The Chaos of Disco Demolition Night

Disco Demolition Night On July 12, 1979, the White Sox hosted Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park. The promotional event, however, resulted in chaos and a forfeited baseball game.

The once-popular music seemed to stir a lot of anger at the time. Even songs were written attacking disco. As many others have noted, the disco-hating trend of the late 1970s evolved out of a number of emotions.  Some of the hate came from those who consciously or subconsciously attacked the music out of racism and homophobia.

In retrospect, it is hard to imagine how a type of music went from being so popular to being so hated. In fact, the White Sox had hosted a “Disco Night” in 1977, only two years prior to the 1979 Disco Demolition Night.

The Disco Demolition Night Promotion

It is also surprising in retrospect that nobody foresaw how Disco Demolition Night would be such a disaster. The entire idea was based on hatred of something, culminating with blowing up something (records) between the two games of a double header with Sparky Anderson’s Detroit Tigers.

Steve Dahl, a morning DJ for rock station WLUP-FM, was on a campaign against disco music. As part of his campaign, he helped come up with the idea for the baseball promotion where he would blow up disco records on the field.

Dahl’s animosity was both deep and personal.  He had lost his job at WDAI-FM on Christmas Eve in 1978 when that station switched to an all-disco format.

As part of the promotion for the game, the cost of entry was 98-cents and a disco record.  Thus, there were many in the sold-out crowd who were not there for baseball.

After the chaos, Dahl was surprised at the crowd’s reaction.  But the notoriety of the event would help make him a dj superstar in Chicago.

This website hosts memories from folks who were at the stadium that night. And below is a short video about Disco Demolition Night.

The Effects Today

Regarding baseball, the event went into the record books.  The unplayed game between the White Sox and the Tigers is the last American League baseball game to be forfeited.

Regarding the music, others have noted that while disco was dealt a blow, it lives on successfully today in various forms such as house music. You can try to kill music with hate, but it will survive.

Do you remember Disco Demolition Night? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    As a teenager, Haden lost his singing voice from bulbar polio while he was playing in a family country band, so he turned his focus to playing bass. The country influence stayed with the Iowa-born Haden on much of his music, including 2008’s Rambling Boy album, even as he became a groundbreaker in a number of genres.

    One of my favorite albums is the Grammy-winning Beyond The Missouri Sky (Short Stories) (1996), where Haden and guitarist Pat Metheny created some of the most haunting and beautiful country-infused jazz music ever recorded. “Spiritual,” one of the tracks on the album was written by Haden’s son Josh Haden. Although I also would later fall in love with the Johny Cash version that included the lyrics, this instrumental version still breaks my heart every time I hear it.

    The same disease that took away Haden’s voice and forced him to turn to the bass eventually affected his playing. In 2010, due to post-polio syndrome, Haden stopped performing in public even though he continued to play at home and with friends. The disease, however, could never take away the beautiful recordings that Haden made during his lifetime. For more on Haden’s life, check out these articles from Variety and the New York Times. RIP.

    Photo via Geert Vandepoele (Creative Commons).What is your favorite Charlie Haden track? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    There are not many famous songs about pigs.  The most famous may be “Piggies” by the Beatles, even though the song is not really about four-legged porkers.

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    Unfortunately, “Piggies” is another song like “Revolution” that got hijacked by Charles Manson. Reportedly, the crazy man liked the line about the piggies needing “a damn good whacking.”  Also, variations on the word “pig” were written on the walls in blood at the site of Manson family murders.

    Understandably, Harrison was appalled with Manson’s foolish interpretation of the song. The “damn good whacking” line was only added to the lyrics after Harrison’s mom suggested it as something to rhyme with “backing” and “lacking.”

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    It was unfortunate that “Piggies,” designed as a short commentary, ended up associated with horrible deaths. But E. B. White, who wrote about the death of a real pig in a 1948 essay and passed away in 1985, understood that death is everywhere.

    In White’s book about a pig and a spider, he wrote, “After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.” The best we can do is try to live a worthwhile life.  That is not a bad lesson coming from a spider and a pig.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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