Seventeen Flights
Take B leans into driving hard rock rhythms, metallic synth arpeggios, and visceral group chants to chronicle a storm disaster.
The stories behind Seventeen Flights
- Liner Notes: Pushing Hardcore Tempos on Seventeen Flights — Take B leans into driving hard rock rhythms, metallic synth arpeggios, and visceral group chants to chronicle a storm disaster.
- Seventeen Flights and the Midnight Bucket Brigade at Bellevue Hospital — When storm surges knocked out basement pumps during Hurricane Sandy, hospital technicians formed a human chain to fuel rooftop generators.
Lyrics
Lower Manhattan,
October 28th, 10 feet of
seawater in the basement, the fuel pumps are dead,
get on the stairs,
go!
Go
The slugs came over the
East River wall Flooded out the switchgear down in the hall
Rooftop generators starving for fuel 17 stories up, breaking
every rule ICU ventilators running out of time
If the generators die, it's a catastrophic crime
The critical engineers grab the heavy steel cans
Starting up the greatest bucket brigade in
New York plans Five gallons of diesel, step by step
17 floors, no time for prep
Pass it up, pass it up, pass it up, pass it up
Keep the power running till the dawn
Seventeen flights in the fence in the pitch black night
The biomed squad in the hurricane fight
New York top past the diesel can
Keeping life support in the heart of man
Hey, hey, rooftop roar
No paycheck dies on this hospital floor
Hurricane Sandy cannot shut us down
Strongest damn crew
In the whole damn town
Passing fuel head to head
In the humid stairwell air
Doctors, nurses, engineers Answering the prayer
Carrying the tiny incubators down the dock
Every single baby safe without a spot
Sunrise,
single soul was wheeled away
Heroic New York technicians carried the day
Seventeen flights in the pitch, in the pitch black night
The biomed squad in the hurricane fight
New York tough past the diesel can
Keeping life support in the heart of man
Hey, hey, rooftop roar
No patient dies on this hospital floor
Hurricane Sandy cannot shut us down
Strongest damn crew
In the whole damn town
All patients
Evacuated safely
Zero lives lost
That's how New York does it
Biomed
My old man
