"Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll" inspiration: CBGB & OMFUG and the sad decline of the Bowery music scene

  Even if you never saw a show at CBGB, or ventured to the Bowery neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, if you had anything to do with music, rock, punk or fashion you knew about CBGB.  The home of underground rock for thirty years and the crown jewel of the Bowery's colorfully dangerous neighborhood, CBGB was so influential to the rock scene it became THE place to play. As classical musicians opine "You haven't made it until you've played Carnegie hall," downtown punks would sigh, "You haven't made it until you've played CBGB."

From the fantastic book, "CBGB and OMFUG: Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock": The first photo is of the Ramones posing on the sidewalk, thumbs hooked inside the front pockets of their skinny jeans. It's punk-rock documented in all its glory in this fabulous chronicle of the happenings at CBGB & OMFUG, the dingy, legendary music hangout in Manhattan's East Village. In his introduction, Kristal, CBGB's founder and owner, explains that the place was "originally meant to be a country and blues club," but "is famous for being the birthplace of a new era of punk." Opened in 1973, the club's early years saw AC/DC, Blondie, Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Television, the Talking Heads and, of course, the Ramones, of whom there are plenty of pics. The '80s brought Sonic Youth, the Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Live and Pearl Jam. And with the 90s came Courtney Love, Liz Phair and the Goo Goo Dolls. (The chronological history ends with the Libertines in 2003.)

   Everyone, or rather everyone worth knowing played there.  The crowds were equal parts belligerently drunk and devoted, and the energy was fast and filthy.  Is there any place in New York more at home in Eric Bogosian's "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll" than CBGB? 
  In a depressingly ironic twist, just as Bogosian laments that Rock and Roll is dying when he writes his show, it is now completely dead because CBGB has closed.   What becomes of this infamous and influential landmark, you ask? Oh, its been turned into a f***ing Jon Varvatos store.

  Thank god Joey Ramone passed away before this occurred.  If there is any example of New York becoming an absurdely expensive city for the very wealthy, an unimaginative, uninteresting shadow of its former self, Bowery St. being filled with high-end shops for rich, old, pseudo-punks is the only example that needs to be given. 

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