CBGB (movie)

[rtbuck]

I was just wondering if anyone has seen this movie & your thoughts on it...

The wife & I had seen that it was on PPV the other day & I decided to pay the $4.99 to check it out. First off I was really happy & a bit shocked that my wife really liked the movie (of course being married to me she was familiar with the bands & the style of the place).

Sadly...I never made it to CBGB's & I know it was probably nothing like it but we had a punk club in Buffalo called the Continental which was kind of our CBGB's(I'm sure my good friend Mr. Jim will confirm this). The bands that played their were all very original,the place wasn't all that beautiful on the inside, the bathrooms(especially the upstairs bathrooms) were just about as disgusting as the one's depicted in the movies, & the drinks were the strongest drinks I've ever had(plus they were always 2 for 1 until 11 or midnight!).

Anyway, about the movie...I enjoyed seeing it and liked it for what it's worth but it could've been so much more and for me it just ended out of nowhere. I liked how it constantly would have a scene flash back into artwork & quotes from "PUNK" magazine( a popular magazine from the 70's...which if there are any real punk fans...Go out & buy the hard cover book "Punk - the Best of Punk Magazine"!). Sure,most music fans out there know The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, & Iggy but a casual music fan by seeing this movie will be introduced to the band Television &...the Dead Boys! Wow, by watching this movie you would have thought the Dead Boys were going to be the biggest punk band of all-time. I'm a big fan of the Deadboys so it was great seeing them portrayed in this movie the way they were although it was a little strange seeing Stiv Bators played by Doug from the Hangover movies. It showed how Dead Boys drummer was beat up, stabbed, & left for dead but I wish it would've went on more about the benefit show that club owner/Dead Boys manager Hilly Kristal threw for him at CBGB's which featured the Dead Boys playing & being joined onstage by members of the NY Dolls &...John Belushi!

The movie featured a character named Idaho who was a street junkie who Hilly took in to work in his kitchen.While I had read that Hilly took in junkies to work in the Kitchen...this Idaho character was just a bit too much & I felt they gave him too much time in the movie. The one other thing I found strange was I don't recall any mention of Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers yet the Heartbreakers(with Thunders & Richard Hell)played there and throughout the entire movie they kept playing their tune "All By Myself" & also the NY Dolls tune "Chatterbox" which was sung by Thunders was played a couple times in the movie.

I'm sure there are many people who were part of the CBGB's scene that could rip the movie apart but for me it was cool to see this place along with musicians from the punk scene(Television, Ramones, Dead boys, Blondie, Iggy, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Lou Reed...etc) all brought to the mainstream. Hopefully, the younger kids who wear the CBGB's tee shirts will see the movie so they kind of understand what it was about

 

[METALPRIEST]

40 Years Ago: CBGB Opens in New York City



It wasn’t supposed to be a punk club. You could tell that from the name of the place: CBGB &OMFUG, which stood for Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers.

New York bar owner Hilly Kristal opened CBGB in December 1973 at 315 Bowery in Manhattan, the site of his former establishment, Hilly’s on the Bowery. Before that, Kristal had put most of his energy into a West Village nightclub. When noise complaints forced him to close, he focused on his property in a less desirable part of town.

As the club’s name suggests, Kristal opened CBGB as a club that would spotlight U.S. roots music and maybe a little spoken word. While “gormandizer” normally referred to a lover of food, Kristal intended the subtitle to refer to “a voracious eater of … music.” We’re not sure if the Ramones qualify in the literal sense, but they certainly knew how to chew up rock ‘n’ roll and spit it out.

So how did the likes of the Ramones, Television and Blondie end up earning fame at a country bar? In New York in the mid ’70s, unsigned bands had a tough time finding clubs that would let them play original music. To pay the bills, Kristal allowed some young promoters to feature local groups at CBGB, as long as they followed two rules: The band had to move all of their own equipment, and they couldn’t play any cover songs (so Kristal didn’t have to pay ASCAP dues).

As one of the only places in the city that catered to up-and-comers, CBGB was soon swarming with bands that embraced the current aesthetic – stripped-down, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll often played fast, loud and hard. In less than a year after the bar became CBGB, the venue saw the first gigs by Television, the Ramones and the Stillettos (featuring Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, who would soon form Blondie). These bands spawned others, including the Heartbreakers, the Patti Smith Group, the Dead Boys and Talking Heads. A “scene” developed and, before long, most of the club’s biggest acts were signed to record deals.

Although many of the bands moved on to bigger venues and tours, CBGB rumbled ahead, earning a role as a destination club for overseas acts (the Police played their first U.S. gigs there) and, in the ’80s, becoming a base for New York’s hardcore punk groups. The tiny Bowery bar remained open for decades, serving as a music venue, tourist spot and punk-rock-rite-of-passage (the place’s one, disgusting bathroom is legendary among rock fans).

Sadly, CBGB is no more. The club was shuttered in 2006 after a rent dispute (the neighborhood had improved significantly over the years) and final gigs by some of the club’s most famous acts. Kristal died in 2007, and the famous CBGB awning was sent to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
​

 

[LOU/REALM]

Great and fascinating info Bucky and M.P !! CBGBs holds many stories and I would love to see the film aswell !
There is some glorious footage of bands playing there on you-tube.....heres a cracker THE DICTATORS / RAMONES doing a song that both bands did a great cover version of..."California sun"

 

[mrJim]

Yes never it made it to CBGB's. But the Continental in Buffalo was the next best thing.

We were able to see so many alternative bands at the Continental its hard to even begin to name them all. It was such a unique place and you never felt like you didn't belong no matter what band was playing.

whether it was getting there early for the strongest drinks ever while watching great alternative videos on the screen in front of the stage. OR Watching the sites and sounds of the alternative dance floor on the second floor. OR rocking out to what ever band happened to playing on a given night..... it was always a blast at the Continental.

Oh and Don't forget Buck we also had the Pink Flamingo, which was also a blast

I haven't seen the CGBG movie but I read a lot of great stories about the place and I always wanted to go in there at least once to see it. I guess I'll have to just settle on the movie.