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New York’s Back In The Day Dead Club Scene Infamous American author and original party monster Norman Mailer died this week aged 84, prompting a slew of obituaries eulogising his craziest moments. The Times reported that the writer of classics including the Naked And The Dead and the brilliant ‘Executioner’s Song was nearly blinded after attacking a punk who called his two poodles gay though really met his match during his clubbing era of the 60s and 70s, courtesy of fellow celebrity author Trumate Capote. “He once described being led by Capote to a club named Corpse, which Mailer discovered to his horror had taken its name from a cadaver displayed on a slab in the middle of the dance floor,” said the Times. “Mailer screamed at Capote in disgust, but his diminutive companion shrugged,
“Oh Norman, don’t be angry, they change the body fresh every day.” It turned out that the club had a deal with the city morgue.” Talking Heads/ Tom Tom Club drummer Chris Franz told Skrufff he never heard of the Corpse club when he was hanging out around Manhattan’s infamous punk CBGBs centred scene of the 70s and said he never bumped into Norman Mailer either. “I did see Truman Capote out a few times though, “Chris added, “He was always totally drunk,” he laughed. Latterday New York svengali Larry Tee, who arrived in the East Village with Ru Paul, Lady Bunny and a whole host of Atlanta drag queens in the early 80s, also missed Corpse though recalled similarly twisted outings during Michael Alig’s Club Kid era of the 90s. “One night Michael Alig threw a party in a homeless squat that he rented out for a party from the unfortunate folks that were squatting there,” Larry recalled. “There was a plank that let to the little shed by the West Side Highway where the outlaw party was held and I remember watching a highly paid supermodel climb across it in super high heels. There was an open bar open and homeless people sleeping in the corners,” he said. “Sometimes things sound better in retrospect than they were at the time,” Larry added. “To the club kids of today, Michael Alig sounds like a divine creature, but in reality he wasn’t much fun and wouldn’t have liked most of the kids that adore him. Also lots of the club kids at that time, overdosed and or are left with ugly health conditions,” he said. Tom Tom Club release their 2 track Christmas EP Il Est Ne’/ ‘Christmas In The Club’ shortly. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/books/11mailer.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin (New York Times Norman Mailer obituary: At different points in his life Mr. Mailer was a prodigious drinker and drug taker, a womanizer, a devoted family man, a would-be politician who ran for mayor of New York, a hipster existentialist, an antiwar protester, an opponent of women’s liberation and an all-purpose feuder and short-fused brawler, who with the slightest provocation would happily engage in head-butting, arm-wrestling and random punch-throwing . . .’) Article by Jonty Skrufff Subscribe to Skrufff music newsletter at www.Skrufff.com
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