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ear-splitting guitars and a jumble of
sounds that I just didn’t get” Kristal
“No one is going to like you guys, but I’ll
reminisced.
Despite this unpromising
beginning, Television’s manager
let you play anyhow,” Hilly fondly recalled
convinced Kristal to give the kids
another chance. This time they played
with “The Ramones”, then, also
at Joey Ramone’s wake party in 2001.
unknown. Kristal thought The Ramones
were just as bad as Television. “No one
such as The Misfits and The Dead Boys
is going to like you guys, but I’ll let you
whose profanity and outrageousness
play anyhow,” Hilly fondly recalled at
knew no bounds. Lead singer Stiv
Joey Ramone’s wake party in 2001.
Bators sometimes slashed his stomach
The guitars were out of tune, the band
with his mic stand in a fit of excitement,
stopped and started and their sound
much to the feverish glee of his fans.
was nothing if not jolting. Kristal didn’t
Hilly was the kind of guy who let
realize he’d just debuted two bands
bands do their thing and who would
that were to become two of the most
stick around for as many shows as he
important bands of the seventies.
could, sometimes even falling asleep on
What Kristal did know, is that he liked
the couch while a band played until the
the energy even if he didn’t like the
wee hours of the morning. His tall dog
music and that there was something
ran around the club, between amps...
fresh and unpredictable about this new
Hilly pretty much lived at CBGB. Writers,
sound. He believed that it was valid
poets and photographers showed up lots, garages, or bars were preferred,
sound and needed to be expressed and
regularly like William S. Borroughs, the more dilapidated, the better. A real
heard. He invited the bands back and
Robert Frank and Robert Maplethorpe. punk show was always smelly and
not long after, they became regulars,
It was sort of an incubator of the noisy with the possibility of danger in
playing hundreds of shows over
voice and art beneath the radar - the the air. The origin of the movement that
CBGB’s lifespan. The Ramones are
unacceptable voice. sparked Punk music is controversial.
still considered the quintessential punk
Other bands, from known to There are two basic camps of thought
band. Songs like “ I wanna be sedated”
unknown poured into CBGB over on the subject. One camp says it began
and “Blitzkrieg Bop” have become
the years. To name a few; Blondie, in the UK from social unrest amidst
classic punk anthems. Likewise,
which started out as the Stilettos, got England’s underprivileged youth,
Television is considered a cornerstone
their break there. So did The Talking while the other says it originated in
of punk music with “Marquee Moon”
Heads, The Shirts, The Cars (formerly the U.S. in NYC from artistic unrest,
critically hailed as one of the best punk
Milkwood), and the legendary rock with people such as Andy Warhol. It
albums of the 70’s.
icon/poet Patti Smith. All made names depends upon which version or vision
In their loud footsteps and onto
for themselves at CBGB. of punk you are speaking about as to
the CBGB stage, came explosive bands
Patti Smith in a New York Times what camp you agree with. ‘Twixt the
interview: “There wasn’t any place for two, n’er shall meet and the middle
people to try new ideas and new things, ground perhaps is, that punk music
to go out on a limb and make mistakes... and culture emerged differently, from
we didn’t fit into the cabarets or the different causes on either side of
folk clubs. Hilly wanted the people that the Atlantic. They had some similar
nobody else wanted. He wanted us.” energies and dissatisfactions, but very
In the 70’s, Punk was about raw different cultures. Eventually both
sound in a raw space made however sides cross-fertilized and exploded into
it could be made. It was about an International phenomenon. Punk is
spontaneous combustions, being still very much alive and relevant as a
impolite, daring or absurd wherever genre today. It has become part of our
you happened to be. If you performed popular lexicon and is more of a market
somewhere, basements, abandoned now, than it is a social movement.
avantoure
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