45 years ago tonight, the great blackout in New York City darkened the city that never sleeps for 24 hours. Do you remember where were you when the lights went out in New York City on July 13, 1977?

On that night, lightning struck an electrical transmission line in upstate New York during a massive heatwave that had been plaguing the city, along with bombings by a Puerto Rican gang who targeted The Chrysler Bldg and the New York Office of the FBI and if that was not enough, the Son Of Sam was terrorizing the city. So it was a real pressure cooker situation that pushed New Yorkers to the brink.

Previous blackouts like during the 1965 event saw New Yorkers restraining themselves and carried on in an orderly fashion, but the 1977 blackout had looting and arson breaking out all over the city minutes after the lights went out.

Around that time, DJ's were having block parties and were hooking up their equipment to the power supplied to the street lights to perform. On this night one of those DJ's saw the street lights start going off in the park and then up the street and he thought he had caused the blown circuit. Grandmaster Caz saw the lights go out and heard someone scream out "Blackout! Hit the stores" and all the stereo stores were the hit with turntables with electronics being stolen away by other would be DJ's. That brought on a whole new raft of DJ crews where there had been only five legitimate crews. That blackout made a big spark in the hip hop revolution. Now there were DJ's on every corner."

By the time the electricity was restored the next evening, there had been 1037 fires set, the police arrested more than three thousand people and NYC suffered 300 million dollars worth of damage.

The Trammps decided to mark the event with a song and with the talents of Allan Felder, Norman Harris of MFSB and Ron Tyson came up with an appropriate celebration of that event with "The Night The Lights Went Out", a joyous romp of a tune that extolled the virtues of keeping busy making love in the dark.

свернуть