NY77 The Coolest Year in Hell

[WolverineSyr]

Sorry for the late notice, but tonight at 8PM (EST) VH1Classic is showing a documentary called NY77 The Coolest Year in Hell. I was flipping through the cable guide & saw the description. I thought you guys might appreciate it! It looks really awesome for those of us into the New York Punk scene.

If you can't catch it, I'm sure they'll rerun it into the ground!

[schwenko]

[quote]Originally posted by WolverineSyr
[br]Sorry for the late notice, but tonight at 8PM (EST) VH1Classic is showing a documentary called NY77 The Coolest Year in Hell. I was flipping through the cable guide & saw the description. I thought you guys might appreciate it! It looks really awesome for those of us into the New York Punk scene.

If you can't catch it, I'm sure they'll rerun it into the ground!
[/quote]

It has been playing for months. I've seen parts of it twice. It's ok.

[Frau_Blucher]

I saw the post and started watching right from the beginning - thanks Wolvie. At first, when they went on and on about disco, hip-hop, politics, etc, I was kinda like "WTF is this?!" Then they finally made it to the punk scene and Richard Hell. I thought he was going to be the namesake of the show, but he doesn't actually seem to be. But now that I'm getting over the fact that it's not just about NY punk, it's actually kinda interesting to see all these elements tied together. It's a bit fluff - nothing that'll illuminate anything for a music fan - but interesting regardless.

One bizarre side-note is that I'm flipping back and forth to the Steelers and Jaguars game, and Talking Heads' "Wild Life" comes on as the background segue to commercial. Kind of a trip.

[ebbhead]

One of the more interesting and different docs ever on VH1/VH1 Classic. Strange what a big role Hip Hop plays in it since in 1977 it really wasn't a factor to the degree they make it appear. But still good stuff.

Anyone else watch the Seven Ages of Rock that aired on VH1 Classic, too? Good stuff - produced by the BBC, so... [;)]

[Mechi]

It was also put on by latinamerican VH1.
A really interesting docummentary... I like the fact that they not also tackled punk but also what was going on in the city during that year.

http://www.fotolog.com/mechi2mechi

[WolverineSyr]

I was suprised by how much time they spent on hip hop. I thought it was waaaay too much.
The punk stuff was great. To me it was what defined NYC in the late 70's & I thought that deserved 3/4 of the show. Obviously I'm a huge Disco fan too and that was just kind of glossed over in favor of street dj wars...

I loved the politics, Son of Sam, Platos Retreat, and Black-out stuff too. It was good, all & all - nothing I'd rave about though.

I did see the Seven Ages of Rock. I thought the punk episode was great & really illuminating.

[KYYX4ever]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>One bizarre side-note is that I'm flipping back and forth to the Steelers and Jaguars game, and Talking Heads' "Wild Life" comes on as the background segue to commercial. Kind of a trip.
[/quote]
I caught that too ! (husband was watching, I was an innocent bystander[:p]) and I thought that was goofy funny.

[toyah]

richard hell and television was not the first of the NY bands to discover Hilly's as a place to play:
Wayne County played there almost six months earlier, thereby placing it on the radar first,and introducing Hilly
to the scene:
CBGB was not the birthplace of punk,Max's Kansas City existed many years
before CB's and all the same bands played there;all these lies
and revisionist history get repeated on all these bull**** MTV/VH1
fairy tales, don't believe a word, it's like Karl Rove explaining the Iraq War

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by toyah[/i]
<br>richard hell and television was not the first of the NY bands to discover Hilly's as a place to play:
Wayne County played there almost six months earlier, thereby placing it on the radar first,and introducing Hilly
to the scene:
CBGB was not the birthplace of punk,Max's Kansas City existed many years
before CB's and all the same bands played there;all these lies
and revisionist history get repeated on all these bull**** MTV/VH1
fairy tales, don't believe a word, it's like Karl Rove explaining the Iraq War
[/quote]
True enough. My Max's comp from 1976 even calls it "new wave". [8D]

[schwenko]

[quote][i]Originally posted by toyah[/i]
<br>richard hell and television was not the first of the NY bands to discover Hilly's as a place to play:
Wayne County played there almost six months earlier, thereby placing it on the radar first,and introducing Hilly
to the scene:
[/quote]

from the cbgb web site:

