It was never TV: the rock and roll history of HBO
Gabe Oppenheim
Mag features writer; creator of Japanese TV show "DCU: Deep Crime Unit"; author of several books -- most recently the historical true crime tome "New York City Love Triangle, 1931"
Disco is dying -- because, as the tautological saying goes, disco sucks. But as punk begins to replace it, two musicians in Rochester, New York -- Ferdie and Casey -- are charged with jobs Ramones-style simplicity won't ever satisfy:
Devise theme songs for a newish cable channel called Home Box Office, which intends on showing not only movies but that brutal, desperate demi-sport we call boxing.
Where and how to begin? For these two, where they always do -- with Ferdinand singing melodies to Casey, often over the phone in the middle of the night, and with Casey, in a hazy state, imagining which instruments should carry certain phrases.
Did I mention they are in the industrial belt of snowy Western New York -- closer to the headquarters of Kodak than those of Manhattan-based HBO?
Not that it will matter -- these two guys will turn Rochester into the sonic center of the premium cable age, their sounds so effing epic they'll remain on-air for decades -- denoting a certain classiness rivals, from Showtime to Netflix, no matter how content-rich, will seem to lack.
Play that '83 HBO Feature Presentation intro below, and let's go.
Click this link to read the rest of the piece -- at the article's online home, the arts+culture Web site Props.