All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] NY77 The Coolest Year In Hell [DownSub.com]

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Yeah. Heat.

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The first to die by the killer's gun was

18-year-old Donald Lauria last July. 6

months later, Christine Frod became his

second victim. He struck six times and

police say they're nowhere near solving

the

case. In 77, Son of Sam was running

around and shooting people. Everybody

was scared to death. In 1977, we had

soaring murder rates. We had a city that

was really gripped with every form of

crime. The city was dirty. It was

experiencing an epidemic of arson. It

was covered in graffiti. The city was so

broke that city services had been cut

back profoundly. They laid off 5,000

cops. They closed firehouses. They laid

off thousands of teachers. Nobody knew

from day to day whether the big apple

would become the bankrupt apple.

You had to really hold on to your purse.

There was an element of danger, but it

was also wonderfully sleazy. Time

Square. It wasn't Disney World. It was

prostitution and pimps, you know? It was

great. It was It was like the Wild West.

And it didn't cost anything to [ __ ]

live here. 1977 was the year of the

25-hour citywide blackout that led to

massive looting and and in fact, the

largest mass arrest in the city's

history. And New York City went through

one of the most contentious mayoral

elections in 1977. And it came to be

seen as an election for the soul of the

city in the future.

[Music]

People were confused, disillusioned,

afraid. All of these emotions were

spawning all kinds of music. That was

the year that disco exploded in New

York. Back in ' 77, we took hip-hop from

the South Bronx, brought it into the

club. We never thought it would blow up

like it did. Yeah. 1977 was a big year

for punk rock. There was a buzz at

CVGBs. Everybody wanted to design punk

bands. It was no coincidence that during

this period of of really kind of

ultimate decay for New York, it was an

incredibly exciting place to be. It was

free. It was open. You felt like you

could do anything you wanted. Most

people thought that New York City's uh

great days were over. My attitude was,

"Fuck

[Music]

them." Cotch came through 123rd

Street and they were selling reefer so

fast and so crazy till they was trying

to sell him a bag. It it it was open air

supermarkets.

Uh uh uh 77 Bronx burning. Well, the

Bronx wasn't burning. The Bronx was

burnt.

I mean, it was deteriorating like at a

rapid pace, man. I mean, so fast. Whole

areas was just wiped out, man. gangs

really um controlled areas and and a lot

of times things would happen and the

police wouldn't even show up. The gangs

gave kids this sense of cohesion in what

was otherwise for many of them a

completely chaotic world. Most of the

people's parents, they were struggling,

they were broke, you know, they had two

jobs or no job or they were strung out

themselves on drugs. A lot of these kids

were monitoring their whole their own

life. You know, they were going to high

school and they were out, you know, they

were on their own basically and the only

positive thing we had was

[Music]

music. Hip hop, I believe, came about as

a culture because there was a fairly

substantial group of young people in

African-American and Latino communities

that felt that there was nothing there

for them. the uh public school system

because of the fiscal crisis at that

time had abandoned most music programs

throughout the city. You know, you

couldn't belong to a marching band in

your high school if your high school

didn't have one. You couldn't go to a

rec center if you didn't have a rec

center. We didn't have something that

really belonged to us, you know.

Everybody had their own movement, you

know, and 77 was actually a breakout

showcase year for hip-hop. I went to a

band party and I was totally blown away.

Something about seeing that music

channeled out that way definitely

appealed to me. You would follow the

vibration of the music and you would

arrive at the block party. You would see

some people doing graffiti writing on

the wall live and there would be people

with cardboard boxes out doing B boying.

The center of the party would be the

DJ. Early on, of course, you had people

like Hollywood and Chief Rocker Busy B

and Love Bug Starski. But Africa Bambada

is the godfather of hip

[Music]

hop. I came out of the the street gang

movement that we had at the time, which

was called the Black Spades. In my area

of the Browns River houses, we had a a

center where I used to play the music

and the the many other youth start

feeling the energy of these DJs, these

breakers. So I went out there and start

transforming the street gangs into

something positive and it was a culture

called hiphop. He comes out of the gang

culture, gets an epiphany and begins to

organize in his community. Africa

Bambada did a unbelievable job with, you

know, getting all the youth and the

gangs together to try to not be violent

to do it through music. The party that

he gave resonated throughout the

neighborhood and then soon throughout

the Bronx. From then on, I that's all I

wanted to do. Cass actually took the

initiative, you know what I mean? And

and and told me, listen, man, you know,

do this with me, you know what I mean?

And once I got behind the turntables, it

was something that was uh overwhelming,

something that actually took

[Music]

over. In 77, if you were a DJ, you had

to have your own sound system. I don't

mean like you just put your records on,

oh, I mean, just Oh, no. You had to have

the speakers and the amplifiers and the

turntables and everything and and you

brought all that out to the park to

play. You know, we were kids, you know,

we were teenagers and, you know, we

really didn't have that kind of money. I

was lucky because I had a few dollars

saved in the bank that my father had

left me. And I had to convince my mother

once that once I knew that this is what

I wanted to do. Hey, ma, I need that

money. You know what I mean? I found

what I want to do. I don't want to go

buy sneakers with it. I don't want to go

I want to buy some DJ equipment. I want

to be a DJ.

[Music]

We never would have had the ingenuity to

plug our system up to a light pole. I

don't think if we was in

Omaha. You understand what I'm saying?

We wouldn't have had the resources at

hand, the mindset to say, "Yo, that's

electric light, ain't

it? Look in that pole. Look in the

bottom, man, and see if it's anything in

there." You know what I mean? It just

takes that kind of mindset and ingenuity

to say, "Okay, let's let's find

something to make this work." We didn't

have those big industrial extension

cords now. We had them little 9 6' 9 ft

extension cord. You had to plug one up

to the other and we had to buy like 15

or 20 of them and run them all the way

from a pole all the way into the park.

But that's what it took to keep the

party going. So that's what we did. No

one was watching us. I mean, the police

wouldn't come into the parks and

shutting our our parties down. I mean,

if you go to a park now and try to uh

hotwire a street lamp and to a party,

you'll be shut down in 5 minutes. You

know what I mean? I mean, they just were

busy doing other things. You know what I

mean? And thank God for

[Music]

that. In 1977, New York City was a great

place to be if you wanted to be wild and

promiscuous.

For AIDS, you could [ __ ] on stage in

Time Square. There were literally 1,200

street walker prostitutes from 34th

Street to 50th Street and 8th Avenue.

42nd Street was a mess. You wouldn't

take your wife and walk with your family

on 42nd Street. You really wouldn't.

Time Square was anything goes. It was a

neighborhood where hustlers intersected

with tourists. And the tourists came out

on the bottom end of that deal for sure.

In Times Square, you had the Broadway

theater, but you had side by side with

that porno establishments, massage

parlors, some 200 of them all across

42nd Street. It was girls, girls, girls

upstairs. Take a ticket, take a you

know, black beauties, black beauties,

check it out, check it out. I went to a

movie premiere called Deep Inside Annie

Sprinkles. And they people were jumping

up, giving people standing ovations

after sex scenes. When you went and saw

porn, you saw it on a giant screen. I

mean, the penises were like a 150 feet

big, you know, lots of bushy [ __ ]

uh, men head, pubic hair up to their

navels.

