"CBGB": Hilly Kristal And The Punk Rock Explosion

"CBGB" stood for "Country Bluegrass Blues," the genres of music that club owner Hilly Kristal envisioned showcasing. Instead, the East Village venue became the incubator for the 1970s explosion of a raw, stripped-down sound that became punk rock. The film "CBGB" features actors playing The Ramones, a band I saw there, along with Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, Iggy Pop  and Television and others. As played by Alan Rickman, Kristal, following a divorce and bankruptcy, took over a Bowery dive in a scruffy neighborhood, decades before its current gentrification. Kristal resisted the insistence of his daughter Lisa (Ashley Greene), club bookkeeper, that he pay his rent, cut expenses and not manage The Dead Boys, a venture that ended disastrously. More visionary than businessman, Kristal was forced to close CBGB following a long rent dispute. "CBGB" is a spirited tribute to Kristal and the music and milieu he fostered.