DEBBIE C.B.'s
Deborah Olin was a regular at
CBGB's from the beginning when Hilly Kristal started putting bands on. He thought that a Country, Bluegrass and Blues bar would bring in some drinking customers to his Bowery barLuckily for us and rock and roll it became a home for a different clientele from the one he imagined
Hi Debbie, thanks for doing this interview
Can you tell me some background about the first time you went to CBGB's ? Were you living in the area at the time ?
I was living in Chris Steins apartment on 1st Ave and First Street apt 18 building 18. Later the Ramones moved in and it's where Dee Dee wrote Chinese Rocks. I read somewhere Dee Dee said it was Debby Harry's apt but it was Chris Steins, he'd live there for a long time. He had been married too, to a girl named Vicky, who later committed suicide in that apartment. Her ghost was there, a lot of people saw it but that's another story. I moved in before Chris met Debby. Eric Emmerson of The Magic Tramps and of several Andy Warhol Films lived there. I was working as a head chef in this wacked out vegetarian restaurant. One of the waiters was a musician and happened to be in Erics band - he was the bass player. I was 18, had left home and was not going back. I didn't like the people I was living with they were too hippie into gurus and bullshit and I was still a disciple of Jimi Hendrix (still am!) and British blues/rock bands and they thought I was just awful though George Harrison was cool to them. I spoke to and became friendly with this bass player and told him I had to move and he took me to see Eric at Chris Steins house and they said fine - I worked a lot and I'd be able to bring home lots of free food.
Eric Emerson by Andy Warhol
Chris was always at his girlfriend at that time Elvera's apt and Eric was in and out like a hurricane. And I didn't seem like I'd be trouble. I was this little kid to them. Eric called me little Mary, They were all older and really weird and freaky Eric and his friends and a lot of the then Maxs crowd so I just kept quite around them all actually I was a bit afraid of Eric, years later - a few years ago actually I ran into Debby Harry by her apt walking her dog, I hadn't seen her in over a decade and it was really great screaming and jumping "Hi hi !. I cant believe it, how ya been" etc, then we talked about the old days and I said remember Eric, man I was afraid of him. Debby said "Yeah ME TOO !" and sorta shook herself thinking of Eric. One time Eric was sitting on the floor playing guitar trying to write a song and kept getting stuck I was hanging out sketching cartoons so I'd throw him a line and he'd say "oh yeah thats good" then he got stuck again and I said another line then he said "come over here little Mary" and I helped him write "Tripping" - my only fear was that one day he'd ask me to come up on stage and sing with him !
Eric Emerson
So I was living in Chris Steins apt with Eric then Eric hooked up with Edgar Winters ex wife ($$$$), Erics bass player lived there too. It was a crazy house. Lesley West from Mountain was also a friend of Erics and he was the best guy, very nice NY funny sweet guy, he almost died climbing the 5 flights of stairs to the apt, he was all red and screamed are you kidding me! I almost had a heart attack! He was very large like a mountain! but so nice.
How did you discover CBGB's ?
As far as cbgbs I remember Chris talking about this new place that maybe local bands could play. At that time People were playing The Mercer Arts center mostly The NY DOLLS, Eric Emmerson, the Harlots - there were little clubs and one in Queens The Coventry - even Kiss played there, I hated them then as I still do. Maxs only wanted a certain type of band only The NY DOLLS were really playing there and I believe they changed the whole NY scene and started a whole new kinda style in Rock and Roll - the hair bands that came later from Guns and Roses, Poison, Motley Crew Aerosmith etc - that was The NY DOLLS especially Johnny Thunders influence. They were very ground breaking. There was no one place for these bands to play after the Mercer Arts Center building collapsed literally, fell apart and down.
Eric Emerson
One day I was walking with the bass player from the Tramps and we ran into
Richard Lloyd who was so high he was holding on to the wall - pills and alcohol and whatever, he was a real garbage pail. Anyway, he was telling my friend about this band Television etc and even then I don't think Lloyd was thrilled with Hell, he wasn't a good musician - he wrote good, he was Toms friend, it was their band he just met them and Richard joked maybe this guy I was with could play instead, he was known for being one of the best bass players, he played it like a lead guitar, his name was Walter. He later gave me a lot of grief and became violent so I hate saying his name though his violence towards me really angered Debby Harry and Chris Stein and no one would play with him after Eric died that was the end for him. He had beat me up and thrown me down the stairs. Later when Eric moved out because Barbara Winters bought him a loft Fred Smith moved in and played with Debby and Chris's Stilettos and left just as they would become Blondie to join Television.
