Combat Jack has started a series of drops over at the Daily Mathematics about his remembrance of the legendary NYC nightclub Paradise Garage. In the first part, CJ deftly describes the setting of the nightclub. Fridays were the so-called “straight” night mainly because Saturdays were so balls out ghey that anyone who got inside on a Saturday night is now dead from AIDS. Good thing for me that I wasn’t able to get in the first time that I went there (Saturday).
If I had a little money I would fux with the Garage after leaving the Quarters. Union Square was closed on Friday at this time and the Saturday party in that space was a dancehall joint called the Underground. Combat Jack also mentioned Bentley’s as a spot were Black folks convened, but the Bentley’s crowd had several other spots to do their thing like The Red Parrot and Silver Shadow. Paradise Garage had a downtown crowd which was distinctly different from any other spot where Blacks partied.
First of all, there was no liquor being served. NYC’s liquor laws were such that any place that had a license to sell liquor had to close for business by 4am. The Garage would be open from 12am until next month. I distinctly remember leaving the Garage one afternoon AFTER noon. I was leaving and people were still in the main room dancing and jacking their bodies. That was the phrase for dancing in the Garage. You were supposed to ‘jack’ your body. When people would first get into the cavernous club you could find them in one of the many rooms stretching themselves like Rosa Acosta. You needed to be in fairly decent shape if you were going to smoke crack and then dance for 10 straight hours and that is exactly what folks were going to do.
It was in the Garage where I first experienced the acrid, yet surprisingly sweet smell of crack cocaine. I never knew what that shit smelled like. I knew what it looked like but I had never seen anyone actually smoke it. The Paradise Garage was where I learned a lot about other drugs that were popular. I got turned on to mescaline and acid while I was up in there. I don’t want to over-emphasize the drugs aspect of the Garage because that really wasn’t what was happening inside of the building. Don’t get it twisted, people up in that bitch were getting fucked the fuck up hardbody, but some folks were in there straight-edging and strictly vibing.
I started fuxing with the Garage after this chick I knew from L.G. (Lafayette Gardens) named Diane told me she was going there after Latin Quarters. I had tried to go there before on a Saturday night but I couldn’t get in [ll] and I didn’t realize that Saturday was the super ghey night. I didn’t have a gaydar then, truth is that I still don’t because I don’t give a fux. So I went down to the Garage after the LQ closed. Polotron and Big Du from the ‘Stuy rolled with me. Du’s brother Brian rolled too. All these fools were older than me and they had already been up inside of the Garage.
Polo and Du are both four years older than me. They graduated from Brooklyn Tech that June before the September I first went in. these dudes were nightclub OGs. 10-18(Roxy), Danceteria, The Fever, Union Square. They went to the Quarters on Friday to pre-game for the Garage. The deal was that we had to split up and get with chicks in order to get inside, or better yet, I had to find a chick to help me get inside. My girl Diane was on line after we had parked the car so I got with her and Polo rocked with her girl. The line to get inside the Garage was almost as fun as being in that piece. The energy was there.
The difference between the Garage and the Quarters was the direction of the energy. The Quarters and Union Square were dominated by dudes who from time to time(every single fuxing night) would set it on some other dudes [ll]. Whereas the Garage had energy that was high but moving in the opposite manner. You could bag up a shorty and dance with her all night. I mean dance with her so much that you had her smell on your body. If she was having a visit from her Aunt Rose you would be wearing that scent too. My girl Diane changed out of her LQ sweats into a cycling singlet. Actually I think she just took off her sweater and jeans.
That was the uniform for chicks in the Garage. Biker shorts and t-shirts. I always had on a Polo rugby or sweatshirt that I would literally sweat out into oblivion. I would leave that club looking like I went swimming fully clothed. You couldn’t go in there and not dance for hours on end. The vibe in the Paradise Garage was what that party was all about. No one fuxed with you the wrong way. I didn’t violate any girls and I never had a problem getting action. There was no alcohol to make dudes act foolish, altho’ cocaine is a helluva drug. The vibe was a true spaceship making its way to a distant planet.
What shaped the vibe was the music, primarily spun by the resident deejay, LARRY LeVAN. Google that brother’s name if you are into music for real music. The Garage was an actual garage with concrete floors, walls, columns and ceilings. The main room was pitchblack and the sound bounced off the walls at the speed of sound. You were in noisechamber and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. What you did was you took your girl into the main room and you found a clearing for y’all to dance. Then you jacked your body. And you soul clapped. When I tell you that you could do anything to your girl on the dancefloor I am telling you that you could do anything with her consent. I earned my stripes as the fingerbang champ at the Garage.
