Check Out These Photos of Historic Album Covers Superimposed Over the Same NYC Locations Today

DAVID BOWIE - THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972, RCA). . .Location: 23 Heddon Street (central London near Carnaby Street). . .Cover photo by Brian Ward. Artwork by Terry Pastor for Main Artery. . .
Background photo taken in 1987. . .The cover shot was one of 17 shots taken in black and white and was later colorized for the cover. . .For more photos of this location see http://www.popspotsnyc.com/london/ )

SONNY ROLLINS: Saxophone Colossus (Prestige Records;1956) . . . .Location: At the highest point of the Williamsburg Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, south side. . ."Saxophone Colossus is a studio album by American jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins. It was recorded on June 22, 1956, with producers Bob Weinstock and Rudy Van Gelder at the latter's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. Rollins led a quartet on the album that included pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Max Roach" (Wiki). (photographer unknown; design: Tom Hannan)(location research by Bill Jobson).

FREEWHEELIN' - BOB DYLAN (1963, Columbia). . .Location: Outside 5 Jones Street near the intersection of West 4th Street, Greenwich Village, New York. . .Photo by Don Hunstein. . .After 2 hours of an indoor photoshoot at Dylan's apartment around the corner at 161 West 4th Street, Hunstein suggested they take some shots outside before the sun went down.. . .Dylan wore a thin suede jacket and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo wore a green Loden coat she had bought in Italy. . .Hunstein told then to "Walk away from me, then turn around and walk toward the camera," which they did several times. From his one roll of film of them walking through the slushy street, Columbia chose the now iconic cover.

JACK E. LEONARD: ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC FOR KIDS OVER SIXTEEN (Vic, 1956). . .Location: The northeast corner of 56th Street and 7th Avenue, NYC, looking west. (I.e. next to the southwest corner of Carnegie Hall.). . . The pointed building in the upper right was the Broadway Tabernacle at the northeast corner of Broadway and 56th Street.. . Thanks to Chung Wong for figuring out the location and to Anne Raso for the album suggestion.. .Leonard was an American comedian and actor who made frequent appearances on television variety and game shows in the 50's and 60's.

TOO TOUGH TO DIE by THE RAMONES (1984, Sire). . .Photo by George DuBose. . .Location: underneath Playmates Arch, next to the Carousel in Manhattan's Central Park (near where Center Drive meets the 65th St. Traverse). . .The album was the Ramones eighth studio album and the first to feature Richie Ramone on drums. . .According to Wikipedia: "The photograph on the album cover, which features silhouettes of the band members, resulted from a "lucky accident" after photographer George DuBose's camera malfunctioned" . . .Click the following link to be taken inside Playmates Arch tunnel, with its distinctive yellow-and-red brick stripes, via Google Street Views: http://bit.ly/2bIjvKE

MILES DAVIS - WORKIN' WITH THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET (Prestige, Dec. 1959). . .Cover design (and possibly photo by) Esmond Edwards (his name is vertical on the bottom-left of the cover photo). . .Location: The Prestige Records office was a storefront at 446 West 50th between 9th and 10th Avenues (the location is now a barbershop.) Prestige took an additional storefront across the street at #447 West 50th for extra offices. Miles Davis is in front of #447. The building behind him is the High School of Graphic Communication Arts.. . . ."Workin" with the Miles Davis Quintet" was the third of four albums that were produced from two day-long sessions in which 24 tracked were recorded. They sessions were on May 11, 1956 and October 26, 1956. . . Primary research by Marie Fotini.

PRETZEL LOGIC by STEELY DAN (1974). . .Location: Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, west side of street, at the entrance to Central Park known as "Miner's Gate" just below The Metropolitan Museum of Art.. . .photo by Reanne Rubenstein. . .With the passing of Walter Becker this week, I thought I'd repost this early PopSpot of the location of Pretzel Logic . . .In the New York Times obituary of Walter Becker today, they wrote this of Steely Dan's sophisticated but popular sound: "Meanwhile the music used richly ambiguous harmonies rooted in Debussy, Duke Ellington, Charlier Parker and Sonny Rollins, giving the songs a sophisticated core that would be widely influential across jazz and pop." . . .(By the way, the official NYC Park prices for those 15-cent pretzels would be $2.00 today. (They are spelled "pretzles" on the cover.). . . To see the album cover location in Google Street View, click here: http://bit.ly/2eyfaKs . . .
For the original PopSpot story of searching for the location, click here:
http://www.popspotsnyc.com/pretzel_logic/

PopSpotsNYC is an interesting website and Facebook Page run by urban-historian Bob Egan which tracks down the locations of famous album covers and vintage photographs, then superimposes them in position over a photograph of how it looks in present day. Each post has precise details on where the location is, and how it was tracked down if not obvious.

The exact locations of album cover photos and other visuals of pop history and how a Pop Culture Detective tracks them down.

h/t Laughing Squid

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Matt Coneybeare

Editor in Chief

Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.

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