Locks of love on the Brooklyn Bridge.

In my walks across the Brooklyn Bridge and back over the past year or so, I've noticed that couples have been writing their names on padlocks and attaching those locks to the fences beside the pedestrian walkway, as shown in the photo above.

Sometimes, a lock displays a  plea instead of an acknowledgement of existing commitment.

Some messages are too long to put on a padlock, so they get written on the bridge itself.

Addendum: this tradition seems to have started in Paris, where the Pont des Arts has become endangered by the weight of the locks. A reader says it has spread to Germany. Lots of European tourists take the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, which may explain how it got started here.

iPod and photo log: across the Brooklyn Bridge and back.

Another iPod and photo log (or, if you prefer, photo log with music). This one is longer than the one I posted on November 27, as this time I went over the Brooklyn Bridge, did a circuit of City Hall Park, stopping to look at some pieces in the "Lightness of Being" sculpture show there, then back across the Bridge, down to Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park, up and across the pedestrian bridge, then back down the Brooklyn Heights Promenade to home. I've let some of the photos speak for themselves, but have added explanatory notes for others.

1. The Four Tops, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)": a Motown classic. I was fortunate to hear the original lineup live at a National Association of Insurance Commissioners meeting on Mackinac Island back in the 1980s. Listen here.

2. Tracy Nelson, "Ruler of My Heart": deep blues from a lovely woman with whom I had a pleasant chat at the Lion's Head bar years ago. Listen here. 

3. The Cranlyn apartment building (80 Cranberry Street, corner of Henry) (H.I. Feldman, 1931) is a fine example of the high art deco style popular between the two world wars. The photo shows a decorative motif above a doorway that may have been inspired by a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign.

Kingston Trio, "Utawena": I've dished on these guys before. Call them button-down shirt wearing bourgeois poseurs; well-to-do white men singing poor folks' music. Still, they were damn good singers and instrumentalists, they had a Mets connection (Nick Reynolds dated Tom Seaver's sister), and they introduced American audiences to what we now call "world music." Then there's "Utawena," which doesn't appear to be in any known language. You can listen here.

4. A monument to New York City Mayor (1910-1913) and Brooklyn resident William Jay Gaynor, designed by sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman, stands near the north end of Cadman Plaza Park.

The Everly Brothers: "Bye Bye Love": these Kentuckians were reliable hitmakers from the late fifties through the sixties. "Bye Bye Love" was their first, going to number two on the Billboard pop chart and number one on the country chart in 1957, and began their long collaboration with songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. It was later covered by Simon & Garfunkel and by George Harrison. Hear it here.

5. Great Big Sea, "Boston and St. John's": Newfoundland's most popular folk group does a bittersweet piece about a sailor leaving his woman for a short voyage. Live performance video here.

6. The west (Manhattan side) tower of the Manhattan Bridge (Leon Moisieff, 1912), seen from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Giuseppe Verdi, Sinfonia from Nabucco, Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Fiorenze, Ricardo Muti, Cond.: here is an audio clip of Muti conducting the Nabucco overture with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

7. The west tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (John Roebling, 1883) seen from the pedestrian walkway. This tower was completed in 1875, but the bridge would not be completed until eight years later.

The Holy Modal Rounders, "Flop-Eared Mule": from grand opera we go to...a group once described as "the originators and sole exponents of the genre known as acid-folk." Join the real world here.

8. The 76 story 8 Spruce Street/"New York by Gehry" shows off its Bernini drapery in the morning sun. Peeking past it to its right is the top of the Woolworth Building (Cass Gilbert, 1912); to 8 Spruce's left is 1 World Trade Center (David Childs/SOM, expected completion 2014). At the far left is the top of the "understated and deferential" 4 World Trade Center (Maki and Associates, 2013).

Neil Young, "The Emperor of Wyoming": this dreamy cowboy movie music is the opening track of Young's first solo album after Buffalo Springfield's breakup. Hear it here.

9. A gilded pyramid crowns the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (Cass Gilbert, 1931), named for civil rights lawyer and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in a rededication ceremony in 2003. The building was Gilbert's last major commission.

Neil Young, "The Loner": this track immediately follows "Emperor"; I have the two joined as a segue on my iPod, but there's no video or audio track that combines the two, although I think they belong together. When you get to the orchestral bridge just past the middle, you'll know why. Listen here.

