The best CBGB albums, according to Clem Burke
In 1973, a new clubhouse opened. Throughout musical history, new eras have been launched in line with moments like this. A new venue opens or a new club is launched, and suddenly, there’s a brand new scene, a new uniform, a new sound. In New York and in the world of rock music, there was perhaps no opening as influential as the day CBGB opened its doors, and Clem Burke was one of the first through them.
On 315 Bowery in Manhattan, CBGB & OMFUG stood for “Country, Bluegrass, Blues, and Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers”. The owner, Hilly Kristal, initially intended for this to be a bluegrass venue with country bands strumming acoustic guitar and maybe occasionally doing some poetry readings or something. It was going to be low-key, almost homely, but it very quickly became the exact opposite.
There was a vacuum in New York at the time. Several other important venues had just shut, Andy Warhol had gone into hiding after being shot, so his social hotspots had grown quiet, and the sounds of the city were beginning to morph. Classic rock and roll was changing into something darker and heavier, but the new bands playing it were struggling to find a stage.
They needed more than just a stage, though; all scenes do. What the city needed was a new bustling hub. All subcultures are born through socialising, so the new crowd needed a place to hang out just as much as they needed a place to play their music. So suddenly, they descended on CBGB and Kristal’s dream for a bluegrass bar morphed into one of the most iconic rock and punk venues to have ever existed.
Throughout the ‘70s, it provided a launching platform for many bands. Television, Patti Smith, Talking Heads—all of them played some of their first and most formative gigs there. The entire blossoming punk scene of the city was born there, launching artists who would become true musical icons and bands that would inspire the global punk scene, influencing the British acts. Clem Burke was amongst them as Blondie found a home there, too.
Sadly, the CBGB is shut now, and a shop stands where its hallowed music hall once was. But the legacy that crowd left behind is a strong one, both for music as a whole and also for the people involved. For Burke, it was always a time reflected on fondly each time he listened to some of his favourite albums.
The Ramones’ self-titled debut album is one of them, with the drummer stating, “Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Tommy changed the whole damn world!” Arguably, the entire New York punk scene can be traced back to them, so the entire CBGB crowd was somewhat indebted to their energy as one of the first up to bat.
But Burke also celebrated his own impact and the influence Blondie had up on that stage, picking out their own album Parallel Lines as another all-time favourite. “On a personal note, this record really did change my life,” he said once, reflecting on the powerful career that started there in that venue.
