Memories of Bleecker Bob’s

Bleecker Bob’s closed today, and like the end of CBGB’s, I find myself lamenting the end of a place I hadn’t been to in years. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need or want the Village to be turned into more of an NYU-blanded mall than it already is, and I genuinely miss the days that I could wander the streets and find odd mom and pop shops who carried interesting things.

But I always had a conflicted relationship with Bleecker Bob’s. An older music-loving friend introduced me to the existence of...