STUDICIOUS AND AMBITIOUS

A few months back I received the following message from the current principal of St. Stanislaus Kostka School in Greenpoint, Brooklyn - the school my mom, Bill, my sister Suzie and I all attended at one time or another. The photo is of the school (building on left) and the convent (right). Thank you Sister!


I looked up the records of your brother William Alfred Bukowski. Here is what I found:

He was a fantastic student; no term average below 91%. He ranked no. 6 in a class of 45 students. Conduct ranged from "satisfactory" to "A." His eighth grade teacher, Sister Theodosia, wrote this on his permanent record: "Studious and ambitious." After graduation in 1965, he attended St. Francis Prep High School in Brooklyn.

God bless you.

Sister Dorothea Jurkowski, CSFN
St. Stanislaus Kostka School, Principal

40 YEARS AGO

Last Monday (February 9) and today, mark the 45th Anniversaries of the Beatles first two appearances on Ed Sullivan. In a way it was nice to have a memory of these two events and also to remember where Bill was on specific days in his life. I know I watched the shows, even though I was two. I can't help but think that Bill convinced my parents to let me.


If he were with us today, Bill could attest to the fact that I was also able to pull Beatles records out of his 45s collection. Bill's liking would later lean toward the Rolling Stones, but I continued (and still do) rank the Beatles as my all-time favorites. I can't help but think that watching them on those consecutive Sundays in 1964 had something to do with this and my continued love of Rock 'n' Roll.

DONNA FROM NYU

Thanks again to Donna from NYU for sharing more thoughts about Bill. Donna made this comment on Bill's birthday:

Hi,I'm "Donna from NYU" whose memory of Billy you have posted from 9/16/08. I've been reading thru this website since then, so I knew Billy's b'day was Jan 3rd & that you'd therefore post something. If you remember, I had written that my brother, Larry, died on 8/28/84. His b'day is Oct 3rd, so he would have been 54 now. The site keeps drawing me back in part because I can relate to Phil's grief, like when he recently wrote about Obama's victory, "Instinctively, I was going to call Bill...[and then] tears came to my eyes." I can relate completely. Phil, I am so impressed w/ all you've learned & shared about your beloved brother's life. When I wrote that every time I hear Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" I will continue to think of Billy, I didn't explain that I listen to the radio in my car all the time & that song is very popular on many stations' playlists, so I hear it alot. So, when I read your birthday blog & you wrote, "May the memory of a moment you spent with my brother make you smile" I had to tell you that on Jan 3rd I heard "Maggie May" on the radio, knew it was Billy's birthday and smiled. I know you're finding, like I have, that time does help, so I hope my post makes YOU smile, Phil.

Yes, Donna - it did! Now, here's something for you:

A COUPLE OF NEW BAND MEMBERS

Back in the 70s, the Righteous Brothers released a song called "Rock And Roll Heaven":

If you believe in forever
Than life is just a one night stand
If there's a Rock 'N' Roll heaven
Well, you know they've got a hell of a band

Well, this week, one member each from two of Bill's favorite bands, joined the Rock 'N' Roll Heaven Orchestra...

Ironically, like Bill, on February 1, Dewey Martin of Buffalo Springfield, was found dead in his home in Los Angeles. For me, Buffalo Springfield will always be synonimous with "For What It's Worth". I'm wondering, how many of you knew that Bill's late 60s-early 70s band - Blitzkrieg - did a cover of the song. I still listen to that tape from time to time.


Yesterday, one on Bill's later favorites, Lux Interior, of The Cramps, died on Tuesday, also in Los Angeles. He, like Bill, died of heart complications. Bill turned me on to The Cramps when he sent me a copy of A Date With Elvis.


Here are a couple of articles that provide more information on the lives and deaths of two of Bill's favorites:


Buffalo Springfield Drummer Dewey Martin Dies

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Dewey Martin, drummer for the groundbreaking but notoriously feuding and short-lived rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield, was found dead February 1 in Van Nuys, Calif. He was 68.

The cause of death has not been determined.

Martin and his bandmates -- Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Bruce Palmer -- formed the group in Los Angeles in 1966, carving out a unique sound that melded elements of country, folk and rock. Their first single, 1967's "For What It's Worth," captured the zeitgeist of youth culture, touching on themes of community, paranoia and the generation gap and becoming a top 10 hit and rock staple.

