Farewell, Hilly Kristal

In the midst of all of the breaking news concerning the men’s room activities of Sen. Larry Craig (R-MO) and the resignations of Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove, one item caught my attention on MSNBC’s news crawl yesterday afternoon and brought a tear to my eye – Tuesday’s passing of Hilly Kristal from complications from lung cancer. He was 75.

When Kristal opened his bar and nightclub at 315 Bowery in NYC in 1973, I don’t think he had any idea that he would play an important and pivotal role in American rock music. His original intention was to book country, bluegrass and blues music, which ultimately inspired the name of the club, which was an acronym for “Country, Bluegrass, Blues, and Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers” – CBGB & OMFUG, more commonly known as CBGB. In 1974 a groundbreaking band called Television (whose 1977 Marquee Moon album has not lost any of its strength or effectiveness after thirty years) began a Sunday night residency at CBGB. Soon afterward the floodgates opened, and the acts that would perform regular gigs there in the coming years constitute a veritable “Who’s Who” of influential punk rock, art rock, new wave and experimental music: The Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Suicide, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, The Feelies, Sonic Youth… you get the picture.

After a long and bitter rent dispute with their landlords, CBGB closed its doors in October of 2006, but not without leaving behind a legacy and a place in music history that most people could only dream about. When my wife & I went to NYC on our honeymoon a couple of years ago, I insisted that we make a pilgrimage to CBGB, and the sense of history I felt from just standing in that front doorway was overwhelming. I’m glad I was able to at least see it once in all of its glory before it closed.

Thank you for everything, Hilly.

NY Times obituary :: Wikipedia entries on Kristal and CBGB