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Time Square now compared to Times Square

then is to go from, you know, something

that was X-rated and dangerous to

something now that's G-rated. I don't

think it's bad just because I saw how

bad it was. The people of this

city know and

understand the tremendous problems we

had in the last three and a half years.

In 1977, New York City went through one

of its most contentious mayoral

primaries in its history. Several polls

say any of the four candidates could

make it. They are Bella Abzug, Mayor

Beam, Mario Cuomo, or Congressman Cotch.

Morning everybody. I'm Ed Cotch running

for mayor. At a televised debate the

other night, someone threw up high at

Mayor Beam. Watch. Come on.

Please, everyone, please sit down. I

remember Abe Beam being probably the

most ineffective mayor we ever had. New

Yorkers just didn't give a damn about

him. In some ways, many New Yorkers

didn't give a damn about the city

because we felt that, you know, the city

wasn't the city that we knew. It was a

shell of its former self. It was really

a moment when the city wanted someone

who was going to kind of be tough and

get tough and who was also going to lift

the spirits of the city, lift the morale

of the city. Mayor Abraham Beam is in

big trouble. His principal opponent is

the lady in the floppy hat,

Congresswoman Bella Abzug. One of the

things you have to know about all the

polls, they not only show that I'm

leading, but they also show that of all

the candidates, only one person has been

regarded by them as a leader.

Bel Abzig was charismatic. She was New

York with that hat and that uh that

accent and the flamboyant gestures. But

now you have a situation where the

city's going to hell in a hand basket.

The country doesn't care. And could

Bella Absa lead the city out of such a

grim and dark period?

[Music]

the problems that we shared during the

day, we came together in the evening to

overcome together or to get away from

together or to escape together. And one

of the ways that we came together was on

the disco dance floor. I never

in 1977 disco came into the mainstream

and it was an outgrowth of several

factors that all came together at the

same time. One was the emancipation of

gay people which created an explosion in

the gay community of clubs that were

opening up and the visibility of being

an outgay person which had been very

clandestine been very underground before

that time.

[Music]

It really does all start with David

Manuso's love. It wasn't a bar. It was

just his home and he was having parties

there every Saturday night.

[Music]

The first time I saw Dave Vancus, he's

in this dark booth and all you see are

his eyes and his beard and his hair. And

so it it actually looked like Jesus was

in there playing

records in the front of the room by the

front windows and stuff like that. He

kept the Christmas tree up year round

with presents and toys and stuff like

that. and there was a rocking horse and

stuff like that underneath it to kind of

make people always feel like, you know,

it was Christmas every time you came in

there cuz it really did. The Loft

started on Broadway at Great Jones. And

in 1977, Soho was a vast wasteland. You

know, people would look at you like,

"What are you crazy? You're not talking

about going down to Prince Street or

going down to Crosby Street." Going to

the law for the first time. I was 16. I

had rough times at home. And so I got

out of the Bronx straight to Manhattan.

There's always one person that feels

like the odd man out or the odd girl out

if you will. You feel like the black

sheep or you told you the black sheep.

You feel alone to a certain degree.

Well, that's the way I felt until I went

to the law and I realized that there

were more people in the world just like

me. And so it made me completely

comfortable. It's the first time I had

actually just completely let everything

go. You had guys who were 15, 16 years

old, thrown out of their houses the day

they had the guts, guts enough to tell

their parents that they were gay. Well,

where did those people have to go? The

one place where those people had to go

was the loft where they were accepted

for who they were. Just the freedom, it

spoke volumes about who and what I was.

And that was it. I was hooked.

[Music]

[Applause]

The winter of 77 was when the Paradise

Garage first started. The garage was

having construction parties to raise

money to build the place. Saw this on

the on the floor in the small room and

the speakers piled up and so forth.

That's where, you know, the first

parties began. But, you know, that's

what everybody was into then. However

raw the space was, the better. You know,

all you needed really and it was a sound

system and a couple of eyes

and there was a big snowstorm and it was

so cold and I saw people swarming down

7th Avenue. I mean, you knew where they

were going. The heating wasn't together,

but you would be on the dance floor and

it would be 100°. People be sweating

like pigs and 20° in this hallway that

was less than 10 ft away. That was the

beginning of Paradise Garage. And

obviously it was still the underground

thing.

The garage was a little bit different

from the loft because as it began to

expand into the straight community, it

began bringing in a much wider variety

of people. People always ask me what

made the garage the most incredible

club. And I said because it was a place

where black, white, straight, and gay

came together. And if people can dance

together, they can live

[Music]

together. The lower side was really

scary. It was bombed out. You got to

remember 1977, you know, was a time and

a place. And in New York City on the

Lower East Side, I mean, there were

burned out buildings that they just left

that looked like, you know, these facads

of destroyed ruins in Germany at the end

of World War II. It was a part of town

that was considered very

undesirable. It was crime, you know, it

was full of drug dealers and drug users.

And we liked it that way, you know. It

was great. It was it was like the Wild

West. And it didn't cost anything to

[ __ ] live here.

And people would come and they'd run

away from home. They'd run away from

like Ohio or someplace and their parents

would call and we'd have to say, "Yeah,

yeah, your kid was here." You know, cuz

they'd find it in a diary. I am moving

to New York City. I'm going to go to

CBies. None of us ever fit in. We were

never like mis popularity at school. We

were all a bunch of misfits because we

weren't the guys wearing macrome or

sandals or or you know saying groovy,

you know, we're punks.

[Music]

Punk was becoming a scene around the

same time that disco was reaching its

apex. But you'll be coming out of the

loft and suddenly you see a bunch of

people coming in another direction and

it's like, "Wow, what club are they

coming out of?" And you realize there's

another group of people going to another

space.

I started hanging around down to CBGB's

cuz there was a buzz around that that

things were starting to happen. CBS was

just like going into somebody's crummy

basement and there were big stuffed, you

know, easy chairs and Hilly had these

dogs that would crap all around and and

it was very, very funky. Billy Crystal

was the man that owned CBGB's. He

basically was I won't call him a failed

country and western singer, but he was a

pseudo. He wanted to be a country and

western singer. I figured I got to have

something that stands for what I want to

do, which was

CBGB, country blueg grass blues and

omug and other music for uplifting

[Music]

coranders. Hilly, they only had one rule

about bands in CBGBs was that they had

to write their own songs. Uh cuz at that

time most bands uh up until then had

played cover songs. So it was always

new. It was always interesting. It was

always very different. So one night it

could be some crazy loud people. The

next night it could be some experimental

jazz people. The next night it somebody

with a fiddle and a tuba. The next night

it could be five loud guitars. Um you

never knew what to expect. Everybody was

looking for this kind of rawness and

not, you know, trying to get away from

the overproduced sounds.

And I I don't know specifically. I think

every band had their own little

direction.

1977, me and my band, Richard Hell in

the Voids, we were like the the house

band, you know. I'd started in

television back in 1974 and we spotted

CBGB's first. The idea was to look for a

venue that was bad enough off that they

would let us play there, you know, on a

regular basis. And you know, the Ramones

were there within a month.

[Music]

The downtown scene was vital to what

actually became the Ramones. And um when

we were playing CVGs, none of us thought

of it as a commercial endeavor. It was

an artistic endeavor.

I remember the first time I saw them

play, they must have played like 16

songs in 12 minutes. And I didn't

understand a word of what they had done.

