Recently published photos of Steve McQueen reveal the “King of Cool” to be a vicious vinyl-abusing fan of shag carpeting.

Leaving aside the issue of the carpeting, for which he perhaps cannot be blamed, let us dive headlong into the horror.

In one particularly gruesome shot (above) McQueen straddles a graveyard of records strewn on the carpet while he looms over his next victim. The experienced music fan will recognize this as a virulent strain of the vinyl-abuser’s sickness; the massacre of innocent vinyl in search of the perfect song (or “side”) to match the mood. Is it so hard to imagine that there is other substance abuse concurrent with this madness and vinyl lust?

Observant readers will also note one more especially insidious detail; the record player is placed in the disused fireplace. This is obviously McQueen’s sly commentary on the tendency of the vinyl fetishist to make the phonograph the hearth and center of the home. Surely the sign of a man deep in the throes of vinyl’s malignant charm.

Who could have known that the star of such touchstone films as “The Great Escape”, “Bullit”, “Le Mans”and, errrrm, “The Towering Inferno” harbored such dangerous and perverse depths? We can only hope that more images of this insanity do not surface. There are too few heroes these days….

Thanks to Jason for the tip