The City is a Gatefold – album covers of New York

New York City has its fair share of landmarks – the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Yankee Stadium, the Brooklyn Bridge… it’s overwhelming at times. But the streets of New York have also been the backdrop for some of the most memorable and iconic album covers of all time. RPM’s Earl Douglas – a native New Yorker – took a walk through the city to find these legendary spots. Fortunately for us, he brought his camera along.

Just taking an extended walk through Greenwich Village will bring you back to pivotal moments in rock history. Stand on the corner of Sullivan, just off West 4th, and you’ll find where Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush cover was shot:

Sit on the same Mercer Street steps where Billy Joel shot the lead photo for his best-selling 1983 album An Innocent Man:

Retrace the steps that Bob Dylan and the late Suze Rotolo took down West 4th and Jones Street to recreate The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan pic:

Ludlow and Stanton was immortalized on the cover of the Beastie Boys landmark 2nd album, Paul’s Boutique:

Stand across the street of 96 and 98 St Mark’s Place and you’ll see what the creative team saw when laying out the cover for Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti:

If you hit the Bowery, you’ll find the former site of CBGB:

…then head up on 2nd and 6th to where Bill Graham’s Fillmore East hosted some of the greatest rock shows ever produced and provided the backdrop for the Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East album:

These spots aren’t just confined to downtown. KISS put Chelsea back on the rock ‘n’ roll map when they shot the cover of their Dressed To Kill album on the corner of 23rd and 8th:

Jon Bon Jovi breathes, eats and sleeps New Jersey, but when he dropped his self-titled debut album, he chose then-gritty West 58th Street as the setting for the cover:

Sting took it a step further by not only shooting the cover photo of his newest album on a New York street corner, he even named the 57th & 9th:

So the next time you take an impromptu selfie on the streets of New York, take a deeper look around – you may be inadvertently reenacting some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most iconic moments.

— Earl Douglas

Check out part 2 of Earl’s “The City is a Gatefold” series here: http://www.hardrock.com/rpm/the-city-is-a-gatefold-slight-return-more-album-covers-of-new-york