And uh the whole concept, it just went

by so fast and so powerfully. I thought

it was like the SS. I mean, it really it

really took your breath away. I mean,

hey ho, let's go. Hey, you know, I mean,

it was just like and I I looked around

and CBS was like this this hellhole bary

bar and I said, "This is the cavern.

These are our Beatles. This is the

future right here.

[Music]

When people saw us, they realized that

what we were doing was making music from

the way we felt rather than from

necessarily virtuosity. So we went back

to basics so that people could think, oh

wait a minute, I could pick up an

instrument and play too. This opened the

doors for many people to pick up musical

instruments and form bands.

[Music]

Hey, here she comes.

Now, you know her in 77. The people who

went CBTVs were mostly musicians. One

night, television might be on the stage,

but in the audience would be Blondie and

the New York Dolls and the Talking Heads

and the Miami and the uh Ramones and so

on. And then the next week the Ramones

would be on the stage and the talking

heads would be among the other people in

the audience. So they were playing for

each other and they were playing for

people they knew. We were the the most

intense thing going on in the world for

sure. Just full of life and and ideas.

But at the same time, it was a deadend

little nowhere joint that was only known

to a really devoted and intense three or

400 people in New York who had these

very specific extreme tastes. And people

tend to look back in retrospect and say,

you know, great bands were playing

there. Well, no. About eight bands were

playing there. They got great later. You

know, having had the place to be bad,

they got good.

went to CBGB's with June Bug. God bless.

We went down there one time. One time.

And I walked in there and looked around.

I said, "This ain't the place for us,

man." It's like, if you ever been in a

situation where everything's looked like

it stops and everybody just go and we

went back to the safety of the Bronx. I

tell you, we went back to the safety of

the

Bronx. It's the same energy that punk

movement and the hip-hop movement up

town. Punk was the next generation

rockers saying, you know, that's too

tame or that's like our mom's music. And

that's where the frenetic energy of punk

came from. At the same time, we took the

hottest parts out of records that

already existed and kind of pumped them

up and and you know what I mean, that

adrenaline that that created hip-hop up

in the Bronx. In 77, we went to this big

rap show in the South Bronx was

completely a new new thing to me. There

was no separation between the audience

and the the stage. Everybody was just,

you know, running on stage and doing a

few a few lines and jumping back into

the crowd. It was just like so exciting.

It was great. And I was the first to

invite the punk rockers or the white

people who wasn't nervous to come to a

black Latino area and party with the

people. Most people thought it was going

to be

chaos, racism, fights, and everything.

When we put that music on, the music

took control and became universal and

everybody just party like we was

partying on the mother [ __ ]

[Music]

77 is when hip-hop started coming into

his own cuz at that time you used to

have the DJ's battles in the parks where

both groups would play at the same time

and it' be like a sound clash and who

ever had the loudest system with

overruled and 77 you know where's he

goes and he starts you know and gets uh

sets up a battle against bamb it wasn't

me cuz whiz is always the one like yo

let's go battle them yo let's go get

Let's go battle him. Back in those days

when you DJed, you know, there was there

was a lot of player hating. There was a

lot of animosity, you know what I mean?

And they wanted to get at you and they

would talk a lot of trash, you know, I

mean, there was a lot of trash talking

back in those days. I mean, that's part

of hip-hop, too. You know what I mean?

We come in there with the most equipment

that we could find, piece together, you

know what I mean? Odds and ends,

speakers, you know, from here and there

and everything. And we think we're

ready. We go in there. So, I have the

nerve to put on We Will Rock You by

Queen. So, I put it on and it comes on

and it's

like, you know what I mean? I'm like,

like Mr. Bigs, who was a MC for Bambata,

got on the mic and

bellowed, "Casing Nova, turn up your

system. We can't hear

you." I'm like, "Okay." Try to crank it

up.

Said, he's like,

"Casanova, we still can't hear you. This

is what it sound like. Put on the same

record. Boom boom boom boom boom boom.

Yo, we just like, okay, grab the wires.

Let's get start unplugging like let's

get out. Oh my god, it was Oh, that was

like one of the most

humiliating things, but it was another

one of those life lessons, man. And

another thing that we survived in in 77,

you know what I mean? That could another

crew or another group that would have

been the end of them. You would have

never heard of them again. They was

done. They would have been done. But I

popped I pop up like toast, man.

[Music]

Columbia University co-ed Virginia

Voscarian was gunned down in March. The

killer police are looking for is called

the 44 caliber killer because of the

weapon he has used. A modern version of

the old 44 caliber pistol used in the

days of the Old West. I remember driving

around, you know, with my friends trying

to look for this guy cuz everybody

wanted to catch this guy. I mean, every

everybody was looking for him. We didn't

know what we were looking for, but I

knew three people who uh got shot. I

know somebody who died and I know two

people got shot. People were in in

certain areas afraid to to to be out too

late and given and you know,

self-imposed curfews and and and people

carrying weapons who never carried

weapons before. For New Yorkers, it has

been heart-wrenching watching as the

city copes with crisis after crisis. I I

know what it is to walk around in my

childhood without any problems and happy

golucky and go where I want, but no

longer like that. You have to look over

your shoulder. And I find people when

you're walking, people just look over

their shoulder. With a serial killer on

the loose, crime has become a central

issue in the campaign. A recent poll

shows that Congressman Ed Cotch and his

tough stance on crime has moved ahead.

While former front runner Bella Abzug

has dropped to a distant third, the city

was in the dumps. It needed law and

order. And Bella was more about come on,

let's be nice. And Cotch was more about

if he comes into your neighborhood, I'll

smash that son of a

[ __ ] That was an era of survive and

enjoy yourself. And Studio 54 was this

unbelievable island where nothing

mattered other than feeling good. The

person that helped start Studio 54, a

woman named Carmen DLio, was originally

a loft member. Then she went to Steve

Rubel and Ian Shreger who were actually

doing a party at a place called the

Enchanted Gardens in Queens. When they

saw the project of the studio and I with

my enthusiasm described what I

envisioned, they got enthusiastic and

they decided to go for

it. 77 was the year that everybody

wanted to learn to disco dance. They

wanted to learn to do the hustle. They

wanted to get into Studio 54. They

wanted to be part of that

glamour. Studio 54 was bigger than most

clubs. It was built inside a theater.

So, uh, it had a balcony. It had a

bridge over the dance floor that would

come out on rollers. And so there was

people dancing on the dance floor and

over the dance floor and there were

lights above the dance floor that would

come down into the dance floor. And it

had a a coach spoon swinging into the

nose of a half moon. It was like part of

the uh design of the club. Any idea that

would go through my mind to make it more

spectacular, they would go for. When

Bianca Jagger celebrated the birthday,

we conceived the idea of Lady Giva on a

white horse. So, we had this girl start

naked on a white horse with her gold

braids all the way to the floor and then

Bianca got so enthusiastic about this

that she just jumped on top of the horse

and went around the dance floor. This

grabbed the attention of all the

photographers and before we knew it, it

was all over the world. You never knew

who you were going to see in the

basement of Studio 54. I remember once I

hadn't really paid that much attention

to the person that was sitting to my

left and the gentleman next to her,

tapped her on the arm and turned to her

and handed her a joint. She took it from

him very expertly, I might add. And when

she handed to me, I looked in her

eyes, and I realized I'm looking to the

eyes of Lillian Carter, the mother of

the president of the United States of

America.

