CBGBs Closes it's doors....

A historical landmark for an entire generation of rock and rollers, an icon of the punk rock era and the launch pad for the careers of many musicicians and bands. The likes of Television, Blondie, The Dead Boys, The Ramones, and other punk sensations played on this stage. The long and short of it is that CBGBs was the home to NYC's underground rock scene.

The fact that such a place as CBGBs can fall on such hard times leaves room for much somber thought about the future of true creativity here in New York. Will such seething cauldrins of alternative thinking and originality as The Bitter End, or Mo'Pitkin's and many others see a day when they have to start seriously looking at the ability of a performer to draw a large crowd as a prerequisite to booking the club? Are we witnissing the death throes of not just a historical icon, but a whole way of making music?

I sincerely hope not, even as I find myself admiting that the future looks grim. None the less, there remain some shining beacons of originality who fearlessly plung into depths unexplored. The band Heth & Jed comes to mind. These are a pair of brothers with whom I spent the afternoon just hanging out at Grand Central Station were they where scheduled to perform under the "MTA Music Under NY" Featured Artist program. Incidentally, one of their first gigs here in New York was at CBGBs. It is indeed a small world.

So what does the closing of a rock club have to do with everyday life? Well, the fact remains that whenever the darker side of capitalist greed runs over the space required for creativity to flourish, we as a people become empoverished by the loss. Money is a good thing, and we all need it to survive, and to live in comfort. Yet I take isue with a way of life that unbendingly refuses to make room for the rays of sunshine that creative art brings into this world, a way of life that worships strictly at the twin altars of profit and loss.

By all means, run your business profitably. I just ask that you leave room for some art in this dark and dreary world.

God gave us creativity, and some wrought done magnificent works from those seeds of creative thought. Those who only think in terms of seeking the highest profit miss the point of it all, and worse- they often set out upon a path that ends up uprooting the seedlings germinating from the spores of creativity that lay in the heart of every man, woman, and child.

I will miss CBGBs, not so much for what it was. It was in fact of great historical significance. But I will miss it more for what it never had the chance to be, home of the next generation of creative musicians that would shape yet another movement in the history of music and art. On October 15th the club closed it's doors.

I must ask myself, how long will it be before the fingers of profit and loss start to encroach upon other landmarked properties? We have already seen a city park destroyed in in order to build a larger stadium, when there already is one in the area in question that could have been renovated. We see in areas of brooklyn were the money of developers is threatening to make use of imminent domain laws to seize absolutely beautifull brownstone properties in order to tear them down to make room for an abomidable contruction project that fails to take into account the wishes of the very people living there. How long will it be before churches that may have stood for 120 years or more get torn down simply because the property they stand on could be made more profitable by building an apartment complex or a shopping mall there? There already are places in Florida were nonprofit organizations such as churches are not allowed to set up shop, simply because they won't generate tax revenue. So my ranting and raving here is not so far off the mark, believe me.

Decisions are being made every day that influence our lives in ways we cannot imagine by accountants who have no shred of a clue as to the long term consequences of these descisions, and worse, don't even care. The closing of CBGBs is a sign of the times, and the times are looking pretty grim. I for one am glad that there is a maker of all in heaven and down here on earth who is in control, I shudder to think of the consequences of a world rulled by accountants.

I'm going to go to bed now, the hour is late and my mind is going to darker places I would rather not dwell on. Tommorrow will be another day, and I take refuge in this simple fact: Creativity has survived throughout the ages. It was given to us by God, it will endure.

That's my bit of madness for now...



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          Albert

Currently listening : Between the in & the Out By Heth & Jed Release date: By 02 August, 2005