Harry Wayne Casey
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| - | [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpQfCcsqQ0E] | + | '''Harry Wayne "K.C." Casey''' (born [[January 31]], [[1951]]) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and producer. He is most famous for his group, [[KC and the Sunshine Band]] and as a producer of several hits for other artists. |
| - | On this day 40 years ago in [[1979]], [[Disco Demolition Night]][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpQfCcsqQ0E] heralded the [[last days]] of [[disco]]. | + | ==Early years== |
| + | Born in [[Opa-Locka, Florida]], to an [[Irish-American]] father and an [[Italian-American]] mother, Casey became interested in music at an early age. As a teenager he played and sang with several local bands and played piano at the [[Pentecostal]] church his family attended. He studied music at Miami-Dade Community College and worked part-time in a record store. He noticed often that customers would come in not remembering the titles of the records they wanted, and the store would lose the sale--this is the reason so many of his songs repeat their titles over and over. | ||
| - | '''Disco Demolition Night''' was a [[promotional event]] that took place on Thursday, [[July 12]] [[1979]], at [[Comiskey Park]] in [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]]. It was held between games of a [[Doubleheader_(baseball)#Twi-night | twi-night doubleheader]] between the [[1979 Chicago White Sox season|Chicago White Sox]] and the [[1979 Detroit Tigers season|Detroit Tigers]]. During the event, rowdy fans surged onto the field, and a near riot ensued. It would ultimately prove to be one of the most notable promotional ideas and one of the most infamous since "[[Ten Cent Beer Night]]" in [[1974]]. The event is regarded as the culmination of a backlash against [[disco music]] that had an effect on the decline of the genre. | + | While working at the record store, Casey often made deliveries to the headquarters of [[TK Records]] in [[Hialeah]], and spent so much time visiting the studio that eventually he was hired to work in the warehouse. TK's house bass player was [[Richard Finch (musician)|Richard Finch]], and he and Casey along with other musicians formed KC and the Sunshine [[Junkanoo]] Band in 1973. Casey played electric piano and sang lead with the group. Casey and Finch (also the only white members of the group) also formed a songwriting and producing partnership, and in 1974 had their first Number One hit as songwriters with [[George McCrae]]'s "Rock Your Baby." Casey and Finch also wrote and produced songs for [[Betty Wright]] and [[Jimmy "Bo" Horne.]] |
| - | ==Prelude== | + | ==Musical career== |
| - | A latent hatred had been brewing in Middle America against [[disco music]] resulting in a media supported anti-disco campaign in the 18 months prior to the event. | + | |
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| - | Popular [[disc jockey]] [[Steve Dahl]] who had himself hosted Disco parties was fired by local [[radio station]] [[WZZN|WDAI]] when it went to an all-[[disco]] format. Dahl was subsequently hired by rival station [[WLUP]], "The Loop". Sensing the anti-disco backlash Dahl created a mock organization called "The Insane [[Coho salmon|Coho]] Lips Anti-Disco Army" to oppose disco, in which Dahl and broadcast partner [[Garry Meier]] regularly mocked and heaped scorn on disco records on the air. Dahl also recorded his own parody, ''Do You Think I'm Disco?'' (a satire of [[Rod Stewart]]'s, ''[[Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?]]''). | + | |
| - | Meanwhile, on May 2, the [[Detroit Tigers]]-[[Chicago White Sox]] game at Comiskey Park was rained out. American League rules called for the game to be made up at the clubs' next meeting in Chicago. July 12 was to have been a single, Thursday night game, to kick off a four-game weekend series, the last series before the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Break]]. The first meeting was switched to a doubleheader, and the extra game resulted in the unusual situation of a five-game series. (The White Sox would end up losing four of the five games.) | + | The re-named [[KC and the Sunshine Band]] had some success in the UK in 1974 with "Queen of Clubs," then broke big in the United States in 1975 with "[[Get Down Tonight]]" and "[[That's the Way (I Like It)]]." Other Casey-Finch favorites include "[[(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty]]," "[[I'm Your Boogie Man]]," "[[Keep It Comin' Love]]" and "[[Please Don't Go]]." "[[Boogie Shoes]]" appeared on the soundtrack album for [[Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)|Saturday Night Fever]]. He also joined [[Teri DeSario]] on her hit "[[Yes, I'm Ready]]" in 1979. |