I went there. Yes. It was just bizarre.

And inside were underage girls dancing

in men's tailored shirts without

anything else. And lots of very

decadentl looking people doing decadent

things. It had youth, booze, drugs, and

hormones all

combined. I definitely saw people going

at it up in them balconies. I tell you,

sex was everywhere on any given evening.

It was absolutely appropriate to go into

the ladies room and have sex with

someone in one of the stalls and or do

drugs with them. It's fabulous to be

young in a moment in which you want to

be irreverent and

irresponsible and daring and there are

no consequences. A lot of clubs in New

York

had a lot of what was going on at 54. It

was just CO4 sort of 54 made it really

popular and it sort of introduced it to

the masses. It was the right time. It

was the right moment and we created

magic.

[Music]

We were dead set against disco at Punk

magazine. In fact, John Holmstrom wrote

Death to Disco in the first editorial of

Punk magazine. But now I listen to disco

and it doesn't sound that bad, you know?

It's

like, how do you like it? How do you

like I'm sorry.

[Music]

I was a child who wanted so wild. Well,

1977 was definitely a watershed year for

me personally. We recorded Blank

Generation in 1977. That was really a

thrilling, you know, doing that, making

that record and none of us had ever been

in a recording studio before. So, we

were on top of the world, you know, and

we had a real big following at CBGB's

and, you know, the stuff was starting to

break around the world. I think Richard

Hell, I think he wanted to be

successful. I think he wanted to be a

rock star. When I first heard Blank

Generation, I thought that that was

going to be the anthem for the

generation. And I remember when my

daughter was born, all that was going

through my mind was I was saying, "Let

me out of here. It's such a gamble when

you get a

face." I was saying, "Let me out of here

before I was even born." It's such a

gamble when you get a face. It's

fascinating to observe what the mirror

does. But when

I set a place, I belong to the blanket.

When punk started and our people, the

record labels were saying, "These people

can't play. What a bunch of junk." All

of a

sudden, a song started selling in

Australia. And it was a song called In

the

Flesh. That was a tip off that there was

something happening.

[Music]

And the story was that they played it by

mistake, thinking they were playing the

A side of the single. So needless to

say, they weren't ready for punk rock or

what we were doing, which was very raw

compared to the one song that they had

heard. The song got to number one in

Australia, which at that time might as

well have been the moon to most

Americans, but it was number one

somewhere. And if you could be number

one somewhere, you could be number one

anywhere. Suddenly we're shuttled around

the world and Debbie's image was

everywhere and most people saw what she

looked like before they heard the music.

And when we first went to England,

everybody started just went physically

nuts at our shows. It was so exciting.

And all of a sudden, everybody wanted to

sign punk bands.

[Music]

When my love,

[Music]

there was a huge buzz on the talking

heads. In fact, um uh Joey Raone was the

the first person to tell me about them

and um I went down at CVS and I'm

standing out there and all of a sudden I

hear when my love stands next to your

love, you know, and I said, "What is

this?" This music was so hypnotic. I was

being sucked into the room. Then I ran

up after they were over. They had no

crew. They had nothing. And I I helped

Tina, this beautiful young girl, you

know, take the the the stuff off the

stage. I

said, "You have to be on my

[Music]

label." The bottom of it. The bottom of

it. The bottom.

[Music]

77 is actually a landmark year for CBGB.

The punk scene gets a lot of attention.

Not only the local press, the New York

press or the American press, but the

world press came to CBGB right away. We

had as many as 600 people inside CBG

before Rammon show. Somehow used to see

like two or three layers of people.

People is standing on the ground, the

people is standing on chairs and people

is standing on the

railings. So it's like, you know, the

bar is on fire.

[Music]

1977 is a seminal year. It opened up a

whole new world of music to people and

it opened the eyes of an industry that

needed the new Elvis. And then comes

along this collection of people in this

small venue and they're creating change.

[Music]

Obviously, we need more police on the

streets. Tonight, an ABC News poll shows

Ed Cotch and Mario Cuomo are running

neck andneck among the candidates for

mayor. It appears this is fast becoming

a two-horse race. How many people here

are voting for Mario Cuomo? Raise your

hand. Nobody. How many people here are

voting for Ed Cotch?

Mario Cuomo, New York's Secretary of

State, is the handkidate of the

governor. Mario Cuomo is the governor's

little boy. Say it again. Say it again.

Cuomo jokes about being prepared for a

TV talk show. To make a man look at me,

he says, "I take this as a personal

challenge."

Mario Cuomo was a young, vigorous guy

from Queens who now says to Ed Cotch,

he's not married. He's from Greenwich

Village. So, who do you think he is? It

was during that campaign, of course,

that the vote for Cuomo, not the homo

flyers, started uh appearing all over

the city. Uh although no one ever got Ed

Cotch to come out publicly, even to this

day. Uh but it was the low point of

homophobia in New York City politics. It

was a scurless campaign and there were

lots of people uh who believed I was gay

and voted for me. lots of people who

didn't believe I was uh gay uh who voted

for me and most people didn't care and

my attitude was [ __ ] them. There's been

mud slinging from both the cox and

quuomo camps and with only weeks left

until the primary anything could happen.

Good evening. Early this morning, the 44

caliber killer tried to kill again and

almost did. The killer has taunted

authorities by writing two letters. Both

were signed, "Son of Sam," one for the

police, the other to Jimmy Brereslin,

the popular columnist for the New York

Daily News. I'm home Friday morning and

Ann Marie Kajiano from the New York

Daily News where I work, she called up

to say, "We got a letter here and I

don't like it. It gives me the creeps. I

said, "Well, what is it?" Says from a

guy, "Son of Sam," she says. I hear

about read. It's creepy. He says, "Hello

from the gutters of the city of New York

and the sidewalks with the cracks and

the dried blood of the D." And I says,

"Wow, that's great cadence." So, they

got the letter and they looked at it in

the police headquarters and sure enough,

it had a it had a fingerprint on it that

matched the fingerprint they had on

another letter.

the Daily News on its front page teased

the fact that, you know, on Sunday,

Jimmy Brereslin is going to going to

come in with his column on his

communication from Son of Sam. So, the

the Daily News sort of milked it for all

it's worth. And meanwhile, the New York

Post is going nuts. So, it was a tabloid

war for the Son of Sam story. So, which

which certainly only only heightened the

city's sense of of of fear. It didn't

really touch my neighborhood. It didn't

really come up town. Son of Sam wasn't

wasn't hanging in Harlem. Yeah, but he

didn't come to our neighborhood. That's

for sure. First of all, we would have

smoked his ass in a minute. That's

that's that's first thing. So, we would

have saved the cops. We would have saved

the cops. A lot of

manpower. Every neighborhood had its um

like neighborhood flavor. I mean, in the

Bronx in the summertime, you knew what

you know what was happening. The

sprinklers was open. Kids was playing,

you know what I mean? in the street,

basketball games and basketball

tournaments and picnics and and and just

like every other place, but it was in

parks. We did a lot of free parties. Uh

Echo Park, Arthur Park, 183rd Street

Park. One particular um day we were

playing, myself and my DJ partner, Disco

Whiz, out in the park in the Bronx. Cash

and I were um challenged to a battle to

a street to a street DJ battle just like

any other day. We were in 1A Third

Street um in the park between Valentine

and Ryer. So we kind of hotwired the

street like, you know, like we always

did and and got the juice, got the party

going, everything. So we come on, right?

