Really interesting article in the Times about CBGB’s.
The club has been some kind of symbol for decades. The question is whether that symbolism can transcend real estate and real noise. A transplanted CBGB would be irrevocably changed, and an artificially preserved one could be just as dicey. Punk-rock certainly has enough artifacts to fill a museum, but solemn academic inquiry just doesn’t seem right for CBGB. A transplanted CBGB might become something like the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles woodshedded and which was demolished and rebuilt as a replica (with some of the original bricks). What has been a symbol of unlovely urban survival would turn into a self-conscious icon.
Or, to be precise, a more self-conscious icon. It’s hard to say how long ago CBGB started considering itself legendary, but decades is a fair estimate. While punk promoted itself as overthrowing the status quo, CBGB has prided itself on staying put.
Hard to imagine New York without CBGBs … but the article has some really interesting points about the future of the club.
The idea of a punk museum is so…
…un-punk.
Noooooooooo Future! Get Pissed! Deeeestroy!
Ya’know whadda mean?
Mitch – totally, right? Can you imagine the sex pistols strolling through a chi-chi museum?
At this point, I’d expect Johnny Rotten to create the podcast of the Museum crawl: “…and to your left, the bed where me ol’ chum Sid and his Screamin’ ‘arridin, tried to find that last remainin’ vein ‘tween ‘is toes, if you see me drift.”
hahahahaha
BTW, Red, I do love your Gibson Girls…also, off topic, I picked up the Astaire/Rogers dvd set…any Fred & Ginger thoughts?
Ron … oh wow … where do I begin??? :)
What a treat to have all those movies together – in one place, huh?
Red — Where ever you begin on such a super topic, I will read with delight…I’m a big Ginger fan, and have been looking for the audiobook(!) of her autobiography read by Ms. Rogers herself!
This set is only 1/2 of their 10 films; the rest will be out in December…(I think)
I think the interesting irony about punk music is that, except in very few cases, the ideology of the music outlived the selling out of those who made it. I mean, arguably the first punk rock musician, Iggy Pop, had already sold out to Bowie by the time the Sex Pistols were even formed.
The band who inspired the Sex Pistols (I mean, just listen to the similarities) The New York Dolls were in no way living the punk lifestyle.
A punk museum should start all grimy and such and steadily get nicer until it ends in absolute glorious surroundings. That would best mirror the life of most punk.
With the exception of Jello Biafra, Heny Rollins and The Exploited … the others sold out, moved on or are dead. And today’s punk is not punk.
The Canadian pitbull, Warren Kinsella has just released a book on the history of punk – Fury’s Hour – definitely worth checking out — http://www.warrenkinsella.com/