Marquee Moon

Somehow, Tom Verlaine wrote this song before the blackout of New York City which happened on July 14, 1977. Marquee Moon was released in February of that year. But the lyrics hauntingly recount the night when the city went black. "I remember, when the darkness doubled, lightning had struck itself." A major lightning storm the night before is what caused the blackout as major power lines were knocked out, increasing loads to others, until finally the system went out. "Listening to the rain, I heard something else." That something else he heard was civil unrest and the madness that ensued once the lights went dark.

In the midst of a financial crisis, the dog days of summer and the city living among a rampant serial killer, NYC was at the brink of cracking. And once the lights went out that night, in many neighborhoods, the city did just that. Violence, looting, arson and insanity were uncontrolled. Urban civilization became unglued that night, and mayhem ensued, resulting in the most arrests in the city's history. The city at that time was bankrupt and many public services had been cut as a result. "When there is an internal decay of a social structure (that's) important in a city, it just takes on little spark, one little thing to hit it, to set it off."

'Waiting', 'hesitating', 'I ain't waiting nuh uh', all seem to hint at phases of herd mentality.

"Life in the hive puckered up my night, A kiss of death, the embrace of life." When relating this line to the Blackout of '77, I take it to mean NYC may have hit it's darkest moment that night, the blackout being its kiss of death. But once you hit bottom, there's only one way to go, the embrace of life. New York obviously rebounded from this night in 1977, undergoing many changes leading to what the city has become today.