Disco Demolition T-Shirt Night

[pcq]

22 minutes ago, vilehoopster said:

This is the words of someone who is too young and wasn't around at that time. You have no idea what the popularity of disco was like back then, 1979. First of all, if you had an older car, like me and my poor college friends, you only had an AM radio (No FM, ugh!!) and your tape deck, whether 8-track or cassette to listen to. (In fact, I bet you don't even know what an 8-track tape looks like and you're commenting on events from that time.)  Anyway, when the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack came out, it took over the radio completely, especially AM radio. AM radio only pretty much played Top-40, and at that time, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack had 3 of the top 5 songs in the country, and something like 8 of the top 10. It was Bee Gee song with that horrible falsetoo singing after Bee Gee song, followed by a disco song. You could change stations and it would be another Bee Gee song of some disco song. You couldn't escape it. It was total oversaturation, total oversaturation. Plus the rock stars were selling out to it to sell records. The Stones had disco records, the Kinks had a disco song. Of course there was gonna be backlash to that type of overkill and overplay. And this strong backlash had nothing to do with being anti-black or anti-gay. In all honesty, I don't think I knew there was a gay element to disco and dance clubs until Madonna brought that out in the 80's. You're commenting on history that you did not experience. 

This is "Do You Think I'm Disco" by Steve Dahl. It's a parody of a Rod Steward song for God's sake (In case you don't know, Rod Stewart is white). How is that racist? Listen to it, nothing racist all. It makes fun of white posers trying to be hip through disco. 

You are correct that racism and anti-gay attacks are a real problem in our country, right now and back then. But when you falsely pigeionhole an event you know nothing about, all you are doing is crying wolf and taking away from pointing out real examples of racism and attacks on our LBGT community. 

 

 

What I regret is that Bronzeville was once the jazz capitol of the universe and those traditions have been thoroughly dissed. 

[pcq]

When the mid-70's hit my band couldn't figure out whether to dress like boys or girls so they broke up and said screw it. I'll take Steely Dan  with The Fez.

[pcq]

4 hours ago, OneDog847 said:

What about the Bee Gees? Those white straight males appropriated disco music and brought into the mainstream. My dad brought one of their records to the event ( that he swiped from his sister). Should my dad be ashamed of his racist actions that day? 

Most white bands were coming up with a disco song or two. You had to keep up. The great sadness was the fading of the Woodstock era and classic rock. 

[Lip Man 1]

From my interview with Mike Veeck:

MV: “The idea actually started two years earlier in 1977. Jeff Swartz, a guy who worked for United Artists, suggested it to me. In 1978 in connection with Coke, we had a dance contest at Comiskey Park. There were 25,000 kids dancing on plywood stages that we had on the field. We thought it might be an idea to have a night for people who hate disco.”

“Anyway I get a call one day in 1979, from Swartz who says to turn on my radio to WLUP, that there is a guy named Steve Dahl who is going to blow up disco records at a shopping mall. I listened, then called him at 10:05 AM, as soon as he got off the air, and offered him the chance to do that at Comiskey Park. He was going to do it in front of 3,000 kids. It didn’t take long to convince him he could do it in front of 40 thousand kids.”   

ML: Let’s talk about that night, what went wrong, and what would you have done differently? 

MV: “My mistake was thinking that we’d get about 35,000 for the promotion. It turned out there were 60,000 inside the park and another 30-40 thousand on the streets around the park. Traffic was backed up all the way out to O’Hare Airport! Who had any idea that many kids would come out? WLUP was a 5,000 watt station; it wasn’t a giant like WLS or WCFL from when I was a kid.” 

“The other thing that happened was that we moved some of the police off the field. We had an adequate security force for 35,000 fans but not for 60,000. Outside of the park there were some temporary ticket booths staffed by older people. The kids were starting to get out of hand and started rocking those booths. We moved some of the police off the field outside to help. What happened next was the worst thing that could possible happen, the crowd began thinking as one and they realized there were only 35-40 police on the field. When a crowd begins thinking as one there is no such thing as crowd control. They said ‘let’s go on the field!’

ML: Some Sox fans feel DJ Steve Dahl could have done more to help calm the situation; instead he left the park with the riot in full force. Could he have done more to help? 

