Author Nicholas Pegg described the track as "typical of the darkly exhilarating sonic schizophrenia of the "Heroes" album",[1] while biographer David Buckley remarked on "a backing verging on industrial".
I can't in all honesty say that it was the NY one [New York City blackout of 1977], though it is entirely likely that that image locked itself in my head.
"[3][1] NME's Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray considered it to have "overtones of Bowie's personal blackout in Berlin (where he collapsed and was rushed to hospital)", noting the line "Get me to the doctor" and an atmosphere of "disorientation, fragmentation, panic".
[1] Author and essayist Chris O'Leary referred to Blackout as being "as abrasive as "Heroes" gets" and "sound[ing] like a monster".
[1] This version was also released as a single by RCA in Japan in November 1978, backed with "Soul Love" from the same series of concerts.