Don't worry, bad things will happen ITTL...but most bad things will have a good side, too. (E.G. like how Aerosmith's plane crash let Lynyrd Skynyrd continue on with their career).
Just Like Starting Over: An Alternate Beatles Timeline
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Without Scooby-Doo and its formula, what else would HB have to milk for the remainder of the 70s? For that matter, would Ruby-Spears not be its own studio because of this?
All this to say that I was shocked when I read that.
Can't reveal what's coming after Scooby (That's for an upcoming update), but Ruby-Spears still exists, and a show of theirs will take Scooby's spot in the ABC Saturday morning lineup. They were made before the Scooby cancellation, and they were made to provide competition to Hanna-Barbara, and an opening in the lineup would do just that.
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Sorry for the late update, but due to personal matters as well as a busy schedule, the next update should come sometime around Christmas.
Early '79
Thanks for waiting for me, everyone. And now, your feature presentation.
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Lynyrd Skynyrd’s sixth studio album, Son of a Gun, was released on January 9th, 1979, with the following tracklist (Songwriters in parenthesis):
Side A:
Side B:
Along with those, the songs “Jacksonville Kid” and “Georgia Peaches” were B-sides for the second and third singles, “Mama Said” (which peaked at #14) and “Tennessee” (Which peaked at #25).
The album was well received when it was first released. Robert Christgau gave it an A, and Rolling Stone gave it four stars. Fans saw it as the band’s best since their debut, and the record was very successful, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200.
Retrospective reviews have also been kind. The album currently has a 3.77/5 on rate your music. Rolling Stone ranked it #413 on their 2012 “Greatest Albums of All Time” list. In 2020, it moved up to #388. AllMusic gave the record four and half stars out of five. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music gave it four stars.
Overall, the album was seen as a success. A success that would carry Lynyrd Skynyrd into the 80s and possibly beyond.
But, in March of that same year, the band announced a short hiatus. Whatever the future history was for the band, it was going to have to wait.
-
January of 1979. It had been one year since the Sex Pistols broke up.
John Lydon had already formed a new band with his friend John Wardle and guitarist Keith Levene. Public Image Ltd., as it had been called, had already released their first album in December of 1978.
Previous bassist Glen Matlock had also started his own band, Rich Kids. The band was a lot poppier than the Sex Pistols, switching the Pistols’ punk sound for a new wave sound.
Besides them, Sid had taken a break from music during his rehab, and guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook hadn’t recorded any music since the break up. There were even some rumors in certain circles that Jones and Cook were going to form their own successor band.
Sid, after a year in prison and then rehab, was ready to get back on his feet. He was off drugs, and he wanted to get back into playing music.
So, in January of 1979, he met up with Jones and Cook again for a friendly jam out, with Jones on guitar, Vicious on bass, and Cook on drums.
The songs were performed fine, but nothing special popped with them. Vicious’ bass playing was clumsy and Jones and Cooks’ playing were pretty standard. Halfway in, Vicious gave up playing bass. “Fuck this. I’m gonna try singing. That alright with you two?”
And so, the band launched into the Stooges’ “Down on the Street”, a song they all had experience in playing.
But something felt different about this cover. Sid turned out to be a great frontman, and he brought the song to life. He was energetic and fun, and brought the cover to the next level.
After about two hours, the jam finished. Once everyone left, there were thoughts that seemed to enter everyone’s mind. There had been talks of Sid replacing Johnny as frontman for the Pistols, but Sid’s drug habits had put a stop to any development of that.
But, as shown during the jam, it worked. When Sid was frontman, he had brought an original energy, one that could carry the rest of the band if they decided to carry on together.
But would they? Who knew. The jam inspired new life into the band, but was it enough to hold the band together?
-
The big winners at the 21st annual Grammy Award ceremony Thursday night — televised from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles by CBS‐TV — were John, Paul, George, and Ringo — The Beatles. Soft, predictable pop music swept the rest of the awards, with disco getting mostly snubbed, winning much less than expected.
The Beatles took home four Grammys. The really big award — Album of the year — for Starting Over, the biggest-selling album of all time, Record of the year and Song of the year for their hit single of the same name, and Producer of the Year for George Martin, who has produced for the band for the majority of their career.
