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Thursday, July 09, 2009
NBC Sports/Calcaterra: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night
Sunday is the 30th anniversary of the infamous “Disco Demolition Night.” For those unfamiliar, it went down like this: Doubleheader between the White Sox and Tigers. Disco backlash reaching its apex. Local DJ convinces the Sox to stage a promotion for which people bring unwanted disco records to the game in exchange for a 98 cent ticket, the records get collected, placed in center field, and blown up by the DJ during the intermission between the two games. Totally foreseeable, but seemingly unforeseen side effect: the cheap tickets and disco demagoguery draws lots of people who usually don’t go to baseball games, and those people proceed to use their tickets savings to buy lots of beer. Well, at least the people who weren’t baked out of their gourds did (I’m guessing nacho sales were pretty brisk). There’s no dispute, however, that it was a crazy scene that evening.
Then came the explosion, which tore a big chunk out of the outfield grass. Then thousands of fans rushed the field, lighting fires, throwing firecrackers, and making general asses of themselves. The batting cage was pulled down and wrecked, bases were ripped off the infield, and the place was generally torn to shreds.
Coot Veal and Cot Deal taste like Old Bay
Posted: July 09, 2009 at 07:12 PM | 185 comment(s)
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I'm fine with a little bit of disco bashing, but when people really sound like they're getting serious about it, it's more than a bit much. It reminds me of Homer Simpson: "Why do bands keep making music nowadays? Everyone knows rock peaked in 1975. It's a scientific fact."
But a lot of people didn't like Deep Purple or Black Sabbath but they didn't have riots about it.
They did in the music press. The NME hated our music. But I can't remember if they liked disco.
Well, that's one hell of a difference. One the one hand we have an actual riot, on the other hand some nasty editorials.
A better analogy would be Johnny Rotten being stabbed on the streets of London for "God Save the Queen" and Paul Cook assaulted around the same time.
I'm thinking punk preceded disco, and I'm not sure that's true. They may be exact contemporaries.
I think disco preceded it by a bit. "The Hustle" and "Jive Talkin'" were both 1975, I think. "Anarchy in the UK" and the first Ramones album were 1976.
It also has a pretty narrow range of expression, and was heavily overplayed on most radio outlets.
Nevertheless, everyone did Disco:
The Rock Groups - Stones, Queen
The Glam Groups - KISS
The Vocalists - Manilow
A few did it well enough that they will probably be remembered, e.g. Bee Gees, Donna Summer produced by Giorgio Moroder.
Interestingly enough, Saturday Night Fever is an adaptation of a magazine article (think it was New York magazine, but I don't recall) presented as truth at the time that turned out to be a complete fabrication.
I know its the reverse, but Lee Ving and the audience tearing down the SNL set is worth at least a memory.
"The Hustle" and "Jive Talkin'" were both 1975, I think. "Anarchy in the UK" and the first Ramones album were 1976.
What about the Dictators?
Of course for the first few decades of the 20th century if fans took over the field they just took their money, roped them in, and changed the ground rules. Official seating capacity often meant little or nothing, not to mention local fire regulations.
Look at some of the many old photos of games being played with fans literally sitting a foot off the foul lines, or being roped in at various distances between the outfield wall(s) and the infield. In one doubleheader in St. Louis in 1931 the crowd was something like 50% over capacity, and there were over 20 ground rule doubles that were hit among the fans on the field during the games. Frankie Frisch gave a long description of this in his memoir The Fordham Flash, and it was one truly amazing day.
Sure, but fans being roped in and placidly sitting or standing on the field to watch the game isn't the same thing at all as fans pouring out of their seats in the stands, riotously tearing apart the field, and not allowing the game to be continued. Apples and zucchini.
I think disco preceded it by a bit. "The Hustle" and "Jive Talkin'" were both 1975, I think. "Anarchy in the UK" and the first Ramones album were 1976.
I've heard that "Rock the Boat" by Hues Corporation (1974) is recognized by some as the first disco hit. You might argue that punk came first if you include "proto-punk" acts like the New York Dolls and Iggy Pop and the Stooges, who were around in the early 1970's.
There was a TV documentary on some channel recently that alleged it was "Soul Makossa"
When you start getting into origins, you can get really murky on both sides. That's why I stuck with the most important and recognizable ones on both sides in post #103.
There were brawls in an earlier time, involving battling subcultures. Though I wasn't there then, the memory of it was still strong when I arrived.
The assault on Lydon isn't comparable, IMO. On the one hand we have some records blown up, and on the other what really amounts to attempted murder. However, my sympathy for Lydon (or Cook or Jones), is limited. Virgin emerge with no credit either. They were all looking for trouble in order to sell records. And I'll leave it at that.