10. For the past several years I've kept watch over the Brooklyn Bridge cactus. A year and a half ago, I was distressed to find it bisected. Now it's becoming overshadowed by something that looks like a spider plant.

Dusty Springfield, "That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho)": down 'n' dirty blues by Goffin and King, with a little inspiration from Cab Calloway. Hear it here,

11. 250 Broadway (Emery Roth & Sons, 1962), at right, is typical of the "wedding cake" style of New York City skyscrapers designed between 1916, when a zoning rule limiting the bulk of tall buildings and requiring setbacks went into effect, and 1961, when the regulation was amended to encourage tall buildings without setbacks so long as developers provide adjoining public plazas. To the left is the Woolworth Building (photo 8 above); in the background is 7 World Trade Center (David Childs/SOM, 2006).

Derek & the Dominoes, "Layla": one of the three best rock songs about being in love with someone else's wife. (The others are "Midnight Confession" by the Grass Roots and Neil Young's "Saddle Up the Palomino.") Here's a version of "Layla" by Eric Clapton, with a different band, that's still dynamite.

12. Part of the "Lightness of Being" sculpture show in City Hall Park is "inverse reverse obverse" by Cristian Andersen. It's topped by two bronze broad-brimmed hats. Behind it is the Manhattan Municipal Building (William M. Kendall/McKim, Mead and White, 1914), topped by another sculpture, "Civic Fame," by the same Adolph A. Weinman who designed the Gaynor Monument (photo 4 above).

The Royal Teens, "Believe Me": I heard this once as a pick hit of the week on WDAE in Tampa when I was in eighth grade, then never heard it again until I was in my thirties and, flipping through a record bin in one of those Bleecker Street oldies shops, found a Royal Teens greatest hits album. I ran home to play the song that had been engraved on my memory so many years before. Hear it here. The tinkling piano is by one of the song's co-authors, Bob Gaudio, who later became part of the Four Seasons, wrote Sherry and, with Bob Crewe, other hits of theirs.

13. Another set of sculptures in the "Lightness of Being" show is this untitled group by the late Franz West, described by Ken Johnson in The New York Times as "brightly painted bulbous shapes, like enormous carrots planted point-first in the ground."

The Kingston Trio, "Across the Wide Missouri": the Trio's version of a traditional American song, also known as "Oh Shenandoah." Listen here.

14. Statuary decorates the exterior of the Surrogate's Courthouse (John R. Thomas/Horgan & Slattery, 1907), formerly called the Hall of Records, at the corner of Chambers and Centre streets in lower Manhattan. The statues are by sculptors Philip Martiny and Henry Kirke Bush-Brown.

The Rolling Stones, "No Expectations": on my more optimistic days, I think the Mets' theme song should be Dolly's Faut y croire (loose translation: "Ya gotta believe!"); on my gloomier ones, I think it should be this Stones ballad. Live version here.

15. The South Street Seaport Museum's tall ships Peking and Wavertree, seen from near the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Peking is in the foreground; Wavertree, which is still under restoration and missing her topmasts, is behind.

R.E.M., "Driver 8": an infectious guitar run; inscrutable lyrics. What more could you want? Video here with railroad scenes featuring pre-CSX B&O/C&O locos bearing the "Chessie" logo. (It takes almost a minute until the music starts.)

16. Neil Young: "Cowgirl in the Sand": didn't I hear this on my previous walk? That's OK; I love this song so much I don't mind hearing it again so soon. Hear the studio version here.

17. Hank Williams, "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me": maybe the best country song about being in love with someone else's wife who used to be your wife. Listen here.

18. This Georgian apartment building on the north edge of Brooklyn Heights sports precast triangular "English sunrises" above the dormer windows. Also note the dentils below the cornice.

John Prine, "Paradise": "Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County, down by the Green River where Paradise lay?/ Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking. Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away." Hear it here.

19. Fenton Robinson, "You Don't Know what Love Is": Robinson, who died in 1997, was a solid Chicago blues artist and author of "Loan Me a Dime," which was a hit for Boz Scaggs with Duane Allman. This song should not be confused with another, recorded by Billie Holiday, which is also on my iPod. Listen here.

