The photography of music

I've just been told to lift my game in the "Now & Then" stakes!
After viewing the latest post from the WebUrbanist people - PopSpots: New York City Album Covers Now & Then.
It is a look into New York City’s past, at the locations where iconic album cover photos were taken. Photographer Bob Egan has tracked down the exact places where the photos were taken in the 1960s and 1970s and transposed the album covers onto modern-day photographs.

"After the gold rush" by Neil Young

Neil Young walking at the northwest corner of Sullivan Street and West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village in New York.

"The freewheelin' Bob Dylan"

21 year old Bob Dylan with then girlfriend Suze Rotolo on Jones Street, near West 4th and Bleecker in Greenwich Village.
“Manhattan is constantly being torn down and rebuilt anew, and I’m trying to find these places while they are still around,” says Egan. At times it can take a lot of work to identify the exact spot.
The photo of Bruce Springsteen was taken in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York on the southeast corner of Tenth Avenue and 53rd Street about a half block down and across the street from The Power Station, the recording studio where Bruce was working on "The River" album.

Bruce Springteen at Public School 111 for "The River"

Egan had to do some sleuthing to spot the exact subway platform upon which Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon stood approximately 47 years ago for the cover of "Wednesday Morning, 3AM". Several websites identified it as the platform at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, but to find the exact spot he had to look to things like the height of the support beams.

"Wednesday morning, 3am" by Simon & Garfunkel

"Pretzel logic" by Steely Dan

The site of the "Pretzel logic" album cover was Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, west side of street, just above the 79th Street Transverse (the road through Central Park) at the park entrance called "Miners' Gate".
See Bob Egan’s whole collection at PopSpotsNYC.com.
The Beatles have a few locations they have made famous. The most infamous of all "Abbey Road" which a crowd of people have copied, and their early album "Please please me" with the fab four on a balcony of the EMI offices, which was used again for the compilation albums "1962-1966" and "1967-1970".
Thinking about Australian album covers and not many come to mind, Dragon - "Bondi Rd", Cold Chisel with "Breakfast at Sweethearts" (the Sweethearts Cafe in Kings Cross is now a McDonalds) or "Last wave of summer" (the band at a Wyong service station) though like Dylan's iconic "Subterranean Homesick Blues" film-clip (which has been imitated to the nth degree),

I can think of a number of iconic film-clips that could qualify as potential "now & thens" -
AC/DCs "It's a long way to the top" with the guys on the back of a flat-bed truck through the streets of Melbourne; The Mixtures' "Push bike song" again Melbourne streets; The Oils "U.S.Forces" against the backdrop of the Harbour Bridge.

A shining light

I was the last in my family to watch this movie - South Solitary, but it was worth the wait.

In 1927 Meredith Appleton (Miranda Otto) arrives on the rugged South Solitary island with her only relative, her uncle George Wadsworth (Barry Otto) - the new replacement Head Keeper (as the previous one shot himself). Having lost her previous secretarial job, Meredith is forced to rely on her uncle’s charity by cooking and cleaning for him on whatever lighthouse he is stationed at.
The gruff Wardsworth sets to restoring discipline to the lighthouse, while Meredith attempts to make friends in the very hierarchical system, with Alma Stanley (Essie Davis) and her 9 year-old daughter Nettie (Annie Martin). But it is her liaison with assistant keeper Harry Stanley (Rohan Nichol) which forces the Stanley family to leave the island and Wardsworth to over exert himself and die.

Meredith & Jack

Leaving the troubled and reclusive Jack Fleet (Marton Csokas) as the solitary keeper, when a gale forces him and Meredith to spend several days trapped in the lighthouse tower together. The experience builds a relationship between the two and as Meredith leaves the island they promise to write to each other.
Being something of a lighthouse fan, I found the actual lighthouses (Cape Nelson and CapeOtway) the chief stars of the film. The cinematography of the rough rugged island with the tramway with its silvered timber tracks, the windblasted herbage, and the indomintable lighthouse tower was magnificent. And the lamb a bit of a star too.
The film has its own webpage at http://southsolitary.iconmovies.com.au/

Cape Nelson light & cottages

Watching the skies

Must be time for another abandoned post, again it's from the people at WebUrbanist - Watch Out: 15 eerie abandoned observatories. 

Austral Felix Aguilar Observatory in Santa Cruz, Patagonia

Observatorio Astronomico, Lisbon

Warner & Swasey Observatory, Cleveland

I must admit I scrolled through the list to see if the Mt Stromlo Observatory rated a mention. It didn't so I've included one photo of my own.
Mt Stromlo was established in 1924 to study the origin of the universe.
Stromlo was a victim of the January 2003 firestorm which raced through the Canberra suburbs, more than 530 homes were lost and several people died.
The Mt Stromlo facility was in the fire's path as it raced up the mountain, and most buildings and all but one of the large and historic telescopes were destroyed by the fire.
Observatory work recommenced shortly after, and restoration of the site continues.

74" reflecting telescope, erected in 1953, was the largest in the Southern Hemisphere

Tien Shan Mountains, Kazakhstan

Mohon del Trigo Observatory, Sierra Nevada in Spain