Blizzard of '78 Playlist

With a record-breaking snow storm bearing down on New York, I thought I'd share a story with you—and some music. On the morning of Monday, February 6, 1978, I lived in Boston. I was a junior at Northeastern University, a five-year school that allowed you to spend half the year working at a job related to what you wanted to do when you graduated. I worked at The New York Times  through college, and my work period the previous year had ended in December. I was back in Boston studying in January.

On the morning of Feb. 6, I had early classes. Walking from my apartment on the Fenway to campus, the sky had a fiery orange hue at the horizon. The forecast for the 6th was snow, but in the days before all of the weather technology we have today, Boston's weather predictions on TV and radio often were flimsy. So snow was snow in Boston, and life went on.

Before heading to class, I moved my '71 Javelin to the other side of Symphony Rd., locked it up and headed to Huntington Ave. and the campus quad. When I arrived minutes later, the snow started to come down—playfully at first. After my first class, the sky was slate gray and snow was coming down as if someone were shaking sacks of it from they sky. By my second and last class at noon, you could barely see more than a few feet in front of you. That night, the usual blizzard activity took place—friends over, beers in ice, food from Boston House of Pizza and music.

When I woke up the next morning. I was freezing. I got up to see if a window was open and found the electricity out and the radiator ice cold. I hauled all of the food out of the fridge and freezer that I purchased the day before and put it all in a red milk carton that held my albums. Then I hung the carton out the window on ropes. What I initially thought was a building problem turned out to be an all-of-Boston blackout. The storm's winds had created a coastal surge, and the fierce waves flooded the city's main power station, which back then sat along the harbor. As for the snow, it was still coming down at the rate of several inches an hour without any end in sight. [What the Fenway looked like mid-blizzard in 1978]

Since it was impossible to cook, lines formed at the one pizza place open on Massachusetts Ave. There also was a line at the nearest liquor store, with only three people being let in at a time to gird against shoplifting. That night, the power came back on as did my stereo. The card game picked up where it had left off. The next day, Wednesday, the sun was out and around 30 inches and more had fallen around the city in the two-day period, crippling all of the city's streets. The snow had come down so fast that thousands of drivers had to abandon their buried cars on Route 128, which ran from Boston to Providence.

When I went out for a walk, what I saw was jaw-dropping. The streets were overwhelmed with snow and cars were buried, with just the antenna showing. Classes were cancelled for a week, since not even Boston sanitation or the National Guard could clear the volume. Once the region was declared a national disaster on Wednesday by President Carter, the Army was dispatched with plows affixed to the fronts of tanks and other military vehicles. You can imagine the scene. Snow banks reached to the second story of buildings and looked more like frosty dunes. I had never seen so much snow and the storm was terrifying—thanks to the power outage and the driving winds. I had never experienced cabin fever before, and after two days, I couldn't bare to be in my apartment.

So for the five days that followed, there wasn't much else one could do except eat steak sandwiches, drink beer, listen to music and walk the city in search of life. I still remember vividly what I listened to on the pop and jazz sides. Here are the 20 LPs that I had in constant rotation during the Boston Blizzard of '78—and what I'll be playing tomorrow as I write and the snow comes down once again in

Pop-Rock-Disco

• Steely Dan—Aja
• Saturday Night Fever—Soundtrack
• Dr. Buzzard's Savanah Band—Meets King Penett (pre-release DJ promo copy)
• Billy Joel—The Stranger
• David Bowie—Heroes
• Donna Summer—Once Upon a Time
• Roy Ayers—Vibrations
• Aerosmith—Draw the Line
• Chic—Chic
• Grace Jones—Portfolo

Jazz

• Bill Evans—Alone
• Miles Davis—Miles Ahead + 19
• Herbie Hancock—Head Hunters
• Antonio Carlos Jobim—Wave
• Art Farmer—Septet (Prestige)
• Horace Silver—Stylings of Silver
• John Coltrane—Coltrane's Sound
• Sonny Stitt—Tune Up (Muse)
• Sonny Rollins—Tour de Force
• Leon Thomas Jr.—Louisiana Slim

JazzWax clips:Here are clips on the Boston Blizzard of '78...

Here's a national overview...



Here's a local overview...



Here's another...