I heard they tried it three times, and all I know is hearsay. I was there for the first one, but the other stories sound in line, so...
Louie, the guitarist, was a hot commodity in Bay Ridge. He played in lots of bands but he kept hanging with this punk band in Gowanus. I think that tells the story. They wanted to do CBGB's, and I had some connections so I made some calls.
The first show was mine. The guy got drunk and was all over the place. He was climbing up on the amps, falling flat on his face, singing and not missing a beat despite the fact he wasn't much of a singer. I think the big thing was that everybody was watching for him to break his neck. It didn't happen, but there was the fatal attraction, I guess. So I hear they got back in.
The story goes that they got back in with Johnny on guitar. Johnny was the next Louie, but they put him on bass. Bad move. Worse, this guy goes in like Aerosmith with lace and leather. Not his style. The drummer's throne busts in the middle of the set, and he walks offstage to get a chair in the middle of a song. So much for the audition.
I heard they went in a while later as Ducky Boys. Annie Golden was there and said they were hot. This guy got suicidal because nobody cheered. What did he expect? It was never about music in the first place with them. The band was like a background for what he did. It was like watching a mime artist in Central Park. What they played, what he sang, had nothing to do with what he did up there. He was like watching some caged animal that wanted out. It was something to see, but kind of lost in time. Nobody could really relate to it.
The story went that they got accused of starting a fire in the basement, and they got banned. I don't go with it, but that's the way it went. There was this Dead Boys that was a hot item, and maybe it was one of those things. The guy could've sucked it in, brought some stuff around, smoothed things around, but he was an asshole. It worked for Kiss, but not for them.
Word had it he left New York, and that was all she wrote. I heard he died. Too bad, because lots of bands do these reunion things these days and make chump change. I don't know if it could've happened for them anyway. When I think back, I don't think anybody would've understood it even now.
---MZ