| Jerry
Williams
Every year, thousands of Elvis Presley
fans make the pilgrimage to Sun Records studio in Memphis,
Tennessee to see the place where Elvis recorded his earliest
works. For fans of the Beastie Boys, a place of similar
importance would be Jerry Williams's studio located at 171
Avenue A in New York City. It was at Studio 171 A that the
Beastie Boys would record their very first release on the
Ratcage Records label.
Jerry moved to New York in 1979
to further the hardcore music he and his band th' Cigaretz,
who had formed in 1977, had been working. Realizing that
Raleigh, North Carolina was not the best place in the world
to be a punk band, the group made the move; shortly thereafter
th' Cigaretz released a twelve-inch. As history would have
it, a copy fell into the hands of Dave
Parsons who wrote a glowing review of it in Mouth of
the Rat. Parsons introduced himself to Williams following
one of th' Cigaretz New York performances and from that
time on they have remained close friends.
In September of 1980, Jerry Williams would begin renovating
the interior of 171A. Previously the place had been a glass
shop, but after moving in their PA equipment Williams went
on to build a stage at the front and an audio booth in the
back. By November the 171A Studio was a venue used to house
after hours parties where downtown bands like the Cooties
would perform. For a few weeks everything went well with
gigs happening on Friday and Saturday nights. However with
a huge New Year's Eve show coming up, the New York Fire
Dept. stepped in and stopped further shows from proceeding.
Although 171A was indeed violating codes, it appeared very
suspiciously that a rival club on the same street had tipped
off the Fire Department. Since its opening 171 A had been
cutting in on the weekend business of neighboring clubs by selling liquor without a license, so
the motive was there.
By now though 171A had gained a
lot of name recognition around town, so instead of shutting
it down completely Williams decided to change it into a
rehearsal studio. At the time, most of the available rehearsal
spots in New York City were tiny little rooms, but 171A
offered much more. Jerry described it as being like "...a
full sized room with 15 foot ceilings and a floor space
60 feet long and provided recording artists with a quality
PA system suspended from the ceiling. It was a cut above
other rehearsal studios and since it was about half the
size of CBGB's it produced a very similar sound."
Over the next few years, 171A Studio would then go on
to be used by the Bad Brains, Regan Youth, Beastie Boys,
Young and Useless and many more. In the fall of 1981, Jerry
was working extensively with the Bad Brains and actually
formed a post-Cigaretz group comprised of Bad Brains roadies
who called themselves Bloodclot. Williams played guitar, the
Bad Brains drum tech Alvin Robertson did drums, John Joseph
(who went on to have success with the Cro-Mags) did vocals,
and lastly Ted Horowitz rounded out the Bloodclot line up.
Although Bloodclot never released an album, they did perform
many live gigs opening for the Bad Brains. In fact, Bloodclot
played the second day of the now famous November 1982 CBGB's
benefit.
Today Jerry resides in California
and still stays in contact with fellow former Cigaretz member
Scott Jarvis. It was Scott who engineered the Polly
Wog Stew ep and also went on tour with the Beastie Boys
when they opened for Madonna (1985).
Jerry Williams had been on the road with the Bad Brains
at the time so by default Jarvis ended up doing the work
on that release. However, for the record it was Williams
who engineered the Young and Useless' very sought after
Real Men Don't Floss ep. |