MV: “He could have made an effort. I, my dad and Harry Caray were all down on the field trying to regain control and he wasn’t... but the responsibility was mine. It was a bad decision.” 

“It was also a slow news day and that generated a tremendous amount of publicity, it was also an election year and Jayne Byrne used the situation as an election photo-op. What I most remember is newspaper guys like Bill Gleason saying what a tragedy it was. I know what a tragedy is, my daughter is losing her sight... this wasn’t a tragedy. The sun came up the next day; the Sox played another baseball game a few days later. It was the fourth forfeit in baseball history but how many take the same umbrage at 30,000 Dodger fans throwing baseballs on the field causing the fifth forfeit in baseball?” (Author’s Note: That took place on August 11, 1995 when Dodgers fans threw baseballs by the thousands on to the field with one out in the 9^th inning in a game against the Cardinals. St. Louis was awarded a forfeit win.)  

[pcq]

3 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

From my interview with Mike Veeck:

MV: “The idea actually started two years earlier in 1977. Jeff Swartz, a guy who worked for United Artists, suggested it to me. In 1978 in connection with Coke, we had a dance contest at Comiskey Park. There were 25,000 kids dancing on plywood stages that we had on the field. We thought it might be an idea to have a night for people who hate disco.”

“Anyway I get a call one day in 1979, from Swartz who says to turn on my radio to WLUP, that there is a guy named Steve Dahl who is going to blow up disco records at a shopping mall. I listened, then called him at 10:05 AM, as soon as he got off the air, and offered him the chance to do that at Comiskey Park. He was going to do it in front of 3,000 kids. It didn’t take long to convince him he could do it in front of 40 thousand kids.”   

ML: Let’s talk about that night, what went wrong, and what would you have done differently? 

MV: “My mistake was thinking that we’d get about 35,000 for the promotion. It turned out there were 60,000 inside the park and another 30-40 thousand on the streets around the park. Traffic was backed up all the way out to O’Hare Airport! Who had any idea that many kids would come out? WLUP was a 5,000 watt station; it wasn’t a giant like WLS or WCFL from when I was a kid.” 

“The other thing that happened was that we moved some of the police off the field. We had an adequate security force for 35,000 fans but not for 60,000. Outside of the park there were some temporary ticket booths staffed by older people. The kids were starting to get out of hand and started rocking those booths. We moved some of the police off the field outside to help. What happened next was the worst thing that could possible happen, the crowd began thinking as one and they realized there were only 35-40 police on the field. When a crowd begins thinking as one there is no such thing as crowd control. They said ‘let’s go on the field!’

ML: Some Sox fans feel DJ Steve Dahl could have done more to help calm the situation; instead he left the park with the riot in full force. Could he have done more to help? 

MV: “He could have made an effort. I, my dad and Harry Caray were all down on the field trying to regain control and he wasn’t... but the responsibility was mine. It was a bad decision.” 

“It was also a slow news day and that generated a tremendous amount of publicity, it was also an election year and Jayne Byrne used the situation as an election photo-op. What I most remember is newspaper guys like Bill Gleason saying what a tragedy it was. I know what a tragedy is, my daughter is losing her sight... this wasn’t a tragedy. The sun came up the next day; the Sox played another baseball game a few days later. It was the fourth forfeit in baseball history but how many take the same umbrage at 30,000 Dodger fans throwing baseballs on the field causing the fifth forfeit in baseball?” (Author’s Note: That took place on August 11, 1995 when Dodgers fans threw baseballs by the thousands on to the field with one out in the 9^th inning in a game against the Cardinals. St. Louis was awarded a forfeit win.)  

About three weeks before LaRussa was brought in. 

[flavum]

There’s a youtube video of the 25th Anniversary produced in 2004 (56 min). I suggest everyone watch. It’s entertaining and not nearly as heavy as some are making it out to be.