The Bee Gees only won two Grammys, a major setback for the Australian disco-pop trio. The group had been nominated for six awards, but lost out to The Beatles in four of those categories, only winning Best Pop Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group and Best Arrangement For Voices.
The rest of the pop awards were won by middle-of-the-road pop. Barry Mannilow won male pop vocalist, and Anne Murray won female pop vocalist. Miss Murray’s award, which came as something of a pleasant surprise, was over a field consisting entirely of soft pop entries. In addition, the new artist Grammy went to Taste of Honey, a black female pop duo that offered one of the nicest live performances of the telecast; other new‐artist nominees included such tougher rock types as Elvis Costello, whose very consideration came as a surprise, and the Cars.
- From the New York Times’ John Rockwell, February 17, 1979
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Lynyrd Skynyrd’s sixth studio album, Son of a Gun, was released on January 9th, 1979, with the following tracklist (Songwriters in parenthesis):
Side A:
- Mama Said (Allen King, Ronnie Van Zant)
- Gimmie a Chance (Gary Rossington, Van Zant)
- Tennessee (Steve Gaines, Van Zant)
- Paying The Price (Gaines, Van Zant)
- Time Will Tell (Gaines)
Side B:
- Crown of Thorns (King, Van Zant)
- Honest Young Man (Rossington, Van Zant)
- Time to Waste (Gaines, Van Zant)
- She’s Alright (King, Van Zant)
- What’d I Do (Rossington, Van Zant)
Along with those, the songs “Jacksonville Kid” and “Georgia Peaches” were B-sides for the second and third singles, “Mama Said” (which peaked at #14) and “Tennessee” (Which peaked at #25).
The album was well received when it was first released. Robert Christgau gave it an A, and Rolling Stone gave it four stars. Fans saw it as the band’s best since their debut, and the record was very successful, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200.
Retrospective reviews have also been kind. The album currently has a 3.77/5 on rate your music. Rolling Stone ranked it #413 on their 2012 “Greatest Albums of All Time” list. In 2020, it moved up to #388. AllMusic gave the record four and half stars out of five. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music gave it four stars.
Overall, the album was seen as a success. A success that would carry Lynyrd Skynyrd into the 80s and possibly beyond.
But, in March of that same year, the band announced a short hiatus. Whatever the future history was for the band, it was going to have to wait.
-
January of 1979. It had been one year since the Sex Pistols broke up.
John Lydon had already formed a new band with his friend John Wardle and guitarist Keith Levene. Public Image Ltd., as it had been called, had already released their first album in December of 1978.
Previous bassist Glen Matlock had also started his own band, Rich Kids. The band was a lot poppier than the Sex Pistols, switching the Pistols’ punk sound for a new wave sound.
Besides them, Sid had taken a break from music during his rehab, and guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook hadn’t recorded any music since the break up. There were even some rumors in certain circles that Jones and Cook were going to form their own successor band.
Sid, after a year in prison and then rehab, was ready to get back on his feet. He was off drugs, and he wanted to get back into playing music.
So, in January of 1979, he met up with Jones and Cook again for a friendly jam out, with Jones on guitar, Vicious on bass, and Cook on drums.
The songs were performed fine, but nothing special popped with them. Vicious’ bass playing was clumsy and Jones and Cooks’ playing were pretty standard. Halfway in, Vicious gave up playing bass. “Fuck this. I’m gonna try singing. That alright with you two?”
And so, the band launched into the Stooges’ “Down on the Street”, a song they all had experience in playing.
But something felt different about this cover. Sid turned out to be a great frontman, and he brought the song to life. He was energetic and fun, and brought the cover to the next level.
After about two hours, the jam finished. Once everyone left, there were thoughts that seemed to enter everyone’s mind. There had been talks of Sid replacing Johnny as frontman for the Pistols, but Sid’s drug habits had put a stop to any development of that.
But, as shown during the jam, it worked. When Sid was frontman, he had brought an original energy, one that could carry the rest of the band if they decided to carry on together.
