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b'Friday, August 16, 1974, was a hot summer day in New York City\\u2026it was 31 degrees, but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter\\u2026and if you were down in the Bowery amidst all the concrete, it was hotter still...and it smelled\\u2026\\n\\nThis part of the city was, to be honest, rather uncivilized\\u2026it was a slum\\u2026lots of garbage, broken windows, abandoned buildings, drug addicts and homeless people\\u2026but there were also businesses and places to hang out\\u2014like a dive bar at 315 Bowery at Bleeker called CBGB\\u2026\\n\\nEven though it was a Friday night, there was almost no one in the bar\\u2026there was the owner, the owner\\u2019s dog, two people from a transvestite band from San Francisco called The Cockettes, the manager of another band called television and an artist from the neighhourhood who had moved up from Chihuahua, Mexico, and a scenester named Leggs McNeil \\u2026that\\u2019s it\\u2026\\n\\nAnd sometime around 9:00, four guys in leather jackets, t-shirts, torn jeans and converse high-tops got up on the tiny stage\\u2026\\n\\n\\u201cThey counted off this song,\\u201d he remembers, \\u201cand it was just this wall of noise\\u2026they looked so striking\\u2026these guys were not hippies\\u2026this was something completely new\\u201d\\u2026\\n\\nFifteen minutes after their set started, it was over\\u2026they had blown through all their songs\\u2014and had also found time to fight about which song was next and to struggle with broken guitar strings\\u2026it scared the crap out of the owner\\u2019s dog\\u2026\\n\\nWhen it was over, the owner said to the band \\u201cnobody\\u2019s gonna like you, but I\\u2019ll have you back\\u201d\\u2026\\n\\nAnd he did...the band came back the following night\\u2026and again\\u2026and again\\u2026.and again\\u2026by the end of 1974, the group had played cbgb a total of 74 times\\u2026\\n\\nBut back to August 16th\\u2026that was the night music began to change forever\\u2026you\\u2019d never have guessed it, but when the bass player counted in that first song, it was the equivalent of \\u201clet there be light\\u201d\\u2026\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'