Edited June 14, 2019 by flavum

[Donaldo]

2 hours ago, vilehoopster said:

This is the words of someone who is too young and wasn't around at that time. You have no idea what the popularity of disco was like back then, 1979. First of all, if you had an older car, like me and my poor college friends, you only had an AM radio (No FM, ugh!!) and your tape deck, whether 8-track or cassette to listen to. (In fact, I bet you don't even know what an 8-track tape looks like and you're commenting on events from that time.)  Anyway, when the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack came out, it took over the radio completely, especially AM radio. AM radio only pretty much played Top-40, and at that time, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack had 3 of the top 5 songs in the country, and something like 8 of the top 10. It was Bee Gee song with that horrible falsetoo singing after Bee Gee song, followed by a disco song. You could change stations and it would be another Bee Gee song of some disco song. You couldn't escape it. It was total oversaturation, total oversaturation. Plus the rock stars were selling out to it to sell records. The Stones had disco records, the Kinks had a disco song. Of course there was gonna be backlash to that type of overkill and overplay. And this strong backlash had nothing to do with being anti-black or anti-gay. In all honesty, I don't think I knew there was a gay element to disco and dance clubs until Madonna brought that out in the 80's. You're commenting on history that you did not experience.

 

This is one of the best posts I have ever seen here.

I was born in `76, so while I was technically alive at the time, I have zero memory of it.  I know I'm opening myself to ridicule here, but I own a copy of the SNF Soundtrack.  Disco is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine.  That being said, I understand how radio can overplay a song... I've experienced it myself (for example, "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston... a song I really liked the first 20 or 30 times I heard it.  But after about a week of hearing that damn song 3 or 4 times an hour on most stations I listened to, I wanted to pull my hair out every time it came on.  Luckily, I had a few options on the dial where I could escape it completely.).

Even KISS (another group of white guys) had a disco album.

The Bee Gees had several good songs in the 60s that most people don't even know exist.

[Chi Town Sox]

Sox are sending mixed signals by celebrating this tonight and then having a Chosen Few DJ night coming up. Disco and House go hand in hand. 

[jamesdiego]

36 minutes ago, Chi Town Sox said:

Sox are sending mixed signals by celebrating this tonight and then having a Chosen Few DJ night coming up. Disco and House go hand in hand. 

 

Yea, but the death of disco lead to the evolution of house music.  The music had went underground, became more raw by removing the commercial garbage aspects of most disco that had over saturated the airwaves.  Killing disco was a good thing in the end and was necessary as it became a caricature of the actual quality disco sound.  Like the Philly Salsoul sound that was and is still great.  

So much crap was being pushed onto people that I don’t blame them one bit for hating disco.  It wasn’t just taking over radio, it was all over tv   

 

Brady Bunch disco

 

Chips Disco

7up disco

 

Toys R Us disco

 

Disco McDonalds burgers

 

[jamesdiego]

And disco was far from just associated with blacks and Hispanics as shown above.  

[Dan of Steel]

13 hours ago, Joshua Strong said:

Disco Demolition isn’t something to celebrate, especially in a diverse city like Chicago during Pride Month of all months. 

Disco Demolition was a fearful response to the growing popularity of artist who were either black, hispanic, gay or female. That’s nothing to proud of. It’s rather shameful. 

Lol, such an SJW explanation and woefully incorrect. 

Or maybe it was a response to a genre of music that was garbage and saturated the radios with it's crap. Also, arguably the most prominent disco group was the Bee Gees, a trio of straight white guys. So much for that. 

Disco Demolition was as it suggests, a vitriolic response to a genre that infuriated people with it's mediocrity and saturation. 

Hell, if anything Disco stole a bunch of it's stuff from prominently black genres, primarily funk, R&B and soul. 

Edited June 14, 2019 by Dan of Steel

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

15 hours ago, OneDog847 said:

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing. 

Such different times. An event like that could never happen today. Physical music products are dead and everyone would be staring at their phones instead of storming the field. 

Records do fine in the collectors market and there are still groups that put out records . It might not be what it once was but it's not dead.And I was there at DDN too. WSI used to have a whole section dedicated to it. I am sure I wrote something in that section a few years ago although I really didn't post on WSI often.

[zisk]

I was actually there with my friends that night. Was probably the only teenager mad about the whole thing. LOL

[TBrown54]

17 hours ago, raBBit said:

I am just waiting for all the schools named after Thomas "Me Too" Jefferson and Abe "3/5" Lincoln to be renamed. We need to expunge all references to history that doesn't align with modern day sensitivities. 

In before thread is closed!

I think I know what you mean about Jefferson -- he had many affairs, some probably non-consensual (or worse term for it) -- but I have no idea how "3/5" gets associated with Lincoln.

