The Bob Dylan "Nashville Skyline" LP sleeve

More specifically, the back of the jacket, depicting a wide angle shot of... the Nashville skyline (as it looked in 1969 [pre, pre, pre Adelphia Coliseum/Coliseum/LP Field/Nissan Stadium, pre, pre, pre Batman Building]).

Beatlemaniacs from "Across the Universe" converge on Abbey Road to recreate or parody the jacket of *that* 1969 LP. Where was the Music City skyline photographed from for Nashville Skyline? I imagine more than a few want to photograph it from that angle. Me, I just want to see if I can see it from the same angle on Google Street View.

Or was it a low altitude aerial shot?

ixnay

My best guess is that it was taken from somewhere near where the Gateway bridge over the Cumberland is, possibly from the roof of a 5 or 6 story building.

But without an historical perspective, it is really hard to tell. The only landmarks I pick out are the location of the Shelby Bridge, and what think is Union Station to the left edge of the album art.

I agree it's likely shot from the stadium side of the river (although the stadium wasn't built yet). On the right, you can clearly see the Tennessee State Capital. Behind it rises the Tennessee Tower, which I believe was under construction at the time in 1969. It opened in 1970. In the lower foreground, you can see the domed roof of the Municipal Auditorium, which was probably new at the time. And yes that's the Shelby Bridge on the left, which was converted recently to a pedestrian overpass from the downtown area to the stadium.

It was an interesting record, one of three Dylan recorded in Nashville, in the newly built Columbia Studio A. He came there as a guest of Johnny Cash, to appear on Johnny's ABC TV show shot at the Ryman Auditorium. I believe they even performed their duet on his show. He recorded with a lot of Nashville musicians. His work there brought a lot of other rock stars of that era to Nashville, including Neil Young, James Taylor, and many more. There was an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame recently that spotlighted the work of Cash, Dylan, and the Nashville Cats.

The OP asked if tourists today travel to the spot from where the picture was taken. I don't know, but I searched the words "Nashville skyline," and besides the album cover, a saw a lot of pictures from an area almost exactly where the stadium is today, maybe a mile west from where the Dylan picture was taken. So it's apparently a popular view. The studio Dylan used is still there, although Columbia stopped using it in the early 80s. My understanding is it's part of a college now, and is often used for classes and events.

Thanks for all the info, folks. I'll be in Nashville Lord willing as part of a bus group in mid-September and won't have time to recreate the shot (I'm not much of a shutterbug anyway), but thanks just the same. (I've never been in TN other than the Smokies)

ixnay

This shot looks south, or possibly slightly southwest. It actually reminds me of the shot that channel 5 (www.newschannel5.com) uses of Nashville in their weather reports, also showing the Tennessee Tower dwarfing the Capitol, so obviously taken from the same direction, only further away. Ch. 5 studios is on James Robertson Parkway, so their image originates from there. To get Municipal Auditorium in the photo, it would obviously have had to be taken from further away, likely the Jefferson Street bridge area. This would make the bridge in the foreground likely the railroad bridge, not the old Shelby St. (now pedestrian) bridge. (Could possibly have been taken from the roof of the (old) Days Inn, assuming that it was there at the time.)

The one thing that strikes me looking again at that photo is the terrible quality of it. I can imagine the discussions at Columbia about whether or not to use it. The quality would say it was taken from a very long distance, with a very short lens, getting little depth perception.