This week we are putting as many things related to DD in one place, right here. In the final post, we will wrap this up with a few Odds & Ends.

To start from the beginning of this series, go here for Part 1.

We couldn’t finish this week without acknowledging that the war on disco also came with a song.

Do You Think I’m Disco was a parody of the Rod Stewart song Do Ya Think I’m Sexy which was #1 on the Billboard charts in 1978. Stever actually did several parody songs to that Rod Stewart song. Do You Think I’m Disco actually cracked the Billboard Top 65 and received national airplay for a couple of weeks.

So here is the 3 minute and 38 second gem (read next paragraph first):

Finally, here is great slideshow that is on the Steve Dahl You Tube channel. It also contains the song Do You Think I’m Disco. So if you only want to hear it once, do it from the slide show.

I hope you enjoyed our week-long celebration of Disco Demolition. July 12, 1979 will always be in the history books. If you liked it please post a comment or tell a friend.

Just one more thing… DISCO STILL SUCKS!!!

Buy the 25th Anniversary of Disco Demolition DVD at the Dahl Store.

To start from the beginning of this series, go here.

Our first air-check is from the morning after Disco Demolition. Steve can barely talk. His voice is shot. I’m sure that on the inside Stever is freaking out. His Coho Lips get-together that he thought would be lucky to draw 5,000 people was now national news.

At this point, Garry is in transition from being the “news guy” to becoming promoted to “sidekick” status. I left in his news pieces for perspective. When Steve started at WLUP-FM, Garry was the overnight DJ broadcasting under the name Matthew Meier. He would stay on the air after his nighttime shift to do the drive-time news for the first couple of hours of Steve’s show.

So here is about 30 minutes of audio from WLUP-FM from Friday, July 13, 1979.

On the third anniversary of DD, Steve read some articles that were in the newspaper in ‘79 and tried to clear up a few “inaccuracies”. This was previously posted on this blog and can be found here.

Our friends over at the YouTube site The Original Shock Jock previously posted the 10 year Anniversary show that you can listen to here.

Enjoy!!

This week we are putting as many things related to DD in one place, right here. To cover all the bases, let’s go back and look at photos of the event.

To start from the beginning of this series, go here.

There are a lot of photos on the net and I’m not going to post many of them here. Rather, here are links to two of the better collections I have found…

The Tribune posted a nice 30th anniversary photo gallery here.

This guy was there. His photo album is here.

Buy the 25th Anniversary of Disco Demolition DVD at the Dahl Store.

To start from the beginning of this series, go here.

Thursday night, July 12, 1979

This is video of DD as it was broadcast on TV that night

And this is what happened after Steve left the field…

This is video of news coverage that night

Buy the 25th Anniversary of Disco Demolition DVD at the Dahl Store.

Check back as we will be looking at Disco Demolition all week.
Enjoy!!

Steve Dahl killed disco. (Ask the Bee Gees. They said it.)

In 1979 the disco industry was worth an estimated $4 billion – that was more than movies, television or professional sports – and accounted for up to 40% of the songs on the singles chart.

Everyone from The Rolling Stones to Frank Sinatra had recorded disco tracks. But, disco was more than music, it was a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption. From cars to jewelery to bad clothing and hair. It was truly sickening.

I’m not going to recount the rest of the story. If you are here, you know the story. You may have lived it.

So, this week we will post a compendium of all things related to DD. Things that have been previously posted here. New audio. And video. Sure you could do most of this yourself; but hey, sit back and let us do the heavy lifting.

Because last year was the 30th anniversary there are a lot of good current retrospectives. Here are a couple of the best…

Steve talks about DD, 30 years later

Here is a nice 10 minute feature that appeared on ESPN last year. Even if you know the story this piece has great photos and video.

Check back as we will be looking at Disco Demolition all week.
Enjoy!!

Buy the 25th Anniversary of Disco Demolition DVD at the Dahl Store.

A-A-A Ayatollah!!

“Come on! Cool your jets. Meditate. Eat a hamburger…”

As you know, the hostage crisis also came with a song.

Ayatollah! was made in late 1979 as a parody to The Knack’s, My Sharonna and was performed by Steve Dahl and Teenage Radiation. This song was released on vinly as a 45. If you listen closely to the beginning you can hear the vinyl crackle. The B-side was Unhappy New Year.

Enjoy!!

Download it here and make it a ringtone!

Lyrics
Ayatollah!
Steve Dahl & Teenage Radiation

Ooh, you got a real nice beard,
A real nice beard
You know it really caught-a my
Ayatollah!

But you know your mind is weird,
Your mind is weird
You really are a nutty kind of
guy-atollah

Come on! Give us back all the people at the embassy
The Shah’s hangin’ out and he’s takin’ chemotherapy
He’s already gonna die-atollah!

A-A-A-Ayatollah

When you get the Shah back home,
The Shah back home
We know you’re gonna eat him on
rye-atollah

But we kinda need your oil
to make our gas
You know you’re such a pain in the
Ayatollah!

Come on. Cool your jets. Meditate. Eat a hamburger.
Don’t get us too upset or we’ll do something nuclear
(nuclear explosion sound)
Bye-yie-yie-atollah!

A-A-A-Ayatollah!

Ayatollah!

…Iran

A-A-A-Ayatollah!