Edited June 14, 2019 by TBrown54
clarity

[Superstar Lamar]

23 hours ago, Joshua Strong said:

Wait you’re saying that there’s nothing racist about a group of white people banding together to celebration the destruction of work by black, Hispanic and queer artist? What? People coming together to destroy art and culture, is literally a sign of oppression  

I know Dahl has defended himself from being called a racist and a homophobe but as Vice put it, he’s using the same defense as many alt-right/white nationalist and men’s right supporters. “We were just letting off a little steam. We were just having fun.”

Here’s an section from that Vice article: Vince Lawrence, a then-teenaged usher at the event told NPR he was uncomfortable being one of the only Black people at the stadium, and remembered that fans were just bringing LPs by black artists: “[There were] Tyrone Davis records, friggin' Curtis Mayfield records and Otis Clay records. Records that were clearly not disco.” All those artists are black artists. Whatever the the intent, this was obviously not just about disco but also about simmering racial resentment.

What planet do you live on?

Is there any evidence that any African American, gay  or Hispanic people were injured as a result of disco demolition?

Do you know if Vince recalls seeing any Carpenters LPs being brought to the stadium that night?

[tray]

On 6/13/2019 at 12:26 PM, Joshua Strong said:

Disco Demolition isn’t something to celebrate, especially in a diverse city like Chicago during Pride Month of all months. 

Disco Demolition was a fearful response to the growing popularity of artist who were either black, hispanic, gay or female. That’s nothing to proud of. It’s rather shameful. 

I was there (for real) upper tank Left Field until they called the second game.  Some of the attempts at historical revisionism are really absurd. Kids like me  were raised on the rock and roll from the late 60's / early 70's and enjoyed listening  to the great albums from that day AND the FM radio stations that played them, like .WDAI, WGLD, etc..  We were not into disco music, disco dancing or dressing like John Travolta  did in Saturday Night Fever.  Wayyyy too much has been made of the event, which tore up some sod and forfeited one game for our crappy team. I recall smoking a joint on the cat walk that went behind the scoreboard and then watching a few idiots throw 33 rpm vinyl albums from the second deck. That was one of the dumber moves....but large groups of young teenagers often get emboldened to misbehave.   The hooliganism that lasted about an hour was nothing compared to the weapons related violence and murders that takes place every day now  in Chicago and other major cities.  The only people that had guns at Disco Demolition night were the Police.  Nobody got shot, no teenagers and no Police. Maybe there is a lesson in there for some people but I doubt it.  And the Cubs also sucked badly in those days and had sparse attendance at Wrigley. Santo was traded to the Sox and Kessinger played for and managed the White Sox. A few years earlier, Jack Brickhouse  was the announcer for both the Sox and the Cubs on WGN TV.

[tray]

Disco Demolition was a fearful response to the growing popularity of artist who were either black, hispanic, gay or female.

That is proof positive that you don't know what you are talking about and I am not trying to be mean.   We all  loved Motown and artists and  groups from the 1960's  that were African American or multi-racial.  Some of us originally thought that perhaps members of Steam were black.

[ewokpelts]

15 hours ago, Chi Town Sox said:

Sox are sending mixed signals by celebrating this tonight and then having a Chosen Few DJ night coming up. Disco and House go hand in hand. 

Oh Jesus Christ! Get over yourself. 

 

Last night was a small commemoration of an Ill fated Sox event that gets mentioned In the baseball and rock and roll hall of fame.  The 28th is a fireworks night set to music the grandkids of the disco demotion crowd like now. 

 

The only signal is that that the Sox want you to buy tickets and watch a a ballgame.  No different than game of thrones night or halfway to st Patrick’s day. 

[ewokpelts]

6 hours ago, TBrown54 said:

I think I know what you mean about Jefferson -- he had many affairs, some probably non-consensual (or worse term for it) -- but I have no idea how "3/5" gets associated with Lincoln.

3/5 refers to the constitution, where African slaves were counted as 3/5 of a white man in the census. This allowed southern states, where the slave population was much larger than in the north, to gain more seats in the house. 

 

As it pertains to Lincoln, he never set out to be an abolitionist, he was a preservationist. The restoration of the union was his goal, even if it meant Slavery didn’t end. 

[pcq]

22 hours ago, pcq said:

What I regret is that Bronzeville was once the jazz capitol of the universe and those traditions have been thoroughly dissed. 

