I. THE RATHSKELLER (1974 - 1997) JIMMY HAROLD (1943 - 2022)
“Boston’s most intense underground dwelling… that subterranean cavern of lurid vice and glamour known as the Rat… Oedipus - Live At the Rat – September, 1976
In 1974, Kenmore Square doorman Jim Harold got his hooks into a real estate deal that would see the 260-seat college bar, TJ’s, transform into the Rathskeller, which in turn would serve as the iconic Boston headquarters for the punk/new wave revolution and set the stage for legendary international, national and local musical performances. The Rat would become synonymous with urban punk legends and their universal elements of style, including safety pins, stale beer, vomit, and revolting latrines.
II. 1974 MICKEY CLEAN & THE MEZZ
"I got a fucking band, they're so bad you gotta see 'em.; Mickey Clean." Cause he was so horrible but he was entertaining and people would come in to see this! I'm telling ya, it was like a revelation. I was like "That's it!" It was 100% commitment at that point, I was gonna live and die by it. I made up my mind right at that moment!” - Jimmy Harold Interview – Boston Groupie News – September 17, 2006
The viable alternative to Top 40 show bands and the neighborhood discotheques were the few acts that wrote original music and voila! an unexpected opportunity fell into Jimmy’s lap in the form of the Mezz. Mickey Clean was surrounded by a cast of characters that included manager Helanie Saad, future Modern Lover, Asa Brebner, spin-off act the Mindless Fucks, and Stephan “Swine” Baerenwald, whose clove cigarettes would waft across the Rat during the coming years while he served as the house soundman. He was the first in a cast of characters who served as sound engineers, from Granny to Bonehead to George Dineen.
III. WILLIE LOCO ALEXANDER: THE GODFATHER
Willie’s “Kerouac/Mass Ave.” 45 record was the first of this new era to return to the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) days of a foregone era - the independent record. The new wave/punk movement was in many ways a rebellion against the corporatization of the music industry. 1960s rebels WBCN and the Boston Phoenix were now cash cows and left a void for new underground media featuring Xeroxed fanzines and college radio shows. “Mass Ave.” thrived in the best of both worlds.
Willie was a savant who drew from his earlier experience with the Boston garage scene 10 years prior with his band, the Lost (who had played the same club a decade before it became the Rat), and found inspiration from the glorious ‘60s girl groups, ‘50s rebel Gene Vincent, anti-heroes Sky Saxon, Roky Erickson, and the time he spent performing with the Velvet Underground in their twilight days.
This became the recipe for the soon-to-be best-selling punk rock cookbook.
IV. 1975 LOOKING LIKE A BIMBO
“One hand on my pocket. One hand on my bag. In my rock & roll drag. I’m a counterfeit fag. Looking like a bimbo. Looking like a John. Looking like John Morse, of course. Looking like John Kelly. Looking like John Macey in his elevator shoes.” - Willie Loco Alexander – “Looking Like A Bimbo”
The Rolling Stones and the New York Dolls inspired young rockers to slap on their sisters' Maybelline and slip into a chiffon layer. In the calm before the punk storm, the remnants of glitter-glam were still shimmering. The look was the yin to the yang of the rough and tumble, greasy grit emanating from the garages and basements of the Boston suburbs.
The guilty parties were the last of the degenerate alternatives to the mid-1970s teen idols from the Partridge Family. Reddy Teddy, Fox Pass and Thundertrain were each capable of buckling a woman’s knees.
V. 1975 OEDIPUS: LIVE AT THE RAT
“Meanwhile, the Rat's Jimmy Harold began importing New York bands from Hilly Krystal and sending Boston's finest (who all rehearsed at Reddy Teddy’s Kilsyth Manor for 15 dollars a week) down to CBGB'S. When Krystal released the Live at CBGB's LP, Jim Harold had a light bulb appear above his head - Live at the Rat. From September 27 - 29, 1976, a mobile recording unit sat at the Rat’s curb and captured sets from 10 of Boston’s finest acts. The lines wrapped around Kenmore Square.” - Charles W. White III - History of Boston Rock
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WBCN DJ Maxanne Sartori (who had championed Willie at 50,000 watts) and WTBS DJ Oedipus (who christened America’s first punk show, The Demi-Monde, with “Mass Ave.”) were soon barraged with indie singles and local demo tapes seeking airplay.
