Installment Vol. 2, Page 4

It seems we've always had a mascot at CBGB. In the 70's it was Jonathan, my dog. His breed was Saluki. He was tall and extremely thin with powerful haunches and feathered ears and tail, as in all salukis. A real beauty! He was very independent as was inherent in the breed. When he wanted attention he'd rub up against you, and when not, he wouldn't let you near him. He was pitch black, with large sad eyes. People would often say "why don't you feed the poor dog?" That's how thin he was. Jonathan would make his way through the crowd and jump up on the stage, ( I mean during a performance!), circle round and round and plop down right in front next to the center microphone, oblivious of the sound or the audience and everything else. He was completely comfortable. A weird dog! He acted as if he owned the place. I believe The Patti Smith Group were especially fond of the dog. They were doing their thing in exactly their own way, and so was Jonathan the saluki. When we recorded the double, live album "Live at CBGB," we dedicated it to Jonathan the saluki for fertilizing the stage (which he actually did from time to time).

The aftermath of Patti's 7 week run was somewhat of a let down. Everything was back to the "unusual" usual.

Starting sometime near the beginning of 1975 we would audition bands on Monday nights, as well as listening to tape recordings. I decided from both sources which bands to book. One particular Monday in March of 75', I auditioned four bands. Two of the bands were to give me great joy. One was this 7 piece band from Brooklyn. They called themselves "The Shirts" (pronounced SHOITS in Brooklyneese). The make up of the band was two drummers, keyboard, 2 guitarists, a bass player and a singer. I think they all might have sung back up, three of them leads, and right in the center was the lead singer, Annie Golden, whose voice was certainly as bright as gold. She danced and twirled like a whirling dervish and never seemed to stop moving. Besides Annie, there was Ronnie Ardito, Artie Lamonica, Bob Racioppo, John (Zeek) Criscione, Johnny (Doom) Piccolo, and their extra drummer Norman (I never did learn his last name), plus their wonderful sound engineer, Norman Dunn.

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