The other night as I was settling down to do some serious blogging I could hear music from the other room.
Intrigued, I decided to investigate and found that it was a song accompanying the closing credits of a film on TV (I've no idea what film)
So I did what you do in these situations - I stood about 6 inches from the telly in an attempt to read the credit's which were getting ever smaller.
Turns out it was a song called CBGBs by Syd Straw and it is pretty dammed good.
Some investigation tells me it is from her 1996 album War and Peace. She was also in a band called The Golden Palominos who included Michael Stype, Matthew Sweet and Anton Fier.
CBGBs (Country Bluegrass Blues) was perhaps the most famous punk rock venue in the world
Opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal at 315 Bowery New York, it became the home from home for the likes of The Ramones, Blondie, Television and The Talking Heads.
It closed on 15th October 2006 with a show by Patti Smith ending in a rendition of Gloria
Syd Straw -CBGBs
Patti Smith - Gloria
I'm not up on Syd Straw at all but this is a nice slice. As for Patti - Gloria In Excelsis!
ReplyDeleteBlimey, I really used to like the first couple of Syd Straw LP's, but haven't heard either in about 15 years. This sounds great.
ReplyDeleteI went to CBGBs a couple of times in the mid-1990s when The Bowery was still a frankly terrifying area of New York. Having safely made it to the venue you had to navigate Hilly shouting at you on the door, then hope you didn't need to piss all evening. The toilet facilities at CBGBs were legendarily minimal, to say the least.
I did not know what CBGB stood for. So it's nothing to do with heebie-jeebies then.
ReplyDeleteI used to have the Syd Straw album that had her duet with Michael Stipe 'Future 40s' on it. Good record if I remember. And 'Gloria' is one of the greatest opening album tracks of all time.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is a very good song. Well done.
ReplyDeleteCBGB's was an integral part of my youth. Venue of my first concert, which I was way to young to attend, but in the 70's there wasn't so much concern about things like that.
ReplyDeleteAm jealous that you and The Swede have both been there!
DeleteHave you seen the CBGB movie with Alan Rickman as Hilly? I bring it up only because I watched it recently. I wanted to like it a lot more. I did, however, enjoy seeing the real Talking Heads pay tribute to the actual Hilly during their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... That was rolled out during the closing credits. I guess when your favorite part of the movie is the closing credits you have a stinker on your hands.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen it Brian and you are not really selling it to me!
DeleteThe Syd Straw song was an unexpected pleasure. I stumbled upon your blog after seeing it in the side bar of Sun Dried Sparrows blog. I've been to CBGBs a few times also in the past and so seeing the name under 'Charity Chic Music' made me interested. I've never heard of Syd Straw before but I shall be travelling over to YouTube later on to see and hear what else she's done. Strangely, I've just finished reading John Lydon's autobiography Anger Is An Energy and in it he mentions The Golden Palominos. Apparently he recorded with them once but at the time he didn't want anyone to know he had done so.
ReplyDeleteI shall be coming here again. Thank you!
Welcome aboard John!
DeleteThat Golden Palaminos track featuring Lydon is called The Animal Speaks from their Visions of Excess album and it's a stormer...it was much more energetic than a lot of what he was doing with PiL at the time - to these ears...
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