As a good fan of pop culture and rock n’roll, I made a route to find the iconic album covers in New York and visited some spots that became album covers for my favorite bands. Come see and plan your tour there!
This looks like The Doors album cover, but it’s just a cool store in SoHo that made a reproduction of the facade that became an LP cover in Los Angeles
Itinerary to find iconic album covers in New York
Everyone knows that New York is a city that was (and still is) the stage for many incredible bands, artists and cultural events – and the truth is that it has always been that way. Over many decades (but especially from the 60s onwards) many rock bands were born there and many others love the city, they recorded albums in the iconic studios spread across Manhattan and decided to immortalize their album covers in locations that are still tourist attractions today. for those who love rock. I discovered some of these places and decided to show them to you, let’s go:
Ramones – Rocket to Russia (1977)
Roberta Bayley, photographer for the city’s first punk fanzine, achieved what many people had tried: a decent photo of the Ramones. Cartoonist and writer John Holmstrom, whose work appears on several of the band’s albums, says the first hurdle was getting the four rockers in one place at the same time, as well as getting them to pose as if they were angry in front of a graffitied wall. very close to the old club CBGB’s (Bowery, 315). The iconic club no longer exists and has given way to a store owned by designer John Varvatos, who sells his creations and also some vinyl records. Don’t worry if you just want to go in to take photos: the vendors are used to tourists being dazzled by the super stylish store and the club’s original posters on the walls – a must-visit for rock fans from the 60s, 70s and 80s! Behind the store, at the end of Extra Place, is a small alley that runs north from East 1st Street, between the Bowery and Second Avenue, where the Ramones album cover photo was taken. I took this photo in 2006 – the alley behind CBGB’s has been completely cleaned up now and there are fancy shops there, but the brick wall is still going strong!
Led Zeppelin – Physical Grafitti (1975)
One of my favorite albums is Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffiti”, which has a historic photo of two apartment buildings on the cover – of course I would take a photo on my first trip to NYC. The buildings are located at 96-98 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, in Manhattan. To fit the photo into the format of the vinyl cover, designer Peter Corriston (from NY) had to cut out one of the floors (there are five and he eliminated the fourth floor). On the main cover, the buildings during the day; on the back cover, the buildings at night. Going to the street you notice that one building is next to another, all in the same style, with the same fire escape on the outside, the same five floors, the same windows, only the color changes… In this case, today in Day, you can find tattoo studios everywhere! In addition to visiting the place, the tip is to go to the bar on the corner of First Avenue (where there are photos of the video recordings) and you can have a cup of tea in a super stylish place called Physical Graffitea.
Neil Young – After The Gold Rush (1970)
“After The Gold Rush” was Neil Young’s third studio album – released on August 31, 1970, the album is still one of the singer’s most famous and a favorite among his fans (and I’m one of the most ardent! ) The album cover features a photo of Young walking past New York University School of Law, passing an elderly woman on the corner of West 3rd and Sullivan Street in New York. Fun fact: the partially negative effect cast on the image is not necessarily an artistic decision by photographer Joel Bernstein, who was only 18 years old at the time. The young man had already captured some rehearsals with Neil Young, around the trendy Greenwich Village neighborhood, but he was surprised by Young’s decision to use the photo, which he considered technically… dubious. But it definitely went down in rock n’ roll history.
The New York Dolls – New York Dolls (1973)
It’s no exaggeration to say that this was the most anticipated punk rock album of 1973 – after months of hype, the New York Dolls were finally going to release their debut album – which was a huge success at the time. The back cover photo was taken in the bohemian Greenwich Village neighborhood, more precisely outside the Gem Spa, on the southwest corner of St. Mark’s Place and 2nd Avenue. The Gem Spa is like a camelódromo but it’s worth a visit in the neighborhood: it’s no exaggeration to say that Greenwich Village is the city’s most rocky neighborhood, and there you’ll find thrift stores (the “Search and Destroy” is my favorite and is on 25 Saint Marks Place), great pubs and tattoo parlours.
