'THE GET DOWN' & NYC MUSIC MID-70S

Recommendations I made to Baz Luhrmann for the Netflix Series

One of the was exhilarating, and frustrating, experiences of my creative life was working as a producer/writer on The Get Down series that debuted on Netflix on August 12th, 2016. Set in the late ‘70s in New York City, the series looked at the birth of hip hop and the rise and fall of disco through the lives of a group of young people living in the Bronx. It had a long gestation period that involved a core group of writers, a swinging door of show runners, the discovery of a remarkable group of actors and lots of money. It was exhilarating in that the era was one I’d lived through, so it brought back so many vivid memories. Plus I got to learn from director/co-creator Baz Luhrmann and befriend a remarkable team of choreographers (Rich + Tone) and scribes (Seth Rosenfeld, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, Stephen Adly Guirgis). The frustration was because we had so much talent at our disposable and working with such a thematically rich period of time, yet never got to dig deep enough into that world. We only got one season when we had more than enough story threads for another.

Looking back through my archives I found two memos I wrote for Baz and the creative team about music that was popular in NYC mid-to-late ‘70s that I hoped would inspire our storytelling and musical direction. There’s actually a third memo I can’t find that was even more detailed, but its likely lost to history. So these two reports are a cool window into the world of The Get Down. If you are looking for sonic references for “Drop Dead New York” of the Daily News headline here you go.

If you’ve never seen The Get Down, all eleven episodes are still up on Netflix!

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80025603?trackId=14170032&tctx=36%2C3%2Ccfa8bc5f-1ad4-4186-92d4-8fecdf0a734e-64838428%2CNES_7D9F66785668DF42693D2760C1184A-7DA6E02492B0D5-82BD5F4CD7_p_1741108517059%2CNES_7D9F66785668DF42693D2760C1184A_p_1741108517059%2C%2C%2C%2C%2CVideo%3A80025601%2CminiDpPlayButton

THE GET DOWN

1977: A musical odyssey

by Nelson George

This a roundup of music related events and recordings that could have been heard by any of our characters or just would be in the NYC environment that year (could be on the soundtrack, coming from a car radio or a boom box.) This is in no way a definitive list but a guide to trends and sounds that will be helpful as we flesh out our scripts and bring nuance to our stories.

A few tidbits before we start: there were 2,971 purses snatched on subways, five rapes, five murders and 145 felonious assaults in 1976. 1977 it wasn’t much better.

Oct. 5 Jimmy Carter left a U.N. meeting to go to the South Bronx. He drove up the Grand Concourse and stopped at Charlotte St where he walked two blocks and took photos, putting the South Bronx on the map as the ultimate American slum.

In October, during the World Series at Yankee Stadium, broadcaster Howard Cosell saw fires in the distance and said the immortal words, “The Bronx is Burning.”

Ok, let’s boogie.

REGGAE

Bob Marley & the Wailers was becoming an important cult figure in the rock world coming off the back-to-back triumphs of ‘Rastaman Vibration’ (1976) and ‘Exodus’ (1977.) Of course, among the city’s immigrant community Marley was already a superstar and the spearhead of a wave of reggae music that was spilling out of Brooklyn and other Jamaican hot beds into all parts of NY. I saw Marley several times between ’77 and ’81 and the crowds were usually predominantly Jamaican with a significant proportion of whites. Could Claudia or her boyfriend be into Marley? Is he an artist that any of our characters would be aware of or even hostile too? Many black Americans hated the culture he represented, finding it foreign and even dirty. Too much ganja. Too many dread locks.

“Toasting” MCs were a staple of the reggae scene. In 1977 T Roy (Tracks & Rights) and U Roy (Dread in Babylon) both made an impact. But the toasting record of ’77 was Dillinger’s “Cocaine In My Brain” which contained the lovely rhyme “A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork/ That’s the way we spell New York.” A great many of the toasting MC tales were about the immigrant experience. If Babylon represented evil, then NYC was the pit of hell, a place of opportunity and dark temptation.

Also, for fans of dub music King Tubby Meets Rockers, though released in ’76, was still rocking parties in the new year.

