Stuff You Gotta Watch: Once Upon a Time in New York
New York in the mid '70s was a rough place. "But," as narrator Richard "Rocky Horror Show" O'Brien says at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in New York, "amidst the ruins and squalor, a golden era of music was born."
This BBC Four documentary explores the social, cultural, and political context of the New York that gave birth to hip-hop, disco, and punk, catapulting an effervescent underground scene to worldwide fame. As venues like CBGB and Studio 54 became instant meccas for both musicians and fans, the new tenants of a "sophisticated city with a refined musical tradition" made sure New York maintained its reputation as a global trendsetter via an ethos that Lenny Kaye defines as "gritty urban realism."
Though the documentary is mostly shaped around testimonies from several key players such as Chris Stein, Richard Hell, Grandmaster Flash, Nile Rodgers, Tina Weymouth, John Cale, and Patti Smith, Once Upon a Time in New York also benefits from O'Brien's extraordinary narration and loads of archive footage.
Review by Ana Leorne. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.