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You are here: Home / Music / Late Night Music Open Thread: CBGB Memories

Late Night Music Open Thread: CBGB Memories

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For the sophisticates among us, from NYMag, “Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads on Opening for the Ramones, CBGB, and Working With David Byrne“:

Chris: Our first show was opening for the Ramones at CBGB. We had been going to CBGB from pretty much the first night we moved to New York. One weekend Patti Smith performed, and she didn’t really have a band together. It was just Patti and Lenny Kaye on guitar, and it was really exciting. Totally a beatnik thing, which I loved. Lenny was just playing out of a little tiny amplifier, and Patti was doing versions of the songs from her first album, but they were kinda raw. And then I went back the following weekend, and the Ramones played. And the Ramones were also in their formative stages, and they would stop and argue with each other in the middle of a song! But when they were playing, it was so great. To my way of thinking, it was really advanced artistically, even though a lot of people said that they were moronic and that they couldn’t really play and all that. There was an artistry to what they were doing that was beyond typical rock-and-roll bands.

Tina: Dee Dee wrote most of the songs. But the one who always took authority was Johnny, because Johnny had gone to military school. It was kind of funny to us, because Chris and I also had parents in the military, so it was weird to us that Johnny was like that, because we weren’t! We were the opposite! Johnny was always very weird, but in our last 20 years of our career, we shared the same business manager, and he used to say, “Oh, Johnny’s such a great businessman!” He found out that he had won an award, a gold record, so he went to the office on his bike, and he just strapped the gold record to the back of his bicycle. So he was very frugal that way! Totally conservative. Republican.

Chris: I would say reactionary. But anyway, when it came time for us to make our debut, our audition at CBGB, I spoke to Hilly Kristal about it and he recognized me from being a regular patron there. I said, “We have a band and I think we’re ready to do a show here.” And he said, “Okay, but you have to audition.” And I said, “Okay, when should we audition?” And he said, “Well, I could put you on with the Ramones.” Hilly or Danny [Fields] said, “Is it okay if the Talking Heads open for you?” and Johnny said, “Oh yeah, they’re going to suck, so it’s no problem. They can open for us.” And then fast-forward two years, and we were asked to open for the Ramones on their first time to Europe, spring of ’77…

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    ? Martin

    5.3 earthquake in La Habra (north OC/southeast LA)

    Probably a bit of minor damage around the area. Just a bit of rocking’ and rollin’ down here in OC.

  3. 3.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    I thought that quake would never end. I was in the middle of a gaming session when it happened. I shut down everything as it still shook the house around. Bleh.

  4. 4.

    Violet

    @BillinGlendaleCA: @? Martin: That’ll get everyone talking: “When’s The Big One? Things come in threes…” You guys stay safe.

    Love me some Talking Heads. “Stop Making Sense” is one of my favorite concert films.

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    @? Martin:

    We felt it, too. (We’re a couple miles away from Bill.) Not severe, but it seemed to last for quite a while.

    One of my co-workers is going to get teased on Monday, because she was talking about the last earthquake today and wondering when we were going to get another one.

  7. 7.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @? Martin: It lasted for a while up this way. Glad to hear it wasn’t too bad down there. The kid’s in your neighborhood visiting her sis.

  8. 8.

    ? Martin

    @Violet: Eh. There’s a tiny, tiny chance this is a pre-shock. There was a 3.x quake an hour ago in the same area. Looks like a bunch of others in the 3.0 range hitting the area now.

    But 5.3 is enough to give the news guys something to babble about and to wake up the dog. Nice little reminder to check on the emergency supplies.

  12. 12.

    catbirdman

    Just had a little aftershock! Talking Heads were my faves in high school! Their early stuff really holds up.

  16. 16.

    Suffern ACE

    @Violet: bah. Who needs the Richter scale anyway. Give me a linear scale. .2 should be a slight downgrade, but it’s probably some log of something that means it was 45% less. I’m a blog commentator, not a mathematician.

  26. 26.

    Wag

    My two favorites bands ever.

    A week or two there was a thread asking which musicians would it break your heart to hear had died. Everyone was all Keith Richards and jimmy page. My heart broke when Joey and Johnny died. It’ll break again when David Byrne dies.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    Well, that’s pretty darned specific.

    Flash flood warning just announced here at 6:45 as being in effect until 10:12 p.m.

    Not 10:15, not 10:30. 10:12.

  33. 33.

    PanurgeATL

    Would someone please explain to me what exactly is “artistically advanced” about the Ramones? Were they supposed to be the first MetaPostModern band or something?

  35. 35.

    ? Martin

    Little bit more damage than I would expect for a 5.1. Looks like a large water main has broken in Fullerton, some power outages.

