30th Anniversary of Comiskey’s Disco Demolition Night
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
It’s been 30 years since the beginning of the end for the much-maligned genre of disco music. The scene was Comiskey Park in Chicago on July 12, 1979; a twi-night doubleheader versus the Detroit Tigers. The White Sox held an anti-disco promotion in between games where fans who brought a disco record would be admitted for only 98 cents, then all the vinyl was collected, put inside a wooden box in center field, then burned up (just like what I do to dance floors). Hmmm, for some reason this little bonfire went awry as disco hatred poured throughout the ballpark with fans rioting and brawling. John Travolta would’ve got his ass beat.
The controversial promotion was the brainchild of several individuals, including Mike Veeck (son of White Sox owner Bill Veeck). But the event was mainly spear-headed by local radio personality and vocal disco-detractor, Steve Dahl. Dahl was ousted from his gig at WDAI when the station went all-disco (he claims he quit), then for several months prior to the infamous Comiskey Park scene, Dahl — now employed by WLUP — consistently demonstrated his hatred for disco. Dahl would ultimately act as the “trigger man” who would blow up the crate-full of disco records at Comiskey that night, never imagining the events that transpired forcing a White Sox forfeit of the contest.
With a roaring boom, thousands of disco records went flying 200 feet in the air. No one heard the Gibb brothers’ falsetto screams of anguish.
Disco had been destroyed. Rock ‘n’ roll and the Coho Lips had won.
Dahl led the chorus in a victory cheer: “Disco sucks! Disco sucks! Disco sucks!” The scene was unbelievable, says Natkin. “I was standing there watching blown-up disco records fall from the sky, and I thought to myself, ‘This is the greatest promotion in radio history.’”Fans came pouring out over the outfield fence almost immediately, while others sprinted down the ramps from the upper deck to join the bedlam. The scene was typical of a World Series celebration (in that era of Chicago sports, the destruction of disco records was the biggest victory imaginable), and with no regard for the game still to be played, people started plucking grass from the field (an anonymous plucker recalls being told, “Hey man, you can’t smoke that!”). They climbed the foul poles, knocked over the batting cage, and started bonfires around the smoldering record sleeves lying on the field. Most of the people on the field were just running every which way, with no idea what to do but too excited to leave the scene. The players stood on the steps of their dugouts watching the chaos, wearing helmets and wielding bats to protect themselves. “I was shocked and amazed,” says Dahl. “And I knew I was in trouble.”
A fiasco? Yes. But an important part of music history, as we all know that disco does suck. Dahl, Veeck and the White Sox put an emphatic end to one of the worse forms of pop music in American history. Thank you. Happy 30th Anniversary! For anyone reading this, tell us what ‘anti’ promotion you wish existed today. If you could bring any object to the ballpark to get blown to bits and ultimately removed from the landscape of our popular culture…what would it be?
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Source:
Disco Demolition Night Wikipedia page
Disco Demolition Night [SWINDLE Magazine]