But would they? Who knew. The jam inspired new life into the band, but was it enough to hold the band together?
-
The Beatles Dominate 21st Grammys
The big winners at the 21st annual Grammy Award ceremony Thursday night — televised from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles by CBS‐TV — were John, Paul, George, and Ringo — The Beatles. Soft, predictable pop music swept the rest of the awards, with disco getting mostly snubbed, winning much less than expected.
The Beatles took home four Grammys. The really big award — Album of the year — for Starting Over, the biggest-selling album of all time, Record of the year and Song of the year for their hit single of the same name, and Producer of the Year for George Martin, who has produced for the band for the majority of their career.
The Bee Gees only won two Grammys, a major setback for the Australian disco-pop trio. The group had been nominated for six awards, but lost out to The Beatles in four of those categories, only winning Best Pop Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group and Best Arrangement For Voices.
The rest of the pop awards were won by middle-of-the-road pop. Barry Mannilow won male pop vocalist, and Anne Murray won female pop vocalist. Miss Murray’s award, which came as something of a pleasant surprise, was over a field consisting entirely of soft pop entries. In addition, the new artist Grammy went to Taste of Honey, a black female pop duo that offered one of the nicest live performances of the telecast; other new‐artist nominees included such tougher rock types as Elvis Costello, whose very consideration came as a surprise, and the Cars.
- From the New York Times’ John Rockwell, February 17, 1979
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Update: First draft of next update is complete, going to do some editing and readthroughs, update is expected to come out tomorrow.
It was the Summer of '79...
McCartney: “You know, a lot of the songs on that album wouldn’t be what they were without all four of us. Like take ‘I’m Carrying’ for example. That wasn’t originally a piano song. I played it for the guys on guitar, and George was like, ‘Hold on there Paul, let me just try something with that tune,’ and he played it on piano and it was great.”
Harrison: “That happened on a lot of the tracks on that album. Blow Away was originally much slower, and Watching the Wheels was synthesizer-based, but we kept tweaking the songs until we found things that worked for all of us.”
Starr: “Flight was originally called Wings, but Paul didn’t want there to be too big of an association between us and Wings, so I volunteered to change it.”
McCartney: “Yeah. I want Wings to stand as their own separate band, not just “Paul’s second band.” So Ringo offered to change the name.”
- The Beatles in an exclusive press conference, 1978
-
Wings had taken a hiatus following their 1976 tour, and that break would extend well into ‘77 and ‘78 with the Beatles reunion. Jimmy McCullough, their lead guitarist and bassist, and Joe English, their drummer, both left the band during the break.
In 1978, the hiatus stopped, and they worked on their next album. They recruited lead guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holly to fill in the missing spots.
In the Christmas of 1978, they released a non-album single as a group, the folk song “Mull of Kintyre”. The single was very big, selling about 1.3 million units. The public were a bit tired of the Beatles by that point, but despite that, the single was the 4th best selling single of 1978 in the UK.
The band was ready to release an album, and they soon did. In April of 1979, they released London Town, their sixth album as a group, their first double album, and last album on their contract with Capitol. The tracklist was as follows:
While there were some worries from Wings fans that the album would just be leftovers from the Beatles sessions, Paul quickly denied these rumors, saying that the next album would be mostly based in synthesizers and take influences from disco, punk, and new wave music.
So how did it come out?
-
Since his solo debut in 1970 with the casual, albeit totally original McCartney, this Beatle has been lending his truly prodigious talents as a singer, songwriter, musician and producer to some of the laziest records in the history of rock & roll when not with his original group. With the exception of Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, McCartney's work with Wings has proven to be as scattershot as it is puerile, each abortive rock snippet and silly love song feeding the mounting bewilderment about his direction (or utter lack of it) as an artist. Who, one felt compelled to ask, is in charge here? London Town provides the final, obvious answer: no one.
