Chapter 24 - You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico

The marble index of a mind forever Voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone.

William Wordsworth

During a visit to Fields in his apartment, Nico found some much-needed inspiration. ‘She sat and read books of poetry looking for a title. And she found it in Wordsworth. “The Marble Index of the Mind Gone …” She liked that phrase. She was a poet,’ said Fields. Nico read the title to Fields, who agreed it would work for the pro­ject. ‘I don’t know how much Wordsworth she had read but she ran it by me and I found it sufficiently Gothic, pure, and lovely and meaningless. She is an extraordinary poet in a language that was not her own … She had a wonderful gift for discovering the English language on the spot. That’s what she did. If it’s a word or if it’s not, I don’t care. That was the way she expressed herself. She knew what she was saying, you knew what she was saying, but it certainly wasn’t conventional emotive English expression at all. And yet it worked.’

According to Ultra Violet, Nico wanted Warhol to design the cover for The Marble Index. However, it was rock photographer Guy Webster who ended up taking the pictures for the cover of the LP. Webster was already well known for his LP art and included among his credits the Rolling Stones, the Byrds and Nico’s label­mates the Doors.

‘She was sent to me by Elektra Records,’ Webster tells me over the phone from his southern California studio. ‘They said, “We want you to photograph somebody: Nico.” I said, “Oh, I know who Nico is, I saw her in the Fellini films.” They told me that she was singing with a different group, and that she was a poet. I said, “I’d love to meet her, send her to me.” They did. We got along great, right from the very beginning. I had this big estate in Beverly Hills, and I took her up to my guest house, which was as gigantic as a studio. We also went out the next day and did stuff outside with her on the hill. It was a lot of fun. She had that deep German voice, which I liked. I thought of her as a Nazi killer – I’m not joking! I actually did, because I didn’t know any tall German women at the time.

‘She was absolutely beautiful, stunning. I photographed all of the top actresses in Hollywood, but Nico was different. She was tall like a fashion model, had long blonde hair … She was a model and she knew how to pose; she knew how to look, she knew how to do make-up. When we went out and shot pictures, she was very easy. She moved beautifully, she lifted her arms in the air like a goddess … it was beautiful! And easy to photograph, so that’s it – she was a real model.

‘For the actual shoot, she came in and the light was very dark. I lit it with one light. She had the white hair, and I’m going to make it turn dark because I wanted it against a white background. People always asked how I did it. I did it in a dark room, very high contrast. I made a large 16 x 20 print and I sent it to Holzman. He loved it, and that’s what was used for the cover.’

The image is a dramatic black-and-white close-up of Nico’s face. Her hair is deep black, matching the top of her shirt and the heavy eyeliner and eyelashes. The background is a softer shade, but still contrasts harshly with the white plane of her face. Her cheekbones provide the only other shadow in the picture.

Though he remembered his time shooting Nico fondly, Webster only saw her once again, this time several years later in Spain. ‘In the early 1970s, my wife and I were living in Minorca, Spain. I would go to the American bar every morning. People like the Stones and the Who and the families of those groups would come there; it was a very hip place to hang out at the time. So I’m sitting having coffee at the American bar, and its foggy … really foggy. I can barely see down the main avenue, and I see this dark figure with a long cape, and I thought, “God, that looks like Nico, I can’t believe it!” As she’s getting closer, she yells out, “Guy! You got any drugs?” I say, “Shut up, you can’t do drugs here. If you do, you go to jail for six years automatically. Everybody was paranoid; if you had a joint you were scared, because the Guardia Civil would turn you in and you’d go to jail. I said, “Nico, I’m so sorry I can’t give you anything. I love you!” She said, “See you soon, goodbye …” And she walked off into the fog. I never saw her again.’