I guess punk really started because they were using it as a point of self-expression. A lot of them learned to play their instruments so they could say something. They had their lofts or their basements to practice in, but no place to play. When I saw so many bands around that wanted to play and do their own thing, I made the policy: the only way you could play here was to write your own music.

— Hilly Kristal, owner, CBGB/OMFUG

In New York City, the stuff that's hip and the stuff that's passé change, literally, from day to day. Night clubs come and night clubs go, but they don't last very long. There was, however, one outstanding exception. A tiny spot at the end of Bleecker Street in New York's Bowery district on the lower East side opened in 1973 and for thirty-three years led the pack in rock music innovation. The name was CBGB/OMFUG, or "Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers."

The name came to be because the club's owner, Hilly Kristal, had owned a successful Country/Blues spot in the West Village for awhile. Kristal had found plenty of talent to play on the West side; but in the Bowery neighborhood (suffice it to say it was New York's skid row) he had to find other talent to fill in the spots between the blues artists.  Shortly after the club's opening, Kristal became aware of an entirely new underground music scene; a genre (literally) screaming its way from basements to garages to loft spaces but without a true commercial venue at which to play. Not at all materialistic, he figured he'd try something new because he saw through the tough appearance and attitude of these young musical pioneers and found that they had something to say. He took it upon himself to give them a place to say it.

Kristal, deep-voiced and intense, with a biker style of dress, knew music inside and out. He was born in 1932 in Manhattan to Jewish parents who fled New York City to run a farm in central New Jersey. He studied music at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the 1950s and '60s, he performed with various musical groups in New York City. At some point in his life, he spent a stint in the Marines. Prior to his West Village venture, he managed the famous Village Vanguard jazz club, which played host to such luminaries as Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane and myriad members of the jazz A-list.

CBGB, physically, was all of less than 150' deep and only 25' wide at spots. At the time of its opening sported what was reported to have been one of the finest sound systems in New York. A red awning with funky white lettering sported the club's acronymic moniker. Originally the Palace Bar, located in the lobby of what was the Palace Hotel, a flop-house, little was changed but for the addition of a stage. The exterior was kept as clean as any building in this area of the City could be kept. But inside, chaos reigned. So many flyers and bumper stickers and whatnot adorned the walls, stage, ceiling and bar there wasn't need for paint. The stage had no steps to assist performers; the talent had to make it up three feet on their own. Kristal quipped in an interview “If you need to get up there, you will, especially if you’re 20 years old.”

CBGB was to rock and roll what the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem was to R&B music. The club served as the "incubator for the diverse underground scene of New York in the 1970s and early ’80s, with acts like the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, Talking Heads and Sonic Youth playing some of their earliest and most important concerts there, at a time when there were few outlets in the city for innovative rock music."* The famous Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols was ejected by Kristal personally from the club after he threw a beer bottle at a fellow musician. The Velvet Underground found a home at CBGB after receiving mixed receptions at other clubs.

In 2006, times changed for Kristal and the club. A Manhattan Social Services agency had purchased the old Palace Hotel and turned it into a shelter and rehabilitation center, but continued to rent the club to Kristal for a whopping $20,000 a month. At one point Kristal stopped paying rent, not because he didn't have the money, but, as he explained to a judge, "You know, there was a blonde girl who used to come down and ask for it every two weeks, and then she stopped coming."

The Agency that owns the building, as well as six other buildings in the up-and-coming neighborhood, the Bowery Residents' Committee, ("BRC") is headed by a man by the name of Muzzy Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt, who has dedicated his career to helping the homeless since his graduation from Wesleyan University. When CBGB's lease ran out in October of 2006, Rosenblatt proposed escalating the rent to the "market value;" or $40,000 monthly. Kristal fired back that Rosenblatt is paid $150,000 annually by the BRC; which is more than he pays his staff or himself. Not materialistic in the least, Kristal had always made it a point to put earnings back into the club, taking care of his entertainers (he set the standard for fair pay and quality hospitality for musicians and they returned the courtesy by remaining fiercely loyal to Kristal, occasionally playing for free long after they'd achieved international fame) and providing top-quality acts for his customers.

After many efforts by a diverse group of organizations to keep the club open, it finally closed. One group convinced New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to don a CBGB t-shirt and speak on the club's behalf.

Kristal was thinking about moving everything lock-stock-and barrel to Las Vegas, Nevada, a better place to house what would perhaps become a "museum of punk rock." A store in the East Village on St. Mark's Place still offers CBGB clothes and trinkets for sale.

Mr. Kristal died at the end of August, 2007 due to complications of lung cancer.

SOURCES:

The Internet Movie Database (IMDB): http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0961234/ Accessed 9/10/07

*"Hilly Kristal, A Rock Midwife, is Dead at 75" by Ben Sisario The New York Times, August 29, 2007  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/arts/music/29cnd-kristal.html? ex=1203998400&en=e1319ea264a08b97&ei=5087&excamp=GGGNhillykristal (Accessed 9/10/07)

"CBGB Founder Hilly Kristal Dies at 75" by Cortney Harding, Billboard Online, August 29, 2007 http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003632740 (Accessed 9/10/07)

CBGB ONLINE: http://www.cbgb.com/ (Accessed 9/10/07)

"Between Punk Rock and a Hard Place" by Keith Gessen, New York Magazine June 20, 2005 http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/music/features/12023/ (Accessed 9/10/07)

"The Little Club That Made a Big Noise: an Interview With CBGB's Owner Hilly Kristal" By Richard Abowitz and Jayson Whitehead, Gadfly Online February, 1998 http://www.gadflyonline.com/archive/February98/archive-cbgb.html#top (Accessed 9/10/07)

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.