Marquee Moon

Two kids in their early twenties walk down the Bowery on a spring afternoon, just as the proprietor of a club hangs a sign with the new name for his venue. The place will be called CBGB which, he tells them, stands for "Country Bluegrass and Blues." That's exactly the sort of stuff they play, they lie, somehow managing to get a gig out of him. After the first show their band, Television, lands a regular string of Sundays. By the end of the summer a scene has developed that includes Tom Verlaine's new love interest, a poet-turned-rock chanteuse named Patti Smith. American punk rock is born.

Bryan Waterman teaches American literature and culture at New York University. His previous books include, with Cyrus R. K. Patell, The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York City.

AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Origin Myths, or, Just Trying to Tell a VisionChapter 1: Some Big Set-UpChapter 2: New York SatyriconChapter 3: Stunned into an Electric MetaphorChapter 4: Down in the Scuzz with the Heavy Cult FiguresChapter 5: Punk Is ComingChapter 6: Marquee MoonChapter 7: A Record Should Exhaust You by the Time It's DoneCodaBibliography