Rolling Stone: “CBGB” editing underway, but still questions about the soundtrack

From Rolling Stone’s CBGB Film Finishes Shooting; Release Planned for 2013:

Relics from New York City’s bygone CBGB club – including “Smithsonian-quality pieces” like its bar, the phone booth, chunks of the walls and those stained toilets, all pulled from storage – will reunite on the big screen next year in CBGB, which indie filmmakers confirmed they finished shooting in August.

Forty years after CBGB opened its doors on the city’s Lower East Side, writer Jody Savin and director Randall Miller of Unclaimed Freight Productions tell Rolling Stone they are now editing the 100-minute feature. It tells the story of how the late Hilly Kristal [Alan Rickman] offered his club’s cramped stage to bands playing original songs, which attracted groups like the Ramones, the Patti Smith Group and Talking Heads. In 1974 Television became the first act to play CBGB, and gigged there every Sunday for years before recording their album Marquee Moon. The club closed in 2006.

Much of the film was shot in Savannah this past summer, as most people reading this already know. The Rolling Stone piece contains a number of details likely to be of interest to those who have followed the project.

But will the film feature the soundtrack that it really should? That’s a question that has been nagging those of us who hope CBGB is both a critical and commercial success.

From Rolling Stone:

Produced for less than $10 million, CBGB will feature more than 40 songs of the period, though Savin admits “the music decisions are not done yet,” because “some bands are more cooperative than others.”

40 songs = good
uncertainty about which songs = bad

How many of the iconic songs will even be made available? And at what price?

The piece notes that the filmmakers have been consulting with both Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, so one could reasonably expect that Television songs might be in the final cut. Ditto for The Dead Boys, since Cheetah Chrome (played in the film by Rupert Grint) even had a brief role as a cab driver picking up Hilly Kristal’s mom (Estella Parsons). I’m betting songs by The Shirts will be available too — the film is a great chance to boost sales and visibility for some bands that have largely faded from public consciousness.

Given Patti Smith’s reaction to the film, I don’t expect to hear any of her music, but what about the Ramones? What about Talking Heads? What about Blondie?