LeVAN’s grooves would reach fever pitches and then come back down to Earth only to fly up again. If you played the rhythm right you could orgasm with the music. I mean, that was the point you dig? When I could dance with a female in the Quarters (I never danced with a chick at the Square, niggas would murderlate you) it was like we were always in competition for who had the better moves. In the Garage you and your girl were trying to lock a groove together. You would be riding in her seat, holding her thighs or her hips trying to thrust in to her at the exact second she was backing into you. Not all aggressive either, but smoothly and fluidly as if you were swimming.
The thing I have to give the Garage the most credit for is putting me in the mind to get my own apartment so I could go bang. It wasn’t all about the drugs or decadence for me since I had already seen all of that in Corona where I grew up. I wanted to get some of these girls back to my spot to really express the primal dances we were doing in the dark. I also remember the music that made me feel a kind of way. While Public Enemy #1 and UltraMag’s Funky were the Hip-Hop jams the band that made the funkiest, most soulful house music was Fingers, Incorporated. With Mr.Fingers on the keys and Robert Owens on the vocals this band established the sound for a deep house groove.
I’m not of the mind that the types of parties I enjoyed in NYC when I was 16 don’t still happen here in the city today because they do. KeiStar Productions (shouts to Keita who used to party in LQ) puts together events that still have that energy if not the total ambiance. Paradise Garage had the feel it did because the full spectre of AIDS, crack, heroin and poverty hadn’t fully manifested itself yet. It was tumbling to that place where we could no longer trust anyone in this city and when that moment truly arrived the Garage was no longer a Paradise and its doors closed forever. But I did have a chance to experience a distant planet. And it was good.
Fingers Inc. featuring Robert Owens – ‘Distant Planet’
Fingers Inc. featuring Robert Owens – ‘Bring Down The Walls’
Fingers Inc. featuring Robert Owens – ‘Never No More Lonely’
Fingers Incorporated – ‘Can You Feel It’
Great read
Dallas & Combat Jack keep these internets fresh. I remember the years I was coming of age and we hit up The Muse, The Octagon, Homebase and The Limelight. The energy was crazy, the chicks were out of this world. We would spend all night dancing to hiphop and house music. The majority of the time dancing to that house music I would bag up some hot spanish chick. The spanish chicks stayed dancing to that house music. I know ya’ll remember the group Ten City they had that soul clap shit and the dude Lidell Townsend, he only had one hit but that shit was fire when it came on in the club. Those were great times. Damn I miss NYC. Peace.
LM what up? Slayer what up?
I got a funny story to tell about Octagon. KRS-1 concert and Lord Finesse and Traj opening for Kris. Me and Polo went with OUR broads. Pelted Traj and Finesse with ice for being wack on the mic, almost started a riot, Doug E. Fresh (truly the world’s greatest entertainer) came on the mic and settled everyone down. KRS came out and tore shit down. Good times.
Damn Dallas, you and CJ are killin em on the storytelling tip this week.
For real though, it’s always fun to read about this kind of stuff because for years talking about any kind of dance music in rap circles would get you laughed at by a bunch of dudes who weren’t even there in the first place. It’s crazy relatable too, the era is gone but people are still dancing and the music’s still moving, probably because it never really blew up here like Hardcore Hip-Hop did. Peace.
The last place which reminded folks of paradise garage was a spot called Vinyl on Hubert off of Hudson. No liquour..industrial ..housed in the old club NASA Space… Dark.. And whatever the fux you wanted to do you could. Our Larry Levan was Danny Tenaglia ..and is still revered as a god by former vinyl heads. Sadly the joint closed in 2004 due the overdevelopment of TriBeCa. You and CJ are really doing a great thing with these drops..showing peeps how this city used to get down .. Keep it up.. Look fwd to hearing more.
this kinda sounds like lcd rap now. i don’t get why someone who likes this type of stuff would hate on gucci or something, not that im saying you are.
What LCD rap does this sound like? Give me a song to listen to.
I don’t fux with Gucci, but I haven’t listened to his shit neither.
The Garage? The Octagon? Homebase? Union Square? Limelight during the X craze? I was there. Boy was I there during that NY club scene era, faithfully. Used to be in CBGB’s too.
Fux it, I’m going dancing tonight. There’s a club out here that does 80’s music twice a month. While I’m there I’ma p/u tix for Gil Scott Heron on 4/15.
