THE BOTTOM LINE
The Bottom Lie was a cabaret located at the corner of West Fourth & Mercer Street; just east of Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The Bottom Line opened in February 1974 until 2004.
The Bottom Line became an oasis of purity for music fans who enjoyed the 5,000 square foot club and its 400 hundred seats in the rectangular performance room. The audience were delighted by the venue's excellent Sound System.
Stanley Snadowsky & Allen Pepper
The club owners, Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, maintained an excellent music club. The Bottom Line produced a club that could veer from presenting glam punk like the New York Dolls to Country Queen Dolly Parton, bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe to jazz master Bill Evans, from guitar hero Richard Thomson to crazy rock & roller Little Richard.
There were well over three Million patrons who filled the seats night after night. The Bottom Line became legendary because there was always a line around the block.
John Hiatt
John Hiatt (Performer): “You just had that feeling as a performer and you were trying to meet the audience halfway up in the air. There was a sense that the stage was hallowed ground.”
The Bottom Line had been open for only a few months in 1974 when Pepper and Snadowsky welcomed Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia to the club for his side project with Bay Area Keboardist Merle Saunders. Phoebe Snow was a headliner. Her song Poetry Man from her debut album had become a big hit. Dr, John's shows were very popular. Suddenly The Bottom Line had settled into it's place. The range of acts appearing @ The Bottom Line quickly helped build New York's premier show case.
Folk artists who were well known @
The Bottom Line:
Pete Seeger
Eric Andersen
Buffie Sainte-Marie
Doc Watson
Tom Rush
David Bromberg
Dave Van Ronk
Taj Mahal
Blues artists
who were well known at The Bottom Line:
Mike Bloomfield
James Cotton
Bonnie Raitt
Freddie King
Buddy Guy
Jazz artists
who were well known at The Bottom Line:
Moss Allison
Weather Report
Bill Evans
Charles Mingus
Rock & Roll artists
who were well known at The Bottom Line:
Patti Smith
Flo & Eddie
Dion
Labelle
Suddenly, record companies began to use The Bottom Line to promote upcoming artists.
Tom Waits
November 1974 turned up the lights for Waits' debut opening. Tom Waits was a notoriously eccentric hipster pianist that proved to be just that during his first time at The Bottom Line.
On August 13 1975, Bruce Springsteen began a five night stand at The Bottom Line that would forever go down in both Bruce Springsteen and the club's history. The Ten performances engagement was timed to coincide with the late August release of Springsteen's third album BORN TO RUN. The Show became a Legend!
Patti Smith
Less than four months after Springsteen's shows, Patti Smith and her band came to The Bottom Line which would be one of the longest single consecutive night residencies by Patti Smith.
Ramones
In May of 1976, the Ramones played their one and only gig at The Bottom Line. Like Spinal Tap, the Ramones turned up their amps and they were not going to turn them down.
Lou Reed
For a period in the late 1970's, self-proclaimed Rock & Roll Animal Lou Reed appeared regularly at The Bottom Line. The former leader of the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed had spent much of the first half of the decade with success during rock's Glam period. David Bowie brought Lou Reed the hit of his career in 1972…Walk On The Wild Side.
Meat Loaf
Marvin Lee Aday aka Meat Loaf exploded into stardom with the surprise mega-hit Bat Out of Hell. At the end of the 1977 Thanksgiving holiday weekend for a two night stand. The engagement proved pivotal to the success of the album, as the theatricality of the show played perfectly on The Bottom Line stage.
Van Morrison
Van Morrison played his own rare club show at The Bottom Line and he was well known for being a difficult performer.
Lowell George
Through out the late 1970's, The Bottom Line continued to do brisk business with an eclectic mix of artists and musical styles.
Various Artists would show up to play jazz featuring Gary Burton and Spyro Gyra…Blues Artists…B.B. King, James Cotton, Johnny Winter, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown…Rockers & Rollers Lou Reed, Cheap Trick and Mink De Ville…Punk & New Wave…David Johansen, Television and the Shirts…Guitar Giants…Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Doc Watson…Singer Songwriters…John Prine, Laura Nyro, Jesse Winchester…Country Artists…John Hartford, Asleep At The Wheel and Tracy Nelson…Roots Rockers…NRBQ, Dion, Flo & Eddie (of the Turtles) and Bonnie Tyler…Downtown Folk Faves…The Roches and Leon Redbone.
The late 1970's and early 80's gave rise to a new generation of singer-songwriters arriving on the scene in New York.
The legendary Bronx-born Singer-Songwriter Laura Nyro made her first appearance at The Bottom Line in July of 1978, performing four sold-out sets over two nights. Laura would continue to appear at The Bottom Line regularly over the next seven years, including a series of holiday shows in the early 1990's. Her final Bottom Line performance, on Christmas Eve of 1994, would be her final live concert.
The last show at The Bottom Line took place on January 10th, 2004. Shortly after The Bottom Line closed.
The Bottom Line will always be remembered!
AMEN!
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