Kodak Ghosts

Album: Fully Qualified Survivor (1970)
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Songfacts®:

  • According to the 2009 revised and updated biography Mick Ronson - The Spider With The Platinum Hair, Michael Chapman said of Ronson's contribution to his Fully Qualified Survivor album, "I love Mick's playing on 'Kodak Ghosts' because I'd never seen anyone do it before, he played slide in normal tuning and was all over the chords. I just think it's a really interesting guitar part, because it's not like your normal slide playing by any means."
  • Writing in 2009, a reviewer said of this song "It's quintessential Chapman... his skillful guitar playing propels the song's narrative about a guy sitting around after a failed relationship with only his dog for company (the dog is a nice Chapmanesque touch). He seems to be trying to convince himself that any effect the relationship had on him is over, even as he obsesses about his lover’s future partners and revisits old love haunts. The Kodak ghosts of the title are never mentioned, but you can imagine the old photos strewn on the guy's kitchen table, representations of a dead affair that continues to haunt his mind."
  • For the benefit of future generations, the Kodak trademark was registered by the American inventor George Eastman in 1888; Eastman founded Eastman Kodak which became a leading manufacturer of both cameras and camera films in the pre-digital age. The Paul Simon song "Kodachrome" refers to a type of Kodak film.
  • "Kodak Ghosts" is the 9th track on the album, which was first released on March 1, 1970, and re-released February 22, 2011. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for all above

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