    I just realized how much I missed the local news fail parade. They’re always announcing ‘live on the scene’ which means that they’re somewhere in a 900 square mile area. Basically, they went outside. Every broken Pepsi bottle at the grocery store requires a live cut-away. They immediately start asking about ‘the big one’.

    And it’s a little sad seeing how much Lucy Jones has aged. She was so young back during the Big Bear/Landers/Northridge days. So were we, for that matter.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    @? Martin:

    G reminded me that Northridge was over 20 years ago. Yikes.

    ETA: Also, too, what you’re seeing is the aging effect of sun damage. Seismologists and geologists spend lots and lots of time outdoors. I apparently look quite youthful for my 45 years, but I work in offices and wear 45SPF sunscreen every single day.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @PanurgeATL: They stripped “Rock” bare of pretensions. No ELP, Yes, and Rick Wakeman synth noodling. Two or three chords and a 4/4 beat. Back to basics. Art moves in cycles. The Ramones (and the DIY ethos of punk in general) were a breath of fresh air into the music scene.

  45. 45.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Onnes, can you and Little Boobs get a room?

    I tried to stay awake for John’s 2AM Freakshow post but I ain’t gonna make it.

    Good night and good luck to those of you on the West Coast who are going to die buried under rubble.

  47. 47.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I’m primarily a prog rock guy but I do like the Talking Heads. Not for listening to regularly, but for an occasional change of pace. I’m not nearly as big on the Ramones.

  50. 50.

    eemom

    I like the Talking Heads, but I’m afraid of saying something ignorant that might haunt me for the next decade.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @Little Boots:

    Okay, you redeemed yourself. I love that song. I used to torment a coworker after work in a bar in Mobile, AL, by claiming that the lyrics actually said “Purty little love song.” Good times.

  58. 58.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    If the Final Four is three Big 10 teams and THE University of Dayton they should tell Texas to fuck off and just hold it in Chicago. On the other hand, we could get Florida, Arizona, UConn, and Kentucky. That would suck.

    And from hockey, you just can’t count on Wisconsin to step up when it’s time to end North Dakota’s season. No matter the gender, never send a Badger to do a Gopher’s job.

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack

    @Little Boots:

    Another meaningless song. Back in the day I could never figure out if this was a dude or a chick singing on the radio. (This video was probably shown once and then locked in a vault until YouTube. And what’s up with the stately go-go dancers?! I don’t think that’s even a thing.)

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    When this thread goes to hell, I disclaim all responsibility. I tried to post songs that were related to the OP. What the rest of you do is beyond my control.

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My comment was not a criticism of the Ramones at all. It was just a statement that, being a dinosaur, I remember the originals, so I tended to get bleed-through that the Ramones’ youthful fans did not. I like the Ramones and a lot of punk music.

    ETA: My “problem” was not with the Ramones but with hearing them doing a song and also hearing the original in my head. Not so much a problem as just a thing.

  106. 106.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack: Might well be a generational thing. I know a lot of pre-77 music because the punk/ska/etc., groups referred back to them. For example, I know about Junior Murvin because of The Clash. I am interested in where people get their sound – who are their influences? I try to trace them backwards so that I can possibly go forward to new stuff from the same roots. OTOH, music is actually very important to me, other people just like a song or not.

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Some of it is generational, some of it is just what people are drawn to. You hear something you like, you want to hear more “like that.” So, yeah, you trace back, you see who affected whom, who sounds like whom, etc. And you build your musical house.

    I tend to resist music that I think is “overproduced” or (what I think is) pretentious, so I go for . . . well, you’ve probably got a fair idea of what I go for. My seminal musical experience was coming of age in a time when there was a lot of crossing of the streams. When I was in high school the Top 40 in any given week could include, say, Jefferson Airplane, Sly and the Family Stone, Dionne Warwick and Glen Campbell. “Genres” were not so strict and ossified. It was a time when listening to “the Top 40” was not a ridiculous thing. Hell, it was pretty much the only thing. (I think that Blue Cheer version of “Summertime Blues” even made the Top 40!) So I have that history, or am carrying that baggage, as I come down the years to later stuff. So what you—not you personally, but someone your age—might have seen as “Thank God, the Ramones are throwing off the chains of disco and pop junk,” I might have seen as, “Oh, they’re coming back around to the raw, basic stuff.” And some of it worked for me, and some of it didn’t.

    Jeez, didn’t mean to get off on such a musical manifesto. Think I’m still a little punchy from the all-nighter last night. And I do love these music threads.

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack:

    Throwing off the chains of disco and pop junk

    Ultimately that was all it was. I know that. We need to do that every once in a while.

  117. 117.

    Paul in KY

    Saw Tom Tom Club (with Chris & Tina) at Bogarts a few years ago. Ended set with 3 excellent Talking Heads covers. Spoke with them for 20 or so secs at their merch table. They still are pissed at David.

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