- From Timothy White’s review in Rolling Stone
-
Fifteen titles on a 50 minute LP--and only one, “Famous Groupies”, I could remember after it had finished. McCartney is throwing fickle lyrics and leftover Starting Over melodies at the wall--and nothing’s sticking. D+
- From Robert Christgau’s review
-
London Town is Paul McCartney's attempt at reassembling Wings after the 1977 Beatles reunion. Assembling a new lineup for Wings, and evolving the sound of the band to heavily include synthesizers, McCartney leads the group through a set of his most undistinguished songs, ranging from forced arena rock to formulaic adult contemporary to dull acoustic ballads. The dull, uninspired songs make this an overall weak record.
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s retrospective review for AllMusic
-
“The whole point of the record was for Paul to show how Wings could stand on their own, and instead, he proved why he needed the other Beatles. For Starting Over, Paul, John, George, and Ringo submitted their own ideas to the album, and what the band determined as the best got on the record. For London Town, it feels like Paul’s the only one in charge, and no one’s objecting to anything he does or adding ideas of their own. If anyone else was in charge, they’d have the good sense to not end off the album with a 6 and a half minute song called ‘Morse Moose and the Grey Goose’!”
- From Todd in the Shadows’ Trainwreckords review of the album, March 20, 2020
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While there were positive assessments, the overall assessment, both then and now, is that the album was a poor showing of Paul’s work when he had nobody to tell him what worked and what didn’t.
While the album wasn’t received well critically, it was expected to do well financially, and yet the album still did worse than usual. This can be attributed to multiple factors:
-
Hanna-Barbera were in a bit of a pickle in 1978.
Scooby Doo had been canceled, and the show was over for the foreseeable future.
But, something had to replace it. Something big, too. Scooby couldn’t just be replaced with another Flintstone or Harlem Globetrotters spin-off. Scooby was a flagship franchise, and to replace it, they’d have to replace it with another flagship franchise.
Yet, they had to choose something safe. They didn’t want to put their bets on a new franchise just to see it flop.
Meanwhile, a Casper the Friendly Ghost spinoff show was in production while this was happening. It was to be set in the future, and was to feature Casper as a “Guardian Ghost” to two female Space Police Officers.
While this series was in its early production, Hanna-Barbera were looking for a sure-fire hit to replace Scooby.
And that’s when an idea came around.
What if, instead of being a spin-off of the Casper concept, it was instead a straight reboot of Casper? There hadn’t been a Casper cartoon show since the 60s, and Harvey Comics had already okay-ed the licensing.
It wasn’t guaranteed to work (nothing was), but it had a pretty good chance. It was an already iconic character, using the same formula shown to work before, and with Hanna-Barbera’s talent and notoriety, it could really be a hit.
So the concept went through, with it set to air around October of that year.
In June of 1979, they started advertising for the show. There were mostly Television ads, but perhaps the most famous way they advertised the new show is when they partnered with Harvey Comics to make a special Flintstones comic book, which went out on store shelves on June 29, 1979.
The comic sold fairly well, and while not being the first Flintstones comic book, was the only one published by Harvey Comics.
And so, with the word out, the Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon was ready to come out.
-
Reporter: “And what do you think of this new wave of disco-dance music?
McCartney: “I can’t speak for the others, but I quite like it. It’s funky, it’s fresh. That “Disco Duck” song from a few years back is a favorite of mine.”
Starr: “I’d agree with Paul there. I wholeheartedly welcome it.”
Lennon: “I’ve always been a fan of black music…and it’s good that it’s getting so big, and there are a lot of great songs and bands that I just adore…”
Harrisson: “Sorry to be a bit of a buzzkill, but…disco just hasn’t clicked for me yet. I’m not really a fan of it or the new punk that’s come around…”
- The Beatles in an exclusive press conference, 1978
-
By 1979, disco music had seemingly plateaued at the top. While Sgt. Peppers had been a shot in disco’s arm, disco was still trooping on. Within the first half of 1979, 10 of the 13 #1 songs were disco songs. Rock artists like The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Grateful Dead, KISS, Chicago, and the previously mentioned Wings were using elements from disco in their songs. Pop and country artists, too, with Barbera Streissand, Dolly Parton, Connie Smith, Bill Anderson, and Ronnie Milsap were recording disco or disco-inspired songs.
