Christmas Through a Payphone: “O Holy Night”

Whenever I hear a subway busker or street musician performing I look for the nearest payphone. If one is nearby, and if it works, I call a number to leave a recording of the sound. I find that the raspy, gray, monochrome sound of the landline gives the music a mysterious aural hue that fundamentally transforms its character. It engages my attention more than it might when hearing the music live.

Any endeavor which depends on payphones is imperiled from the outset, as this project proves. Capturing these recordings is a very hit-or-miss pursuit, with a high rate of failure and wasted quarters. Once in a while it works. Depending on the timbre of the instrument and proximity of the phone the sound quality can be shockingly clear or uselessly muffled. This particular clip of “O Holy Night” performed by a singer at the Times Square subway station comes off OK but I’ve captured better.

Until lately I’ve shared these sounds on Soundcloud but have come to realize it is not an appropriate platform for this type of content. YouTube might not be any better but it seems to have a more diverse base of listenership.

I put my very rudimentary movie making skills to work and set this performance of “O Holy Night” to photos of payphones at the Times Square subway station. Most of the phones seen in this montage are still in service but some have been removed. PTS (Pacific Telemanagement Services) operates all the payphones in the New York City subway system. In the summer of 2012 I surveyed the state of payphones in Times Square, and concluded that it was pretty depressing. Almost none of them worked, and a few that had dial tones were unable to complete a call. Since that time PTS has really stepped up to the plate, at least at Times Square. Last week every phone I picked up at that transit hub had a dial tone.

The same is not true of the Grand Central subway payphones, also maintained by PTS. Of the 6 or 8 phones down there not a single one has worked for weeks. The upstairs phones seem to be functional, and actively used, so maybe this is just a blip. The Grand Central subway station has been a frequent source of subway busker recordings because its payphones are perfectly located near the spot where musicians play.