The Bijou Cafe

The Bijou Cafe was one of my favorite small music venues in Philadelphia during the 1970's. It was located on Lombard Street downtown. This space has had a long storied tradition in the history of music and theater in Philly but had only opened as the Bijou Cafe in 1972. At the time it had most recently been The Showboat and had featured jazz and theater for decades. It was a small venue and had a capacity of about 300 people squeezed into the bar area and the tables in front of the stage. I had been there a couple of times during the Showboat years in my mid-1960's teenage years once for a jazz show and another time for a musical theater show. I'm going to need to jog my memory about those shows. A recent discussion on a Facebook group about the sights and sounds of the 1970's got me thinking about the Bijou Cafe.

My first time there at the Bijou Cafe was in 1973 with John Howley to see Billy Joel. At the time I had no idea who he was. He had become very popular in Philly when Sigma Sound Studio and WMMR broadcasted a live show of the songs he recorded there in 1972. One of the songs, Captain Jack, continued to be played on the station and quickly became "the most requested song in the station's history". The record companies took notice and he was quickly singed to Columbia Records and released Piano Man in November 1973. In the meantime he had a hit song in Philly that summer of 73 and I got to see this guy sing and play his piano. It was a wonderful show.

I was home on leave again a few months later and John took me down to the Bijou again to see another singer songwriter that I hadn't heard. This time it was Tom Waits. We sat at a table very close to the stage that night. In fact it was so close that we could actually smell the BO coming from Waits as he was very much into his weird unwashed stage persona. I soon became a big fan to Tom Waits despite the BO of that night.

Over the next few years until we moved in 1979 Becky and I saw a few shows down at this club.