Back in 2013, I posted an entry based around a homemade video for “She Cracked” by the Modern Lovers (above) which utilized a lot of period-specific footage of the New York City of the band’s era, that being the early-to-mid 70’s. I later discovered that some of that footage came from filmmaker Anton Perich. One could be pedantic here and point out that the Modern Lovers famously hailed from Boston, but you’d have to be deaf and stupid not to hear the correlation between the Modern Lovers and their NYC counterparts in the Velvet Underground. Regardless, they certainly spent a lot of time in NYC.
In any case, the dude that made that first video was a gent name Warren Loft, and Warren’s made a few more over the years, it seems. I dialed up his clip for the Modern Lovers’ “Old World” this afternoon, and was struck again by the specificity of archival footage he utilizes.
Presumably inspired by the line wherein Jonathan Richman laments that he had a New York girlfriend, Loft’s clip for “Old World” offers up a glimpse back into the New York City of the `50’s, `60s, and early `70s, much of from the vantage point of the long-since dismantled elevated train tracks.
I love watching these old films and suddenly spotting something seemingly incidental that’s familiar and still there, like the crucifix signage on the corner of Cooper Square and 7th Street….
…..and here’s that same corner today...
Anyway, just a bit of fun. Enjoy…
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