Icon of perversion Jack Smith, Club 57 DJ Dany Johnson and Ann Magnuson at a party on Crosby Street, 1980. Photo by Ande Whyland.

In anticipation of the opening this weekend of Ann Magnuson and Kenny Scharf’s big East Village West exhibit at the Royal/T gallery in Los Angeles, original Club 57 D.J. Dany Johnson has made an exclusive two-hour musical mix for Dangerous Minds readers:

Club 57 was a magical little club in the basement of a Polish church at 57 St. Marks Place. This mix is like a mixed salad of all the kinds of stuff I played. I spent many nights digging through my old suitcase full of the 45s I had picked up at neighborhood thrift shops, mixing them with records by my contemporary favorites such as ESG, Bush Tetras, Tom Tom Club and the like. This mix may be a little more mixed up than a typical set I would have played, but not by much. There might be some places where I waited too long for the next record or put one on too soon, just like the old days. The only way it could be more authentic is if I spilled a gin and tonic on it.

  Club 57 mix by Dany Johnson

Thanks I really needed that!

Love it!Love it!Love it!

Awesome.  I spent a big chunk of the early/mid-80s as an Iowa teen with the soul of an East Village punk, and would’ve given anything to see Club 57. Never made it, sadly.  My friends and I did a damn good job of replicating the look, and now I know we got pretty close, musically, too.

Thanks!

Glad you guys like it!

Listening along these appropiate flickr sets:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertcarrithers/sets/72157622746635138/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertcarrithers/sets/72157625359045123/with/5300146150/

this is a really lovely mix.  lots of faves.  thanks.

Wow.  I know nothing of Club 57 or NYC in the 80’s but I’m totally digging this mix.

I loved that place! It was like being in your own rec room with the most creative people on the planet! Jack Smith was a super star! I don’t have many regrets in life, but not being an active participant instead of a passive observer is one! I lost $200 when I canceled a trip just so I could go to this opening tonight! I even talked my husband into wearing his AWESOME Tom of Finland tee shirt from his skinny NYC artist days! Going to the gym all these years has paid off! Tonight is going to be great!!!

Yeah, Dany had to be the DJ at the ‘alternative prom’ we had at Club57. Just that music mix…these still very lively urban music ghosts flowing up and out of that old chest in the attic and then taking you with them, and you are more than happy to go.

Man we need more of that spirit back today in our post-Reagan world of the US.

Thx for thie mix, Dany.

Tracklist?… Is there one available. Could you share?

TIA

Nomi Song - Klaus Nomi
Psychotic Reaction - Count 5
I’m Cramped - The Cramps
Let There Be Drums - Sandy Nelson
I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
Love is Like an Itching in My Heart - Supremes
Groovy - Joe Dodo and the Groovers
The Girl Can’t Help It - Little Richard
Bongo Rock - Incredible Bongo Band
Planet Clare - B-52s
Out of Limits - The Ventures
I Know but I Don’t Know - Blondie
Warning Sign - Talking Heads
Gravity - Pylon
Can’t Be Funky - Bush Tetras
Monster Jam - Spoonie Gee and the Sequence
Midnight Boogaloo - Ray Baretto
I Know a Place - Petula Clark
The Nitty Gritty - Ricardo Ray
Tear the Roof off the Sucker - Parliament
Bertha Butt Boogie - Jimmy Castor Bunch
Jungle Fever - The Chakachas
Dance - ESG
Lightning Strikes - Klaus Nomi
I Like It Like That - Pete Rodriguez
L’elephant - Tom Tom Club
Do It Any Way You Wanna - People’s Choice
Rockin’ It - Fearless Four
Lightning’s Girl - Nancy Sinatra
Peter Gunn - Duane Eddy
Devil With a Blue Dress - Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels
Lucky Number - Lene Lovich
Kookie’s Mad Pad - Edd Byrnes
The Boat that I Row - Lulu
Land of 1000 Dances - Cannibal & the Headhunters
Bell Head - Liquid Liquid
Taki Rari - Yma Sumac

Thx m8! Long live the 80’s!

I fucked Vincent Gallo at Club 57 in 1980. Still goes down as the best fuck of my life. Something about him that no others have.

I was a little too young for Club 57, but this mix coulda been ripped from my iPod. Thanks, it’s great.

Amazing set! Feel like I just dropped 30 years. Thanks for putting it out there.

I’ve been enjoying this all more morning.

What a rich history.

great set. loved every song!

You had me with Klaus Nomi, and Lene Lovich!! Thanks for the playlist!!!!

awesome, loving this so much- thankyou!

sublime mix

never made it to Club 57… but loved your Pyramid sets

xoxo

This is the closest setlist to what we used to play at parties in Denver ca. 1976-77. Wax Trax was just a killer record store then, run by two garage-rock, glam-rock, punk-rock-loving gay guys with a bizarre sense of humor, Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. When I finally made it to the Pyramid in the early 80s I couldn’t believe that someone with the same sensibility was on the turntables. Love you, Dany.

Including “Kookie’s Mad Pad”. We even had a plaid lightbulb painting session once.

Thank you so much for this, Dany! What happy memories. Bless you for opening w/ the rare Klaus Nomi track.

Thanks for all the kind comments.  And Mary Cruz, LOL, glad I could help bring back that memory!

i was thrilled to see the pic of klaus to advertise this playlist.  He is sorely missed and hideously underrated…...

Please come to France before the third war begann! We need to be floodeed by this music, I’m from there like all of us but we forgot. keep it up! thanks a lot and carry on the world is just a revolution of time… and rythm. /////

Last week, I was in Los Angeles and saw a show at Royal T and they had a show with all these amazing “artifacts” from Club 57. It was too much for me. I couldn’t shake being born to late. Ann Magnuson is truly one of the most magnificent women there ever was.

great for an evening listen!  thank you!

love it…

Wow, thanks so much for posting Dany.  Brings me back to the early days of the first Danceteria.  Not sure but I think this might have been around the first time I’d seen Klaus, Bush Tetras & Pulsallama (“the devil lives in my husband’s body”)live.  Then heading down to AM/PM for a little afterhours chill.

this is great. Thanks!