New York City’s streets hide legendary rock ’n’ roll moments you never knew were there — until Steve Birnbaum brings them back to life.
The Big Apple-based photographer and filmmaker is the brain behind @TheBandWasHere — a viral project that resurrects iconic album covers right where they were shot decades ago.
Birnbaum tracks down where famous band photos were snapped, then goes back to those exact spots to re-create the shots — album covers, promo pics, you name it.
His feed is a roll call of NYC rock legends like the Strokes, Talking Heads, Blondie, Ramones, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel — all brought back to life right where the magic originally happened.
Think Bob Dylan strolling on the same chilly Greenwich Village sidewalk in 1963, or the Ramones posing outside that gritty East Village wall in 1976, all perfectly framed as they are today.
But his collection doesn’t stop there. He also has iconic images of the Notorious B.I.G., Bruce Springsteen, The Doors, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Taylor Swift and more.
What excites Birnbaum most is reconnecting New Yorkers with the invisible soundtrack of their daily lives.
“It’s crazy how much you walk the streets and go past things … so many of us walk by where Stevie Nicks once twirled or where Debbie Harry once stood … and don’t even notice.”
Birnbaum’s nostalgia-powered hustle taps into our obsession with “then-and-now” culture and that classic NYC pride to hold on to the past — especially the golden eras of music that helped define the city’s identity.
His feed — he counts Blondie’s Chris Stein, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and SZA as fans — is a living museum of rock ’n’ roll history, proving that while skyscrapers sprout and neighborhoods morph, the soul of NYC music still lingers — if you know where to look.
But don’t mistake this for a quick snap-and-post hustle. Birnbaum calls himself “a music historian” and makes it his ultimate priority to honor and credit each album cover’s original photographer.
He’s spent years chasing down the exact locations of legendary photo shoots, piecing together clues from old interviews, concert tour dates and band itineraries and even scouring Google Maps for hours.
“I do challenge myself and I try to find photos that would just be tough to do,” he said.
He even studies the original photographer’s angle and often finds himself crouching, contorting or lying on the ground to nail the shot.
Birnbaum’s journey began with personal memories — family albums and snapshots from his youth — but quickly evolved into a full-blown passion project after the seismic shift of 9/11.
“There was a cover of the Village Voice,” he recalls, “where an artist photographer held up a picture of the World Trade Center just after the attacks. That inspired me artistically.”
What started as a quiet personal archive snowballed into a vibrant chronicle of pop culture and music history, all anchored to the very streets of New York.
To uncover these sites, Birnbaum dives deep — and sometimes, a tiny detail can be the key.
“When I was looking for the original location for the shot of the Greatest Hits album from Simon & Garfunkel, I noticed Paul Simon was holding something that looked like an egg-shaped container for L’eggs pantyhose from the 1980s,” Birnbaum recalled. “But it turned out to be my biggest clue to finding where Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel stood in the photo.”
He said walking by an Upper East Side park “triggered my memory.”
“He was holding onto part of a fence at 7 East 94th Street,” he said. “I was able to track down the location, which I never thought would still be around. There wasn’t a lot to go from, but it was that little piece and detail.”
But often it’s a mix of intuition and persistence, plus knowing and loving NYC’s vast neighborhoods. “You have to be crazy at this at times,” he laughed. “New York’s been tough.”
The city’s rapid transformation — from the Lower East Side to Chinatown to towering new developments — forms a bittersweet backdrop to his work. Each photograph captures a moment frozen in time, but many of those moments are fading as buildings vanish or get repurposed.
“As much as I love New York, it really has changed a lot in the last five, 10 years,” he said.
His photos, often taken with his iPhone or DSLR camera, serve as time machines, revealing the unseen layers beneath the city’s concrete and steel.
For Birnbaum, that’s the true joy of his work.
“I do consider myself a music historian in regard to the photographs,” he said, noting he’s proud to preserve NYC’s rich musical legacy — one photo, one street corner at a time.
It’s also a reminder that no matter how much New York changes, its soul never fades.
“I want people to look up and say, ‘Hey, I’m standing where music legends once stood,’” he said. “That connection, that history, is so important.”
5 NYC locations for legendary albums
- Led Zeppelin: “Physical Graffiti,” (1975), 96 St. Marks Place, New York, NY, 10003
- Bob Dylan: “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” (1963), middle of Jones Street, 50 feet from West Fourth Street, New York, NY, 10014
- Ramones: “Rocket to Russia,” (1977), back alley off First Street behind John Varvatos (formerly CBGB), 315 Bowery, New York, NY 10003
- Neil Young: “After the Gold Rush,” (1970), northwest corner of Sullivan Street and West Third Street, New York, NY, 10012
- Simon & Garfunkel: “Greatest Hits” (1972), 7 E. 94th St., New York, NY, 10128
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