So we ready, you know what I mean, and

put the turntable, got my records ready.

I I put the first record on and I know

that soon as people hear this, they

going to go, "Wow." So

boom, energy is flowing. Record is

going, right? I grab the next record. I

bring it in.

[Music]

[Music]

The lights start going out. The street

lights along the street start going out

one at a time like in a in a row. Poof

poof poof. We just looked at each other.

Wow. Did we do this? I mean, because we

were jacked up to a street lamp. You

know what I mean?

I was home sitting here watching

television. Bingo. All the lights go

off. Television goes off. I go up to the

roof. Look

out. Darkness.

I'm 12 years old. I'm watching Bewitch

on television and boom, the lights go

out. I thought it was just us cuz that's

a common

occurrence. I looked

outside and everything was black. The

night of the blackout, my friend Chee

was visiting. Che from Chich and Chong,

you know, and I got a call. Well, the

lights went out. I said, "Come on, let's

go up to the Bronx. I'm covering the

story." Oh, I was in the middle of a

[ __ ] with a client at Caesar's

retreat and all the power went out. It

was July 13th, 1977. New York was at the

beginning of of what would become a a

brutal 10day heat wave where

temperatures were were daily over 100.

Coned says the blackout was triggered

when severe lightning knocked out

transmission lines that connected Indian

Point, the state's main power grid, to

the city. With those lines down, and

with demand for power unusually high

because of a heat wave, other generating

plants unable to handle the load began

cutting themselves off. It took only

minutes before it was all over. New York

had been disconnected from the nation's

electric system. The first reality check

was a bodega right across the street

from where we were playing. The gate

went

down. All pandemonium broke and people

just started screaming blackout and then

you heard like bottles breaking and

people just running and and we were like

stuck out there with all this equipment

and to be out there in the blackout you

were primed. You know what I mean? You

were you were primed for the picking.

Everybody was like, "Hit the stores."

And it was like, "Hit the stores." And

everybody just started running all at

once.

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

Now some started running towards us. Me

and Whiz, we had other ideas. Okay, we

pull out the guns. We like, "No, no, run

that way." Okay, don't run this way. Run

that way.

Whiz stayed with the equipment and I

proceeded around the corner cuz there

was a electronic store, the sound room,

and they had DJ equipment in there. And

this is my first time admitting this,

telling this story, but yes, I did sneak

in there, help crash the gate down and

crawl in and pull out a Clubman tube

mixer.

Okay, but like I said, couldn't just

say, "I'm going to be a DJ." you needed

equipment and that's all I really, you

know, wanted. I wasn't trying to loot,

you know, everything I could find before

that blackout. You know, we we had

literally just maybe four or five

legitimate DJ crews. The next day, the

very next day, it sprung this whole

revolution of DJs. That was a huge spark

and a and a huge contribution to to the

hip-hop culture. The rest of the city

had other things on their mind.

Supermarkets, department stores, banks,

check cashing places, jewelry stores,

everything. The morale in the police

department was very low because there

had been layoffs and pay freezes. So

when they got the call to start showing

up for work the night of the blackout, a

lot of them were uh were not inclined to

do so.

Now guys are starting to come in. We're

all in uniform. We're all sitting around

and the door flies

open and this guy comes in. What the f

is going on? They're walking away with

my store. The CO hears this and he comes

out and he says, "Who are you?" He says,

"I'm the commanding officer." "You're

the commanding officer." "Well, command

something." He says, "They're walking

away with

Broadway." So, we take streets to get up

to Broadway. There was

thousands. Thousands of people in the

street carrying chairs, carrying

refrigerators, carrying TVs. How are we

going to arrest all these people, you

know? So, I says, "U, let's get the cars

over here. Take what we can take and the

rest of it, you know, the hell with it.

We're putting two and three guys in the

back seat. We're putting televisions in

the trunks. We're putting televisions in

the back seat on their

laps. Sometimes we're putting two guys

in the

trunk. Close to the trunk.

and transporting him to the precinct.

[Music]

Guys were making arrests left and right

and there were shots being fired. We

were firing back. You know, wherever we

would see a flash, boom, we open up in

that direction. And we were saying, "We

need more ammo." And the words were no

longer out of my mouth. Then here comes

emergency service. They start throwing

us boxes of ammo, hundreds of rounds,

and we're loading up. And the exchange

of gunfire

[Music]

continued. I remember getting on top of

a bus. I started yelling to the crowd. I

said, "The world is watching and cool

down. Everybody's got to go home. The

lights will be on soon. everything's

going to be okay. I never figured that

even as hard on its luck as New York was

that the veneer of civilization was that

thin that people who were marginal

people or even in their regular lives

law-abiding people suddenly became this

this crowd of anarchists in it for

themselves. The you know Jackal and Hyde

personality came out and people that you

would never expect housewives uh some of

them I mean not all by any means

minorities either. I'm bugging out

because

churchgoing upstanding citizens, the

ones you know are teachers and doctors

and in the community, they are now

reduced to looters, thieves, and riers.

I was shocked. I was

afraid. I was frightened at the sound of

glass breaking, cars screeching, guns

going off, and get away from my

[Music]

door. When it was all over, I said to

myself, "My god, how many bodies are

they going to find?" They didn't find a

single body. Not one.

They talk about the riots, but the fact

of the matter is very few people were

killed, if any, were killed during that

time. People weren't turning that

violence outward toward they were doing

violence to property and they were doing

violence to property specifically

because they had problems with the

people that owned the property. Most

people went to bed that night really not

knowing what was happening around them.

So, people woke up the next morning and

I think there was this this sense of

shock. The power was still out. And the

other problem was that that the police

had

arrested thousands of people and there

was nowhere to put them. They had to

open the tombs. I remember a prison that

had been closed for many years and

people were getting bitten by rats and

stuff cuz that place had been closed for

so

long. What's going on? My mother sat me

down. She said, "Son, when there is no

light, man is reduced to animal. I began

to look at

people deeper than what they were

showing me on the outside at age 12.

It's when it's when I became a

man. People's actions, you know, were

brought on by their conditions. The

message to the city is that we're we we

need help here. We're doing bad. There's

nothing there's nothing here for us.

There's no jobs. We're um housing, you

know, healthc care, nothing. We you know

what I mean? where we at the end of our

road. We are just surviving on by a

threat. July 14th, New York City. Early

morning. It was a night of no electric

power. A night of no lights, elevators,

subway trains, air conditioning, traffic

signals, or televisions. What the city

did have in the dark streets was a wild

outburst of crime, arson, looting,

mugging, and a thousand false fire

alarms.

[Music]

I think it's really disgusting. You

know, it make you really want to throw

up when you look at what's happened. And

we got to live here. There's no place

for us to go. Take out everything. I

lost all my money. I work about 10 year

for this. I lost everything. I can't

talk. We

got every everything is gone.

Everything. The cops were inadequate.

Didn't have enough of them. And I urged

Mayor Bean to ask for the National

Guard. And I meant it. I don't think you

should be able to uh destroy uh the

property of other people with impunity.

