38 Years ago today we killed off Disco Music

It has been 38 years, it was a war waged against a genre of music and for those of us involved we are not always proud of our actions...but we knew then, as we know now, that it was a call to service that could not be ignored.

It was 1979 when the heavy peace was shattered and forever changed the world.

Yes, I was a teenage Coho Lip and Iwas at Disco Demolition. II rarely reminisce about the War Against Disco (WAD) but let me tell you the angst was palpable. The guerrilla war had been underway for months. Every, and I mean every, stop sign throughout suburban Chicago had “disco” spray painted under the word “stop”. Our message was as clear as it was defiant. We were local DJ General Dahl's soldiers. Brian , Dave, myself and a guy who went by Richie the Griff(whereabouts unknown) were on the front lines.

On that hot July night, we were called to duty. My squad piled into the beater Toyota driven by a future astronaut from Lombard. We were not able to reach the battlefield until after the first game had ended. Our progress was slow because as soon as we exited the Eisenhower Expressway onto the Dan Ryan it was a parking lot all the way to 35th St. We were in a gridlock of "burnouts" committed to destroying a genre of music. Literally thousands of vinyl records whizzing by your ears at deadly speeds as you hung out the car chanting Disco Sucks.

So we arrived late. The ballpark was sold out and there were 10,000 burnouts outside the main gate. All the local news stations had their mini cam vans in a row and their cables ran up into the second concourse. People were climbing the cables to get in. Comiskey Park was under siege. The police were escorting a mullet to a paddy wagon and when he broke free he was swinging at anyone in range. I got cold cocked like a 1970’s version of knockout game. Luckily, I was wearing a combat helmet that absorbed the blow.

I rarely talk about my role in the War. War is hell. But make no mistake, disco music died July 12, 1979