Television at cbgb's - Richard Hell, Billy Ficca, Richard Lloyd, Tom Verlaine
I dont remember who I saw first at CBGB's - was it Television or Eric Emmerson or both ?, but I know I was there with Eric Emmerson and his entourage or I went over with Chris Stein and other people. It was pretty empty everyone there were friends of the band except the wino at the end of the bar! But I was there from the beginning and the first bands to play were Eric Emmerson and Television and Chris and Debbys band the Stilettos, Fred Smith was in the band and lived in my apartment, greatest nicest guy, then he joined Television when Hell went with The
Heartbreakers.. I thought at first Television sucked because I thought
Hell was awful. He didn't balance the band, something was off and I didn't like him in the Heartbreakers, I loved him in the Voidiods, it was like all the pieces in these bands were not in the right place.
the Stilletoes
When I remember the begining of cbgb's it was Eric, Television, The Stilettos then the Ramones and other bands like The Miami's and it was then like a floodgate but the NY DOLLs still ruled the scene they were THE BAND everyone loved them, eventually Maxs let these other cbgb type bands play and the owner Micky Ruskin sold it to Tommy Dean who let all the new young blood in and all the old burnt out Andy Warhol people died and faded away
What was the music scene like at the time ?
It was 73-4? when cbgbs started, I forget but at that time the general music scene was fading it was changing from small theatres like the Filmore that closed to big stadiums, great bands weren't coming along, the English super groups - there was nothing I remember - I was still into my Hendrix and old stones with Brian Jones and Terry Reid and Zeppelin etc thing. I wasn't even listening to the radio - I heard Walk on the Wild side but no big deal to me.
I remember one day Chris Stein showed me an album. It was a bunch of guys in makeup on a couch - the NY Dolls and I said "NO! I hate glam rock" and Chris said "No, no, no, they're different - you'll really like them" and he put it on and I heard Personality Crisis and I kinda warmed up to it and thought well maybe ... By the end of the album I thought "Man they are great! I love it". It was new it was different and it was very NY street and you knew these guys had been listening to the same stuff you had been. The guitarist was throwing out some great bluesy rock riffs and I thought "Oh wow". Chris was also very into The
Dictators, I think they started the studded leather punky thing, they were into biker gear. One day Chris came home thrilled because Dick gave him his black leather studded belt and that look caught on and anything Johnny Thunders wore and then the RamonesThere was no punk there was no word punk used for this scene it was these NY bands, these local bands that were really different from the stuff you grew up listening to but all the bands were different it was fantastic, It was very exciting. I remember thinking sitting in CBGBs in the very beginning, this is like the Cavern in Liverpool England where the Beatles started and that whole British thing grew, it was great and I remember thinking "Something's happening here and its going to get really big". I knew from the start and when I'd see a new band I'd think yes or no. When I saw the Ramones I was so flabbergasted I said "They're gonna be so big if someone ever decides to take them seriously" because they were a comic book come to life and the songs were like Mad Magazine rock n roll style.
It started getting called Punk because of John Holmstrom the creator/editor/artist/genius of
Punk magazine and these bands no one cared about but us that he put in his magazine. Legs was his friend and creation - he made him into a cartoon character because all he ever did was get drunk, get in fights wake up in garbage cans so he was this figurehead punk character John modelled after him who was a punk, who hung out at cbgbs and listened to stuff like the Ramones and the Dictators, I don't know what the press would have LABELLED this new scene, this music had it not been for John Holmstrom, he made it all more interesting to outsiders. I think every band that made any money out of that era should all send John Holmstrom a big fat check. He sorta help pull it all together and define it in some way with that magazine, PUNK that he created because for sure no one else was writing about it or caring. Not Rolling stone or Circus magazine that's for sure!. I think John's just as important as The Ramones were when you look at it all in one whole picture from the beginning and I can say that because I was there from the beginning. I saw it grow from nothing to this huge thing, and it really took off once there was a name they could call it all...,"PUNK ROCK".