Emotional Rescue is one of the great R&R;songs of all time, it is probably *the* bass & drum tour de force in the genre.
It also has a pretty narrow range of expression, and was heavily overplayed on most radio outlets.
Normally, I would defer to Backlasher on an analysis of backlash -- but I seriously doubt that "barriers to entry" was a "major reason" that people disliked disco, especially since most of the people who hated it had no interest in starting a band. The second reason is closer.
I also think that 70's disco gets lumped in with 70's bubblegum music as a one-two punch to the gut of anyone who liked music. Dear lord, there was an incredible amount of incredibly bad music making an incredible amount of money.
But the second reason just made it annoying in the way a lot of pop fads are annoying. It doesn't explain the pitch of the hatred. And hell, it came back pretty quickly packaged as New Wave.
Search for Sex Pistols, Clash, Sham 69, or Adverts here. Even the Dead Kennedys had a top 40 single in the UK.
WKRP did punk very well with the "Scum of the Earth" episode. Although that wasn't technically punk rock. It was hoodlum rock ("Blood: May I say hello to my mother? Venus: Your momma live in Cincinnati? Blood: Well, there's always a chance, isn't there?").
Also, Any discussion of Skynyrd and George Wallace and the whole southern thing would benefit by everyone taking a five and listening to Drive-By Truckers' "Southern Rock Opera." Maybe DBT is putting words in Skynyrd's mouth with that album, but it's thought provoking enough. Also, it helps someone who loved growing up in the south (or, in my case, the mountains) feel better about life. Also also: Earl Hicks, bassist for Drive-By on that album is a big Braves fan who used to comment over at Mac Thomason's Braves Journal site. Still may, actually.
That is all.
Jethro Tull was part of the music I listened to in college -- 73-77 -- along with Steeleye Span, Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Miles, Coltrane and Mingus. I was also into blue grass back then, and still am.
If there's a pattern in there, somebody will have to point it out to me.
you're the first person I've ever come across who knew this band, 'sides me... maybe I should get out more often.
But since college, though, I have run across very few who knew them. The usual response to saying Steeley Span was "Steely Dan?".
just downloaded an album or two off eMusic on a lark
The Lark in the Morning?
I don't think of New Wave as spawn of disco. I think it's more spawn of punk -- post-punk/new wave seem to be at least overlapping styles.
I'd agree with that, that's what makes the Dead Kennedys song Pull My Strings work as a joke:
"Hold it! We gotta prove we're adults now. We're not a punk rock band, we're a new wave band."
Really, the only example. In any case, my point is that it was irrelevant to the anti-disco sentiment and Disco Demolition night.
Iggy got the idea for The Iguanas in 1963 and formed them in '64.
The NY Dolls started in '71.
Richie Hell and Tom Verlaine started the Neon Boys in '73.
The pattern is that you are a hippy. You primarily like "jamming" and virtuosity, and you like bands that weave mythology and folk traditions into their lyrics, you like music that is grounded in tradition but is still fun to dance to, you like ripping bong hits and getting to another level of appreciation. You could be any number of neo-hippies that I went to college with.
Amen. Fantastic album. Fantastic band. I don't have the expertise on Skynyrd to speak to their interpretation of the band, but it rings true to me. And, I didn't know that fact about Hicks, but it only increases my enjoyment of the band.
Pretty close. I even did the long hair and barefoot in the city thing one year. The only difference is that in '73, there was nothing "neo" about it.
Of course...who hasn't supported our military overseas through the years?!
Well, except some instructor of aleksel's suggested punk supplanted Disco, that it took advantage of this anti-disco sentiment which was most memorably displayed in Disco Demolition Night.
Don't belie your handle.
Well, they were bigger in England than the US. Gaudete even made the charts there.
If you heard first them when you were in Detroit though -- then I have no explanation.
what's the analysis for listening to minimal, techno, glitch, drill'n'bass and drone ambient?
Steeleye Span are a great band, and as noted, they had some legitimate hits at home - "All Around My Hat" was a top-5 single in the UK. Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, and The Albion were probably the three most important bands in the late 60s-early 70s British electric folk-rock movement, and Ashley Hutchings was a founding member of all of them...
:) primates have amazed me for years...
All Around My Hat
Veeck let his drunken retard son oversee the promotion which resulted in a stoned, dangerous mob storming an antiqued, unmaintained facility beyond its capacity. (And I mean storming – people were scaling the walls from the outside to gain entrance.)
The upper deck was literally swaying from the excess weight. A fire broke out in the stands. Everyone was stoned; the first game was played in a haze of marijuana smoke. The cops were completely overwhelmed at the game’s outset. It was a dangerous, irresponsible situation, and Veeck was flat-out lucky no one was killed. And now it is romanticized as some amusing acting out by the youth of the era.