Pre-existing songs, like TV themes, jazz standards, and big band tunes were being remixed into very successful disco songs. Along with that, many TV themes and ad jingles from the era took influence from the genre. Many struggling rock radio stations around the country turned to disco to get more listeners.
With disco everywhere…it became a bit much, and rock fans soon became sick of the genre. Rock artists who took disco influence were accused of selling out. The Dead Kennedys “Saturday Night Holocaust” likened disco to government apathy and escapism.
But the peak of disco’s hatred came in July, when the Chicago White Sox announced they would offer 98 cent tickets for anyone who brought in a disco record. After the game, the records would be placed in a pile and blown up.
The promotion was frontheaded by Steve Dahl, a Chicago shock jock and avid disco hater. A few weeks before the event, he got a valuable asset - an interview with Ronnie Van Zandt of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The interview was about an hour long, and was fairly usual…until the end, when Dahl reminded listeners to visit the upcoming Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in Chicago, at 5:00PM on July the 12th.
The interview wasn’t an enormous success, but it did attract Skynyrd fans to the promotion, many of whom also hated disco. He also got the time wrong - the doors opened at 6:00, not 5:00.
When July 12 came, people were ready. They were walking towards the ballpark carrying Anti-Disco signs and wearing anti-disco T-shirts.
And there were lots of them…around 10,000, to be exact, at the ballpark at 5:00 - an hour before the park’s doors opened. At the rate people were coming in, there were concerns the ballpark couldn’t fit everybody. It was evident that the promotion worked, but it worked too well. They had too many people, and they were all a little too enthusiastic about their hatred of disco.
But despite that, the show went on. By 6:00, around 50,000 people had arrived to the park - a little more than the park’s capacity of 45,000.
It was looking like a shitshow, and there was no going back…or was there? That’s when an idea came around. What if, to manage the massive toll of people and to shake off excess visitors, they delayed the game, blaming it on another matter? It was projected to rain, so the excuse wasn’t that suspicious…
And so, at 6:20, they announced a delay of the game to the following day due to projected rain and storms.
…This was a very stupid decision that only made the situation worse, for the simple fact that it pissed people the fuck off.
And when this news spread outside the ballpark, they did not take it lightly. Many started rioting, yelling, and throwing their records at guards.
And that’s when things got bad.
One man - who still, nearly 43 years later, is still unknown - was pissed off enough that he made an attempt to rush into the ballpark…and he made it in. Suddenly, many others who saw the successful rush attempted it themselves…many of which also got in.
Soon, there was a large-scale rush into the ballpark, and the park was overrun with tens of thousands of very pissed off disco haters, a good few of which were drunk.
And they started utterly trashing the place. Batting cages, cafes, food stands, and dugouts were destroyed, bases were stolen, records were thrown and set ablaze, and the ballpark was completely trashed. Employees inside the park reportedly locked themselves in the press box to avoid the rioting. 73 people in total reported injuries relating to multiple factors, including getting crushed or trampled in the entryway, getting hit by thrown objects, injuries relating to fights, tripping on fallen objects, and one man who drunkenly fell down a flight of stairs.
The crowd seemed to have gone by 9, but the completely trashed ballpark still remained. The White Sox ended up having to forfeit the game to their competitors, the Detroit Tigers.
The next day, everyone involved apologized, but the damage was still there, and the White Sox were forced to forfeit not just the game the night of the Disco Demolition fiasco, but two others with the Tigers. Manager Don Kessigner was fired in August.
Harrison: “That happened on a lot of the tracks on that album. Blow Away was originally much slower, and Watching the Wheels was synthesizer-based, but we kept tweaking the songs until we found things that worked for all of us.”
Starr: “Flight was originally called Wings, but Paul didn’t want there to be too big of an association between us and Wings, so I volunteered to change it.”
McCartney: “Yeah. I want Wings to stand as their own separate band, not just “Paul’s second band.” So Ringo offered to change the name.”
- The Beatles in an exclusive press conference, 1978
-
Wings had taken a hiatus following their 1976 tour, and that break would extend well into ‘77 and ‘78 with the Beatles reunion. Jimmy McCullough, their lead guitarist and bassist, and Joe English, their drummer, both left the band during the break.
