Hilly Kristal, founder of legendary NYC punk nightclub CBGB died yesterday. He was 75 years old.

Although he may not have looked it, he was the original punk rocker. He was a lover of music and would give anyone a chance to play at CBGB’s whether he liked your music or not.

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…

“There was no real venue in 1973 for people like us,” (Patti) 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.” - NYT

The list of my musical heroes keeps getting smaller every year. Hilly was directly responsible for putting several of them on that list. His sincerity and altruism is sorely missed in an age of Autotune, cut & paste vocal tracks and music carreers more interested in bling-age than sing-age. (wow, that was bad).

I’m sure Joey Ramone was the first to welcome you in heaven and show you where the keg was stashed. Oh and I’m sure the bathrooms are alot cleaner too.

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