"Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

While commuting home from work today I was channel surfing across XM Satellite Radio when I heard the unmistakable drum beat of "Black Day in July" playing on XM15, The Village.

"Why can't we all be brothers, why can't we live in peace...." Gordon implores through my speakers. Am I the only one who thinks those lyrics ring as true today as they did back then?

Most U.S. radio stations banned the song not long after its release. And yet this evening I found myself listening to it, some 40+ years later, while driving westbound on the freeway, right through the middle of Detroit.

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

Peace...
That is interesting that you heard that song while driving right through the middle of Detroit.

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

Peace indeed. I think that's exactly what he was trying to say; he just used the events of the time to express it.

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

I know Gord has less than great things to say about Black Day in July these days but it's been a favorite for a long time.

It is probably the first song I actually heard his voice on. I'd known him as a songwriting credit and was familiar with, and even played, a few of his songs but didn't have albums of him yet.

When I was a teenager we would listen to far away stations on the AM radio skip at night. Of particular interest was the countdown on W-KBW in Buffalo on Sunday nights. (I was in northwest NJ - not in daylight W-KBW range.) One night that played. Wow.

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

I bet that was pretty cool. By the way, I used to live in Mahwah, NJ for a couple of years back in '98-'00. Right at the state line of NJ/NY at the crossroads of Hwy 17 and 287.

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

In the early '70s, my friend and I crossed from Windsor Ontario to Detroit Michigan where, with a few hours to kill, we conducted our own tour of a darkened ‘Motor City‘. Deciding to sample some American Budweiser, we pulled into a small variety store, seemingly lost under a lone streetlight hidden down a secluded side street. Six pack in hand, we paid the hesitant, wide eyed clerk. Turning to leave we came face to face with a number of silent stares. A queasy feeling wrenched our stomachs with the sudden realization that the store’s customers were blacks, and we, of course, stood out like white lines on an asphalt highway. Evidently we had strayed into the wrong neighbourhood on the wrong side of town. Perhaps we escaped with our lives only because the locals determined we were too stupid or had too much “balls” to be bothered with. The former was the obviously truth….

“Black day in July
In the streets of Motor City there's a deadly silent sound
And the body of a dead youth lies stretched upon the ground
Upon the filthy pavement, no reason can be found
Black day in July”

Thankfully we now live in more accepting and tollerant times. Nevertheless Gord's song will forever remind me of that trip and what might have been.

Yuri

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

interesting stuff in this thread...glad you're still here, yuri!

anyone live in Oakland? what's going on there with turmoil?

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

quite an intro! i believe mine was Softly, lol...polar opposites

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

Oh it was WAY cool! Obviously stuck in my head. I was maybe 14 at the time.

I know right where you were! Spent a lot of time in that neck of the woods. Used to be a neat coffee house up teh road in Allendale and I spent a bit over a year in high school in Ramsey. Three of my brothers graduated from that one. 287 in NJ wasn't built up there at that point. When they finished it it changed life for everyone around it. It's convenient as all get out but has crowded formerly quiet towns and kicked real estate out of sight!

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Oakland is known as a place to move "from" not go to. However I ventured there twice in my life. One time in 1975 I gave a fellow Marine a ride home. As soon as we got to his house we both realized the problem. I was OK riding with him (all Marines are green) but when he got out I had to make it out of town alone. He described the quickest way to the freeway on-ramp and told me just to slow down at red lights and not to stop until I was on the freeway. Wow!

In 2001 I returned to see The Ravens beat The Raiders at a stadium that looked like a jail, complete with costumed prisoners. Again, I made it out alive. Barely.

As for conditions in 2009, can't say I know what the story is.

Bill :)

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

quite an anecdote there, Bill!...whew...what i was referring to was an article i read where several police were killed and apparently the crowd was taunting them for some reason (instead of mourning and in shock and grief)...sometime earlier there had been an event where an officer apparently accidentally pulled a gun instead of a taser and killed an already handcuffed citizen (black man, i believe)

they details were brief, i thought someone here might be closer to the real story/mood

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

Re: "Black Day in July" Gets Airtime On The Radio
 

That's the nice things about these internet stations.

You hears these rarities who usually don't hear on the radio.