But that was the band's lone national success, and its famously sparring members called it quits in 1968 after only three albums -- none of which made the top 40. Nonetheless, the group heavily influenced the country-rock scene of the early '70s.

Martin played on all of the band's songs, which also included "Bluebird," "Mr. Soul," "Rock 'N' Roll Woman" and "On the Way Home." Its second album, "Buffalo Springfield Again," ranked No. 188 on Rolling Stone's list of greatest rock albums. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Martin attempted to keep the band's name alive after its split, recruiting members for the New Buffalo Springfield. But lawsuits by Young and Stills prevented them from using the name.

Bassist Palmer and Martin played the oldies circuit during the mid-'80s and early '90s as Buffalo Springfield Revisited. Martin also formed other bands that failed to catch on.

Young wrote fondly of Martin in his autobiography, "Shakey": "You get harder, he hits harder. You pull back, he hits back. He can feel the music -- you don't have to tell him."


Lux Interior Dies At 60; Founder, Front Man Of Punk Band The Cramps
By August Brown, LA Times, February 4, 2009

Lux Interior, the singer, songwriter and founding member of the pioneering New York City horror-punk band the Cramps, died Wednesday. He was 60.

Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, died at Glendale Memorial Hospital of a heart condition, according to a statement from his publicist.

With his wife, guitarist "Poison" Ivy Rorschach, Interior formed the Cramps in 1976, pairing lyrics that expressed their love of B-movie camp with ferocious rockabilly and surf-inspired instrumentation.

The band became a staple of the late '70s Manhattan punk scene emerging from clubs such as Max's Kansas City and CBGB, and was one of the first acts to realize the potential of punk rock as theater and spectacle.

Often dressed in macabre, gender-bending costumes onstage, Interior evoked a lanky, proto-goth Elvis Presley, and his band quickly became notorious for volatile and decadent live performances.

The Cramps recorded early singles at Sun Records with producer Alex Chilton of the band Big Star and had their first critical breakthrough on their debut EP "Gravest Hits."

The band's lack of a bassist and its antagonistic female guitarist quickly set it apart from its downtown peers and upended the traditional rock band sexual dynamic of the flamboyant, seductive female and the mysterious male guitarist.

The group was asked to open for the Police on a major tour of Britain in 1979 and reached its critical apex in the early '80s with such albums as "Psychedelic Jungle" and "Songs the Lord Taught Us."

While the Cramps' lineup revolved constantly, Interior and Rorschach remained the band's core through more than three decades. The Cramps never achieved much mainstream commercial success, but instead found a reliable fringe audience for more than 30 years -- they even played a notorious show for patients at Napa State Hospital in Napa, Calif.

"It's a little bit like asking a junkie how he's been able to keep on dope all these years," Interior told The Times some years ago. "It's just so much fun. You pull in to one town and people scream, 'I love you, I love you, I love you.' And you go to a bar and have a great rock 'n' roll show and go to the next town and people scream, 'I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.' It's hard to walk away from all that."

The band's influence can be clearly felt among lauded minimalist art-blues bands, including the Black Lips, the White Stripes, the Horrors and Primal Scream, whose front man, Bobby Gillespie, allegedly named his son Lux.

The Cramps' most recent album, a collection of rarities, "How to Make a Monster," was released in 2004, and the band continued to tour well into the later years of its career, wrapping up its most recent U.S. outing in November.

Interior was born in Stow, Ohio, on Oct. 21, 1948. A Times report in 2004 said that he and Rorschach (born Kristy Wallace) met in Sacramento, where they bonded "over their enrollment in an art and shamanism class and a shared affection for thrift-shop vinyl before hitting the road for New York City."

In 1987, there were widespread rumors of Interior's death from a heroin overdose, and half a dozen funeral wreaths were sent to Rorschach. "At first, I thought it was kind of funny," Interior told The Times. "But then it started to give me a creepy feeling."

"We sell a lot of records, but somehow just hearing that you've sold so many records doesn't hit you quite as much as when a lot of people call you up and are obviously really broken up because you've died.