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I'd seen those shots before while browsing the city's archives site, but even though I've driven through that intersection a thousand times, somehow I never made the connection... till now. Seeing the comparison shots you took has been jaw-dropping. Excellent work.
 
I think what's really interesting is that aside from the corner where the Xerox tower is, so many of those low-rise bank buildings etc are still there.

BUT you get these huge condos lurking in the block just behind - almost like someone photoshopped them in there.
 
Very interesting seeing these comparison shots. Imagine how the intersection will look in another 20-30 years!
 
YongeN.jpg

There's something about the punctured/fried negative damage that makes that image sooooo heavy, man, in such a 1972ish way (cue Argent, "Hold Your Head Up")
 
adma said:
There's something about the punctured/fried negative damage that makes that image sooooo heavy, man, in such a 1972ish way (cue Argent, "Hold Your Head Up")
Click to expand...

You know what I find so creepy about it, though, is how contemporary it looks. Aside from the cars, it doesn't look like you're looking back nearly 40 years in time. I think it's the impact of colour photography. Anything up to the late 60s looks dated precisely because it's black and white, and psychologically you can say, "this isn't my time". But this is. Colour gives it an immediacy that makes the passage of that much time all the more shocking, I think. It really brings home your own mortality. It looks like yesterday, but statistically, about half the people in these pictures are dead and gone. So cue Blue Oyster Cult, Don't Fear the Reaper...
 
yes it does have that 70's teenage wasteland vibe.

its that Kodak Ektachrome! it has a very distinctive look...

while its true that 1972 was the ass end of the pug ugly 1960's

history1972.jpg

line_of_coke_1.jpg

mens-fashion-70s.jpg

pam_band1971.jpg


its also true that it was the year of:

rawpower.jpg

g_newyorkdolls.jpg

tonguethen.jpg


so change was afoot!
 
Ah, '72! Art school rock - the first Roxy Music album was released. And, locally, Carole Pope and Kevan Staples were in their proto Rough Trade stage.

When did hitchiking die out? We'd head downtown from Willowdale that way all the time ...
 
Urban Shocker said:
Ah, '72! Art school rock - the first Roxy Music album was released. And, locally, Carole Pope and Kevan Staples were in their proto Rough Trade stage.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, the timeless first Roxy album. Toronto was a big outpost for androgynous British rock bands in the 70's. Our colonial past made us particularly amenable to fey waifs like Bowie and Ferry, and proximity to Detroit made us quite receptive to American hard rock too. Quite a good blend actually...Toronto was a big Alice Cooper city, as well as a place where Bowie was treated as a megastar very early on.

So, a bit of trivia: the following year in May 1973, the Stooges played the Victory Burlesque at Dundas and Spadina, Mott the Hoople and Lou Reed played Massey Hall later that year, and the the New York Dolls opened for Kiss at Massey Hall in June 74. (that was my first rock concert!), and David Bowie played O' Keefe Centre the following week.

Yes, there was a tiny hip fringe existing in Toronto in those days, centered around Sandy Stagg, Carole Pope, General Idea, File Magazine, the Fiesta restaurant etc...

And Queen Street back then was just a gleam in the eye of the owner of the Beverley tavern...
 
Lone Primate said:
You know what I find so creepy about it, though, is how contemporary it looks. Aside from the cars, it doesn't look like you're looking back nearly 40 years in time. I think it's the impact of colour photography. Anything up to the late 60s looks dated precisely because it's black and white, and psychologically you can say, "this isn't my time". But this is. Colour gives it an immediacy that makes the passage of that much time all the more shocking, I think. It really brings home your own mortality. It looks like yesterday, but statistically, about half the people in these pictures are dead and gone. So cue Blue Oyster Cult, Don't Fear the Reaper...
Click to expand...

It's not just the fact that it's in colour. The same style of street lamp, traffic light and TTC bus stop is still common in different parts of the city. The road surfaces still look like that today in many parts of the city, and we've never embarked on an ambitious campaign to bury overhead utilities. So, it definitely looks like it could pass off as a photo taken recently somewhere in suburban Toronto with all those common elements of the streetscape.
 
thedeepend said:
Oh yes, the timeless first Roxy album. Toronto was a big outpost for androgynous British rock bands in the 70's. Our colonial past made us particularly amenable to fey waifs like Bowie and Ferry, and proximity to Detroit made us quite receptive to American hard rock too. Quite a good blend actually...Toronto was a big Alice Cooper city, as well as a place where Bowie was treated as a megastar very early on.

So, a bit of trivia: the following year in May 1973, the Stooges played the Victory Burlesque at Dundas and Spadina, Mott the Hoople and Lou Reed played Massey Hall later that year, and the the New York Dolls opened for Kiss at Massey Hall in June 74. (that was my first rock concert!), and David Bowie played O' Keefe Centre the following week.

Yes, there was a tiny hip fringe existing in Toronto in those days, centered around Sandy Stagg, Carole Pope, General Idea, File Magazine, the Fiesta restaurant etc...

And Queen Street back then was just a gleam in the eye of the owner of the Beverley tavern...
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, out around Yonge and Finch, out in the, er, "subdivisions"...

RIP John Rutsey (Rush's first drummer)
 
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