I am the coolest man on earth – pt 2
A year and a half before the Rock and Roll bloodletting…

I was once in a band called the Rockats. In 1980 and ’81 they were the talk of the town in New York. In 1980 I was merely a fan, going to see them at CBGB one cold January night when former New York Doll Jerry Nolan was their drummer. Although Jerry was about 15 years older than most of the band, he was the first musician to give this band of musical neophytes some credibility. The front line could dance and had the looks but Jerry could play. He looked sharp as a pin too, in a pink baggy suit and blonde hair that was, as always, perfect. This was before the Stray Cats became international sensations, so the fifties look, mixed in with some New York Dolls eye shadow and Teddy Boy dance steps, was a shock to most people’s systems. The guys wanted to be them and the girls wanted to shag them. Actually, some guys wanted to shag them too. This was also before AIDS so everybody seemed to be shagging someone.

I ended up going to the show completely as a lark. I had befriended a young women who, in spite of being seven or eight years older, seemed to find me somewhat amusing. I had met her at a show at the now non-existent Bottom Line in 1978 and hounded her relentlessly ever after. She worked at the also now non-existent Soho News. She was also blond. What’s not to like? Without me realizing it, she had an on-again/off-again relationship with Jerry. On occasion he would live there, but on others he wouldn’t. Such was the life of a junkie.

© Curt Weiss 2014