Finding the Locations of Famous Album Covers
For Bob Egan, it all started with the album cover for Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush. After some impressive detective work and even a note to the original photographer, Bob was able to track down the exact corner in New York City where the album cover was shot.
So off he went, with the original vinyl album cover in hand. The result? A terrific blog post on his site popstopsnyc.com, and a picture to preserve the memory. What a great way to explore a city!
Since that fateful first post, Bob has written thirteen more extensive articles on tracking down famous locations in pop culture history. His posts are detailed and quite fascinating, especially when he needs to do a little sleuthing to find the original location. As Bob describes on his website:
PopSpots is a website about those places, primarily in New York City, where interesting events in the history of Pop Culture took place; like album cover shots, places where movies and tv shows were filmed, and sites on which paintings were based.
Some of the places I tracked down myself for fun. Others are places I’ve read about and gone to take a look. Manhattan is constantly being torn down and rebuilt anew, and I’m trying to find these places while they are still around.
1. Simon & Garfunkel: Wednesday Morning, 3AM – Album Cover Location
Location: The lower subway platform at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, New York City. More specifically, the outbound E and F subway lines. Original photograph by Henry Parker. Read the entire post about finding this location by Bob Egan
2. Bob Dylan: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – Album Cover Location
Location: Jones Street at West 4th Street, NYC. Original photograph by Don Huntstein. Read the entire post about finding this location by Bob Egan
3. Neil Young: After the Gold Rush – Album Cover Location
Location: The northwest corner of Sullivan Street and West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village, New York. Original photo by Joel Bernstein 1970. Read the entire post about finding this location by Bob Egan
4. West Side Story: Original Broadway Cast Album – Album Cover Location
Location: In front of 418 West 56th Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenue, in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in 1957. Original photograph by Leo Friedman. Read the entire post about finding this location by Bob Egan
5. Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic – Album Cover Location
Location: Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, west side of street, just above the 79th St. Transverse (i.e. road through Central Park) at the park entrance called “Miners’ Gate. Original photograph by Raeanne Rubenstein. Read the entire post about finding this location by Bob Egan
6. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited – Album Cover Location
Location: Front steps of 4 Gramercy Park West, New York City. Original photograph by Daniel Kramer. Read the entire post about finding this location by Bob Egan
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