN REFRACTION

LET ME BE YOUR PARAMOUR YOUR COVERT OVERT LOVER VOULEZ VOUS AMOUR JE' TA DOUR

LET ME BE YOUR PARAMOUR YOUR COVERT OVERT LOVER VOULEZ VOUS AMOUR JE' TA DOUR

CONJUGATE, RADIATE, AND CONFLAGRATE THE PASSION FOR I'M ICY COLD IN HERE

PLEASE RELATE' DON'T NEGATE BUT ARBITRATE FOR ME MY DEAR

LET ME BE YOUR PARAMOUR YOUR COVERT OVERT LOVER VOULEZ VOUS AMOUR' JE' TA DOUR

I WILL BE YOUR PARAMOUR YOUR COVERT OVERT LOVER VOULEZ VOUS AMOUR' JE' TA DOUR JE' TA DOUR YOUR AMOUR AMOUR

BY NIGEL MORGAN, COPYRIGHT, 2014

When I was 19 I was a complete nut case behind the wheel. I was seriously dangerous. Although I had never been in an accident as a result, I should have been many times over. When I look back now I am horrified! On this day in 1972, however, I was driving in a uncharacteristically safe manner.

Pictured above is what was left of my 1967 Mustang after a head on collision w another car while on my way from my day job to my night job. The other driver and I were going through an intersection from opposing directions. He wanted to turn left in front of me but there was a car in front of him so he swerved from behind the car into my lane. Just as we both entered the intersection we collided at about 30 mph each which was, according to physics, is equivalent to colliding w an immovable object, i.e. a concrete wall, at 60 mph. 

Both my knees took out the dash instruments where they impacted and my face hit the windshield. The recoil tore my seat completely off it’s tracks. I flew back and then forward again. When it was all done the transmission was partly in my lap. I did a quick survey of my body and couldn’t find any apparent injury…at least that’s what I thought.

I had sunglasses on during the accident and when I reached up to remove them after the accident they wouldn’t come off. I pulled and pulled and finally broke them free. Immediately, blood gushed everywhere. What had happened was, when I impacted the windshield the bridge piece on my sunglasses embedded itself in the bony part of my nose. When I pulled them free it was like taking the cork out of a down turned bottle of red wine because the bridge piece had broken clear through to the marrow. Fortunately, that was the only injury I received.

Curiously, as I was holding my sunglasses and finally got the blood out of my eyes I noticed that the bows and the frames were nearly flat. What had happened was, I hit the windshield w such force that momentum caused the bows and frames of my sunglasses to take on the curvature of the window. W that much impact I cannot, for the life of me, understand how I didn’t go through the windshield. Incredible!

After my car was towed away and I was dismissed from the scene by the police, I went home, called my co-worker and asked if they could come pick me up so that I could go to my night job. I finished out the evening w my night job and felt no ill effects except for severe nausea when ever I thought about how my beautiful Mustang was, needless to say, totaled. 

I was sued by the other driver because I had been ticketed for driving too fast for conditions. I hired an attorney who proved in court, via police evidence, that I was traveling at 30 mph and it was clear and sunny at the time of the accident, and that the other driver turned left in front of an oncoming vehicle. I had hired the attorney to defend me in the suit brought against me by the other driver and to sue the other driver for damages. The ticket was dismissed and I won the suite but my attorney received 2/3 of my winnings because of the double representation. His name was Pete Velde. ~ Trabue Gentry

Photographed by Trabue Gentry, 1972

Follow for Follow

Kevin Sterner, my former songwriting partner. Taken in our hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee the day Pete Drake agreed to produce us. Actually, our partnership was more like Lennon and McCartney in that we never wrote a single song together. We were more collaborators and singing partners for each other’s individual songs. However, in 2007, 30 years after we broke up, we reunited and actually wrote four songs together. The four songs we did write together were better than anything that we ever did individually. They have not been published and only a few close friends and family have heard them. I was very pleased w the lighting of this picture. Kevin was seated next to a window which allowed me the luxury of natural light. No artificial lighting was used. Note that the corner of the room, about three feet behind him, is the dividing line of shadow and light in the background which is in perfect contrast to the dark and light side of Kevin’s head. ~ Trabue Gentry Photography by Trabue Gentry, 1978