Monday, October 16, 2006
CBGB?
I have never been there.
I do not have a shirt from there.
I can’t believe they sell shirts from there in department stores.
I can’t believe that wearing a shirt from there is still some sort of valid attempt at being “Authentic”, Ramones shirts are exactly the same thing.
I have friends and people close to me that have told me the wonders of the place, or at least the feelings they had, and I’ve been impressed by them.
I want to like the place, much like I wanted to love Gilman street. These are the places that were closer to my generation shrines, but I just keep going back to the Cathedrals of old, I keep being more impressed with the spot in Notre Dame where Napoleon crowned himself, which while huge, has nothing to do with my life, (much like the music the DJ plays). But what happened at CBGB’s did have an impact on my life. Sonic Youth did speak to me. The bands that came before them, the bands that started out with CBGB’s influenced the music that I grew up with, the music that I still love to this day. I read in an NYT article the attitude that I loved and share, it was by Patti Smith, someone that doesn’t speak to me, but I’m impressed by her, “There’s new kids with new ideas all over the world,” she added. “They’ll make their own places — it doesn’t matter whether it’s here or wherever it is.” That is the idea that I love. I want there to be so many cathedrals of culture that you could never visit them all, that you couldn’t even make up a list of them all. Isn’t the goal that every city has a club like CBGB’s, surely most big cities do have that. Maybe it’s not soaked in the same lore, but I bet you ask a kid who goes to that cities version of CBGB’s (the idea/intent, not the Las Vegas like replication) and they’ll have their own lore their own amazing stories. They will grow old with those memories and while not famous and not in the news those stories will be there and just as important as those for CBGB’s. It’s the intent, not the place.
The complete opposite sentiment was captured oddly by Lenny Kaye, a guitarist for Smith and a great writer on his own. “It’s like it’s grown its own barnacles, you couldn’t replicate the décor in a million years, and dismantling all those layers of archaeology of music in the club is a daunting task.” This comment is so odd. I know we attach importance to things that are close to us, and surely he was close to this place, but the place couldn’t be replicated exactly, which was the charm of it. But it is replicated all over. And it doesn’t take thousands of years of not peeling flyers off the walls to get that effect, it surely didn’t take that long for it to happen at CBGB’s. Nothing is irreplaceable, and it CBGB’s was so important, anyone of the now wealthy rock stars who go their start there could have helped solve the problem.
I know it’s all part of make up to complain and to mourn the passing of things that matter to us, I guess I would just rather see people working together to make a new place rather than spending so much energy crying about the loss of another.
Ohwell,
C
http://www.nytimes.co
m/2006/10/16/arts/music/16cbgb.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=1a5a4a5818bfb626&ex=1161576000&emc=eta1
I do not have a shirt from there.
I can’t believe they sell shirts from there in department stores.
I can’t believe that wearing a shirt from there is still some sort of valid attempt at being “Authentic”, Ramones shirts are exactly the same thing.
I have friends and people close to me that have told me the wonders of the place, or at least the feelings they had, and I’ve been impressed by them.
I want to like the place, much like I wanted to love Gilman street. These are the places that were closer to my generation shrines, but I just keep going back to the Cathedrals of old, I keep being more impressed with the spot in Notre Dame where Napoleon crowned himself, which while huge, has nothing to do with my life, (much like the music the DJ plays). But what happened at CBGB’s did have an impact on my life. Sonic Youth did speak to me. The bands that came before them, the bands that started out with CBGB’s influenced the music that I grew up with, the music that I still love to this day. I read in an NYT article the attitude that I loved and share, it was by Patti Smith, someone that doesn’t speak to me, but I’m impressed by her, “There’s new kids with new ideas all over the world,” she added. “They’ll make their own places — it doesn’t matter whether it’s here or wherever it is.” That is the idea that I love. I want there to be so many cathedrals of culture that you could never visit them all, that you couldn’t even make up a list of them all. Isn’t the goal that every city has a club like CBGB’s, surely most big cities do have that. Maybe it’s not soaked in the same lore, but I bet you ask a kid who goes to that cities version of CBGB’s (the idea/intent, not the Las Vegas like replication) and they’ll have their own lore their own amazing stories. They will grow old with those memories and while not famous and not in the news those stories will be there and just as important as those for CBGB’s. It’s the intent, not the place.
The complete opposite sentiment was captured oddly by Lenny Kaye, a guitarist for Smith and a great writer on his own. “It’s like it’s grown its own barnacles, you couldn’t replicate the décor in a million years, and dismantling all those layers of archaeology of music in the club is a daunting task.” This comment is so odd. I know we attach importance to things that are close to us, and surely he was close to this place, but the place couldn’t be replicated exactly, which was the charm of it. But it is replicated all over. And it doesn’t take thousands of years of not peeling flyers off the walls to get that effect, it surely didn’t take that long for it to happen at CBGB’s. Nothing is irreplaceable, and it CBGB’s was so important, anyone of the now wealthy rock stars who go their start there could have helped solve the problem.
I know it’s all part of make up to complain and to mourn the passing of things that matter to us, I guess I would just rather see people working together to make a new place rather than spending so much energy crying about the loss of another.
Ohwell,
C
http://www.nytimes.co
m/2006/10/16/arts/music/16cbgb.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=1a5a4a5818bfb626&ex=1161576000&emc=eta1
