New York’s noise is one of its defining features. (It’s also the city’s biggest civic complaint, with an estimated 9 out of 10 adult New Yorkers exposed to excessive noise levels, as defined by the EPA.) While I’ve lived on First Avenue in the East Village and across from a fire station in Greenwich Village, in recent years I hadn’t given city noise much thought until last spring’s lockdown, when only sirens pierced the eerie hush. In response to the silence, the New York Public Library released Missing Sounds of New York, an album of soundscapes like a cab ride, a packed bar or a subway showtime, from a mix of archival and recreated sounds.
I was recently searching for more sonic snapshots when I came across the work of Tony Schwartz, the pre-eminent chronicler of New York’s aural landscape during the mid-20th century. Schwartz hosted the show “Adventures in Sound” on WNYC for 31 years, and recorded several albums of “folk expression,” or how New Yorkers lived and talked. (He also worked in advertising, most famously creating Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Daisy girl” ad.)
Roaming the streets with his portable tape recorder, his records captured city kids’ street games, the struggles of Puerto Rican immigrants in the 1950s, and dispatches from his Midtown West zip code. As Benjamin Serby notes in this piece for The Gotham Center, Schwartz was agoraphobic and didn’t like venturing far from home, instead focusing deeply on his immediate surroundings. He described recording as his way of “getting closer to life.”
Schwartz’s recordings make me feel like I’m eavesdropping on the past, onto a city that feels both foreign and familiar (especially when it comes to subway rider complaints). Per Schwartz, speaking on his 1956 album Sounds of My City: “The city of New York is made up of millions of people and of perpetual sound, and it’s in these many and endless sounds that you find a single rhythm and a single voice... The rhythm is everywhere. If you listen, you can find it right beside you.”
His WNYC archive is fun to explore, and if you’re curious, here are a few clips I especially liked:
The moms of mom & pop businesses discuss dealing with thieves, 1969
The morning people of New York, 1969
Some bonkers recommendations for cold remedies, including sugar and kerosene, 1970
The sounds of a New York Christmas—longer but worth it for the children’s musings on God, 1962
40%
Amount the MTA could be forced to slash subway and bus service if it doesn’t receive $12 billion in relief from Congress by the end of 2021 (!!!). The city’s ability to secure this funding could depend on the two Senate seat runoffs in Georgia. Cool cool cool. (NY Daily News)
Around town…
-A QAnon supporter and COVID-denier is currently ahead in the race for a Coney Island Assembly seat. (Brooklyn Paper)
-This is older but ICMYI, Gothamist asked 113 New York billionaires if they’d be willing to pay more in taxes to help the state and its most vulnerable residents during the pandemic. (Gothamist)
-Revel in these scenes from the House of Yes, which will prevail, its owners say. (NYT)
-If you’re exposed to COVID, the city of New York will walk your dog:
I can’t include video without a YouTube link, so here’s one jerky gif of Saturday’s scene on Bedford Avenue: