In the critical world, both "New York" and "rock" have become dirty words in similar ways -- "New York," because of its transformation from a working class city to a place of privilege. And "rock" because it, as a genre, has been attached to privilege as well.
There was a lab study that came out around the time I was preparing the original version of this article for presentation, from the University of Minnesota, that claims that listening to rock music makes white people racist. That kind of anecdotal and scientific evidence seems both common and accumulating these days. And if you want to look at it that way, you could make any argument about privilege or whatever you want and probably be right.
Still, none of that changes the fact that New York Rocker was vital. But, the thing is, New York Rocker was probably a dated name almost instantly. The first issue was inspired by the very early CBGB scene and came out at almost exactly the same time as the first issue of Punk. Tom Verlaine was on the first cover. But unless you were trying to clarify that you weren't a mod, who would identify him or herself as a "rocker" back then? The Ramones, maybe. The Cramps. You could make a list, probably not more than a few dozen deep, and probably many of them would be in New York City.
All the leather jackets filing in and out of CBGBs might be mistaken for a continuation of greaser culture, with at least partial accuracy. He was born in , grew up in Queens, and went to Queens College. He'd been waiting for this. New York Rockerwasn't the first zine he published. In , he founded JAMZ. All capital. With a Z. The first issue featured the Flamin' Groovies and Iggy and the Stooges. In , he founded Rock Marketplace, which was a forum for really serious record collecting minutia and discographies and stuff.
That year, the New York Times did a piece on him which, as far as I can tell, was officially the first time they--or maybe anyone else in the major media--did a breathless trend piece on rock zines. He told them he was interested in "American Punk Rock," by which he meant obscure '60s and '70s garage rock singles. Of course Betrock was in touch with them. It really began as a way to document a very local scene. And even with all the transplants, it was still a local phenomenon -- something where there used to be nothing.
So, when Alan Betrock launched New York Rocker in February , it was as this guileless exponent of something that he saw both as intensely local, as well as existing outside of New York's power center. Though a lot of the bands they covered would get signed pretty quickly, New York Rocker was absolutely about fandom and wanting to know as much about music as possible.
The first issues were fanzines, straight up. There were popularity polls, a map of lower Manhattan with arrows pointing to the bands' lofts and apartments by the artist Duncan Hannah , pictures of musicians' pets, reprinted song lyrics. They didn't have aspirations of being New York's Rolling Stone. For Betrock and the writers that started to gather around him, writing was just one of the many ways they could engage with music. Pretty quickly, for example, Betrock was producing demos for Blondie.
Tiny room, wall-to-wall posters, floor to ceiling back-issues, no windows. There was even an elevator operator. They got more pro as they went along and built up to a circulation of around 10, copies an issue, which were a little bit less than monthly. He published 11 issues in 2 years. By that point, there were other places that covered non-mainstream rock, and they had already been when the paper started. Creem in Michigan.
Robert Christgau at the Village Voice. Local competition came from Trouser Press, though they described themselves as "America's Only British Rock Magazine," which must have seemed like a challenge to a paper with "New York" in the title. What made New York Rocker different was Betrock's enthusiasm. Which isn't to accuse anybody else of mundanity, just to point out how the paper turned into a magnet for really, really committed fans.
Among the early writers were Cramps drummer Miriam Linna and Zantees singer Billy Miller, who founded their own magazine, Kicks, that picked up on the discographical fervor and took it to anthropological new levels, which they're still doing with their label, Norton Records. And Betrock started corresponding with a band from North Carolina called Sneakers, whose guitarist and songwriter Chris Stamey had started his own label, Car Records, one of the first indies of the modern era, when he realized you could just pay a pressing plant to have records made.
His band, the dB's, followed him up pretty soon thereafter. Lester Bangs contributed too. Ditto David Fricke and plenty of others whose names and writing continue to circulate. As the paper spread, more and more young fans started writing in. Which is exactly when--and probably why-- Betrock decided to quit. He was done. The word had clearly spread. This could have been the end the paper. Andy was from New York but went to school in Minneapolis and worked at Oarfolkjokeopus, a record store there.
When he heard about the paper's closing, he convinced his parents to help him buy it, took over, hired a few people, and moved the office downstairs. And that's when it became something else entirely, way more than a fanzine, and--really--way more than a rock magazine, for that matter. He started with issue 12 and put the Clash on the cover, who were the first non-New York act to be featured there. He regularized production, advertisers, and distribution.
The spiritual center of the paper's distribution radius was Gem Spa, the newsstand at the corner of St. The egg creams are still great. But throughout the country--and even the world--there were dozens of tiny scenes popping off, like the one around New York Rocker. Some of them probably even predated New York Rocker. But Rocker became one of the first truly connective forces between record stores, and college radio stations and clubs, and musicians themselves.
