Mystery Woman on Otis Redding Album
September 2, 2015 2:50 PM   Subscribe

Help Solve the Mystery! Who is the woman on the cover of the Otis Redding album Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul? On the 50th anniversary of the album, the Estate of Otis Redding asks for assistance in identification.

"Soulsville, the foundation that runs the Stax Museum, has no record of it. The photographer, Peter Sahula, thinks that it might be a model he worked with regularly named DAGMAR DREGER. If it is not her, he thinks it is another model who later became famous but is now deceased."
posted by aabbbiee (14 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Cool! I love internet mystery-solving like this.
posted by aka burlap at 3:12 PM on September 2, 2015


Mom?
posted by goatdog at 3:44 PM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Dad?!
posted by sutt at 3:51 PM on September 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


This reminds me of when JD Doyle of Queer Music Heritage was contacted by the cover photographer of the album Love is a Drag - it had been a mystery who sang on the record. (transcript of radio show)
posted by larrybob at 3:55 PM on September 2, 2015


DAGMAR DREGER

Has anyone looked for her in the grim darkness of the far future, where there is only war?
posted by Ian A.T. at 4:04 PM on September 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


Quick, somebody call Starlee Kine!
posted by Itaxpica at 5:18 PM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


The model's not identified on the back cover. Haig Adishian was the cover designer.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:20 PM on September 2, 2015


What if the cover model is the Height Five Seven model? This would involve time travel, though...
posted by pxe2000 at 5:21 PM on September 2, 2015


So, uh, is this not her?
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:36 PM on September 2, 2015


It's not, I emailed them right after posting here and they got back to me in minutes!
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:41 PM on September 2, 2015


I think it's NICO, formerly associated with Velvet Underground. It looks a lot like her and she did a cover for Bill Evans album "Moonbeams" in 1962. I'm curious to know if I'm right.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 7:57 PM on September 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


Seekerofsplendor, you should definitely send them that Nico tip - I really think you might be right.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:19 PM on September 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


The theory that the photo is of Nico is consistent with the quote from the photographer that it could be "another model who later became famous but is now deceased."

Nico's Wikipedia entry specifically mentions her being on the cover of the "Moon Beams" album, but doesn't have a lot of other details on her modeling work. It also says she was starting to sing/perform by 1965, but that doesn't necessarily mean she couldn't also have still been doing some modeling around the same time.

I'd be interested to know if they ever resolve this...
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 3:51 AM on September 3, 2015


People have speculated for a long time that it's Nico, and in fact Clash names her as one of the possibilities in their article about this search. Also the Otis Redding estate on FB.

Apparently the problem is proving that it's Niko -- sounds like the photographer knows but doesn't want to say (Niko herself never confirmed or denied during her lifetime).
posted by crazy with stars at 8:06 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


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