20. Doug Sahm, "Is Anybody Going to San Antone?": from the Doug Sahm & Friends album; this cut features, among others, Bob Dylan on harmony vocal and Flaco Jimenez on accordion. Hear it here.

21. Scott Joplin, "Magnetic Rag"; Itzhak Perlman, violin and Andre Previn, piano. From The Easy Winners. Listen here.

22. The Tom Russell Band, "Haley's Comet": a song about the lonesome death of rock 'n' roll pioneer Bill Haley. Live performance recording, with Dave Alvin and Katy Moffat, here.

23. Seen from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Manhasset Bay tows a much smaller tug down the East River, past Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

George Thorogood & the Destroyers, "It Wasn't Me": an able, nay, exciting, Chuck Berry cover by the hottest band ever to emerge from Delaware. Live performance video here.

24. Looking across from the Promenade, I saw the Manhattan Municipal Building (see photo 12) briefly bathed in sunlight.

Delbert McClinton, "Before You Accuse Me": another cover, this of a Bo Diddley b-side, by a superb Texas bluesman I once heard at the old Lone Star Cafe on lower Fifth Avenue. Hear it here.

25. Vivian Blaine, "Adelaide's Lament (A Person Could Develop a Cold)": a bathetic tale of blighted love, in Brooklynese, from the original (1950) Broadway cast recording of Guys and Dolls. See and hear Ms. Blaine's live performance from the 1971 Tony Awards here.

Morning walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, with iPod log.

My Saturday morning walk took a different route than usual: the weather was good and I had some time, so I decided to go over the Brooklyn Bridge. Along with photos, I'm going to include a log of what was playing on my iPod as I walked, with links to video or audio where possible. There were still patches of snow on the Promenade, and not too many people were out enjoying the weather.

Victoria Spivey and Lonnie Johnson, "Idle Hours": a classic woman/man blues duet from long ago. There's no video or audio available, but here's a recording of "There's No Use of Lovin'" from 1926, with a still photo of Ms. Spivey.

Sue Foley, "Careless Love": the iPod stays in a blues mood, but comes to the present time with this Canadian singer's rendition of "a traditional song of obscure origins" (Wikipedia) that has been sung by such diverse artists as Bessie Smith, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Siouxsie Sioux. Hear it here.

I've long been fond of this bit of art deco ornamentation on the Cranlyn apartment building at Cranberry and Henry streets.

East Village Opera Company,: Au Fond du Temple Saint redux: EVOC do opera arias to rock arrangements and instrumentation, which mightily offends some opera traditionalists. I love EVOC. This is their nail-you-to-the-wall rendition of an aria from Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles. Hear it here.

Buds in a garden next to the Whitman Close townhouses show early promise of spring.

Billie Holiday, "You Don't Know What Love Is": from the Lady in Satin album. Audio, with still photo.

Patti Smith Group, "Till Victory": the opening cut on her Easter album. Audio, with photo montage.

  While the Promenade had not attracted a crowd, lots of people were walking on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Schubert, String Quartet in D Minor, "Death and the Maiden," D810, Scherzo, allegro molto; Amadeus String Quartet: Here's a video of the Borromeo Quartet performing the same movement.

John Fogerty, "Rock and Roll Girls": from the Centerfield album, which I play a lot at this time of year. Live performance video here.

  Looking down from the east tower of Brooklyn Bridge at Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and beyond. Compare with these shots from four years ago.

Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, "Heat Wave": '60s Motown at its sizzling best. Lip-synch video here.

   Looking from the other side of the tower towards the DUMBO shoreline and Manhattan Bridge, with Jane's Carousel at lower left.

Fairport Convention, "Restless": I was hooked by the opening line of this song, "Born between a river and a railroad...", which is sort of true of me. There's no video or audio available, but you can hear a sample of "Rising for the Moon," the title track of the album, and another of my favorites.

  Tourists jammed the middle of the bridge.

Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, "Ride With Me": I first heard this thanks to fellow Brooklynite Eliot Wagner of Now I've Heard Everything. There's a live performance video here, albeit with lots of chatter at the beginning and sub-par sound quality. Still, I think it's worth watching.

  The Brooklyn Bridge's west tower was completed in 1875. Construction of the Bridge began in 1870; it was not completed until 1883.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: "Lost Highway": my version of this Hank Williams cover is from the Dirt Band's magnificent Will the Circle be Unbroken, with contributions by a stellar group of country musicians. Listen here.