There were classic rockers who did not know how to react to the whole gender bender thingy. Mostly it was regret that classic rockers felt with disco pushing more serious and substantial music out of the way. Times change. I don't recall any ethnic cleansing and most rockers loved and merged with the Motown scene. That was a great part of the 60's and 70's. 

[Chi Town Sox]

1 hour ago, ewokpelts said:

Oh Jesus Christ! Get over yourself. 

 

Last night was a small commemoration of an Ill fated Sox event that gets mentioned In the baseball and rock and roll hall of fame.  The 28th is a fireworks night set to music the grandkids of the disco demotion crowd like now. 

 

The only signal is that that the Sox want you to buy tickets and watch a a ballgame.  No different than game of thrones night or halfway to st Patrick’s day. 

Um, OK?  Do you feel better after getting that out on the internet?

Whether you agree with it or not, house music came from disco music on the South Side of Chicago, where the Sox play and where the Sox have a lot of fans.  I'm not black or hispanic and I'm not even liberal but if you can't see why this would be hurtful to many Sox fans than your bolded internet tough guy comment says it all.  The Chosen Few guys even had the Sox pretty close to cancelling the event all together, this week.  

Personally, I don't care as much about it as you may think but just because you or Steve Dahl says it wasn't racist, doesn't mean it doesn't appear that way to others that feel disco and it's extensions was and is still a big part of their community.

[Chi Town Sox]

16 hours ago, jamesdiego said:

 

Yea, but the death of disco lead to the evolution of house music.  The music had went underground, became more raw by removing the commercial garbage aspects of most disco that had over saturated the airwaves.  Killing disco was a good thing in the end and was necessary as it became a caricature of the actual quality disco sound.  Like the Philly Salsoul sound that was and is still great.  

So much crap was being pushed onto people that I don’t blame them one bit for hating disco.  It wasn’t just taking over radio, it was all over tv   

 

Brady Bunch disco

 

Chips Disco

7up disco

 

Toys R Us disco

 

Disco McDonalds burgers

 

I don't need a lesson on house music and every genre reaches a point where it gets annoying or too mainstream (see EDM now).   it still does not take away the fact that it was seen as an outlet and a way to show their identity for blacks, hispanics and homosexuals in a time where it was tough to do so.

[ewokpelts]

1 hour ago, Chi Town Sox said:

Um, OK?  Do you feel better after getting that out on the internet?

Whether you agree with it or not, house music came from disco music on the South Side of Chicago, where the Sox play and where the Sox have a lot of fans.  I'm not black or hispanic and I'm not even liberal but if you can't see why this would be hurtful to many Sox fans than your bolded internet tough guy comment says it all.  The Chosen Few guys even had the Sox pretty close to cancelling the event all together, this week.  

Personally, I don't care as much about it as you may think but just because you or Steve Dahl says it wasn't racist, doesn't mean it doesn't appear that way to others that feel disco and it's extensions was and is still a big part of their community.

It’s a theme night. Nothing more nothing less. 

 

Get off off your high horse. 

 

I don’t care about disco or house music. When it plays at the park I do the same thing I do when I hear country music. Ignore it.  And if there is a house music night at the park? I go oh well and go back to watching the game. 

[ewokpelts]

1 hour ago, pcq said:

There were classic rockers who did not know how to react to the whole gender bender thingy. Mostly it was regret that classic rockers felt with disco pushing more serious and substantial music out of the way. Times change. I don't recall any ethnic cleansing and most rockers loved and merged with the Motown scene. That was a great part of the 60's and 70's. 

Neil young wrote a song about birds. 

 

Music tastes are subjective. 

[Chi Town Sox]

3 hours ago, ewokpelts said:

It’s a theme night. Nothing more nothing less. 

 

Get off off your high horse. 

 

I don’t care about disco or house music. When it plays at the park I do the same thing I do when I hear country music. Ignore it.  And if there is a house music night at the park? I go oh well and go back to watching the game. 

Lots of “I” in your post. 

Still don’t understand the comments directed at me, nobody is on a high horse nor do I need to get over myself for making a simple comment on a message board.  Nobody was saying anything to you  

Makes me wonder about the times when I was called out for some stupid things from Admin’s and here we are with some even more ludicrous comments...

Edited June 15, 2019 by Chi Town Sox