Monday, 17 February 2014

321 West 44th St NYC: Record Plant East, 1974.


¿Qué pasaba New York? In the good old 1970s, the Record Plant East at 321 West 44th Street was what was happening; it was John's studio of choice for much of his solo career. When the weather was clement, up on the roof he'd scoot, and so these splendid (and little seen)(by me at any rate) pics came to pass.
The studio itself is long gone, of course, but the building remains, having been recently recast as an office complex (and thus affording the opportunity for a spot of "then unt nau").
In the 40 years since etc, Midtown has become ever richer, with the "3-R's" (re-development, re-re-development and re-re-ohshutupimmediately) much in evidence - note the Uris Building (now the Paramount Plaza) looming in 1974, a little dwarfed cum 2014 (if you'll excuse the expression)(also note the also re-developed roof):


Another angle...:


...this time with the huge Milford Hotel as a backdrop; again, here's almost the exact same spot 40 years on:


Tammy's ever excellent blog featured the colour variant a while back, but I hadn't seen the black and white one before:


Likewise with these; the right hand John was on Tammy (as it were), but etc.:


Of course, the Record Plant East was also John's final studio - he overdubbed guitar for Yoko's Walking On Thin Ice here on the evening of December 8th, 1980.

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