An artist sells his works under the west tower.

Tampa Red, "Denver Blues": scarifyingly good slide work by "The Guitar Wizard." Here's a YouTube clip with audio accompanied by an NSFW still photo.

  Frank Gehry's 80 Spruce Street shows off its Bernini drapery; in the background is One World Trade Center (Daniel Liebeskind; David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), approaching its ultimate height of 1,776 feet.

Johnny Cash, "I Still Miss Someone": live performance video here.

 The Brooklyn Bridge cactus looked pathetic after a bout with winter weather, but this is a most resilient succulent. After my customary namaste, I turned and headed toward home.

Flying Burrito Brothers, "Close Up the Honky Tonks": the iPod stays country with Chris Hillman's and Gram Parsons' post Byrds group. This YouTube clip, (audio with still photo) was made three years after Gram's fatal night in the Mojave, but it's still good.

Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Peggy Gordon": I learned this song from Turner & Kirwan of Wexford. Hear the Clancys--Liam on lead vocal--on this audio clip.

 This yellow metal plate marks the center of the Bridge. I always jump over it.

Neil Young, "Cortez the Killer": "Very bad man." Live performance video here.

Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)": my favorite of her many superb songs. Here's audio with album cover.

  This could be your home for a mere $18 million.

The Chieftains, "O'Keefe's Slide/An Suisín Bán/The Star Above the Garter/The Weavers." Lively Irish dance tunes. Listen here.

Vampire Weekend, "A-Punk": My commentary and VW's video here.

  More harbingers of spring in Cadman Plaza Park.

The Hillmen, "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies": Chris Hillman's pre-Byrds bluegrass group does a traditional Appalachian ballad, probably with Irish or Scottish roots. There's a lovely version by the Rankin Family; listen here.

Vince Martin and Fred Neil, "Weary Blues": I fell in love with Vince's and Fred's album Tear Down the Walls in 1967 when my college roommate played it for me. Fred's deep voice takes the lead on this track. I met Vince sometime around 1980 in the upstairs room at the old Lone Star Cafe on Fifth Avenue, when Rick Danko played "Cindy Oh Cindy". I said, "That's a great old Vince Martin song," and Vince, who was sitting next to me, introduced himself. We then sang a duet on "Dade County Jail," another song from that album, with me trying to sound like Fred. Hear "Weary Blues" here.

Trees, Cadman Plaza Park.

Jefferson Airplane, "Martha": from the splendiferous After Bathing at Baxter's. YouTube audio clip here with still of album cover. I don't love this song just because it's my wife's name. Honest.

Rolling Stones, "Happy": from Exile on Main Street, contenduh for Best Rock Album of All Time. Live performance video.

Football players were on the Cadman Plaza athletic field, where snow still streaked the artificial turf.

Tinsley Ellis, "Double Eyed Whammy": a white guy from Florida; who'd a thunk it? Live performance video.

Fairport Convention, "Fiddlestix": I first heard this in concert at Carnegie Hall in 1974 with Dave Swarbrick bringing down the house on solo fiddle. On this live video Dave, in white, does a fiddle duet with Ric Sanders, who joined the group in 1985.

Top of the Franklin Trust Company Building (George W. Morse, 1891), a "wonderful Romanesque Revival office building" (Francis Morrone in An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn), now expensive condos, at 164 Montague Street, corner of Montague and Clinton streets.

Kitty Wells,  "Making Believe": we lost this country legend just last year. Video (probably from Grand Ole Opry) here.

James Brown, "Hold My Baby's Hand": an early hit for the Ambassador of Soul. Juke box video here.

St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (Minard Lefever, 1847), across Montague from the Franklin Trust Building.

Handel, Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351, La Rejouissance, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: Handel heralds arrival home. Here's a YouTube audio clip with mountain scenery, orchestra unspecified.

iPod Log 8: a long morning walk.

Kayaks in the East River off Brooklyn Bridge Park.

My work schedule and other duties have kept me from doing the long version of my morning walk for some time. I was able to do it again a couple of weeks ago; below is the list of songs I heard (with links to videos, where available), and some photos I took along the way.

Neil Young, "Like a Hurricane". One of my favorite rock songs of all time. Hear it here.