"December 1973 is when CBGB opened, and among the first bands to play were, "The Con Fullum Band " from Maine, "Elly Greenberg," a country folk artist, and a street group called "The Wretched Refuse String Band." I booked many other such musicians but was finding it difficult to come up with enough new, fresh talent of that genre. Subsequently, we played a smattering of jazz such as "Oregon" and "Jeremy Stieg" The beginning of what we now think of as CBGB came early on. I was on a ladder in front of the club fixing the awning in place, when I looked down to notice three scruffy dudes in torn jeans and T shirts looking up at me inquisitively.
"WHAT'S GOIN' ON?" or something of that nature, was the question they asked.
They were Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, and Richard Lloyd, three of the four members of the rock group "Television." A few days later, Terry Ork, Television's manager came around to try and get the band a gig at CBGB.
He was a pudgy little dynamo with a penchant for non-stop talking; energy and enthusiasm up to here. He believed Television was going to be the hottest new sound since John Cage first played his "clothes line."
Since at that time we weren't open on Sunday, I decided to give Television a try out, about three and a half weeks hence, on a Sunday.
The admission was one dollar. ----It was not an impressive debut (at least not in my opinion). There were only a few paid customers and not too many more friends. They not only didn't pay admission but didn't have any money for drinks."

It's my understanding that Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell literally built the stage at CBGB.

[toyah]

here's what's missing from the CBGB website;
In Dec 73, Wayne County, who was the second biggest act on the NY/Max's/Mercer Arts scene at the time
(second only to the New York Dolls, and signed to David Bowie's Mainman company
as an artist),played at Hilly's, shortly before it changed it's name to CBGB, in fact, Wayne's
drummer at the time was Marc Bell, who would later drum for Richard Hell
& and the Void Oids and even later become Marky Ramone, and thereby,
Wayne discovered the spot for the NY bands,making it very easy for the boys in Television to discover;
years later, after Wayne was confronted by Dick Manitoba of the Dictators at CBGB
and knocked him out, the homophobes at the then brand new PUNK Magazine used
their sway and influence to minimize and erase Wayne County, the club that Wayne was
associated with, Max's Kansas City,and allies of Wayne including Johnny Thunders,
Cherry Vanilla and Jimi La Lumia & the Psychotic Frogs.
One of the first things to get re written was the history of CBGB and the fairy tale about
Telvision stumbling upon the place by accident in the spring of 74
www.myspace.com/strongislandrocks

[toyah]

just saw this on the Wikipedia CBGB entry, which adds more light to my entry;

1970s
In 1973, before Hilly's on the Bowery became CBGB, two locals named Bill Page and Rusty McKenna convinced Kristal to allow them to book concerts. While the term "punk rock" had not yet been invented, the acts booked by Billy Page and McKenna helped lay the musical foundation for the bands that followed.[3] After the Mercer Arts Center collapsed in August 1973, there were few locations in New York where unsigned bands could play original music, and a couple of Mercer refugees—Suicide and Wayne County—played one-off gigs in the very early days of CBGB.

On March 31, 1974, Television began a long-term Sunday night residency at the club, an event that many see as the key moment in the early history of the New York punk scene. Although Kristal was often quoted as saying that Television was the first band to bring punk rock to CBGB, this was a myth; there was actually a punk show in progress the first time Tom Verlaine visited the club. [4] However, it was Television's shows that started a flood of "street music" (as punk acts were initially known) performances on the Bowery.

At the third Television gig on 14 April 1974, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith Group were in the audience; that band went on to make its own CBGB debut on 14 February 1975. Other early performers included The Stillettoes (featuring future Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry on back-up vocals), who supported Television on 5 May 1974. The newly-formed Blondie (under its original name of Angel & the Snake) and The Ramones both arrived in August 1974. Mink DeVille, Talking Heads, The Shirts, The Heartbreakers, The Fleshtones, Steel Tips and many other bands followed in quick succession.

[schwenko]

So Hilly Krystal was wrong[:0]

Are you saying that Wayne County told Television about the opportunity to play CBGB? And tnat Verlaine and Hell didn't inadvertently discover CBGB as they strolled down the Bowery en route to a Chinese dinner?

How old was Dana Krystal in 1973?

[toyah]

when history was re written by others, hilly didn't dispute it; it was, for him, obviously
good business to go with the flow. wayne county didn't have to tell television
about hilly's; wayne was a big deal in late 73, on an equal keel with THe New York
Dolls; Television was nothing at the time, having just changed their name from
the Neon Boys; all the up and coming NY bands paid attention to the doings of post glitter
acts like The Dolls, Wayne, and Cherry Vanilla at that time; the Wayne County
gig was advertised in the Village Voice and all the other bands saw it and became aware
of this new location.

[DougMash]

I did enjoy the part in the Hip Hop section where Afrika Baambaata thought he caused the blackout by hotwiring a streetlamp to run his amps and mixer! Good show. Amazing how much was going on in NYC...when I was 10.