Fact #156770
When:
Short story:
The album Live At CBGBs, is recorded over this weekend in the home of New York punk, featuring Blondie, Laughing Dogs, Manster, Talking Heads, The Shirts, Mink de Ville, Tuff Darts.Full article:
Marty Thau (manager, New York Dolls) : It was my idea to do what became the CBGB’s compilation, which was not the compilation that I envisioned. Hilly took it upon himself to conclude, ‘Well, look, I own the club, I own the name, so I own the project.’
Craig Leon (producer, Live At CBGB’s) : Mink De Ville were (already) signed by Atlantic Records and that was one of the main reasons for doing the Live At CBGB’s album. The original concept was on Hilly’s label, OMFUG Records, but the bands that were originally on that record and were recorded were everyone that was part of the scene.
Marty Thau : I knew what it should be: The Ramones, The Heartbreakers, Blondie, Television, Patti Smith. All the most high-profile interesting acts connected to the punk/New Wave movement.
Hilly Kristal (owner, CBGB’s) : One of the biggest disappointment was when The Talking Heads chose not to be on the album after much mixing and remixing. I never learned who if anyone influenced their decision, or if it was the fact that they were about to be signed by Sire Records. We all thought they sounded great and it was upsetting not to include them.
The other big disappointment was that Blondie as a band, was not together enough live to make a good enough recording. This was after mixing and remixing several times. Craig and Kim felt we could not get it to work. We did not want to jeopardize their career by putting out inferior recordings of their music. They were much too gifted as writers and Debbie Harry’s voice was one of the smoothest, sweetest sounds to be heard. Also, we were all secretly in love with her - she was absolutely beautiful and a lovely person. The good news was I was able to introduce Debbie and Chris to Richard Gottherer during that time and he signed them to a production deal that led to a record contract with Private Stock Records which eventually propelled them to stardom on Chrysalis Records.
Another positive thing that came out of the CBGB live recording was that we encouraged Mink DeVille, or I should say Willy DeVille, the creative leader of the band, to return to his own unique style of R and B, instead of tying to fit into the current punk style that was prevalent at CBGB at the time.
Willy DeVille : I had been living in San Francisco and I used to go over to City Lights, you know, Ferlinghetti's book store, and pick up a week old Village Voice. One day I saw this small, like one inch by one-inch ad, saying ‘auditioning for live bands’. Now New York in the early, mid seventies, there were hardly any places for live bands to play, maybe a Jazz bar. Everything had closed, so here was this ad saying auditioning for live bands.
So I had convinced the guys in my band that I could get them work, and we climbed in the van and drove back to New York. We got here and auditioned, along with hundreds of others, but they liked us and took us on. That was like 74-75, and we played there for three years. You know during that time we didn't get paid more than $50 bucks a night.
(interview with Richard Marcus on BlogCritics website, 2006)
Hilly Kristal : Willy’s performance was so brilliant that we rescheduled another live recording performance so that we might get the best of all the songs. They were the first band to be signed to a major recording contract after the live album came out. They were signed by Ben Edmonds to Capital Records.
Willy DeVille : There was always some sort of shit that was going down there, 'cause there were all these managers with bands they had signed who they wanted to play there, so there was politics. All I wanted was to be a band that New York could be proud of; we wanted to play music that would make the glasses dance on the bar.
Then there was this one night this guy named Ben Edmonds came in to the bar and saw us. He took us back up to his hotel room and asked us - if we could make a record what would we put on it. I just said, "The best damn music I could make."
The next thing was they brought out Jack Nitzsche to talk with me. We got drunk for three days. Jack had done all those records with The Ronettes and groups like that. Jack became, like, my first mentor in the business. Not to sound like some hippie or something, but it was like Karma, you know, for us to be together. (interview with Richard Marcus on BlogCritics website, 2006)
Hilly Kristal : One of the greatest pleasures was when MCA Records asked us to showcase this new band whose record they had just released - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - not to confuse them with Johnny Thunder’s Heartbreakers. They had come all the way up from Florida, and though they were not yet as known here in the north, they received quite an enthusiastic reception even among the punk crowd. Tom Petty had a fresh new sound with exceptional songs and an ‘in your face’ style that produced big energy.
