The History of CBGB — How a Bowery Bar Birthed American Punk

From the Ramones to Talking Heads, the story of the grimy New York club that changed rock forever.

When Hilly Kristal opened CBGB & OMFUG on the Bowery in 1973, he wanted country and bluegrass. What he got instead was the Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, and Talking Heads — the entire first wave of American punk under one collapsing ceiling, and a club that would, over the next 33 years, change the course of American rock. The story of CBGB is the story of how a failing country-music bar at 315 Bowery became the cradle of American punk, the home of the New York new wave, and the room where a generation of bands that would define the next 40 years of rock learned to play in front of an audience.

The club's founding is the part of the story everyone gets wrong. Kristal opened CBGB in December 1973 in the ground floor of a flophouse at 315 Bowery, and the original intent — Country, Bluegrass, Blues — is in the name. The 'OMFUG' (Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers) was the catch-all for everything else, and it's the part that took over. Kristal's booking policy, which he would maintain for the entire 33-year run, was that he would book any original band that wanted to play — no covers, no tape acts, no DJs — and the policy is the reason the club became the home of every original act in the city. The first band to take him up on it was Suicide, the electronic duo, in 1974; the band that made the club famous was the Ramones, who debuted there in August 1974 and became the club's house band for the next decade.

The 1974-1976 run is the part of the story that made the club's reputation. The Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Talking Heads, and the Heartbreakers all played the room in this period, and the audience — the CBGB regulars who would become the New York punk scene — became the core of the movement. Patti Smith's April 1975 residency at the club, captured on the 'Horses' sessions that would define the band, is the residency that proved the club could incubate a record; the Ramones' August 1974 debut is the night that proved the club could incubate a genre. The room was the size of a large living room — the capacity was around 350, the stage was 12 feet wide, and the PA was a single column — and the whole thing ran on a policy of cheap beer, original music, and a refusal to turn anyone away. The bathroom was legendary. The plumbing was not.

The club's influence on the broader scene is the part that's harder to measure but more important. CBGB was not the only room in the New York punk scene — Max's Kansas City was the other pole, and the Mercer Arts Center and the Village punk scene had their own rooms — but it was the room that the press covered, the room the bands broke out of, and the room that the rest of the country associated with the New York scene. The bands that came out of CBGB in the mid-70s — the Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, the Heartbreakers, Blondie — became the first wave of American punk and new wave, and the records they made between 1975 and 1978 — 'Horses,' the Ramones' debut, 'Marquee Moon,' the Talking Heads' debut — are the records that defined the movement. The club was the incubator; the bands were the proof.

The 80s and 90s are the part of the story that turned the club from a scene into an institution. The club became the home of the New York hardcore scene — the Bad Brains, the Beastie Boys, Agnostic Front, and the Cro-Mags all played the room — and the No Wave and indie scenes that followed. The club's booking policy stayed the same — original bands, no covers, no tape acts — but the audience broadened, and the room became the home of every original act in the city for the next two decades. The club also became the home of the hardcore matinee, the Sunday-afternoon all-ages show that became the defining format of the 80s New York punk scene, and the room where a generation of punks who would never have been able to get into a 21-plus show learned to play in front of an audience.

The closing is the part of the story everyone remembers. The club closed on October 15, 2006, after a multi-year dispute with the Bowery Residents' Committee over back rent, and the final week of shows — a residency that ran the Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Talking Heads, and the Bad Brains back through the room one last time — is the part of the story that turned the closing into a wake. Patti Smith played the final night, and her set ended with 'Gloria' and a crowd that refused to leave. The room is gone — the club was replaced by a menswear store, and the stage, the urinal, and the awning were all moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — but the music it birthed already has. We trace the club from its toilet-bowl plumbing to its 2006 closing, and the artists who passed through its door. The bathroom graffiti alone could fill a book. The music it birthed already has.