Various Artists - Live At CBGB's (1976) (@256)

Every September I strive to be present to the maximum possible number of movies shown at the Athens International Film Festival of Cinema magazine. Of all its sections, Music & Films is my favourite one. Although I missed the movie that was awarded (Until The Light Takes Us), my personal award went to the movie Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB.


The trailer

I guess there is no meaning in trying to explain what CBGB means for music. Its closure is just another major loss in NY's cultural heritage. As we've seen in the film, many musicians rallied to prevent the club's closure, but once more some financial aspects and some paperwork proved to be much stronger. Apart from that, as Jonathan Demme correctly stated in the film, CBGB was a venue where many unsigned bands could play; now that it doesn't exist, it'll be far more difficult for them to find a place to present their music. It was more or less the same situation with the Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Television, Suicide, Blonde, Heartbreakers and Richard Hell to name just a few. It's for sure that without CBGB all these outcasts would have faced much more difficulties to find their way. The result would be that music would be totally different, and definitely much poorer from what it is now. Finally, I felt a little bit uneasy when I saw CBGB's original facade in a sterilised art gallery. I could propose this gallery to take the notoriously dirty toilets of the club as well.













This upload is a compilation of live recordings from CBGB during June 4, 5, 6, 1976. As Joe Viglione explains in allmusic: "This is it, the classic double LP from CBGB's that was instrumental in putting national focus on the "new wave," a brilliant handle comparing the next generation of garage and underground rockers to French cinema (...) It was a historic moment in rock & roll, and this document is a time capsule treasure of the musical movement as it was evolving."
Tracklisting:
A1-Tuff Darts - All For The Love Of Rock 'N' Roll
A2-Shirts - Operetico
A3-Mink DeVille - Cadillac Moon
A4-Laughing Dogs - I Need A Million
B1-Shirts - Poe
B2-Mink DeVille - Let Me Dream If I Want To
B3-Tuff Darts - Head Over Heels
B4-Manster - Over, Under, Sideways, Down
C1-Manster - I'm Really Not This Way
C2-Sun - Romance
C3-Stuart's Hammer - Everybody's Depraved
C4-Miamis - We Deliver
D1-Mink DeVille - Change It Comes
D2-Shirts - A.V.M.
D3-Laughing Dogs - It Feels Alright Tonight
D4-Tuff Darts - Slash



The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop Live at CBGB 1977


The last song ever played at CBGB - Patti Smith "Elegie" October 15, 2006

See also:
Sonic Youth's video clip of Do You Believe In Rapture which is filmed inside the CBGB
CBGB virtual tour
The History of CBGB written by Hilly Kristal, the man that ran the club for all these years
Richard Hell's article about CBGB in the NY Times

review link: here

download link: here