{"id":24387,"date":"2024-01-14T18:26:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T23:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=24387"},"modified":"2024-01-14T20:21:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T01:21:24","slug":"willie-alexander-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2024\/01\/14\/willie-alexander-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Alexander, Godfather Of Boston Punk, Celebrates His 81st Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was lucky to spend last night celebrating the 81st birthday of my friend Willie Alexander\u2014with a capacity crowd of some 500 people packed into the new Gloucester nightclub The Cut<\/a>. Willie is a godfather of Boston punk rock\u2014and the room was packed with friends, artists, poets, musicians, and we were all happy to see each other and celebrate Willie. I thought: This is the community I want to be part of. And: Willie is always an inspiration\u2014rakish and thoughtful and stylish and beloved and full of moxie and still making art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poets Jack Evans, Jim Dunn and Amanada Cook read tributes to Willie who resides in Gloucester these days. The Neighborhoods, Rick Berlin, 3rian King, Mission of Burnham (Mission of Burma with Gang of Four drummer and Gloucester resident Hugo Burnham) were among a couple dozen acts who performed. John Felice of The Real Kids and drummer David Robinson of the Cars and Modern Lovers played the Modern Lovers song \u201cRoadrunner.\u201d And Willie took the stage with his bands, the Persistence of Memory Orchestra and the Boom Boom Band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019: The Secret Art Of The Godfather Of Boston Punk, Willie Alexander<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017: Willie Alexander At Home<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2024 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Willie
Willie Alexander performs at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander performs at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander performs at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander performs at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander performs at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander performs at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander performs at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander’s Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Darlings perform at Willie Alexander’s Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Richie
Richie Parsons Band performs at Willie Alexander’s Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander and his wife Anne Rearick at his 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander’s 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Willie
Willie Alexander’s 80th Birthday Bash at The Cut in Gloucester, Jan. 13, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was lucky to spend last night celebrating the 81st birthday of my friend Willie Alexander\u2014with a capacity crowd of some 500 people packed into the new Gloucester nightclub The Cut. Willie is a godfather of Boston punk rock\u2014and the room was packed with friends, artists, poets, musicians, and we were all happy to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[35,1224,1223],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24387"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24396,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24387\/revisions\/24396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}