Particularly the people who lived in

Brooklyn who owned stores. They were

poor themselves. As New Yorkers get

ready to vote, Mayor Abraham Beam is in

big trouble. I know that

I'm not usually known

for any public exhibitions of Tampa, but

I want you to know I'm damned angry. A

Beam is an incompetent mayor, should

never be reelected, and he can't run a

secondass candy store. And that's the

way he's run New York City. That

election came to be seen, I think, as an

election for the soul of the city in the

future because there was this whole

feeling that the people that ran the

city had lost completely any control

they may have had. Mr. Mayor, what

should have happened here if police saw

looters in this man's store right in

front of them? What should they have

done? that obviously one would answer

that they should have uh arrested the

person, but I think we ought to find out

what the answer was. Well, this man was

here. The police said stay outside. Let

them take what they want. You'll get

hurt. You had the feeling that if the

lights went out again that everything

you had was up for grabs, your your

possessions, your family, your the

sanctity of your space. And Cotch was

ruthless in his perception of the

anxiety that New Yorkers suffered and

his prescription for fixing it. The hell

am I doing? I need your help. Am I going

to get your help? Yes. Thank you. Look

where we agree. One, the death penalty.

The Son of Sam issue rises to the top in

the summer as does the blackout. The

city is gripped with crime. It has these

extraordinary events. And it was really

at that point that Cotch became the

death penalty candidate for mayor.

That's when he seized on it and he would

whisper to people, "I have to do it.

It's the only way I can get

in." In the tight race, Cotch has taken

a narrow lead and gained the endorsement

of the New York Post and Daily News.

While Mayor Beam, suffering a dramatic

dip in approval after the blackout,

struggles to bring calm to a city in

turmoil.

The people of this city know and

understand that we can improve the

quality of life here in our city. We had

soaring more murder rates. We had a city

that was really gripped with every form

of crime. And you know, the quality of

life violations would never even occur

to anybody. The quality of life was

supposed to be violated.

Hi swingers. We're Larry and Mary,

co-owners of Plato's Retreat, the only

on premise swing club in New York. We're

a couple's only private chartered club.

On our premises, we have three separate

air conditioned swing rooms, two

whirlpools, disco music, and a lounge

area with sofas and pillows. There is

absolutely no pressure at our club.

Larry Leington created Plato's Retreat.

He was a slob. He was a DE's them and

kind of dummy of a guy. He he and his

wife at the time had little swing

parties. It was in the air privately.

And somehow they parlayed that into a

public club, the first so-called swing

club, and soon to become the most

successful one ever.

You might go to Plato's retreat and

you'd look into the orgy room and

there'd be literally 100 people, a sea

of naked bodies having sex. This was at

the height of the disco

era. So Plato's was indeed like a disco.

Plato's retreat was like Studio 54 in

the sense that it was also costf free.

No AIDS, no addiction, no uh no law

enforcement interference. Uh sex is

good. Sex is great. Sex with anonymous

strangers allows you to fulfill

fantasies that only a multi-millionaire

might otherwise be able to. I would go

to Plato's retreat and everyone went

there for the sex. Sometimes the Coke. I

wasn't a big drug user, but I went there

for the buffet. very good buffet. I

personally like the buffet better than

sex at Plato's retreat. I think people

were really interested in sexual

exploration

[Music]

and seeing 200 couples having sexual

intercourse on the big

mattress. It was paradise. It was sex at

its best and I was part of it. Larry

Levenson, what made you organize uh

originate Plato's retreat? Couples that

want to be freethinking, freeliving

adult couples. They don't believe in

monogous relationships. They would

rather get involved with other people,

but together with their spouses. You do

it in public view and you mix it up with

strangers. Isn't there something very

sick about that? It's certainly not

sick. It is a victimless activity. Oh, I

find it revoling.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

1977, you had maybe 10 to 15,000 riders

just blasting all over the city. You had

every train covered with the most

beautiful murals

[Music]

should be cleaned and the ones that are

caught should be cleaned it. They should

clean it. The ones that they catch on

doing that. What's the sense of pay? 75

cents when you have to ride graffiti

trains. You know, violation of public

property. I think it's disgusting. They

should at least get somebody to clean up

the damn place. We move 3 and 12 million

people a day.

they have rights too. I think a lot of

the artistic expression became

ultimately destructive and I think

graffiti is a good example of that.

People would not go in subway cars that

were marked up because there was a fear

of lawlessness and I think it added to

the paranoia.

1977 20 years old and I became king of

the subways because I actually did more

trains than anyone else. Anytime a train

would go by at least twice on a 10-car

train, my name would be on it. Both

sides. The basic graffiti message is,

you know, look at me. I'm famous. And

it's this game is carried on first and

foremost amongst your peers. You know,

you sign your name and you're

underlining. That underlining is your

statement of I was here. Writing was

getting up. Getting up meant your mural

traveled the city. So that's getting up.

Just like hip-hop, man. Did people know

that they made elaborate sketches before

going out to do it and that they, you

know, blew these things up, projected

them onto the trains in their minds and

did them on the trains in the dark with

the proportions all correct on this huge

canvas. You wake up, you know, parents

were asleep. 2:00 in the morning, you

actually slip out of the

house, go out and you would go inside

the tunnel. Everything is pitch pitch

dark and you can see what you're doing,

but it's very it's very dim. You

actually get a feel for being in that

environment and you can't see anything,

but you can still create something like

this that's like flawless in the dark.

Even though at any moment you can get

pinched by the cops coming from any

direction. So, you have to be alert all

the time. What they learned was how

exciting it was to get your piece up and

to see it ride. But then they learned

that if they didn't do it over and over

again, they just disappear. So you had

to be dedicated. I knew that I wanted to

create and I needed to have the tools to

do that. And I guess more frightening to

me was actually getting paint. And at

that time, we were all advanced as kids

who were advanced in the in the in the

guerilla warfare tactics. And you would

steal spray paint. You flip your Lee or

your Wrangler jacket over your shoulder.

At the time, the baby diapers had the

big safety pins. It was none of that

pampery stuff. You put the safety pin in

the center of the sleeve and then you

would fill the sleeves up with spray

cans and it just looks like you're just

carrying your jacket over your arm. So,

of course, you would get six cans of

paint, three in each sleeve, and you

would do that. The end of the day, you

still had 20 or 30 cans of paint and you

could go nuts all summer. They're saying

that the kids run the subways, that the

system is out of control and that

graffiti is a symbol of that. No, I

ain't running this. Hell yeah. I'm

bombing this. Wow. You know, how is this

all coming out in a city that's so

corrupt and broke and there's this

beautiful thing coming out. So I was

fascinated by that and that's why I rode

my cars to watch people walking into the

cars or people walking out you know or

maybe from the corner of their eyes like

looking over and peeking from the wall

you know from their journal all the

times and just like oh you know they

were like in this secretive festivity

you know like watching this stuff and

being being part of a of a of a of a

celebration. My cars I call them

celebrations even though we had the city

father struggling against it. trains

would pull into the station and people

would applaud, you know, it was just

some there would be some really great

pieces, but uh there's always a big, you

know, debate on what's art and what

should be where. Well, I love Warhol's

phrase, art is anything you can get away

with.

I love that.

guys.

