Fanspot
98 St Marks Place
“We could just enjoy what we were doing, making the music and really pushing the boundaries over the horizon.”
Jimmy Page
On the front, a daytime photo of the famous buildings. On the back, the same buildings, at night. The packaging was designed so that the protective envelope of the vinyl discs reveals characters or objects in the windows of the apartments. A very playful approach reminiscent of the Velvet Underground’s famous banana album or the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers and its operable zipper.
The principle of the celebrity photos referring to the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band , with here shots of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Elizabeth Taylor, King Kong, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marcel Duchamp, JFK and members of Led Zeppelin dressed in drag. Not to mention Peter Grant, the band’s manager, known for his expeditious methods and legendary mood swings.
Quickly considered by fans and collectors as a real work of art, this cover in several times crystallizes in some way the essence of this artery. St. Marks Place had long been known as one of New York’s cultural hotspots. Not least thanks to the Five Spot Café, an establishment that has hosted such luminaries as Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk on its stage.
The Electric Circus, unfortunately closed since 1971, had also participated in the emancipation of the neighborhood by granting the favors of the Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol and his clique as well as Jimi Hendrix since the end of the 1960s. Not to mention The Late Show, the New York Dolls’ vintage clothing store, Sounds, one of the Ramones’ and Beastie Boys’ favorite record stores, and Lenny Bruce’s former home.
A real concentrate of rock and roll, committed literature, cinema and philosophy, in just over two kilometres. The Led Zeppelin buildings sort of close the gap, before the intersection with Avenue A and the entrance to Tompkins Square Park. Two buildings that photographer Peter Corriston chose because of their symmetry and their ability to fit the square format of the cover. And so much the worse if it was necessary to slightly truncate the upper part of the building.
Associated with the evocative power of the tracks present on the two albums, such as Houses of the Holy and Kashmir, this artwork also takes the form of a real note of intent. Two buildings visited in 1981 by the Rolling Stones during the filming of the video for Waiting on a Friend. Two monuments in the city, the mere mention of which conjures up as many legendary riffs, howls and other breaks.
Rolling Stone magazine placed Physical Graffiti at 70th position in the top 500 albums of all time.
98 St Marks Pl
Built in 1900, these two buildings in the East Village each have 20 apartments on 5 floors. The rent for a 41m2 apartment in this iconic New York building is $1,700.
The Fantrippers Buying Board
Fanspots Stories New York
Discover the secrets of the cult places of the greatest masterpieces of pop culture in New York!
The world capital of pop culture, New York embodies unbridled creative freedom. The city that never sleeps has been the muse of a large number of directors, actors, screenwriters, singers, musicians, cartoonists and writers…
Many have passed on their fascination for the city to the general public and made some of its places famous worldwide, making them into the legend of pop culture. These are the secrets of a hundred of them revealed in this first volume of the Fanspots Stories collection.
Did you know that?
Did you know that the filming of Rage Against The Machine’s Music Now in the Fire caused Wall Street to shut down for the first time since 1929?
Fanspots Stories New York is also
Spider-Man, Ghostbusters, Superman, Leonard Cohen, Led Zeppelin…
Directed by a team of pop culture specialists and embellished with many anecdotes, Fanspots Stories New York tells more than just a story: these are some of the most fascinating stories in pop culture.
Fanspot Stories New York
100 pop cults
a unique and new concept
224 pages of fun
a beautiful large-format book 24 x 30, round back slicefil
Content quality
Interest for fans
Value for money
Discover all the places Physical Graffiti on our map
By Gilles Rolland
Passionné de cinéma, de rock and roll, de séries TV et de littérature. Rédacteur de presse et auteur des livres Le Heavy Metal au cinéma, Paroles de fans Guns N' Roses, Paroles de fans Rammstein et Welcome to my Jungle : 100 albums rock et autres anecdotes dépareillées. Adore également voyager à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture.