The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Books  |  Museum And Gallery  |  Theater

Who you callin’ a punk?

Down by law
By IAN SANDS  |  November 1, 2006

Jamaica Plain–based freelancer and Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation staffer Steven Lee Beeber was waiting for a plane at the airport a number of years ago when his girlfriend let out a gasp. She pointed out an item about Madonna’s A&R guy inking a deal to write a book about Jews in rock and roll. Beeber was crushed. He had been thinking of doing the same.

“Luckily, it sucked. . . . It was everything that I did not want to do. It was cutesy in that sort of ‘Hey, did you know that Paul Simon is a Jew?’ . . . I think Adam Sandler wrote the introduction.”

Beeber set out to create something more than just a game of “spot the Jew.” His new book, The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk (Chicago Review Press), is an ambitious attempt to show how ’70s-era NYC punk rock was edged by Jewish culture. Beginning with the legacy of comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce and moving on to pre-punk hero Lou Reed, Beeber works his way through tough-talking jokesters the Dictators to the Ramones (in its original incarnation, two of its four members were Jewish). He contends that the sarcastic, self-loathing humor and “outsider” status of these bands, and for that matter punk in general, were distinctly Jewish, born of experiences such as the Holocaust and the subsequent relocation from Europe to suburban America.

No one has yet gone to such great lengths to uncover the strain of Jewish culture that ran through the scene at CBGB’s. In his quest for interviews, he encountered much skepticism and, occasionally, hostility. An annoyed Jonathan Richman of the Massachusetts-born Modern Lovers got up and walked away. The half-Jewish Richard Hell also dismissed him. Even Tommy Ramone, who agreed to participate, asked Beeber at one point if in writing the book he was “trying to out Jews.”

Why all the surreptitiousness? Everybody has their reasons. Hell says that he doesn’t “define himself” by his cultural heritage. Richman, according to Beeber, “is notoriously guarded about his past and personal life.” In the case of the Budapest-born Tommy Ramone, the majority of whose family died in the Holocaust, his reluctance could be rooted in something much more insidious, namely, a lingering fear of anti-Semitism left over from the old days.

To compensate, Beeber went out and talked to anyone who could help him fill in the blanks. He interviewed about 150 people — some easier to find than others. He trekked to California to find Jerry Harrison (The Modern Lovers, Talking Heads) and flew to Paris on his own dime to track down Sex Pistols Hebe mastermind Malcolm McLaren. “I am in debt because of this book,” says Beeber.

For the most part, Beeber’s efforts have been warmly received. The back of the book boasts accolades from prominent punk rockers, including Tommy Ramone himself. Hilly Kristal, long-time Jewish owner of CBGB’s, opened his doors on the last Friday of the club’s existence for the author’s book party on October 13. And in a moment of sweet irony for the author, Ernie Brooks, Richman’s former bassist in the Modern Lovers (Brooks performed that weekend at the club) approached Beeber the night of his reading to tell him that he really loved the book: “It was more than just ‘spot the Jew,’ you know; it’s actually about other stuff.”

Steven Lee Beeber | Brookline Booksmith | Thursday, November 2 | 7 pm.

Related: Life after gabba-gabba, Gabba gabba hayride, An other Ramone, More more >
  Topics: Books , Entertainment, Music, Jerry Harrison,  More more >
| More


ARTICLES BY IAN SANDS
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   POWER TO THE PEOPLE  |  November 04, 2009
    Painted portraits are, as evidenced by the many on display inside Boston’s world-famous art galleries, a window into the world of royalty, politicos, and other spectacularly coiffed assholes from centuries ago.
  •   LESS THAN ZERO  |  October 10, 2009
    Three years ago, Russell Freeland had what most would consider a settled life. Just two years later, though, Freeland was hungry, exhausted, and homeless, trying to survive in Austin, Texas.
  •   WHEELS IN MOTION  |  September 02, 2009
    David Branigan, who recently returned to town after more than a year in Koforidua, in Eastern Ghana, says what he missed most about Boston is the "efficiency." That might come as a shocker for those of us here who have ever waited for the Number 66 bus in the thick of winter.
  •   APARTMENT AID  |  August 31, 2009
    Back from an arduous vacation full of nail-biting beer-pong battles and vigorous Wii tennis matches, you enter the dilapidated dorm or apartment where you'll be spending the next year doing much the same.
  •   FOR THOSE ABOUT TO LOCK  |  August 05, 2009
    It's too bad Skip Gates didn't have Schuyler Towne's cell number on that fateful day last month. If he did, the Somerville-based lockpicking champ likely could have gotten in to the good professor's home in no time at all, and a national controversy (and international beer summit) might have been averted.

 See all articles by: IAN SANDS



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2012 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group