Hilly Kristal, a Rock Midwife, Is Dead at 75

Note from Greetings: I had worked with Hilly (as an agent for bands) and found him to be one of the folks who cared about the music and the people, more than the money. He'll be missed.

By BEN SISARIO, NY Times
Published: August 29, 2007

Hilly Kristal, who founded CBGB, the Bowery bar that became the cradle of punk and art-rock in New York in the 1970s and served as the inspiration for musician-friendly rock dives throughout the world, died in Manhattan on Tuesday. He was 75.

His son, Mark Dana Kristal, told The Associated Press that the cause was complications from lung cancer.

From its opening in late 1973, when Mr. Kristal, a lover of acoustic music, gave the club its name, an abbreviation of the kinds of music he originally intended to feature there — country, bluegrass and blues — until a dispute with its landlord forced the club to close last October, CBGB presented thousands of bands within its eternally crumbling, flyer-encrusted walls.

Most famously, it served as the incubator for the diverse underground scene of New York in the 1970s and early ’80s, with acts like the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, Talking Heads and Sonic Youth playing some of their earliest and most important concerts there, at a time when there were few outlets in the city for innovative rock music.

“There was no real venue in 1973 for people like us,” Ms. Smith said today. “We didn’t fit into the cabarets or the folk clubs. Hilly wanted the people that nobody else wanted. He wanted us.”
Besides his son, Mr. Kristal is survived by a daughter, Lisa Kristal Burgman, and two grandchildren.
Music: Fans of a Groundbreaking Club Mourn and Then Move On (October 17, 2006)
CBGB Brings Down the Curtain With Nostalgia and One Last Night of Rock (October 16, 2006)
Op-Ed Contributor: Rock n Roll High School (October 14, 2006)
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From the Archive (PDF’s)
CBGB Club Is Hub for Bands Playing Underground Rock (Jan. 24, 1976)
Talking Heads: Cool in Glare of Hot Rock (March 24, 1976)
Teenage Runaways Play to Fantasites (Aug. 4, 1976)
Damned, British Punk-Rock Group (April 9, 1977)
A New Life for the Bowery (April 15, 1977)
B-52's, Rock Band From Georgia (June 3, 1978)