Cartwright Rips CBGB's
While rummaging around in my basement last night, I came across this photo from the Music Box feature of the November 24, 1976 issue of my high-school newspaper, in which our faculty advisor, Herb Cartwright, was fed snippets of songs from the classic (whoops, I almost said seminal) proto-punk album, Live at CBGB's, for his predictably horrified reactions. There's no by-line on the article, but I'm pretty sure it was written by X-8. Poor Herb, little did he realize that he was just a patsy for vicious, amoral punk-rockers thumbing their noses at the establishment.
Click on the Extended Entry to read the article.
Cartwright Rips CBGB's
The honorable Herb Cartwright had the divine pleasure this week to give his elegant criticism in the Music Box. His blind date was to be with the noveau-rock-underground album from New York, Live at CBGB's.
Tuff Darts All for the Love of Rack and Roll
I hope he gets well. I guess they're trying to prove how much they can do with very little talent and get a lot of money. Terrible. You can't, well, I can't understand the lyrics. Well, maybe I'm just not used to this. I can never find the melody. Very difficult to waltz to.
The Shirts Operatico
There's more? The what? The Shirts. Clever name. If there's a power shortage, they're dead. Do I have to look at them too? They're horrible. Very melodic voices. Terrible. Will classical music have a bad effect on this music? It's hard to classify this as music. Let's hear I'm Really Not This Way.
Manster I'm Really Not This Way
Manster? Another good one. How can they come up with these? It's like running your fingernails down the chalkboard. They're all from New York? Is there supposed to be a tune to this? A melody? Lyrics? Oh good. It's not too bad. It starts to sound like some of the blues of the Twenties, but they're messing it up with all that sound.
Mr. Cartwright concluded his reaction to CBGB's by saying, "New York's a wonderful city, but now I understand why they went bankrupt. They're subsidizing these groups. Is the big band sound still coming back? A couple of years ago in all the colleges, they were moving back towards the big-band sound. They were getting them at their dances and things. Disco? Ugh. Is this the school's recorder?"