The paper had readers in Athens, Georgia, who went on to found R. They had readers in Maryland and Detroit, as Rocker found out when they got a box of the first Half Japanese single with customized copies for the whole staff. Another pair of brothers in New Zealand--David and Hamish Kilgour, who went on to found The Clean--poured over every issue they could find. From the west coast, Calvin Johnson checked in. Less than a year later, he would help assemble the first issue of the Subterranean Pop fanzine, and shortly thereafter found Beat Happening and his own influential K Records.
The bands they covered, predominantly, operated outside the bounds of the rock music as it had come to be understood in the United States, and the publication's office became a vital hub in this network that started to emerge for which New York Rocker virtually became an avatar. Two bands practiced there at night in the back part of the room where they kept the stacks of back issues.
A year later, in an attempt to revive the publication, John Morthland was hired as associate editor, with Iman Lababedi taking over as publisher. Other changes included switching the format from tabloid to a proper four-color magazine. It didn't work. The magazine lasted a short while and folded in Original publisher Alan Betrock remained busy, authoring acclaimed books on everything from girl groups of the s to movie posters and scandal magazines.
Other artists on the label included the Smithereens, the Cosmopolitans, and Marshall Crenshaw. The former publisher went on to produce music for Austin-based rockers Rank and File, as well as the dB's. Betrock passed away in
They had been waiting almost a decade to play in New York, and this was their debut There's one thing that The most obvious But despite one On Long Island, the Action House ruled over the suburban scene featuring house bands I don't know why but all those brother groups seem to have a certain For the first few months of their 'comeback', There really They have clearly been elevated symbolically echoing the ascent their drummer makes during Marc Bolan, T.
Yet the Joint in the Woods is packed to the They were supposedly to sport The Ramones stride on stage, plug in their guitars, and take off. The next 45 minutes are a total energy blast. At age 17 or 18 he was accepted at a few Art Colleges, but he wanted to pursue a musical career: "My parents gave me a hell of a lot of freedom, When I was young my father used to knock me around a lot, But when I got older and wasn't bringing any money homeI was just writing songshe let me alone.
Then once I did start earning money I left home…" Billy then hooked up with Immediate Records: "Soon as I left school, I was already writing seriously. I sent some tapes off to Andrew Oldham, and he liked them. So he hired me as a songwriterwith Del Shannon mainlyand a few other people," As coincidence would have it, TRM also has Del Shannon and Immediate feature stories in this issue, so be sure to read those for more Nicholls tie-ins Billy tells about his writing experiences at Immediate: "I was learning how to write songs, and I used to love Del Shannon.
We wrote four songs together. It was a good experience to write with someone else, and I'd certainly do it again. I love to write for other people, and I just love commercial songs. Strangely enough, his debut for Immediate was not written by himself. It was written by someone credited on the label as "Paul" last name.
Billy explains: "Would You Believe' was a demo that someone sent in, and I loved it. I played it to Ronnie Lane and he understood it immediately. It had been around there for years! Nicholls then went on to record an album for Immediatebut it was never released, "At 18 I did an album that cost thousands of pounds, but it never came out, I was really quite fond of it.
Plus everyone around Immediate would help out. That's what kind of organization it was, I played and sung on so many Immediate recordings, There was loads of stuff, I had, and still have, a high voice, so I used to get called upon a lot.
I did alot of voices on the early Nice stuff, There's a couple of songs on my album that still turn me on a bit"," Billy continues to talk about Immediate: "Oldham was producing the album, Immediate Records would have, and could have, been amazinglike Stax, but on a different wavelength, There were people like Chris Farlowe, PP Arnold, and The Faceswe all helped each other. Like, I spent a whole summer on Odgens Nut Gone Flake, just overdubbing vocals and other ideas…everyone helped each other on records.
I did lots of jobs, I got very ill and was recuperating for about a year, I lived in Connecticut for a while, and other places as well from Then I saved up and got a really good guitar," It was Billy's contact with Meher Baba which really turned his head around: "Baba says that you have something to do in life, and you just gotta go do it.
For me it's music, and that's what I'm going to do". With renewed spirit and direction, Billy returned to England and teamed up with friend and mentor Pete Townsend. After I had known Pete, I found out that my father and his had played for years in the same band! I said to my father 'don't you know he's my idol??? I do demos with Pete at his studio, and I had a song called "Hopeless Helpless" which was supposed to be for the Meher Baba album. Here Billy plays guitar and sings lead in his patently refreshing manner.
Shortly thereafter, Billy began recording his own solo album, "I started by recording and paying for it myself', In late , GM Records heard some rough masters, and became interested, Caleb Quaye came in and we basically did it together, overdubbing etc. The album is a bit schizophrenic, really, because it was done over a period of about a year.