BLACK MUSIC

Black dance music, whether you labeled it disco, funk, R&B, was very impactful in ’77. The ‘Car wash’ soundtrack was a smash and contained several radio hits, including the funky title track. The movie ‘Car Wash’ was also a modest hit the post-blaxploitation era of black film and featured Richard Pryor, who was on the verge of becoming a major movie star. His stand-up comedy LPs were staples in black and hip white households. I imagine either Boo Boo’s father or Leon would listen to Pryor late nights or on weekends. The key thing is Pryor was ascendant in ’77 and could be a presence in our show.

Another track worth noting is Odyssey’s “Native New Yorker,” a satin smooth disco track with a boastful, optimistic vision of city life quite at odds with the negative media portrayal of NYC. It’s very much how self-consciously sophisticated city folk saw themselves as they moved through the city and did the hustle in clubs around town. This is posh disco at its most elegant.

Another important record that came out of NY was Chic’s “Dance, Dance, Dance,” made by two local musicians (guitar Nile Rodgers, bassist Bernard Edwards) that spoke to the upscale aspirations of so many black New Yorkers. Not sure we have this aesthetic in our show but it’s important thread of the city.

Out of Miami came several records that affected the city: Peter Brown’s “Do You Wanna Get a Funky With Me” and T-Connections “Do What You Wanna Do,” both on the funk side of dance music but that were mixed to death by DJs.

Another great one hit wonder record was Brick’s “Dazz,” which played downtown and uptown, including by Flash, Hollywood and others.

SALSA

End of July the Fania All-Stars headlined at Madison Square Garden. Artists like Willie Colon, Ruben Blades, Cecila Cruz were among the stars featured. It was a sold out show that was part of trying to bring this ambitious Puerto Rican based music mainstream. It didn’t work but in NYC ’77 salsa was a vital part of the cityscape, especially in the heavily Hispanic Bronx.

DISCO

April 26 Studio 54 opens. $700,00 was spent on the club. They built a gigantic prop coke moon that mechanically tipped up into the nostril of the man on the moon. Balcony was for sex. The dance floor was a stage. The bar backs were topless. The VIP room was in the basement and coke was everywhere. It made the velvet rope official part of NY nightclub. May 2, night of Bianca Jagger’s birthday party, put the club on the mass media map when she rode into the club bare back a top a white stallion, led by naked footservants daubed in gold paint.

Crucial year for dance music created by electronic musical equipment. Out of Dusseldorf, Germany came Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” in April. It played at gay clubs like the Anvil, it played at Studio 54, and it played in the Bronx sets by Afrika Bambaataa. It was the universal jam of ’77 that crossed racial, sexual and class lines. Bambaataa would model his recorded work on it. A genre of dance music called “electro boogie” would grow out of it in the early ‘80s. I remember this record being played all night by an mobile DJ in a East New York schoolyard that summer. It needs to pop up somewhere prominently in this show.

Also as popular was a record released May 13. The LP was titled I Remember Yesterday. The album ended with “I Feel Love,” a computer-generated masterpiece by Giorgio Moroder that crossed lines. Blondie actually covered it in concert. Brian Eno brought it to sessions with David Bowie that influenced the ‘Heroes’ album.

DJ Larry Levan lived in an unfinished garage space at 84 King Street off Sixth Avenue just west of Soho. With promoter Michael Brody, Levan began hosting parties there he called “construction parties” to create a night club that would be the downtown ying to Studio 54’s yang. It would take a year, but the place known as the Paradise Garage would open in 1978. (Per our episode set at the club we could just call the place Paradise Garage, but we’d be a year early; or we can just keep the name vague, have Levan play there as an underground party because it was already rocking.)

Out in Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge the film ‘Saturday Night Fever’ was shot in the summer, the movie that would both expand and kill disco.

In fall 1977 the record industry was enjoying one of the most successful years in its history with disco pushing sales. Disco was estimated to be generating $4 billion in sales – bigger than films and television – when you counted the record sales, club revenue and touring. There was a Disco Conference held at the Americana Hotel in New York, testament to its power.

