The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish PunkBased in part on the recent interviews with more than 125 people--among them Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein (Blondie), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Hilly Kristal (CBGBs owner), and John Zorn--this book focuses on punk's beginnings in New York City to show that punk was the most Jewish of rock movements, in both makeup and attitude. As it originated in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early 1970s, punk rock was the apotheosis of a Jewish cultural tradition that found its ultimate expression in the generation born after the Holocaust. Beginning with Lenny Bruce, "the patron saint of punk," and following pre-punk progenitors such as Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, Suicide, and the Dictators, this fascinating mixture of biography, cultural studies, and musical analysis delves into the lives of these and other Jewish punks--including Richard Hell and Joey Ramone--to create a fascinating historical overview of the scene. Reflecting the irony, romanticism, and, above all, the humor of the Jewish experience, this tale of changing Jewish identity in America reveals the conscious and unconscious forces that drove New York Jewish rockers to reinvent themselves--and popular music. |
Contents
The Patron Saint of Jewish New York | 1 |
The Godfather of Jewish Punk | 9 |
3 A Nice Jewish Boy Danny Fields Begets the Shaman the Misfit and the Punk | 27 |
4 Suicide Is Painful Martin Rev and Alan Vega Bring the Jewish Streets Indoors | 39 |
Cool Nerd | 49 |
6 The Ten Nuggets Lenny Kaye and the Compilation of the Ten Punk Commandments | 63 |
7 The Fiddler on the Bowery Hilly Kristal Sets Up a DIYCBGB OMFUG | 77 |
8 Juidos n Decaf Italians Irony Blasphemy and Jewish Shtick | 87 |
12 The Shiksa Goddess Chris Stein Creates the First Punk Princess | 149 |
13 HotsyTotsy Nazi Shatzes Nazi Imagery and the Final Solution to the Final Solution | 163 |
14 The New JAPS Jewish American Punks Jewish American Women and the Birth of Female Punk | 179 |
15 Write Yiddish Cast British How England Stole Jewish Punk | 193 |
16 A PostPunk History of a PreCool Jew World How the Radical Jewish Culture Movement Took NY Punk Further Downtown | 211 |
Epilogue One of Us | 225 |
Afterword Seeing God | 231 |
Source Notes | 233 |
Other editions - View all
The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk Steven Lee Beeber Limited preview - 2007 |
The Heebie-jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk Steven Lee Beeber Limited preview - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
album Andy Shernoff anti-Semitic artists audience Beatles became began Blondie Bockris boys Brill Building Cale camp CBGB Chris Stein classic comic created Danny Fields Debbie Harry Dee Dee Dictators fact father girls guitar guitarist Handsome Dick Holmstrom Holocaust humor immigrant Italian jazz Jewish American Jewish Culture Jewish kid Jewish music Jewish women Jews Joey Ramone John Johnny Jonathan Richman kind klezmer Kristal later lead singer Lenny Bruce Lenny Kaye look Lou Reed Lower East Side Malcolm McLaren Meyers Modern Lovers mother musicians Nazi never Nico onstage parents Patti Smith performance perhaps PHOTO COURTESY played punk band Reed's Ribot Richard Hell Richard Meltzer rock rocker roll scene seemed Shiksa songs sound Stooges story street thing Tommy says tough tradition Vega Velvet Underground wanted Warhol writer York Dolls York Jewish Zorn