Every so often we get to revisit our old NYC Album Art series, and today, Foghat is bringing us back. This Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation blog notes that the British rock band's fifth album, 1975′s Fool for the City, was shot outside of their offices on East 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues (specifically, outside of 232 East 11th Street). They write:
NYC Album Art: Foghat's East 11th Street Cover
NYC Album Art (Briefly Returns) With Steely Dan and Simon & Garfunkel
In 2007 we dusted off some album covers that featured city-centric artwork, in a series we called NYC Album Art... but it looks like we missed a couple! Ephemeral NY has a list of more album art today, including Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic cover, and Simon and Garfunkel's first album.
NYC Album Art: The Strokes, Is This It
In 2001 Manhattan band The Strokes burst onto the scene with their debut LP Is This It. The album cover featured a tightly cropped shot of a nude model wearing (presumably) only a black glove. And now, finally, after all these years, we get to meet that model. In the below video she speaks out about the impromptu cover shot.
NYC Album Art: The Coup, Party Music
It's been quite some time since our last installment of NYC Album Art, and today we look at a controversial one that never actually saw the light of day. What you see pictured was the planned cover art for The Coup's Party Music album, designed in June 2001.
NYC Album Art: Smashing Pumpkins, Zeitgeist
The Smashing Pumpkins have officially made their return. The comeback (yeah, we're gonna call it a comeback) appears to be met with little fanfare. The new album, Zeitgeist, came out Tuesday - and was met with a lack of good reviews. The cover art is what we're concerned about here though.
NYC Album Art: John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Some Time In New York City
"Some Time in New York City" was released in 1972 as John Lennon's third post-Beatles album (and his fifth with Yoko Ono). Critically and commercially the album didn't do well, especially compared to Lennon's previous albums. "Imagine" had just come out in the 1971, and comparatively this one was brash, loud and more reflective of his political and new geographical surroundings at the time, in Greenwich Village.
New York Dolls, Outdoors
This just in: the New York Dolls are playing the Seaport Music Festival on August 18th.
NYC Album Art, Live!
Brodsky has recalled of the Morrison shoot, "The shot on the inner sleeve of the Greatest Hitsalbum was pretty near the end, I think. By that time, Morrison was so drunk he was stumbling into the lights and we had to stop the session. He wasn't a wild drunk --- actually he was kind of quiet -- but his equilibrium wasn't too terrific. Still, he was great to photograph because he had a very interesting look."
NYC Album Art: Subterranean Jungle
There's suspicion lurking in this thread about the reality of the Ramones Subterranean Jungle album cover. Some seem to think there's a possibility the band was just cut and pasted in to that subway train. However, here's the alternative album cover - which would make us believe they were really there. That graffiti was totally photoshopped though (or whatever it is they did in the 80's).
NYC Album Art: Laba Sosseh
We're really challenging ourselves with this one, since we don't know too much about this genre of music, but the album cover is just too amazing to pass up. Laba Sosseh, the master vocalist of Senegalese Salsa, was an early pioneer of the tradition of Africans travelling to New York to record with Latin musicians. Aboudou Lassissi (a producer) brought him over to record in the 70's, here's a little background on their history:
NYC Album Art: New York Dolls
The New York Dolls first album cover was shot in New York. In this case, the back cover is more interesting than the front. It features a photograph of the band in front of Gem Spa, the legendary newsstand that is said to have invented the egg cream.
NYC Album Art: Paul's Boutique
According to the album, Paul's Boutique is in Brooklyn...but we all know this photo was taken in the Lower East Side. With a Paul's Boutique sign hanging up on the Lee's Sportswear storefront, the shot was taken at 99 Rivington Street, where Rivington and Ludlow intersect. Currently residing in this exact spot is a restaurant called Paul's Boutique, named in honor of the album.
NYC Album Art: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album cover features a photograph of a 21 year old Bob Dylan and his girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo (an artist who teaches at the Parsons School of Design). History will tell you Rotolo inspired the songs "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Boots of Spanish Leather." It will also tell you that Dylan wanted to (add a girl and) recreate this shot of James Dean.

