Here's a really cool story for you that came out of a not so great day in my life. First of all, this story starts off with me having to go to the doctor's office to get some tests done to find out why my heart is all of a sudden getting all jittery and beating irregularly. I told the doctor that I was under the assumption that I had no heart, but the tests have proven me wrong. Not to worry though, everything seems to be alright.
Now, the cool part. Okay, this might run on a bit, but it's worth the read if you are a fan of old school punk music...As I was going in to have this weird ultrasound thing done to see if there was anything visibly wrong with the afore mentioned ticker I was wearing my CBGB's shirt. Now all of the people in the office, both patients and people working there are all pretty much in their fifties or older, so I felt a bit out of place. So the nurse calls me in and I walk over to her and she says " Oh, CBGB's. I played there a bunch of times back in the 70's and 80's." I have to say that that may have been the absolute LAST thing that I expected to hear from this particular woman as she looked like the type of lady who would bake cookies for church and stage PTA protests against punk music. I was understandably a little shocked, but intrigued. So I asked her what kind of music she played and what the name of her band was, etc. She said that she used to be the drummer in a band called the B-Girls who were an all girl punk band back in the late 70's. Very cool. So she asked me what kind of music I liked and I tossed out a few of my favorites from that era...The Ramones, The Clash, New York Dolls, etc. She's like "Yeah, I met all of them. We worked on an album with Mick Jones from the Clash once. " I'm now a little impressed, so I asked her if she had any cool stories from those days. She told me that when she was in the band she was rooming with the lead singer whose name was Cindy something. She said that her roommate was dating Stiv Bators from the Dead Boys and every time he'd call to talk to her and she would answer she'd yell " CINDY, STEVE'S ON THE PHONE!!!" which would in turn cause "Stiv" to yell "It's STIV, not Steve." She said that she never once referred to him as Stiv, but always called him Steve which REALLY pissed him off. I laughed my ass off. Now, I thought that was a great story in and of itself, but the next story topped that one. She married some guy who was a guitar designer/sound technician and they lived in New York City during the beginnings of the whole punk movement, so she had all kinds of interesting run ins with now legendary people. She said that there was one particular night when they were living in a loft in this big apartment building and they kept hearing the guy who lived below them playing TWO notes over and over again as loud as fucking possible for like forty five minutes. Finally she couldn't take it any more and her and her husband went downstairs to find out what the hell was going on. When they got downstairs they saw that somebody had run an electric chord out underneath their door, out into the hallway, and had hot wired the building's Exit sign so they could steal electricity...presumably for their guitar. Her husband yanked the wire out and the guitar inside cuts out. A couple minutes later the guy inside opens the door to see what happened. It was Johnny Thunders from the New York Dolls. Eventually they became friends and would hang out together. She asked me if I'd ever seen those people who wear fishing hats with fishing lures stuck in them. I said sure. She said that Johnny would walk around the streets of New York with a hat with hypodermic needles stuck in it. She also said that right around the early 80's when those big ass monster "Boom Boxes" were popular, there was a time when this huge dude who looked like a gang member was walking around blasting what would eventually be referred to as rap music . Johnny, who was fucked up on God knows what, apparently didn't care for the music and just walked up next to the guy and changed the station on his boom box. She thought they were going to get shot, but the big dude was so shocked that this skinny crazy ass white kid did that that he just left it on that station and kept walking.
She told me a few other stories while she was doing the test and I actually wanted the test to take longer because I was honestly really entertained and interested in what she was telling me. Unfortunately..or in my case, fortunately, there wasn't anything majorly evident from the test so I was cleared to leave. I thanked her for the amazing stories and went on my way. When I got home there was a "Rockumentary" on the bass player for the New York Dolls on one of the cable channels. A strange, but nonetheless cool coincidence. Best trip to the doctor's office EVER.
Now, the cool part. Okay, this might run on a bit, but it's worth the read if you are a fan of old school punk music...As I was going in to have this weird ultrasound thing done to see if there was anything visibly wrong with the afore mentioned ticker I was wearing my CBGB's shirt. Now all of the people in the office, both patients and people working there are all pretty much in their fifties or older, so I felt a bit out of place. So the nurse calls me in and I walk over to her and she says " Oh, CBGB's. I played there a bunch of times back in the 70's and 80's." I have to say that that may have been the absolute LAST thing that I expected to hear from this particular woman as she looked like the type of lady who would bake cookies for church and stage PTA protests against punk music. I was understandably a little shocked, but intrigued. So I asked her what kind of music she played and what the name of her band was, etc. She said that she used to be the drummer in a band called the B-Girls who were an all girl punk band back in the late 70's. Very cool. So she asked me what kind of music I liked and I tossed out a few of my favorites from that era...The Ramones, The Clash, New York Dolls, etc. She's like "Yeah, I met all of them. We worked on an album with Mick Jones from the Clash once. " I'm now a little impressed, so I asked her if she had any cool stories from those days. She told me that when she was in the band she was rooming with the lead singer whose name was Cindy something. She said that her roommate was dating Stiv Bators from the Dead Boys and every time he'd call to talk to her and she would answer she'd yell " CINDY, STEVE'S ON THE PHONE!!!" which would in turn cause "Stiv" to yell "It's STIV, not Steve." She said that she never once referred to him as Stiv, but always called him Steve which REALLY pissed him off. I laughed my ass off. Now, I thought that was a great story in and of itself, but the next story topped that one. She married some guy who was a guitar designer/sound technician and they lived in New York City during the beginnings of the whole punk movement, so she had all kinds of interesting run ins with now legendary people. She said that there was one particular night when they were living in a loft in this big apartment building and they kept hearing the guy who lived below them playing TWO notes over and over again as loud as fucking possible for like forty five minutes. Finally she couldn't take it any more and her and her husband went downstairs to find out what the hell was going on. When they got downstairs they saw that somebody had run an electric chord out underneath their door, out into the hallway, and had hot wired the building's Exit sign so they could steal electricity...presumably for their guitar. Her husband yanked the wire out and the guitar inside cuts out. A couple minutes later the guy inside opens the door to see what happened. It was Johnny Thunders from the New York Dolls. Eventually they became friends and would hang out together. She asked me if I'd ever seen those people who wear fishing hats with fishing lures stuck in them. I said sure. She said that Johnny would walk around the streets of New York with a hat with hypodermic needles stuck in it. She also said that right around the early 80's when those big ass monster "Boom Boxes" were popular, there was a time when this huge dude who looked like a gang member was walking around blasting what would eventually be referred to as rap music . Johnny, who was fucked up on God knows what, apparently didn't care for the music and just walked up next to the guy and changed the station on his boom box. She thought they were going to get shot, but the big dude was so shocked that this skinny crazy ass white kid did that that he just left it on that station and kept walking.
She told me a few other stories while she was doing the test and I actually wanted the test to take longer because I was honestly really entertained and interested in what she was telling me. Unfortunately..or in my case, fortunately, there wasn't anything majorly evident from the test so I was cleared to leave. I thanked her for the amazing stories and went on my way. When I got home there was a "Rockumentary" on the bass player for the New York Dolls on one of the cable channels. A strange, but nonetheless cool coincidence. Best trip to the doctor's office EVER.
julliette:
you got an scary and wonderful profile pic!