Kiss – Dressed to Kill (1975)
Faced with the challenge of releasing their third album cover in just over a year, in 1975, Kiss turned to the streets of their hometown of New York, armed only with a low-budget concept and some borrowed suits. The photograph taken at the corner of 23rd Street and 8th Avenue that day turned out to be one of the most famous images ever displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is simply a black-and-white photo of the band wearing suits. Almost 40 years later, it’s difficult to go to one of the band’s shows without seeing four friends copying this stylish cover somewhere in the audience.
Bob Dylan – The Freewhelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
It’s one of the most recognizable (and romantic) album covers of all time, photographed in February 1963 on tiny Jones Street, just around the corner from Dylan’s $60-a-month apartment at 161 West Fourth Street. And no one had any idea that the image chosen as the cover of Dylan’s second album would become so iconic. “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan cover photo came about quite casually; it certainly wasn’t planned or produced in any way,” recalls Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s girlfriend (she, holding Dylan’s arm) in her book “A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.” If you’re there in winter, it’s even cooler to see the small street in the bohemian neighborhood that spawned so many folk musicians in the 50s and 60s!
The Doors – Strange Days (1967)
This photo was taken at 150-158 East 36th Street, a little closer to the city center and became iconic for The Doors fans, eager for the band’s second album after the resounding success of their debut. To compensate for the fact that this would be the only time the Doors did not appear on the album cover – apparently Jim Morrison refused to do so – photographer Joel Brodsky attempted to capture the spirit of Federico Fellini’s 1954 circus film, “La Strada”, capturing acrobats and jugglers on the city streets. According to the photographer, there was just one problem: all of the circus performers were out of town on the day of the photo shoot. The solution was to recruit a taxi driver, who posed as the trumpeter, and Brodsky’s assistant, who pretended he could juggle. Even the two real acrobats he managed to find were not up to the task: “The guy at the bottom could only hold his partner for a few seconds – he kept dropping him. There was a lot of discussion – it took me hours to get it right but it was worth it in the end.”
Billy Joel – Turstiles (1976)
The iconic photo was taken at the turnstiles of Astor Place Metro Station (and, incredibly, they still look the same today, despite their modernity). There are very few rock stars who have chronicled and defended their hometowns like proud New Yorker Billy Joel. Born in the Bronx, raised and still residing on Long Island, and now also an official resident of Madison Square Garden, Joel used a midtown Manhattan subway station for the cover of his 1976 album “Turnstiles.” According to PopSpots NYC, the singer returned to the same neighborhood a decade later to film the video for his 1986 hit, “A Matter of Trust.”
Beastie Boys – Pauls Boutique (1989)
The Beastie Boys album cover photo for Paul’s Boutique was taken at 99 Rivington St, in the heart of the Lower East Side. The album cover unfolds to show an (almost) 360-degree panoramic view, composing a complete view of the corner of Ludlow and Rivington Streets. The Paul Boutique Boutique sign was hung on the building specifically for the cover photo shoot (but can be clearly identified as Lee’s Sportswear by the top sign). Until early 2007, the building contained a restaurant called Paul’s Boutique, named after the album, which was eventually renamed The Three Monkeys. Today, it has become a wrap shop – but if you take a few steps on Rivington St, you will find a graffiti mural in honor of the three New York rappers.
Cindy Lauper – She’s So Unusual (1983)
The album cover was pre-designed by Cyndi Lauper and photos were taken by legendary Rolling Stone music photographer Annie Liebovitz. The cover shows Cyndi in the middle of a dance move, barefoot on the Coney Island boardwalk, one of my favorite places to walk in NYC. The building she is in front of is the World in Wax Musee, which has been closed for some time. Fun facts about the cover: Cyndi bought the red dress she’s wearing at the thrift store she worked at and the flowers she’s holding she bought from a vendor at Coney Island moments before, on the spur of the moment. This cover would define Cyndi’s style as an unusual and quirky person – that singer we first met when her music videos started hitting MTV.
Did you like the tips? Do you have any other recommendations for album covers captured in New York? Leave it here in the comments for us!
If you liked this post, you might also like to read the following:
___