Americans are mostly cool
mostly cool
But now we’re really startin’ to
fry-atollah

And you know if you were here
You were here
We’d hit you in the face with a
pie-atollah
(spoken)
I mean, nothin’ personal, man, y’know.
I mean, I do like your sandals. Very sharp, dude.
And that robe…Yes. Yes.
You desert dudes are all so tanned.
Can I see your tan lines?
Oh, and one other thing…uh,
Mike Wallace, y’know..on 60 Minutes when you did the thing?
Is he as tall in real life as he looks on TV? I thought not.
Hey, hasta luigi, dudesicle, but remember, calm down
There’s more of us than there are of you.
Ciao!

Things were a little different 31 years ago. We were in the middle of the Cold War with the USSR and the USA was the worlds’ most powerful country and had its hands in many places all over the world. Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called the USA  “The Great Satan”.

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution. (Wikipedia)

In the USA, the hostage-taking created a huge surge of patriotism that had not been seen since early in the Vietnam war and a severe backlash against Iranians developed in the United States.

In response, Steve Dahl took to the airwaves to get the Hostages released. First, by making prank calls to Iran. Then, SD gave the phone numbers out over the air and encouraged every listener to do their duty and make a call themselves. He also made the parody song “Ayatolla“.
At first, the calls were randon numbers. Then SD got the number to Islamic Fried Chicken.

Steve Dahl and WLUP were reprimanded by the State Department and told to stop because it may escalate the situation.

I am posting three airchecks.

The first is a series of 3 calls made by Steve and Garry during that time.

Prank calls to Iran

The second is 36 minutes of a Steve & Garry Show on WLUP-FM from July 3, 1980. This show includes a call to Iran (in Part 2).

Steve & Garry, July 3, 1980 (1/2)
Highlights of this aircheck include an attempt to call to Jimmy Piersol to talk about Disco Demolition that took place one year earlier. Also, News with Buzz and a failed EBS test.

Steve & Garry, July 3, 1980 (2/2)
Highlights include the EBS test/FCC talk (Steve cheated on his FCC license test). A phone call with Janet where Garry says he had “one of those dreams” about Janet the previous night. And finally, a call to Islamic Fried Chicken in Iran.

Another call to Iran that was previously posted on this site can be heard here.

You can also listen to Steve & Garry do the 10 year anniversary of their prank calls to Iran at The Original Shock Jock site on YouTube. Here.

Have a great July 4th weekend!!!

The Hounds were “one of Chicago’s most loved and most hated 80’s post punk bands. In the age when Off Broadway, Cheap Trick, and Pezband played the Chicago club circuit, one thing was sure; 5PM every Friday WXRT blasted out the demo version of “Drugland Weekend”"

Song highlights include (27:16)

• “Sweet Jane” (Steve)
• “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Hounds & Steve)
• “Blues News/Rock & Roll News/Coho Song” (Steve & Garry)
• “Under My Thumb” (Hounds)

Enjoy & Rock on!!!!

Coho Lip Blues is the B-side to Do You Think I’m Disco. It is performed by Steve Dahl and Teenage Radiation and was released as a vinyl 45 in 1979.

If you listen closely, you can hear the crackle of the vinyl record. I love that sound.

Here are the lyrics:

Coho Lip Blues

(spoken)
Yea, this is a little somethin’ that we call the Insane Coho Lip Blues.
The Insane Coho Lips, of course, is the anti-disco army dedicated to the eradication of Disco Dystrophy in our lifetime.
It’s the killer of, well, people of all ages and we want to make sure that we get rid of it.
This is how we do it…

(sung)
Now Coho Lips hate disco,
The way your Mom hates rock ‘n roll.
We love to take discos over,
The way midgets love to bowl.

We don’t like Pina Coladas,
We don’t wear white 3-piece suits,
We don’t blow dry our hair until it’s fallin’ out by the roots.
‘Cuz we are Coho, Coho
Insane Coho Lips!

It started in Chicago.
And the word has really spread.
But we won’t rest until we know that disco’s really dead.

We’ll sabotage all their dance floors,
With disco dance floor mines.
And start a whole new dance step,
That sends their bodies flyin’.
‘Cuz we are Coho, Coho
Insane Coho Lips!

Ahh, yea!
(Roman solo)
Insane Coho Lips

So if you’re into disco,
Of the Coho Lips beware.
The next time you’re on the dance floor,
We’ll put fish sticks in your hair.

We don’t mean to get so violent,
You bubonic disco rat.
But Donna Summer makes us sick,
And that my friend is that.
‘Cuz we are Coho, Coho
Insane Coho Lips!

The moral of the story,
And listen very carefully please.
A case of Disco Dystrophy,
Is worse than a social disease.

Cast off all your gold jewelry,
Your wrap-around disco dresses, too.
If we catch you listenin’ to the Bee Gee’s again,
We’ll break your legs in two.
‘Cuz we bes’ Coho, Coho
Insane Coho Lips!
Coho

Enjoy!!

I’ve been on vacation for the past 10 days. Thought I would throw up a quick 8:48 of Steve & Garry on WLUP. I’m not sure of the exact date of this.

S&G switch chairs and impersonate each other. This is huge funny as Steve & Garry nit-pick each others’ personalities.

Enjoy!!