It was more than that; it was criminally irresponsible. I was twenty years old at the time and had several friends at the game, many of whom were seriously in fear for their safety.
Between Michael Jackson, Steve McNair, and this, I’ve had about all of the selective memory B.S. I can handle for one week ….
In the US, punk remained a fringe genre, really until the 1990s. You can count on one hand the number of punk acts that got the time of day on the charts from the late 70s through the 80s, and those that did (e.g., The Clash) really stopped making punk records.
The paragons of punk/reformed punk that weird people like us listened to in the 1980s didn't sell records. They got the critical acclaim, but no mainstream radio or MTV play. There was no Hot Topics in the mall.
I don't entirely disagree with aleksel's instructor if she was conflating new wave and punk, but that would be a mistake. I think it's reasonable to say that new wave and hop hop filled in for disco, which is too bad because I also agree that there was something of a segregating force there.
To whatever extent punk took advantage of the anti-disco sentiment, it took a very long time for it to reach fruition on any sort of significant scale.
That drum solo sounds so far freakin' out he wants to take it with him.
1. The Disco backlash was more than just a rejection of the style of music; it was a rejection of the fashion and dance styles that accompanied that music.
2. Much of the anger against disco had to do with who was getting the trim and who wasn't. Those who took the time to learn disco dancing were taking the trim away from those who didn't. Those who preferred doing the Funky White Boy Overbite to rock songs found their trim acquisitions greatly reduced. Seventies fashion was mercifully starting to change as disco started its wane, but "disco ducks" were still pulling the trim in their ridiculous threads.
3. Disco, like much of the music of the 70's, had become bloated and oversaturated. Innovation had quickly given way to imitation as every record company tried to sign the next Abba or Donna Summer. Disco went corporate before rock did.
4. Disco was something that parents began embracing, which fueled more rejection.
The Lark in the Morning?
Spotted Cow. It's OK, but not one I listen to much, and I don't know how it compares to their other work.
EDIT: As such, my saying "I know 'em" above was an overstatement. I've listened to them, but am not familiar enough with their discography to talk best/worst.
That's about the most succinct summary of what was fueling much of the anti-disco movement that I've ever seen right there.
All the DJs at the rock radio stations in Boston, including the "progressive*" WBCN, would well into the 80s frequently inveigh against disco and the word as an epithet - at WBCN they would mention vague references to the "disco" station at the end of the dial (i.e. KISS-FM at 107.9) I remember one spot where they proudly proclaimed that they didn't play "disco music" over the sound of forcibly removing a record of "Material Girl" by Madonna. Which of course was well after the disco scene had been dead and buried.
I think it's also the case that the disco craze and the anti-disco backlash also helped speed along the fall of the mass market and the rise of music market segmentation.
* Back before some corporate giant owned them, 'BCN was the rock station for people in the periphery of metro Boston (the edgier college stations didn't reach out as far) who thought of themselves as culturally "with it." In an era of pretty strictly segregated radio, they were notably less so than any other AOR-ish station in New England. (They were about the only station in town that wanted any part of the "Sun City" song.) This changed markedly when rap got big enough, as the most of the station's audience *hated* rap.
Hmmm...I'd have thought Steeleye Span would have a decently complete Wiki entry. Their following isn't huge but it seems to be the sort of act that might attract computer-literate obsessives.
I write pop culture trivia questions, so I have noticed what sorts of things Wikipedia generally has pretty extensive coverage of and what things are generally lacking. Hip-hop fans aren't well represented there, but if you want to know about anything pertaining to Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or most first- or even second-tier art/prog-rock acts....they've got you covered pretty well.
[And yeah, I never rely on it as a sole source of anything.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mods_and_Rockers
"Thursday Night at White Sox Park! See the White Sox host the Toronto Blue Jays. It's Mods and Rockers Night at Comiskey Park. Special Parking for Triumph motorcycles and Lambretta scooters. Official MLBPA Purple Hearts will be provided to the first 15000 attendees."
I contributed Go West by the Village People to the bonfire.
Refreshing with Retrosheet, I probably went to see Ferguson Jenkins, a favorite of mine.
I recommend The Knack and How to Get It. Excellent movie on the subject of mods. Just a fun movie all around, really.
It was a dangerous, irresponsible situation, and Veeck was flat-out lucky no one was killed. And now it is romanticized as some amusing acting out by the youth of the era.
That's always been pretty much my take.
This is much the same analysis of why punk succeeded in England to such a wild extent. Progressive rock and the 'art-school groups' (e.g., Roxy Music) and the fringes of electronic folk were ultimately seen as 'pretentious twaddle'. As far as I remember, disco wasn't put in the dock with these sub-cultures.