My first exposure to hip-hop was

Defiance and I attribute that to the

graffiti artist. The writers the writers

were here way before us and just the

whole mindset that the writers have.

There's there's just that whole obscure

underground against the grain attitude

definitely appealed to me. It's one for

the blaze, two for the triple grand

master cash. Show them that you're on

the leather.

Somebody say ho. My recollection of

hip-hop was coming from the parties they

used to throw in the parks. Those

parties were good for the time that they

were there. But then the problem

happened. You got the little stickup

kids started running around at that

time. Gangs and gunshots. And people

didn't want to party in the parks no

more cuz somebody was always winding up

getting hurt. To bring the whole sound

system out to the street, you have to

have a lot of mossy and a lot of balls.

You know what I'm saying? and and a lot

of backup because you could get you can

get your stuff taken completely at any

time. And a lot of people did get their

stuff taken. A lot of people got their

parties shot up. You know what I mean?

When the fever came about and we

decided, well, let's take hip-hop from

the streets, bring it indoors, provide

security, provide an controlled

environment and see where it goes from

there. God knows we never thought it

would blow up like it did. The Fever is

the last untold story of hip-hop. All

the rappers have a story in the fever.

Russell Simmons story, Curtis Blows, Mr.

Magic, Grandmaster Flash, Heavy Dis. Run

the MC did their first show there.

Beasty Boys all got their first break at

the Fever. Love Bug Star at the Disco

Fever every Monday night. Check them out

right about now. Notorious 2 like this.

My father went and opened up a club for

me in 76. The grand opening was Disco

Fever and my father wind up putting a

white DJ in the club and he wasn't

working out. But I noticed every time

this other DJ leaves and G gets on, the

crowd is just picking up. Now the

night's supposed to be ending but the

energy level of the crowd is picking up

and he's rhyming over the over the

records and I'm like, what the hell is

he doing?

But just throw your hands

up. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

When S was there and he heard that, he

looked up again and was like, "What the

heck was that?" And then he saw the

reaction from the crowd like everybody,

"Ho ho." You know, they started jumping

and everything. He was like, "What's

going on here?" I had my dentist come in

there. He's a white guy. And then I had

a lawyer. And then I had a pimp. And

then I had a hooker and then I had a

drug dealer and then I had a bank

robber. But at that point they were all

as one. Nobody was thinking about nobody

as anything different. Who had more

money, less money? Who was more

dangerous? Who wasn't? Who was afraid?

Who wasn't afraid? At that point

everybody was just having a good time

because of this rhyming over the

music. I said, "Gee, who's the biggest

DJs around?" G told me the Grandmaster

Flash was playing at the

park and Flash is scratching. and he's

turning around with his elbows and he's

gets up with his feet. He's scratching

with his feet and he blindfolds himself

and he was just unbelievable. So I said,

"This guy's like a show within

[Music]

himself." And I approached Flash about

playing in the club. And I said, "Look,

you come here, I'm going to guarantee

you become a star because you're going

to have a place where people can come

see you every week on a weekly

[Music]

basis." So here it is. going to be the

first hit by night. Grandmaster Flash at

the Fever on a Tuesday. I only had five

days advertising. Made a little [ __ ]

paper flyers. And this guy, 600 people

show up.

And the gimmick was a dollar to get in,

a dollar a drink. And we ran that night.

I mean, we ran around like chickens

without a head. But it was such a big

thing. And the kids got the word out and

it just it just blossomed from there.

Now everybody's talking about it. Holy

[ __ ] the fever's packed. There's a

million people over there. But it was it

was teenagers, you know, and we knew we

could pack the kids in. And when we

started allowing them to come in with

sneakers, that was it. 600 people again

the next week. And then it was just

every weekend. And then I started I had

to make more revenue cuz we needed

bounces because it was getting wild and

it was too many people. So what I came

up, I was the first one to do a dollar

to get in because I didn't want to

change the dollar, but $5 was sneakers,

but everybody want sneakers. But if you

wore shoes, you got it for a

[Music]

buck. And back in that time, drugs was

hot.

Cocaine dust, angel dust was real

prevalent. We knew people were going to

do it, but we provided a safety system

for the people that came up there. We

had a little red light buzzer system

that set up in the cashier booth

downstairs, which flashed in the DJ

booth, which the DJ when he saw that, he

knew to say code blue. And everybody had

gotten accustomed. When code blue was

said, that means the police are coming

upstairs. It was just like a speak easy.

The old speak easys back in the 20s. So

when that light went off, the DJ, no

matter what he was doing, he could be in

the middle of a rapper rhyme or

whatever, he knew that light go off,

cold blue, cold blue. everything would

disappear. If it was on the tables or

whatever, somebody was doing it in the

corner, it was gone. Not only that, the

police department loved us, too. Because

we took 5 600 kids off the streets, put

them inside of a building in a

controlled environment. So, if they were

looking for somebody to stuck somebody

up, what would they do? They come up to

the club and look around to see if they

could find them.

Grandmaster Flash, who got discovered at

the fever, just got inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And you know

what? That says it all.

A killer who has roamed the burrows of

New York for the past year has struck

again. The killer's eighth attack in

just over a year came on this lonely

street in Brooklyn. Police poured over

the car where the young couple was shot.

Two witnesses say the gunman walked up

to the car, crouched, then fired four

shots through an open window and he was

covered with

blood and the girl was covered with

blood and was a horror.

This guy screaming, just screaming and

screaming. We always looked at some

summones that were issued in the general

area of where the crime was committed.

It so happened in Brooklyn when Oscar

gets murdered, we started looking at the

summones again.

When we do, we find a double parked

summons issued by a a hydrant to a car

registered up in Yonas. So they checked

the ticket out and it was to a David

Burkowitz Pine Street, Yonas, New York.

So they called up the

Yonkers and the Yoners police said,

"That guy's a pain in the neck. We've

had a lot of trouble with him." So now

everybody's antenna gets raised. They

stake out the car. Burkowitz comes out

of his apartment house. He approaches

the car. They go over to him. They

identify themselves and he says, "Well,

you got me. I'm the son of Sam." He

admitted it right then and there. This

is the man police say is the 44 caliber

killer. Young, dark-haired, almost

chubby. They found hundreds of rounds of

ammunition and two more guns, including

a machine gun that detectives said

Burkowitz planned to use in his next

attack, which they said was planned for

a Long Island disco. In the end, it was

something as simple as his $25 parking

ticket that led police to the killer,

which leads to the the the joke that in

in New York, you can uh you can get away

with murder as long as you don't park at

a fire hydrant. He wore a fake smile as

police moved him around the city today

from arrest to booking to court, finally

to a mental ward.

And I'll never forget I was in uh a club

that night, the night he got caught. And

I couldn't believe the joy of how

everybody was hugging and crying and I

mean guys, strangers all hugging and

kissing each other. It was like the

biggest relief and celebration. And then

it was all uphill after that.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

It's 3:00 a.m. this September morning

and still at Studio 54, people crowd the

doors hoping to get in. Studio 54 became

in 1977 this unbelievable island where

nothing mattered other than status and

feeling good. Nothing. Most places you

could expect to just at least get in.

