CBGB in . . . ? Noooooo!!!

Red alerted me to the crisis.

The legendary New York punk club, CBGB, has to move - and some are suggesting . . . it's so awful I can hardly type the words . . . some are suggesting that it be moved to . . . Las Vegas. There. I got it out.

This almost makes me want to cry. Mostly because I never got to go there. Yes, I was in NY three different times in the 80's. But the drip* who I was visiting would never go there with me. That's right. In 1984, 1985 and finally in 1987 I begged to go to CBGB but he wouldn't hear of it. Ass.

Anyway, to my eternal sorrow I never got to take my easily intimidated, Southern, white, round bottom into CBGB's to be scared shitless by the punks - though I wanted to so badly. And now it's going away forever.

Even though I never got to go there, it's been a big part of my conciousness. The Talking Heads are one of my all time favorite bands. Everyone knows they got their start at CBGB. Pep was pogoing to the Sex Pistols back in the 70's. They played CBGB. CBGB is even in a film I love.

Remember that priceless scene in Summer of Sam when Vinny takes Dionna to CBGB because they had a friend who was playing there? They get out of the car, in platform shoes and polyester disco-wear, and . . . their jaws drop. The street is full of hollow bellied people in dog collars. Ripped t-shirts. Shaved heads. Spiked hair. Even though Vinny and Dionna are New Yorkers, born and bred, they are in a different world. They can't get back in the car fast enough.

So, thank you CBGB, for being there to scare New Yorkers in a good way, and for giving my husband something to head-bang about, and for featuring all the greats from Television on up. And please don't move to Las Vegas. Not even Madonna will play Las Vegas.

BTW, you have to go over and read Red's comments on the possibility of turning CBGB in to a punk museum.

*Thanks V-man for reviving the useful word "drip."