Scott Joplin, "The Cascades", (New England  Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble, Gunther Schuller, cond.) Video, by the h2 Quartet, here

Flowerpots, Columbia Heights, Brooklyn.

Lightnin' Hopkins, "I'm Wit' It". Hear it here.

James Brown, "Chonnie-On-Chon". From Roots of a Revolution, Polydor's great collection of his early stuff recorded at King Studios in Cincinnati. Listen here.

Crossing Brooklyn Bridge.

Ruth Brown, "5-10-15 Hours". Hear it here.

Tee shirts for sale, Brooklyn Bridge.

Sibelius, Karelia Suite, Op. 11, 3rd movement, alla marcia (Helsinki Radio Orchestra, Okku Kamu cond.) Listen to the same piece by the London Philharmonic, Sir Charles Mackerras conducting, here.

Civic Fame, the Adolph A. Weinman statue atop McKim Mead & White's 1914 Municipal Building. Her backside faces the Brooklyn Bridge.

Fleetwood Mac, "Rhiannon". In 1978 I adopted a young street cat and named her for this song. Original recording, with still photo montage, here.

I was distressed to find the Brooklyn Bridge cactus bisected. Still, the surviving parts seem healthy. This is one tough succulent.

Marshall Tucker Band, "Heard it in a Love Song". Hear it here.

The Drifters, "This Magic Moment". One of my favorite R&B songs of all time. Listen here.

Entering City Hall Park.

Rod Stewart, "Reason to Believe". From Every Picture Tells a Story, in my opinion one of the top five or so greatest rock albums ever. Video of live performance here.

Dave & Ansel Collins, "Double Barrel". Sizzling reggae from the expanded version of the great The Harder They Come CD. Live performance video here.

The Cary Building, one of my favorites of the surviving old commercial buildings of lower Manhattan.

Johnny Cash, "I Walk the Line". Live performance video, with history lesson, here.

Stevie Wonder, "Living for the City". Live performance video here.

The new One World Trade Center (David Childs, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill) rises in the background.

The Byrds, "Bugler".  One of my favorite rock groups ever, here with a mellow country sound. Hear it here.

Teardrop Park, in Battery Park City, designed by Michael Van Valkenberg, who also designed Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Tom Russell Band, "Gallo del Cielo". Thrilling, and like many Mexican and Mexican-inspired songs, tragic. Video with photo montage and live performance audio here.

Sailboats on the Hudson, seen from Battery Park City. Jersey City is in the background.

Grateful Dead, "Ripple". This song perhaps best exemplifies what one critic called the Dead's "patchouli oil philosophy", but I still like it. Live performance video here.

Washingtonia palm trees inside the Winter Garden, World Financial Center.

Sue Foley, "Bad Luck Woman". A Canadian blues singer. Yes. Unfortunately, there's no video of this song, but here she is doing "Truckin' Little Woman".

Coming down off the bridge over West Street, approaching the World Trade Center site.

Rusty & Doug, "Louisiana Man". Sounds just like crawfish étouffée tastes. Hear it here.

As I head back to Brooklyn, a tug approaches the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Band, "Long Black Veil". Live performance video here.

Bruce Springsteen, "Open All Night". Live performance audio with photo montage here.

A Honeymooners line welcomes me back to the Borough of Cherce.

Fleetwood Mac, "Station Man". From Kiln House, a post Peter Green and pre Buckingham-Nicks album that critics drubbed but I love. Hear it here.

Fleetwood Mac, "Buddy's Song". From the same album; the best Buddy Holly song he didn't write (and never heard). You can hear it here.

The Manhattan Bridge, seen from Washington Street in DUMBO, a Brooklyn neighborhood the name of which is an acronym for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass."

Carole King, "Smackwater Jack" (live version). a bonus track from the Tapestry CD. Video of a different live performance (BBC) here.

A phone call to my wife resulted in a stop at Almondine for croissants.

The Byrds, "Renaissance Fair". Audio of live performance at 1967 Monterey Pop Festival with still photo here.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Jacksonville Kid" (aka "Honky Tonk Night Time Man"). A live bonus track from the Street Survivors CD. Audio of studio version here.

On the home stretch: the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, "Everybody's Boppin'". Annie Ross was a regular at the Lion's Head. Audio of the original recording, with a still of the album cover here. A fitting finish.