| - | Dahl and Meier, in conjunction with Mike Veeck (son of then-White Sox owner [[Bill Veeck]]), Dave Logan, WLUP Promotion Director, and Jeff Schwartz, WLUP Sales Manager, devised a promotion that involved people bringing unwanted disco music [[gramophone record|records]] to the game in exchange for an admission fee of 98¢, representing the station's location on the dial, 97.9. The records would be collected, placed in a large crate in center field, and blown up by Dahl. | + | Casey dissolved the Sunshine Band in the early 1980s and recorded several pop-oriented solo albums. In January 1982, he survived a serious car accident - the car he was driving was hit head-on. He was left partially paralyzed for six months, and had to re-learn how to walk, dance, and play the piano, but by the end of the year he was back in the recording studio. "[[Give It Up (KC song)|Give It Up]]", was released as a solo hit, shot to Number One in the UK and was a Top 20 hit in the United States (1984). But musical tastes had changed, and Casey retired (temporarily) from the music business in 1985. |
| - | ==Event== | + | In the mid-90s, due to the revived interest in the music and fashions of the 70s, Casey re-formed the Sunshine Band. He plays up to 200 dates a year throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, and has also toured [[England]], [[Italy]], [[Australia]] and [[South America]]. He also continues to produce other artists and is active in charity work in his native [[Miami]]. |
| - | The turnout for this promotion far exceeded all expectations. White Sox management was hoping for an additional crowd of 5,000, but a total of 75,000+ turned up instead. Thousands of people climbed walls and fences attempting to enter Comiskey Park, while others were denied admission. Off-ramps to the stadium from the [[Dan Ryan Expressway]] were closed when the stadium was filled to capacity and beyond. | + | |
| - | White Sox TV announcers [[Harry Caray]] and [[Jimmy Piersall]] commented freely on the "strange people" wandering aimlessly in the stands. Mike Veeck recalled that the pregame air was heavy with the scent of [[cannabis (drug)|marijuana]]. When the crate on the field was filled with records, staff stopped collecting them from spectators, who soon realized that long-playing (LP) records were shaped like [[frisbee|frisbees]]. They began to throw their records from the stands during the game, often striking other fans. The fans also threw beer and even firecrackers from the stands. | + | Casey also performed on the results show of [[American Idol]], season 8, on [[April 22]], [[2009]]{{GFDL}} |
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| - | After the first game, Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and helmet, along with Lorelei Shark, WLUP's first "Rock Girl", and bodyguards, went out to [[center field]]. The large box containing the collected records was rigged with a [[bomb]]. When it exploded, the bomb tore a hole in the [[outfield]] grass surface. After Dahl, Lorelei and the bodyguards hopped into a [[jeep]] which circled the [[warning track]] before leaving the field through the right-centerfield exit, thousands of fans immediately rushed the field. Some lit fires and started small-scale riots. The batting cage was pulled down and wrecked, and the bases literally stolen, along with chunks of the field itself. The crowd, once on the field, mostly wandered around aimlessly, though a number of participants burned banners, sat on the grass or ran from security and police. People sitting in the upper deck could feel it sway back and forth from the rioters. | + | |
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| - | Veeck and Caray used the [[public address system]] to implore the fans to leave the field immediately, but to no avail. Eventually, the field was cleared by the [[Chicago Police]] in [[riot gear]]. Six people reported minor injuries and thirty-nine were arrested for [[disorderly conduct]]. The field was so badly torn up that the umpires decided the second game couldn't be played, though Tigers manager [[Sparky Anderson]] let it be known that his players would not take the field in any case due to safety concerns. The next day, American League president [[Lee MacPhail]] [[forfeit (baseball)|forfeited]] the second game to the Tigers, on the grounds that the White Sox had failed to provide acceptable playing conditions. The remaining games in the series were played, but for the rest of the season fielders and managers complained about the poor condition of the field. | + | |
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| - | For White Sox outfielder [[Rusty Torres]], who had singled and scored the only Chicago run in a 4-1 loss in the first game, Disco Demolition Night was actually the ''third time'' in his career he had personally seen a forfeit-inducing riot. He had played for the [[New York Yankees]] at the last [[Texas Rangers (baseball)|Senators]] game in Washington in 1971 and the [[Cleveland Indians]] at the infamous [[Ten Cent Beer Night]] in Cleveland in 1974. | + | |
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| - | The event was deemed newsworthy worldwide. | + | |
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| - | According to the 1986 book ''Rock of Ages: The [[Rolling Stone]] history of Rock and Roll'' the event was the "emblematic moment" of the anti-disco "crusade" and noted that "the following year disco had peaked as a commercial blockbuster". Steve Dahl himself said in an interview with [[Keith Olbermann]] that disco "was a fad probably on its way out" but that the event "hastened its demise." [[Nile Rodgers]], guitarist for the popular disco era group [[Chic (band)|Chic]] said "It felt to us like Nazi book-burning, This is America, the home of jazz and rock and people were now afraid even to say the word 'disco'." | + | |