Disco followed a very different trajectory in England, I'm concluding from all this. For all the contempt towards it in my social circle c. 1978-83, it remained much more part of the mainstream experience than it seems to have in the US.
'Popular music' in England has always been a culture that brings themes over from America and reinvents them. The 'pretentious twaddle', however, represented something more uniquely English, more detached from its American roots, and less connected to developments in the urban mainstreams in London and Manchester. As such I guess it was really doomed from the start.
This reminds me of something I've always noticed about the 1970s in America, which I lived through part of, but mostly too young to have any real first-hand memory.
There was definitely a line of thinking among many people in those days that big cities in general and New York in particular were awful, dangerous, dirty, wretched places full of scary people. It was the era of white flight, and in some cases even non-white flight, and anyone who could got out of the city as fast as they could. You could see in the films of the era, the TV shows, and even some of the changes in musical tastes over the decade.
But I don't know enough about the cultural history of the UK to know if there was a similar trend.
The Out of Towners with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis fits that to a 'T'.
And it was really like that, for us flyovers. Nobody in their right mind wanted anything to do with New York. L.A., on the other hand, was thought to be a paradisical setting full of weirdos.
The situation in England was very different. Something like 'white flight' happened much later, and as far as I know only in London, and really only occurred, with a very different dynamic, after the completion of the M25 motorway in 1986.
Esscape From New York, C.H.U.D., The Warriors...these movies didn't make you want to move to NYC?
Movies from the 1970's and early 80's definitely made me think NYC was a scary, ugly place. I don't think I saw a positive depiction of the city until...Crocodile Dundee. I'm serious! (I didn't watch Woody Allen as a kid.)
Liverpool was a really shitty place in the 80's. But I guess it could be that no one left, they just got poorer.
No one ever gets it.
What did Queen do that was remotely Disco? Unless you meant to write ELO.
Actually, the "pretentious twaddle" was, and remains, the music I love best from that era. Genesis, Roxy Music, Fairport Convention - I love these bands (at least partially) specifically because they are detached from any American roots. They are defiantly English, and I think that actually worked to their advantage, not against it...
(That's not an anti-American comment, btw, just a thought that bands should have something of their own culture in their music, not just mimic others. Of course then there's something like Puffy AmiYumi's wonderful "Island", which is a J-Pop version of Irish folk, which has to be heard to be believed...)
"Another One Bites the Dust"
That's not Disco. That's Power Funk. Just because you can dance to a song doesn't make it Disco,
As for NYC most of my images of that city come from the empty calorie movies of the 80's that really didn't look at life on the streets. Things like Working Girl, Ghostbusters, Crocodile Dundee, Mannequin, and various other movies. It wasn't until much later in my life when I saw some non-mainstream movies from that period as well as some black exploitation films that I saw just how devestated huge parts of that city was during that time period.
Going to school in New York state during the 90's I constantly got the "Chicago is so clean" remark from New Yorkers when they found out I was from the Chicagoland area. I could never understand why they said that until my first trip into NYC.
Again, the album as a whole was one of my favorites, and very popular among my "set" in college.
Wow, Spotted Cow isn't even listed in Wiki's Steeleye Span discography. I'll take that as a hint that it's not exactly their crowning achievement.
If you can get it, try Commoner's Crown or All Around My Hat. If this isn't your kind of music, though, don't bother.
Don't forget the original Death Wish, which came out in '74. Serpico was '73. Dog Day Afternoon was '75.
All in all, a great decade for depictions of NYC as an easy place to die.
All in all, a great decade for depictions of NYC as an easy place to die.
Those movies are collectively pretty dreary, for sure.
edit: And Taxi Driver, too. Even Scorsese was filming NYC as a sewer then.
My Red Sox lovin' confused r/billy/rocker/fireman dad had a Vespa in the mid-60's.
One day he was riding me to baseball practice and made me wear the matching powder blue helmet...and a girl that I was going to ask out saw me at a red light.
I died a thousand CC's of death...and grew to hate Quadrophenia so much that I slagged a mighty turd unto its gatefold sleeve.
Tunng - Bullets
Tunng - Jenny Again
Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back And Forth
Four Tet - Hands
Adem - Bedside Table
Adem - Statued
Psapp - Hi
Psapp - Tricycle
You can add "Mean Streets" to that list.
Did she laugh and call you a 'wanker'?
I'm sure there are many more. They ought to have a film festival with all these movies. That would actually be interesting.
Ya know, for 45-years I thought she said 'wanker'...but now that Calcaterra brings up mocker.
I'm quite troubled.
I will check those out. Thanks.
I see now that I can't read my own iPod. Spotted Cow is a track; the album is Below the Salt.
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