Rat Records released singles from Third Rail, Buck and the Nervous Eaters as the landmark double album, Live At The Rat, gained international recognition.
VI. 1976-77 THE FIRST WAVE
“For a year or so, punk has been flourishing in the seediest rock joints - a Bowery bar called CBGB's in New York, a dingy cavern called the Roxy in London, and the Rat in Boston. There, shock is chic. Musicians and listeners strut around in deliberately torn T-shirts and jeans; ideally, the rips should be joined with safety pins.” “Anthems of the Blank Generation,” -- Time magazine – July 11, 1977
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They were the disciples of Lou Reed; the bastard children of the Modern Lovers. This first generation of Boston punks was a collective antenna that received signals from New York’s Bowery with admiration from Patti Smith and the Ramones. They needed one last nudge to push it over the ledge and that came from across the pond with the arrival of Johnny Rotten and mates.
The songs from this era - forever to be enshrined in the underground - include the Real Kids’ (featuring former Modern Lover, John Felice) “All Kindsa Girls,” the Nervous Eaters’ (featuring Steve Cataldo) “Loretta,” DMZ’s (featuring future Lyre, Monoman and future Cars drummer) “The Boy From Nowhere” and the Tracks’ (featuring Lorry Doll) “Brakes On You.”
VII. 1978 THE CARS
“ Cap’n Swing — which featured Mr. Ocasek, Orr, and Easton — they were “interesting,’’ said Jim Harold, who owned the Rat. “When they came back as the Cars, even at sound check, you knew these guys were going to be good. It was like, ‘Oh, wow. This was really different.’ They had something no one else had.’’ – Boston magazine – September 15, 2019
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Seeing that Ric and Ben were wash-a-shores from Cleveland, they were forever yearning to be accepted by Boston music cliques. Legend has it that Ocasek was crushed when he learned he would not be part of the Live At The Rat LP line-up. One of many of their incarnations, Cap’n Swing, was the first of their efforts to gain traction, and WBCN’s Maxanne Sartori quickly threw her on-air influence behind them as they shape-shifted into the new wave phenomenon, the Cars.
Ric’s love for the Boston scene proved sincere when he used his newly found fame and fortune to shed light and attention on bands he ultimately leap-frogged over, as he returned as the producer for Richard Nolan & Third Rail, LaPeste’s Peter Dayton, the Nervous Eaters, Weezer and Jonathan Richman.
VIII. 1979 SECOND WAVE
“The Rock 'n' Roll Rumble was held in Boston at the Rathskeller in Kenmore Square for its first two years and was often referred to as "the Rumble at the Rat". Steve Morse of the Boston Globe called the 1979 debut competition "nine nights of exhilarating grass-roots rock." – wikipedia
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In the aftermath of the Cars ascension to the Top 40, major labels snatched up Willie Alexander & the Boom Boom Band, Tom Dickie & the Desires, Susan, DMZ, the Rings, Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, the Atlantics, as well as additional Rat acts that defied the punk label, such as the Stompers and Johanna Wild (Jon Butcher). Meanwhile the underground percolated with talent like La Peste, Thrills, Unnatural Axe, the Neighborhoods and the Maps.
The energy spilling over from the attention Boston received at the time would be enough to launch the venerable WBCN Rock ‘n’ Roll Rumble. Boston powerhouse WCOZ would soon jump into the competitive media scene, hosting punk and new wave promotions and releasing local compilations.
