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st. mark’s
St. Mark’s Bar and Grill / Waiting On A Friend video
July 2, 1981: The Stones shoot a promo video for ‘Waiting on a Friend‘ on the streets of Greenwich Village and also at the St. Marks Bar in the Greenwich Village (where they also do a little jam playing a few old blues numbers), New York City, directed by Michael Lindsay Hogg.
The St. Mark’s Bar and Grill was Greenwich Village bar on the corner of St. Mark’s Place and First Avenue, New York City, where the indoor sequence of the promo video of ‘Waiting on a Friend’ was shot, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who also directed the Stones’ 1968 TV special The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, and the Beatles’ Let It Be film, among other works) There used to be a poor painting of them on the back wall of the place. The place is long gone now.
Shot on July 2 1981, the video became very popular on MTV. Matching the song’s lyrics, Jagger is seen waiting for Keith in the doorway of an apartment block. The building, at 96–98 St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan, is notable for having also appeared on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 album Physical Graffiti. The two then walk down the street and enter the St. Mark’s Bar & Grill where the other three band members are already drinking. Ronnie appears in the video, although he was not a musician on the original recording. Mick sings the song to Keith, and the video concludes with the band setting up for a gig at the back of the bar, largely ignored by the other patrons.
Since 1651, when Peter Stuyvesant bought the land around it from the Dutch West India Company, this three-block stretch of Manhattan seems to have been home to the largest number of cultural and historical luminaries per square inch than any other place on earth. Leon Trotsky and WH Auden lived here, as did James Fenimore Cooper, author of Last of the Mohicans. Andy Warhol ran a nightclub on the street. The New York Dolls and Led Zeppelin shot album covers depicting one of its street-corner bodegas and its geometrically pleasing zigzag fire escapes. The Rolling Stones and Billy Joel filmed music videos here. Debbie Harry lived at No 113; William S Burroughs at No 2. Adam Horowitz of the Beastie Boys wrote the song Paul Revere sitting on the steps of Sounds records at No 20. Jeff Buckley recorded his acclaimed debut EP Live at Sin-é at No. 122.
