I was listening to eTown when I pulled into the parking spot at the mall. I think Nick and Helen Forster have a great gig and are so inventive and accessible. They make a big-time contribution to social and environmental issues and have a terrific public service, the “e-chievement” awards, made to people who help make their communities a better place. And of course they love the music. Today’s guest was the great Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth and other nifty bands, chatting about how he came to New York so he could be part of the music scene, even though he never really thought he could play rock & roll or have a band. Now he has a new band and teaches poetry in Boulder.
He was talking about life in the East Village in the mid-70’s, how for people like him it was great — the last vestige of young people being able to move to a city and actually afford to live there and do your thing. (More on this another day.) He was going on about the Ramones and Television and the Stooges and the NY Dolls and the music magazines he loved like Creem, Hit Parade, Rock Scene. And the energy and passion of the music, and Richard Hell who got him into the music scene. And by Patti Smith’s small press poetry, blown away that she was a rock writer, publishing poems and criticism.
He’s quite articulate and seems kinda modest for someone who helped redefine what people thought about rock & roll and punk. He said they’d never had a gold record and when they signed to Geffen Records it was about getting health care! It was quite a vivid snapshot of an intense and wonderful time to be in NYC.
(He is btw reading from his recent collection of poems tonight in an evening of spoken word at the Parkside Lounge in NY.)
All this because I needed to get something in a different size.
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