A little while back, I re-posed the challenge to pinpoint the corner a strikingly bequiffed Mick Jones of The Clash waits on in the photograph by Pennie Smith at left (click on it to enarlge). I originally spotted this picture lovingly framed on the wall of Trash & Vaudeville and later re-printed in the book accompanying the boxed set, Clash on Broadway). I first cited it in this quiz from 2011, but never solved the riddle. To my mind, it just doesn't seem like there's enough detail in the photograph to nail it down. Obviously, Mick's fresh from having procured some items from Trash & Vaudeville on St. Marks, which might place him somewhere nearby, but it's still pretty sketchy.
Bob Egan of Popspots, however, was keen to offer some suggestions. Here was his first stab:
Hi Alex, This is my guess on the Mick Jones photo, since he has a Trash/Vaudeville bag in his hands and the store is about 5 stores down from the corner. I thought I sent this once, or it is it that you are not 100% sure? Frankly I’m not 100% sure, but it fits in a pinch.
I countered that the big building behind Mick couldn't be the big brown building cited in the St. Marks picture, as that's the Cooper Union dormitory, which wasn't built until about 1991 (a good decade or so after this photo was snapped). I actually spent a few nights sleeping in that place in 1992 (read that saga here).
Bob came back with another shot:
I've attached Third aVe and ninth St from Tenth Street looking south (froma shot of Red Grooms the painter from my John Cohen/Dlan entry) . Those windows seem to match up, Was that where the dorm was that came later? Or was that on the left of the Jones picture?
Unfortunately, in the passage of time, I now now longer remember what building predated the Cooper Union dorm on that sliver of Third Avenue, so perhaps it is that corner. Could Bob be correct here? What do you think?
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