The club Hilly founded in 1973 was intended as a venue for country, bluegrass and blues music but after he found it hard to fill up the schedule with such bands he opened the door to local musicians of all genres. As a consequence CBGB became the geyser from which erupted the american punk scene. Bands like the Ramones, Patti Smith, the Misfits and many more found their audiences there. It’s amazing how one grubby little club in NYC could be so vitally important to modern music.
Too young to see it in its heyday and too lazy to drive to new York to see a show, I never made it to the place before it shut it’s doors in 2006 with a final performance by Patti Smith, but as a huge fan of music I appreciate Hillys contribution and I look forward to seeing the film. Hopefully they’ll avoid the schmaltz that ran throughout Bottle Shock.
The full name of the club is CBGB & OMFUG. The first four letters stand for the styles of music originally intended to be heard there. The final five stand for “Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers”. Gourmandizers is a form of gourmand which means someone who loves and indulges in food and Hilly obviously related that to an omnivorous consumption of musical styles.
Mmm . . . This punk rock tastes like chicken.
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