Christmas Greetings from Hilly Kristal and CBGBS

Hilly must of been yuppifying the club before it closed for good in 06.  I've never saw toilet paper in the bathroom and I knew girls would pack their own before going to the club.

Perhaps, the Strummer post from yesterday got me thinking about Hilly and CBGB'S. I was too young and about 800 miles away during it's heyday but spent some time there while in college in Boston at New Music Seminars and CMJ Conventions and of course during my tour of duty in Manhattan.

I was never really a fan of CB's booking policy toward the end of it's run. Not much effort was put into the nights. They knew who ever was on stage really didn't matter, people came to say they've been there, to touch the stage, to whizz in the infamous bathrooms and to buy a t-shirt. But the death of the club, the death of Hilly, the death of Joey Ramone really might of been a warning to us all. I hear The Bowery-Lower East Side now has a Whole Foods! A W HOTEL! A Starbucks!  I can't wait for a Panda Express to build a restaurant in Chinatown! Then it really will be a MALL.

A little cynicism on my part or perhaps the old punk trying to show the world what is happening. But the purpose of the post was to share a little Christmas selection recorded by Hilly Kristal recorded in 1976. It's true to the form of  the true meaning of CBGB - Country, Blue Grass, Blues.

Download mud_christmas_1976.mp3 (Hilly Kristal)

Comments

[lucy]

when a place of history becomes a place for tourists it seems only a matter of time before starbucks and the mini-mall culture moves in, and takes over.

i do wish i'd been inside just once, and preferably in it's heyday, and not when it was just a place to buy a keen t-shirt.