I recently visited New York, and walked by Bleecker Street. I went on some for-rent sites, and of course rents are much higher than $30 per month there now. Were rents really in the $30 per month range there at the time that song was written?
Yes, my furnished room in NYC in 1964 was $30/month. It wasn’t on Bleeker Street, but comparable.
Thirty dollars in 1964 is the equivalent of about two hundred and twenty dollars in 2013. So that’s still a pretty good deal.
While I don’t know the current situation, New York City was one of the few cities in the country with rent control. Back in the 1960s this would have resulted in very low rent levels for people living in rent-controlled apartments (especially in the older buildings; newer buildings allowed higher rent levels–different legislation). Naturally places to rent were very difficult to find–demand greater than supply.
In The Hustler (1961), Fast Eddie rents a basic room in New York for something like a dollar a day, or $30 a month. So rents in that range would have been typical in cheaper parts of the city.
The number 30 was not only realistic regarding rent, it was also meant to be symbolic of deeper things…
On the back of the orignal album cover, there was a lot of text explaining the music and lyrics to the listener. I remember that the notes analysed the song line by line, and specifically mentioned that the 30 dollars evoked Judas Iscariot’s 30 pieces of silver in the Bible.
(something about how poets can betray themselves too easily. Even on Bleeker Street.).
Deep, heh ?
Wait, this is about the album cover for Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.?
Should go in CS, shouldn’t it? (j/k :p)
I was able to find stuff online about the religious symbolism. Come to think of it, they must have liked the image of the thirty pieces of silver- they also used it in Wednesday Morning 3 AM. Or maybe they felt they were selling out?
Between 1962 and 1964, I paid $110 for a two room plus bath efficiency on 113th St. between B’way and Amsterdam. Maybe it was more because it was so close to Columbia. $30 on Bleeker St., in the heart of the village, sounds low. Still, in 1990, my daughter paid $600 for a small apartment on 21st, near 1st, so maybe.
I grew up in The Bronx and rent for our 2 bedroom apt. at that time was about $55 a month. That was about a week’s pay for my old man.