"'If it doesn’t work in New York, we’re in big f**king trouble,' New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain says in the fascinating BBC 4 documentary
Once Upon a Time in New York, about the creativity generated in a mid-1970s Lower Manhattan realm that Lenny Kaye calls 'far from the glitz of Times Square.' The doc dives into the cultural stew that across five shocking years became the birthplace of punk, disco and rap. It’s worth an hour of your time. 'With California taking center stage, New York felt like an abandoned city,' the detached narrator says of the period, when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy, entire blocks were dense with boarded buildings and much of lower New York was an open-air heroin bazaar. Chris Stein of Blondie recalls being able to buy cocaine in 'at least ten different little stores' near his flat. The Velvet Underground’s John Cale says that so much space was empty in the area that City Hall offered dirt cheap housing to anyone who presented a painting and declared themselves a working artist. ..."
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