The Cover

I liked the album and the album cover when it came out nearly 50 years ago, and I still like it. Only now, because of reading obituaries, I know a little something more about the album's cover.

Sometime in the very early 60s, Harry Belafonte released an album called 'Streets I Have Walked.' The subtitle, on the back reads: songs of people, places and traditions.' In those days of course records were not only vinyl, 33 1/3 LPs, they could also be Hi-Fidelity, or Stereo releases. Record stores carried a Hi-Fi and a Stereo version of the same release, with the stereo one being about $1 more. I always bought the Hi-Fi release since I only had monaural equipment, at least until about 1969.

The album is an eclectic mix of American, African, Australian, Israeli, Portuguese, Japanese, South African and West Indian songs. The album's cover is a color, overhead shot of Mr. Belafonte strolling on red brick herringbone patterned pavement with his back to the camera, caught in profile, looking left, with his jacket casually slung over his right shoulder.

The back of the album shows a black and white photo of Mr. Belafonte seated with a group of youngsters with whom he recorded several of the tracks. They comprise a choir from New York City Junior High School No. 59 from  Springfield Gardens, which for the unknowing is located in Queens County, which, if you're The New York Times, is usually described as an outer borough. Hard to believe the youngsters could now be grandparents, but they surely could be, because the purchaser of that vinyl album is now one himself.

Credits. There were always credits given on an album, but in those days nowhere near as many as there are today. Never mind. The cover photo is attributed to Roy De Carava, whose name at the time meant nothing to me, and remained so until just recently when I ordered a CD version of the album and re-explored old ground.

But now, in 2012, the name sounded familiar. Is this the Harlem photographer who fairly recently passed away that I read about, whose obituary showed a photo of his of a young black girl in a very nice dress standing on a rubble strewn street, or lot?

Yes. And now easy to understand why his work was used to create the album's cover.

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