You know, with Studio 54, there was this

big crowd of people standing around

outside who couldn't get in. And so that

made it a bit more exclusive if you did

get in. Oh, you're not shaved. There's

no way, no going to get in. It doesn't

matter if you're not shaving. Listen,

just go home. Nobody knew with Steve at

the door what was the trick. He would

just pick them up randomly. He would

stand at the door and people Steve Steve

Steve Steve and he would pick somebody

and then take their $20 and put it in

his pocket and send them past the gate

where they would actually pay to get in.

One night there was a couple that had

just married and they were in a

honeymoon and they had decided to go to

studio. He decided that he could go in

but she wouldn't. And he walked in and

left her outside. I mean, it was like

crazy crazy crazy crazy playing God

once you got in. And it wasn't anything

that was spoken, but it was the sense

you got that everybody thought they were

special because they were able to go to

Studio 54. And that bothered me. The

idea that I'm better than anybody else

because I'm here and look at me, I'm

standing next to Liza Minnelli or look

at me. Isn't aren't I wonderful? I'm

here with all these people. And it was

something that I think they encouraged

because it made them an extraordinary

amount of

[Music]

money. There was some party and we drove

over to Studio 54 and we all climbed out

and they wouldn't let us in. That was

where was Debbie, Harry, it was me. You

know, you would you think they'd let

Blondie in, you know? I never went to

Studio 54 that much. It was all about,

you know, rich people, Bianca Jagger,

all that stupid crap. The velvet rope

syndrome just became the norm after a

while. You know, we've tended to stay

downtown.

They wave you in where we can't go.

Why are you here tonight? I guess we're

just interested to see what's going on.

It's a fascinating place. I must say

it's probably one of the most

interesting places in New York. the CB

is like it's getting worse cuz like

there's a lot of people coming here who

aren't the right kind of people, you

know, and like not the old crowd like

the new crowd.

77 at CVGBs the bands were complete

opposite reactions to the disco period

studios 54s and that stuff. But once

everything got going, it just became pop

music all over again. I mean, the

Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Richard

Hell, I think they got better with their

commercialization. You know, it became a

business. And for record

companies, their job is to be in

business.

This was a time when the British were

getting involved in coming over and

seeing what was going on at CVGBs and

then feeding it back with their own take

on it.

[Music]

The Sex Pistols were getting

unbelievable attention in Britain cuz

everyone found them so shocking. And

they went on the Bill Grundy show and uh

said the word [ __ ] And then they did

their tour of the US. you know, Sid

Vicious was getting beat up and there

was always blood and this is what the

press grabbed on to and this is what

became known as punk rock.

There was a lot of trepidation in the

American music industry and in the

radio. We we had to really sell

ourselves and a lot of it just had to do

with their expectations of what punk

was. You know, punk had bad

connotations. So, I tried to come up

with a different phrase than punk. And

because New York had been rather dormant

in the years before all this action

started taking place on the Bowery, um I

can't I called it the new wave. One way

or

[Music]

another get you one way. I remember

hearing some of our music on the radio

for the first time. It was a thrill and

there were lots of moments like that.

one of the songs was a hit or hearing

one of the songs went number one or

something like that with all, you know,

all these high points. Debbie, she had a

great commercial voice. Then I remember

them saying, "You're really going to be

amazed when you see us on stage in

Madison Square Garden." And I was

thinking, "Okay, I know I like this, but

I wasn't thinking that." And sure

enough, they got there. You know,

Blondie had it.

[Music]

The Talking Heads are another real

example. The most imaginative,

interesting music played by people whose

whose imaginations at the time even

exceeded their ability to execute it,

but it didn't matter. And they made hit

records.

We had just finished our best album,

Rocket to Russia, and we went on tour.

We thought this was going to be the

record to break us. Uh, we do two

European

tours. 151 shows is what I call the

beginning of the non-stop world tour. We

did an incredible show in Stockholm,

Sweden, where the audience tore out the

first two rows of seats. And when I

heard that, I said, "Oh my god, you

know, we're we're we're getting famous."

1977 was a fabulous year for Sire

Records because we were in the right

place at the right time. It just got

better and better and better. This is

not just a fluke. This place on the

Bowery called CBies continues. You know,

by the end of 1977, punk rock took off

around the world.

It was a moment that I don't think will

ever exist again in New York City. And

that's probably a good thing. It was

almost like Rome was burning and you

wanted to get in your last lay before

the walls fell down.

Tuesday, September 20th, election day.

New Yorkers had to slog through

torrential rains to vote. And the man

they elected mayor, Ed Cotch, got 55% of

the vote. Cotch served three terms. He

really did an excellent job. He saved

the city. I did uh uh bring the city

back to fiscal stability and

I gave the city back its spirit. So they

the people who lived here were once

again proud of being New Yorkers. We

have been tested but we have survived

and soon we will begin again to

flourish. We are the city of New York

and New York in adversity towers above

any other city in the

world. So the city has changed but 1977

was a very very pivotal year. A lot of

what we see in music and popular culture

now the seeds were sewn back in that

period. There's something about these

moments where everything seems so s so

dark and everything seems to be decaying

that that's often when kind of great art

is born. You need a catalyst and I think

that the the Ramones were a great

catalyst and the talking heads and and

you know Blondie that whole early group

of artists all these groups were

important because uh they laid the

foundation for what was to become punk

rock alternative music wave. Now it's

indie. At the end of the 77th, Saturday

Night Fever came out being such a

popular movie. It took that concept of

disco and made it mainstream. And that's

when really all these record companies

started signing, you know, anybody that

could sing. You know, the Avon lady had

a disco record. They'd sign her and put

her out and throw all this money at her.

And the public by and large was just

beat over the head with it to the point

where people just couldn't take it

anymore. It seemed to accelerate and

then disintegrate at the same time. You

know, there was like all this disco

disco disco and then anti- disco. What

came out of it dying was house music.

You know, when you got people like

Madonna doing a house record everywhere

in the world, house music is pop.

Well, basically, I didn't think hip-hop

was going to last. It's what 2007 now.

It's still here and growing stronger.

Hip-hop has has done a lot for our

people. And I when I mean our people, I

mean, you know, minorities in general.

Imagine a world without hip-hop right

now. You know, imagine if this would

never occurred. I mean, we'd be all be

break dancing to bluegrass music. I

mean, who knows? I mean, right. It's

it's something that just the

constellations were aligned the right

[Music]

way. Physically, the city today is such

a changed place. We've seen over the

years those empty lots are now decent

housing. And uh something was changing

in the communities in which crime is so

prevalent. And some of the credit for

that should go to those communities

themselves and how they got themselves

[Music]

together. If you go to the Bronx or even

the west side, the Lower East Side, half

of Brooklyn, buildings that were

abandoned by landlords in 1977 are now

yepy condos with the views that are

selling for hundreds of thousands, if

not millions of dollars. Living in New

York now, you feel safe. Uh, the city is

is cleaner than it's ever been, but it

feels a little bit dull. It's

Indianapolis is all it is. There's no

life to this. I want to see [ __ ] on

42nd Street. I had enough of this.

People coming in from the uh You You

don't even know what a [ __ ] looks like.

from the suburbs. From the suburbs to

see the Lion King.

I like the city better when it was

sleazy. I don't think big cities should

be safe for women and children and

families. It's just it's just not good

for the arts, you know.

[Music]

It all becomes [ __ ] real estate after

a while.

[Music]

[Music]