And fredMS this music cannot be compared to the music that Gucci does. The songs that dP has up there are just a ripple of the house music tsunami.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5TKCETyPPo&feature=related
^ house music/rap remixes were the norm in this era.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p30DUmx9v3Q
^ the original.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGZ6u4rGadw&feature=related
^ bonus cut for the homies’ memories
Gucci Mane can’t fukk with this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoBWSgaAvus
^ Scott Storch produced. Scott was there (Downtown Science)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Q4s_ZdvAQ&feature=channel
^ Bangladesh produced. 2 of Gucci’s best songs on his recent project.
man i would have loved to go to a place like that. i have been to parties like that no alcohol lots of music and drugs but muthafuckers always end of fighting. even when the female to male ratio is like 6 to 1 why you fighting over a the few chicks with hot dance moves. it’s a 100 more to choose from who can’t dance as well but fuck look at them shitttttttttttttttt. you can’t dance girl don’t worry we going two step grind till this joint close.
Awww man!
No links? (II)
Those were some good songs…
OTS, you mike like these dP…
http://www.kicksonfire.com/2010/03/13/new-balance-mtg580-gore-tex/
$yk,
I fux with those Gore-Tex NB’s
Yeah I might have to cancel something & put that $ on those. Like you said Gore-tex kix are always a win.
for those tmorphers/true decep heads that didnt know…peep game
http://www.ecapcity.com/new-era-fitted-hats/custom-new-era-hats/transformers-megatron-new-era-in-silver-and-black.html
Word Is Bawn! Dope Post…you KNOW I had to comment on this right chea! LQ, was definitely that spot for Hip Hop, but i never even considered dancing there either! If Delancey St. was the place where the wolfpacks put in work, then the Latin Quarter was where they played. I didn’t wanna get caught up grindin on somebody’s woman. First time at the LQ? Serch/BDP/Audio Two and other random rappers just walking around. Very few rappers had deals, so no internets, just radio and live shows. Really tho’, there were no hip hop clubs. Just clubs that mostly play house music. But the Garage was on some other sh*t, some spiritual type shit, where once you went in, you didnt have a clue of the time and when it was time to go, it was eye-burning broad daylight. I can count on 2 fingers the amount of times I’ve been there, and both are memorable.
For NJ, the spot was Club Zanzibar. Tony Humphries put that place on legendary status. True, it was definitely always some ghey sh*t goin’ down at all the clubs, but the common ground was the music. The night me & the homey Cee, went to the Zanz and bagged up two girls from the UK, they told us at the hotel they were in the US to buy records and to witness the man behind them club killa tapes.
Cannot forget Zanzibar, it would be blasphemous to.
Nice drop man…
Brilliant post.
Well, not EVERYONE who went to the Paradise Garage on Saturday night is dead from AIDS you know…I’m straight and I loved Saturdays at the PG because the music was phenomenal and I could party in peace without having to worry about dudes trying to get in my pants LOL!
Man i still can smell the Funk of the Garage!!!! YOu sold me me first pair of HOUSE shoues!!!! Dp.com All Killer No Filler
Zanzibar was the bomb…had a hotel connected to that shit! and then jersey girls LOVED us brooklyn dudes. If you went to Znzibar and were from brooklyn and get a peice…you should of just killed yourself, cuz it was downhill from there
Ah, the Garage.
First time there, I had on Gucci sneakers. I didn’t know any better. You go out, you throw on the standouts…that’s what I knew. I was not even mad that they were (toss out) wrecked at the end of the night. The party was THAT good. I might not even have made it to house music at all if not for all the chicks. But I might have line danced for how they packed girls and women alike in the Garage.
Fingers Inc was as close as I got to church at the time.
Great Story.
Cats in the barbershop used to talk about The Paradise Garage like it was some type of Zion
They have alot of great old house mixes over @ http://www.deephousepage.com/mixes.php. Including some Larry Levan live @ the Garage.
good one d. i always heard about them clubs. i gotta documentary i have to send you re: this post.
Fridays were the so-called “straight” night mainly because Saturdays were so balls out ghey that anyone who got inside on a Saturday night is now dead from AIDS. Good thing for me that I wasn’t able to get in the first time that I went there (Saturday)
^^
*fucking Dead*none
Fucking great read….you took Combat’s lunch on this one Dallas. CHEA!
Man, I just love this post – and this music too! I might be getting up in years, but I have to admit that was too young to go to the clubs in DC that played this kind of music back in the 80s.
Now, if I wanna hear house like this, I have to follow DJ Mandrill around during Black Pride Weekend. Im just sorry it only happens once a year.
“Saturdays were so balls out ghey that anyone who got inside on a Saturday night is now dead from AIDS. Good thing for me that I wasn’t able to get in the first time that I went there (Saturday).”
No, good thing for the people that were inside that you weren’t able to get in.
Yo D,
Didn’t know you hit the Garage back then. I was a member (Friday night member) for 5 or 6 years. Damn near never missed a Friday during those years. Goose bumps just remembering it! I partied at the Red Parrot, Silver Shadow, and Bentley’s just to name a few, but nothing could ever touch the vibe in the Garage.