Disco Nights Copyright © 2010 by Stephen A. Welles
(All Rights Reserved)
(All Rights Reserved)
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Introduction
On July 12, 1979, Rock DJ Steve Dahl contacted Mike Veeck the son of Bill who was the owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball team to have a “Disco Sucks” night at Comiskey Park. Many Rock fans and anti-Disco fans attended who hated Disco. They lit a bonfire in between games of a baseball doubleheader and burned thousands of Disco records which blew 200 feet in the air. That was supposed to be the end of Disco…
When and where did this modern Disco craze start anyway? Many would say that it was in the early to mid-seventies (1972-1975). That's when you could visit any house party in cities like New York, Philly, Los Angeles and San Francisco where the gay, black, Latin and urban-white communities started the Hustle and Freestyle dance craze in the city streets. In fact, in some urban streets of Europe they were dancing to the early Disco beat too.
Let’s go back a year and a half before that night in Chicago Stadium to December 15, 1977 when the movie “Saturday Night Fever” came out starring John Travolta. That’s when most Disco lovers would say Disco really took off and the working middle class and Jet set accepted it. When the latter brought their star power and all that goes with it to the party, Disco became the most popular craze around. In New York, clubs like Studio 54, The Lime Light, Paradise Garage, The Palladium, The Loft, 12 West, Infinity, New York, New York and Saturday Night Fever’s 2001 Space Odyssey were open. That paved the way for other clubs in the United States and worldwide to open up also. It didn’t matter what your genre was Disco was music that everyone could unite to in the decade after the turbulent 1960’s…In the 1970’s, people were looking for something different to connect to. For a brief time, Disco was the answer…
Disco had millions of lovers’ worldwide. In its peak years, (late 70’s) it was a six billion-dollar industry! In addition there were a half million Discos worldwide. Who could ever forget the good times and the many great Disco records in the 1970’s that made it to number one on the music charts. There is something to be said about that.
Despite what outsiders thought, Disco was not always about trouble of sorts. After a hard day’s work, no matter how tired you were, when you walked into a Disco, it made you feel energetic and alive. You could let all your tensions unwind and have a good time. When the music played, and you were dancing the night away with your lady or dance partner it was as if you were dancing on a cloud on a starry summer night…
In certain parts of this story, this book reads like a musical screenplay or composition. I was a dancer and musician and I picked the titles of the songs I liked to try to correspond with the story line. I had a lot of fun writing this book. Lol… So, if you know the song get your CD player or Ipod out, boogie down and like they use to say back in the day “Let’s get this party started right.”
Here’s a toast to the Disco life, the clubs I could get into and how I experienced the Disco explosion as an everyday young business man who was also a 21-23 year old “street club dancer” in 1977-1979. For millions especially me, Disco didn’t die that night in Chicago stadium thirty years ago. It was reborn! The musical notes of those burned records evolved like shooting stars into space and fell back to planet earth into all genres of music for eternity…
Thanks to the pioneer artists, the songwriters, the DJ’s at the clubs and on the radio stations that put the music out and to the millions of fans who still dance the dance…
Disco Forever!
I hope you enjoy - Steve
On July 12, 1979, Rock DJ Steve Dahl contacted Mike Veeck the son of Bill who was the owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball team to have a “Disco Sucks” night at Comiskey Park. Many Rock fans and anti-Disco fans attended who hated Disco. They lit a bonfire in between games of a baseball doubleheader and burned thousands of Disco records which blew 200 feet in the air. That was supposed to be the end of Disco…
When and where did this modern Disco craze start anyway? Many would say that it was in the early to mid-seventies (1972-1975). That's when you could visit any house party in cities like New York, Philly, Los Angeles and San Francisco where the gay, black, Latin and urban-white communities started the Hustle and Freestyle dance craze in the city streets. In fact, in some urban streets of Europe they were dancing to the early Disco beat too.
Let’s go back a year and a half before that night in Chicago Stadium to December 15, 1977 when the movie “Saturday Night Fever” came out starring John Travolta. That’s when most Disco lovers would say Disco really took off and the working middle class and Jet set accepted it. When the latter brought their star power and all that goes with it to the party, Disco became the most popular craze around. In New York, clubs like Studio 54, The Lime Light, Paradise Garage, The Palladium, The Loft, 12 West, Infinity, New York, New York and Saturday Night Fever’s 2001 Space Odyssey were open. That paved the way for other clubs in the United States and worldwide to open up also. It didn’t matter what your genre was Disco was music that everyone could unite to in the decade after the turbulent 1960’s…In the 1970’s, people were looking for something different to connect to. For a brief time, Disco was the answer…
Disco had millions of lovers’ worldwide. In its peak years, (late 70’s) it was a six billion-dollar industry! In addition there were a half million Discos worldwide. Who could ever forget the good times and the many great Disco records in the 1970’s that made it to number one on the music charts. There is something to be said about that.
Despite what outsiders thought, Disco was not always about trouble of sorts. After a hard day’s work, no matter how tired you were, when you walked into a Disco, it made you feel energetic and alive. You could let all your tensions unwind and have a good time. When the music played, and you were dancing the night away with your lady or dance partner it was as if you were dancing on a cloud on a starry summer night…
In certain parts of this story, this book reads like a musical screenplay or composition. I was a dancer and musician and I picked the titles of the songs I liked to try to correspond with the story line. I had a lot of fun writing this book. Lol… So, if you know the song get your CD player or Ipod out, boogie down and like they use to say back in the day “Let’s get this party started right.”
Here’s a toast to the Disco life, the clubs I could get into and how I experienced the Disco explosion as an everyday young business man who was also a 21-23 year old “street club dancer” in 1977-1979. For millions especially me, Disco didn’t die that night in Chicago stadium thirty years ago. It was reborn! The musical notes of those burned records evolved like shooting stars into space and fell back to planet earth into all genres of music for eternity…
Thanks to the pioneer artists, the songwriters, the DJ’s at the clubs and on the radio stations that put the music out and to the millions of fans who still dance the dance…
Disco Forever!
I hope you enjoy - Steve