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| - | == Aftermath == | + | |
| - | Although Bill Veeck took much of the public heat for the fiasco, it was known among baseball people that his son Mike was the actual front-office "brains" behind it. As a result, Mike was [[blacklist]]ed from [[Major League Baseball]] for a long time after his father retired. As Mike related, "The second that first guy shimmied down the outfield wall, I knew my life was over!" | + | |
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| - | To this day, the second game of this [[doubleheader]] is still the last game [[forfeit (baseball)|forfeited]] in the [[American League]]. The last game to end in this manner in the [[National League]] was on August 10, 1995, when a baseball giveaway promotion went awry and resulted in the [[Los Angeles Dodgers]] forfeiture. | + | |
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| - | Much later, on July 12, 2001, Mike Veeck apologized to [[Harry Wayne Casey]], the lead singer for [[KC and the Sunshine Band]], a leading disco act. | + | |
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| - | ==Notable participants== | + | |
| - | Actor [[Michael Clarke Duncan]], a Chicago native and 21 at the time, attended the event. He was among the first 100 people to run onto the field and he slid into third base. He also had a silver belt buckle stolen during the ensuing riot and stole a bat from the dugout. | + | |
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| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | *[[Forfeit (baseball)]] for a list of similar events | + | |
| - | *[[Ten Cent Beer Night]] | + | |
| - | *[[Bounty Bowl|Bounty Bowl II]] | + | |
| - | *[[The Last Days of Disco]], a [[Whit Stillman]] movie, about the era, showing scenes of the event. | + | |
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| - | {{GFDL}} | + | |
Revision as of 23:08, 11 July 2009
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Harry Wayne "K.C." Casey (born January 31, 1951) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and producer. He is most famous for his group, KC and the Sunshine Band and as a producer of several hits for other artists.
Early years
Born in Opa-Locka, Florida, to an Irish-American father and an Italian-American mother, Casey became interested in music at an early age. As a teenager he played and sang with several local bands and played piano at the Pentecostal church his family attended. He studied music at Miami-Dade Community College and worked part-time in a record store. He noticed often that customers would come in not remembering the titles of the records they wanted, and the store would lose the sale--this is the reason so many of his songs repeat their titles over and over.
While working at the record store, Casey often made deliveries to the headquarters of TK Records in Hialeah, and spent so much time visiting the studio that eventually he was hired to work in the warehouse. TK's house bass player was Richard Finch, and he and Casey along with other musicians formed KC and the Sunshine Junkanoo Band in 1973. Casey played electric piano and sang lead with the group. Casey and Finch (also the only white members of the group) also formed a songwriting and producing partnership, and in 1974 had their first Number One hit as songwriters with George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby." Casey and Finch also wrote and produced songs for Betty Wright and Jimmy "Bo" Horne.
Musical career
The re-named KC and the Sunshine Band had some success in the UK in 1974 with "Queen of Clubs," then broke big in the United States in 1975 with "Get Down Tonight" and "That's the Way (I Like It)." Other Casey-Finch favorites include "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty," "I'm Your Boogie Man," "Keep It Comin' Love" and "Please Don't Go." "Boogie Shoes" appeared on the soundtrack album for Saturday Night Fever. He also joined Teri DeSario on her hit "Yes, I'm Ready" in 1979.
Casey dissolved the Sunshine Band in the early 1980s and recorded several pop-oriented solo albums. In January 1982, he survived a serious car accident - the car he was driving was hit head-on. He was left partially paralyzed for six months, and had to re-learn how to walk, dance, and play the piano, but by the end of the year he was back in the recording studio. "Give It Up", was released as a solo hit, shot to Number One in the UK and was a Top 20 hit in the United States (1984). But musical tastes had changed, and Casey retired (temporarily) from the music business in 1985.
In the mid-90s, due to the revived interest in the music and fashions of the 70s, Casey re-formed the Sunshine Band. He plays up to 200 dates a year throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, and has also toured England, Italy, Australia and South America. He also continues to produce other artists and is active in charity work in his native Miami.
Casey also performed on the results show of American Idol, season 8, on April 22, 2009
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