HIP HOP

Hot records played primarily by hip hop DJs were Pleasure’s “Let’s Dance,” Juice’s “Catch a Groove,” John Davis and the Monster Orchestra’s “I Can’t Stop” and Bob James’ “Take Me to the Mardi Gras,” who’s intro drums and go-go bells became a hip-hop staple (the record was known by its nickname “The Bells.”)

According to Will Hermes’ ‘Love Goes to Buildings On Fire’ Herc battled Pete DJ Jones at one of Herc’s regular inside parties, the Executive Playhouse, at Mount Eden and Jerome Avenues under the elevated train. After Herc and Jones’ set he let his two protégés play – Lovebug Starski and Grandmaster Flash. Flash made a major impact on many of the younger people in the crowd. A star is born.

Hollywood, with his DJ partner June bug, played regularly at Club 371, which was just off Webster Avenue in the Bronx. It was a gangster club where Manhattan DJs played the BX. He was getting $500 a night minimum. Sal Abbatiello tried to hire him for the Disco Fever, which had been opened a year, but couldn’t afford him.

He then went to Flash and offered him $50 with an extra $25 for his MCs. Showtime was 1a.m. A $1 at the door and $1 for drinks. Flash’s first show at the Fever was August 15.

The crowds were young and wild, so he made it $1 cover for anyone wearing shoes and $5 if you were wearing sneakers. Kids wanted to see Flash so much they paid the extra money.

THE BOWERY

Because it was lined with flop houses and low rent hotels there was much cheap real estate for clubs and bars. So this uncool street was a very cool in 1977. CBGB’s was at 315 Bowery. Great Gildersleeves, a rock club, was at 331. The jazz club Tin Palace, which specialized in progressive sounds, was at 325 Bowery. Just off the Bowery were two Avant Garde jazz spots – the Ladies’ Fort (2 Bond St) and Studio Rivbea (24 Bond St) where folks played “loft jazz” which was more a geographical than musical description.

RADIO

Program director/DJ Frankie ‘Hollywood’ Crocker ran WBLS, which was the number one station in town. The morning man Ken ‘Spider’ Webb, Vy Higgenson was the sexy female air personality and the deep voiced overnight man was Vaugh Harper.

TGD – Musical Odyssey Document 2

November 18, 2014

By Nelson George

Baz,

The first document I prepared for you was a quick survey of New York music circa 1977. The majority of the songs in this list will be from a bit earlier (circa 1976 and 1975) but that would have still been in the NYC air the summer of our show.

Moreover, I will include more jazz of the period.

This will be all be songs that we’ll work on downloading for you or buying the vinyl.

I will also bring in a CD of a band I saw Saturday night at Joe’s Pub called Company Freak, who are making retro sounding disco/funk tracks from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Their album is called ‘Le Disco Social.’ They have another EP coming soon.

Also, Scorsese’s uneven but bold ‘New York, New York’ musical opened in June of 1977. In it Liza Minnelli debuted Kanter & Ebb’s “New York, New York.” Don’t know if we can get in or not but that’s smack dab in the middle of our season.

ROCK

Max’s Kansas City 1976 – a compilation album of bands from the era. Mostly studio recordings.

Live at CBGB’s – a double album recorded live in June 1976.

“New York Groove” originally recorded by British band Hello in 1975. Famously in 1978 Kiss’ Ace Frehley did a hit cover.

It may be a bit early but Elton John’s “Mona Lisa and Mad hatters” is a cool, earnest look at NY from folks making one of their first visits.

It’s from 1967 but the Velvet Undergrounds “I’m Waiting for the Man” is a vivid depiction of a white guys going uptown to buy smack in Harlem. Great lyric by Lou Reed.

Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” is a song very identified with NYC. Maybe too old and on the nose but it’s lyric kind of reflects Zeke to some degree.

Two great Ramones singles from 1977 are “Rockaway Beach,” about the beach you take the subway to in Queens, and “Sheena Was a Punk Rocker,” which might be a cool introduction to a young female character. The album was titled Rocket To Russia.

“Piss Factory” by Patti Smith from 1974 is a brilliant record, a real spoken word gem about a girl from out of town dreaming of going to NYC. It was the B side of her first single “Hey Joe” but is far superior as a record. Moreover, Robert Mapplethorpe has a credit on the single sleeve!

Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” was released on the Turnstiles album in 1976. It was never a single but kind of an instant standard. (Inspiration for the Nas song “NY State of Mind” years later.) Seems ripe for a really radical reinvention by us.

A real underrated gem from 1977 is Garland Jeffreys’ “Wild in the Streets.” Half black and half Puerto Rican and from Brooklyn, Jeffreys also went to college with Lou Reed and his musical influences reflect soul, Latin and rock. We gotta use this in the show somewhere.

“Shattered” was written by Mick Jagger in the back of a NYC taxi in 1977 and would be a single in 1978. An artifact of Jagger’s Studio 54 days and a resonant record about the chaos and glory of the city.

JAZZ

‘The Bridge’ by Sonny Rollins. Though recorded in 1962, this song is considered an enduring NYC classic since Rollins was inspired by 100s of hours he spent rehearsing on the Williamsburg Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

There were scores of makeshift loft jazz clubs in the Soho and Bowery area in the ‘70s. One of the most popular was Studio Rivbea, which was run by saxophonist/painter Sam Rivers. In 1976 a five LP series called ‘Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions’ was recorded at Studio Rivbea and captured almost all of the best musicians on that scene including drummer Sunny Murray, saxophonist David Murray, baritone saxophonist Hammiet Bluiett, trumpeter Olu Dara (Nas’ father), Leroy Jenkins, the World Saxophone Quartet.

Two albums by the World Saxophone Quartet worth finding: ‘Point of No Return’ and ‘Steppin.’ The members wer all superb sax men (David Murray, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett). They performed only with saxs – no rhythm section or other instrumentation. Might be a sight for the boys to see on a trip downtown.

Murray’s album ‘Flowers for Albert’ in 1976 is a classic. He’s accompanied by Olu Dara on trumpet.

Lester Bowie was a great trumpeter who was a huge part of the downtown scene. His ‘Rope-A-Dope,’ named after Ali’s boxing tactic versus George Foreman, was released in ’76 and is excellent.

R&B/Disco

At the end of 1976 Gil Scott-Heron released one of his best album, ‘It’s Your World,’ which was a double album that contained several classics that conscious folks in 1977 would have been hearing: “The Bottle,” which a dance floor hit that was popular with hip hop DJs; “Must Be Something” a moody, Latin flavored tracks that has great ominous feel; and “New York City,” a melancholy lament for our favorite town.

Also worth exploring is Gil’s ‘Secrets’ album that came out in 1978 and contained the “Madison Avenue,” a song about the city’s connection to Mad Men world. The track also contains a very tasty electric piano solo.

Though recorded in 1978 George Benson’s version of the classic “On Broadway” is a terrific track. The original was cut by the Drifters in 1963.

Chic was a band created by two NY sessions cats, guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. They may have created the definitive NY dance band. Their self-titled debut album contained the disco standards “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” and “Everybody Dance.” These songs could model for some of our newest disco records.

‘Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’ came out in 1976 with a unique blend of disco and big band swing. It was founded by two half brothers from the Bronx and reflects a wonderful multi-cultural vision of the city. It winks at the city’s troubles but with great sophisticated arrangements. One of my favorite albums of the era. Their two follow albums didn’t reach these heights. Much sampled by hip hop artists. Key cuts were “I’ll Play the Fool,” “Cherchez LaFemme,” “Sunshower” and “Sour and Sweet.”

The ‘Tropical’ album by Brazilian Jorge Ben became popular with disco DJs and spawned the hit “Taj Mahal,” a samba/funk jam that Rod Stewart remade as “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy.” Be cool to use the original version in the show.

LATIN

“El Numero 6” by Bobby Rodriguez y La Compana (written by Ruben Blades) was a hit in 1975 and is about the number 6 train. A man is waiting for the #6 train on 116^th Street (Spanish Harlem). He’s got a date, and he’s got to go home and change. Alas only the express #4 comes. His night is ruined. This was a big hit in NYC’s el barrio. The track has the percolation of a subway ride.

More Ruben Blades. He joined Willie Colon’s band in 1977 in the spring released Metiendo Mano!