CBGB’s-Back In The Day

Someone recently asked me what it was like to be part of CBGB’s back in the 70’s. Well, it was amazing. To start with, the music was the best ever. Everyone involved back then felt like we were part of something bigger than just the music. We were trying to break the back of the corporate rock culture that was pervasive in the 70’s.

But without fantastic bands it would have meant nothing. Television, Blondie, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti smith, The Heartbreakers…. Sonically these bands had little in common but what they all had was the same aesthetic, the same world view. At the time people would ask me to describe new wave/punk rock and I couldn’t because musically it was so vast. But I would say what it wasn’t. It wasn’t foreigner, or Journey, or Styx or REO Speedwagon.

There was one night at CBGB’s when the Dead Boys were playing and a Times Square-esque peep show broke out. Stiv was singing right at the edge of the stage and a girl went up to the front, unzipped and went at it. It was so crowded that all anyone could see was the back of her head, but you kinda got the idea of what was going down.

I had a constant fear. On a night when the Heads or say, Television, would play, everyone from the scene would come down. We had the musicians, the journalists, the record company people who were supporting the scene (of which there were not many), and well CBGB’s was a fire trap. The only door that wasn’t chained closed was the front door. The two emergency exits were always locked. In the early days Hilly (who ran CBGB’s) tried to create some atmosphere by having candles burning on the tables.

So my fear was a fire that not only took out the club but all its denizens. All the early creators and supporters would be gone and there’d be no one would be left to kindle the flame. What would happen? Well, REO Speedwagon would still be a huge band and would have spawned 1000’s of bands just like them because the real music would have died that night. Well, the heavens must have been on our side. No fire, no more REO Speedwagon, and thanks to CBGB’s and the bands that it spawned, we had Nirvana break big in the early 90s, and that was the final stake in the heart of corporate rock.

It is a total shame that CBGB’s is now shut. And why? So a high end fashion store could ply their wares. CBGB’s should have gotten landmark status by the City. I once visited Liverpool and where the Cavern Club once stood there is now a parking lot. The city of Liverpool fucked up as NYC did. Those two seminal clubs no longer exist but fortunately the music does live on – in records from bands of the time and bands that used those bands as influences…