New York City Video Views 1983/1986

(Via: Dangerous Minds)

New York City Images As Album/CD Cover Art #22: Ramones - Subterranean Jungle (1983)

(Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)

Marky looks forlornly out the window of a New York City subway car as his bandmates distance themselves from him, Johnny defiantly hanging out by the open sliding door. Didn't he know that's dangerous? Anyway, why was Marky set in the window by himself in this shot? The answer comes on page 1 of the liner notes for the 2002 remasterd CD:

"Marky Ramone knew the jig was up. He'd been stashing his vodka bottle in one of the recording studio garbage cans, and Dee Dee, no stranger to the dark side himself, was holding it up and waving it around for the rest of the band to see."

"He spilled the beans," Marky says. And that was that. After four albums with the Ramones, former Voidoid Marky (born Marc Bell) had to leave the band to cure his drinking problem. The 80's were starting out rough for the first family of punk..."

More details of the deteriorating situation within the band at the time can be found of page 5:

The strain...shows in the cover photo, taken a week befor Marky's departure. "I had an idea it was coming because they weren't calling me, and I was hearing things," Marky says. "I'd had enough."

When the group met for the cover shoot at the 57th Street stop on the B train - the last stop befor entering Queens - Marky felt the distance growing. His placement in the photos says it all..."

New York City Images As Album/CD Cover Art #18: Michael James Band "Let The Good Times Roll" (1983)

(Images via: NYCDreamin Archives)

Artist: Michael James Band
Title: Let The Good Times Roll
Released: 1983

*I guess this band was from Minnesota. I'm not familiar with them or their music, although that doesn't really mean much either - I don't claim to be an expert on the history of Minnesota rock and roll. But, doing a quick Google search turns up very little (read: almost no) information on this particular Michael James Band, but plenty of info on several other outfits going by the same name, both current and past. No videos of this bunch on Youtube either. And I'm running a bit behind this morning so I don't have time to really dig any deeper, so just enjoy the fact that an 80's era band from Minnesota felt strongly enough about the New York City images above to use them on their album cover.

I was thinking it would have been kind of creepy if the artist had duplicated the small airplane with the "Let The Good Times Roll" banner trailing behind it image from the front cover onto the back cover as well...it would have looked as if it were flying straight into the WTC tower on the right of the back cover.

And apparently the album is kinda rare - seems to be fetching pretty decent prices - around $30.00 - on Ebay. I might have to go back to Cheapo Records in Minneapolis and pick up the $5.00 copy I saw there a few weeks ago...