Tweet this Fact
Craig Leon (producer, Live At CBGB’s) : Mink De Ville were (already) signed by Atlantic Records and that was one of the main reasons for doing the Live At CBGB’s album. The original concept was on Hilly’s label, OMFUG Records, but the bands that were originally on that record and were recorded were everyone that was part of the scene.
Marty Thau : I knew what it should be: The Ramones, The Heartbreakers, Blondie, Television, Patti Smith. All the most high-profile interesting acts connected to the punk/New Wave movement.
Hilly Kristal (owner, CBGB’s) : One of the biggest disappointment was when The Talking Heads chose not to be on the album after much mixing and remixing. I never learned who if anyone influenced their decision, or if it was the fact that they were about to be signed by Sire Records. We all thought they sounded great and it was upsetting not to include them.
The other big disappointment was that Blondie as a band, was not together enough live to make a good enough recording. This was after mixing and remixing several times. Craig and Kim felt we could not get it to work. We did not want to jeopardize their career by putting out inferior recordings of their music. They were much too gifted as writers and Debbie Harry’s voice was one of the smoothest, sweetest sounds to be heard. Also, we were all secretly in love with her - she was absolutely beautiful and a lovely person. The good news was I was able to introduce Debbie and Chris to Richard Gottherer during that time and he signed them to a production deal that led to a record contract with Private Stock Records which eventually propelled them to stardom on Chrysalis Records.
Another positive thing that came out of the CBGB live recording was that we encouraged Mink DeVille, or I should say Willy DeVille, the creative leader of the band, to return to his own unique style of R and B, instead of tying to fit into the current punk style that was prevalent at CBGB at the time.
Willy DeVille : I had been living in San Francisco and I used to go over to City Lights, you know, Ferlinghetti's book store, and pick up a week old Village Voice. One day I saw this small, like one inch by one-inch ad, saying ‘auditioning for live bands’. Now New York in the early, mid seventies, there were hardly any places for live bands to play, maybe a Jazz bar. Everything had closed, so here was this ad saying auditioning for live bands.
So I had convinced the guys in my band that I could get them work, and we climbed in the van and drove back to New York. We got here and auditioned, along with hundreds of others, but they liked us and took us on. That was like 74-75, and we played there for three years. You know during that time we didn't get paid more than $50 bucks a night.
(interview with Richard Marcus on BlogCritics website, 2006)
Hilly Kristal : Willy’s performance was so brilliant that we rescheduled another live recording performance so that we might get the best of all the songs. They were the first band to be signed to a major recording contract after the live album came out. They were signed by Ben Edmonds to Capital Records.
Willy DeVille : There was always some sort of shit that was going down there, 'cause there were all these managers with bands they had signed who they wanted to play there, so there was politics. All I wanted was to be a band that New York could be proud of; we wanted to play music that would make the glasses dance on the bar.
Then there was this one night this guy named Ben Edmonds came in to the bar and saw us. He took us back up to his hotel room and asked us - if we could make a record what would we put on it. I just said, "The best damn music I could make."
The next thing was they brought out Jack Nitzsche to talk with me. We got drunk for three days. Jack had done all those records with The Ronettes and groups like that. Jack became, like, my first mentor in the business. Not to sound like some hippie or something, but it was like Karma, you know, for us to be together. (interview with Richard Marcus on BlogCritics website, 2006)
Hilly Kristal : One of the greatest pleasures was when MCA Records asked us to showcase this new band whose record they had just released - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - not to confuse them with Johnny Thunder’s Heartbreakers. They had come all the way up from Florida, and though they were not yet as known here in the north, they received quite an enthusiastic reception even among the punk crowd. Tom Petty had a fresh new sound with exceptional songs and an ‘in your face’ style that produced big energy.