BOB DYLAN - OH MERCY (1989, Columbia) - Album cover location

The album cover.

(mural by the artist "Trotsky")

The mural on the wall in New York City.

(mural by the artist "Trotsky")

The northwest corner of 53rd Street and Ninth Avenue, Hell's Kitchen, New York. The site is a block away from the Avatar Studios at 441 West 53rd Street. Dylan recorded his 1983 album, Infidels there when it was called The Power Station.

The mural is in the center of the picture on the wall of the red building which contains (in 2015) Georgio's Country Grill, located at 801 9th Avenue at the northwest corner of 53rd Street.

(photographer unknown at this time)

The Dylan mural is gone now. As of 2011, it has been replaced by the wall mural on the right.

Here's the view from 2011 and also from when the OH MERCY mural was painted around 1988.

Here's what Wikipedia says of the painting.

Dylan saw the mural in 1988 and had his associates track down the artist named Trotsky (his first name, he does not give out his last name) who lived nearby. They paid him $5,000 for the use of the painting on the cover.

An article about Trotsky, Dylan, and the mural can be found in the October 23, 1989 issue of People Magazine. You can read it here.

These are the songs on the album.

Dylan recorded the album in New Orleans inside a rented house, equipped by Daniel Lanois, the album's producer, as a recording studio.

The house was located at 1305 Soniat Street at the corner of Perrier Street in the Uptown District of New Orleans. This is a photo of the house from 2013.

A side view.

The driveway where Dylan would park his motorcycle. He writes about his motorcycle trips to the Louisiana bayous in chapter 4, about the recording of the album, in his book, Chronicles: Volume One.

(Best line from that chapter: "There's a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better."

The location on a map of New Orleans.

A closer view.

This is a photo of the the back cover of the album. The photograph of Dylan is credited to "Suzie-Q," who could be "Dylan's longtime clothing manager, Suzie Pullen," according to the book Bob Dylan - All the Songs by Phillipe Margotin and Jea-Michael Guerdon. The album cover was art directed by Christopher Austopchuk.

(Photo by Suzie-Q)