IX. 1980 HOODOO BARBECUE
“Business was slow through the Winter [of 1980], but in the Spring we were "rediscovered" by the Boston Phoenix, and in the Summer, Esquire magazine named us one of the best 100 new restaurants in America. Word was out, and I needed to "hire some help!” James Ryan - Mass Cult 617 - 2021
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For those who knew, knew. There was no secret about it. For the rest, it was Boston’s best-kept secret. They say the secret BBQ sauce recipe may have gone to the grave with James. For a greater chunk of the 1980s, James Ryan was the sustenance that kept many a struggling musician and artist alive. He fed the locals, the weary traveling bands and, of course, Mr. Butch. Ryan himself was a self-proclaimed “Marxist frycook.” The kitchen staff featured band members of the Neats, the Del Fuegos, and the Swinging Erudites (of which James Ryan was a member). The waitresses ruled with the sass usually only found at truck stops across the country. Regrettably, Ryan was evicted in 1986 when Jim Harold took over with his own culinary Rat agenda.
A 1988 Boston Herald piece reminiscing about the early Hoodoo days proclaimed it “the preferred pig-out joint for members of Aerosmith, Hall & Oates, Cyndi Lauper, and former Celtics coach K.C. Jones.”
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X. 1980 - 1997 THE WOMEN
"Behind every great man is a great woman"
Uncredited Proveb
The Rathskeller’s booking agent lineage included great men like Alan Rotberg - but come the 1980s, the man behind the curtain, the men that made everything happen were in fact…women. The talent buyers who served cocktails and cornbread at the HooDoo and as den mothers for the orphans of the Boston scene.
Kathei Logue aka “Candy” managed the Outlets expanded music to the balcony and published the fanzine Killer Children. Jane Richter aka “Crass” served as an agent and wrote gossip columns with Candy. Lilli Dennison made the leap from a Hoodoo waitress and managed the Del Fuegos, Scruffy The Cat and the Titanics. Julie Farman started as a Rat cocktail waitress and went on to manage Vitamin, 007, The Neats, and The Lyres. Lois McGee managed Left Nut and championed local acts like the Bags. Joyce Linehan managed the Lemonheads and Prime Movers. Rachel Tanzer was the last of the great women booking agents.
XI. DOORMEN, BOUNCERS AND MR. BUTCH
In late 1977, Jimmy stepped back and faded into the background,” said Mach Bell, singer for the glam-rock band, Thundertrain, “and cleverly hired his jazz musician friend, Mitch Cerullo, to work as doorman at the top of the staircase leading to the underground showroom. Mitch became the de facto 'face of the Rat.'" - Jim Sullivan - WBUR - August 5, 2022
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The Rat Bouncers Suck movement was born from Mission of Burma/Proletariat show turned upside down when Rat security became a bit too heavy-handed on stage divers. Early hardcore shows migrated across town when a zero-tolerance policy for moshing was established.
Mitch exuded an aura akin to Darth Vader with his large looming frame and an electronic voice box he inherited after a bout with throat cancer. Those who knew him well saw his big teddy bear side but you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of a chicken choke with as giant hands. He became a cult star when The Noise’s T.Max began printing Mitch T-shirts.
Everyone who traveled below the iconic CITGO sign during the Rat’s heyday has a Mr. Butch story. Butch was a homeless six-foot-plus dreadlocked self-proclaimed King of Kenmore Square. He was fed by the Hoodoo and spent the coldest of winter nights band vans and lofts. He was always good for a “Have yourself an excellent day!” They shut down Harvard Ave in Allston for a parade when he died.
XII. NOVEMBER 15,1997 CLOSING – GANG GREEN: IN MEMORIAM
'The last night wasn't very special, I have to say," admits former Prime Movers drummer Dennis McCarthy, who played the final show with his current band, Ape Hangers. "It felt like something that had already ended. The Rat was really the punk-rock Camelot -- it fell from grace, but you kept hoping for a resurrection. Maybe some day it will get good again."
At least the club received a fitting sendoff from Gang Green, whose anthem "Alcohol" can go down in history as the last song played there.” Brett Milano- Boston Phoenix - November 26, 1997
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