Gene and I lived in New York in the late 70s, and I can say I was shaped by the decay and civil breakdown of that time. Ford to City Drop Dead made loyalists of us all. I’m reading Garth Risk Hallberg’s massive novel, City on Fire, which takes place in New York in 1977. So far–I’m only 250 pages in–the punk scene is his focus, but in those years, in the Bronx, another Do It Yourself movement was taking shape. Today we call it Hip Hop.
This bit about a movie called Rubble Kings makes the case that the gang summit in The Warriors was a real event, and the peace that followed (in the real world) is what created the culture that helped Hip Hop grow.
I don’t know about that history, I was downtown, but what I do know is that the music coming out of the South Bronx was as captivating as that percolating in the East Village. Here’s a trailer for the movie Rubble Kings, which surely looks like its worth a peak.
I’ll definitely check out this movie. A lot of people in Pelham were from the Bronx and kept ties, so we used to go there all the time. For a while I also worked in the old Brook St meat market in the heart of the South Bronx, which even in the early 70s was basically burned down. Also the Bruckner Blvd projects, where we used to cop. But I never knew that the Black Spades, who I once shared a subway car with and lived to tell the tale, started it all. It’s all rocknroll.
Hey Fred!