In 1978, the hiatus stopped, and they worked on their next album. They recruited lead guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holly to fill in the missing spots.
In the Christmas of 1978, they released a non-album single as a group, the folk song “Mull of Kintyre”. The single was very big, selling about 1.3 million units. The public were a bit tired of the Beatles by that point, but despite that, the single was the 4th best selling single of 1978 in the UK.
The band was ready to release an album, and they soon did. In April of 1979, they released London Town, their sixth album as a group, their first double album, and last album on their contract with Capitol. The tracklist was as follows:
- Getting Closer
- Backwards Traveller
- Spin it On
- Cuff Link
- Children Children
- Girlfriend
- Old Siam, Sir
- Famous Groupies
- Again and Again and Again
- Deliver Your Children
- Arrow Through Me
- Name and Address
- So Glad To See You Here
- Goodnight Tonight
- Morse Moose and the Grey Goose
While there were some worries from Wings fans that the album would just be leftovers from the Beatles sessions, Paul quickly denied these rumors, saying that the next album would be mostly based in synthesizers and take influences from disco, punk, and new wave music.
So how did it come out?
-
Since his solo debut in 1970 with the casual, albeit totally original McCartney, this Beatle has been lending his truly prodigious talents as a singer, songwriter, musician and producer to some of the laziest records in the history of rock & roll when not with his original group. With the exception of Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, McCartney's work with Wings has proven to be as scattershot as it is puerile, each abortive rock snippet and silly love song feeding the mounting bewilderment about his direction (or utter lack of it) as an artist. Who, one felt compelled to ask, is in charge here? London Town provides the final, obvious answer: no one.
- From Timothy White’s review in Rolling Stone
-
Fifteen titles on a 50 minute LP--and only one, “Famous Groupies”, I could remember after it had finished. McCartney is throwing fickle lyrics and leftover Starting Over melodies at the wall--and nothing’s sticking. D+
- From Robert Christgau’s review
-
London Town is Paul McCartney's attempt at reassembling Wings after the 1977 Beatles reunion. Assembling a new lineup for Wings, and evolving the sound of the band to heavily include synthesizers, McCartney leads the group through a set of his most undistinguished songs, ranging from forced arena rock to formulaic adult contemporary to dull acoustic ballads. The dull, uninspired songs make this an overall weak record.
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s retrospective review for AllMusic
-
“The whole point of the record was for Paul to show how Wings could stand on their own, and instead, he proved why he needed the other Beatles. For Starting Over, Paul, John, George, and Ringo submitted their own ideas to the album, and what the band determined as the best got on the record. For London Town, it feels like Paul’s the only one in charge, and no one’s objecting to anything he does or adding ideas of their own. If anyone else was in charge, they’d have the good sense to not end off the album with a 6 and a half minute song called ‘Morse Moose and the Grey Goose’!”
- From Todd in the Shadows’ Trainwreckords review of the album, March 20, 2020
-
While there were positive assessments, the overall assessment, both then and now, is that the album was a poor showing of Paul’s work when he had nobody to tell him what worked and what didn’t.
While the album wasn’t received well critically, it was expected to do well financially, and yet the album still did worse than usual. This can be attributed to multiple factors:
- The album just wasn’t plain good. The bad reviews scared away potential non-Wings fan buyers, and the tracks fell out of rotation on radio fairly quickly, which leads us to…
- The underperformance of the singles. While “Mull of Kintyre” was massive in Britain, it only made a small dent in America, only getting in the lower 60s on the Hot 100. The lead single “Old Siam, Sir” didn’t hit the American charts at all, and only peaked at #35 on the UK singles chart. “Getting Closer” did better in America yet worse in England, peaking at #68 in the UK and #23 in the United States.
- Starting Over. While it may seem odd, the album’s biggest competitor was the Beatles album released right before it. The album’s lower quality was only highlighted by the quality of Paul’s previous record, and London Town was often unfavorably called the dregs of the previous album’s recording session. Speaking of the Beatles…
- By the winter of 1978, the Beatles boom had busted. This was also around the time Wings started releasing singles for the album. The album was released after people were getting tired of the Beatles’ overexposure, and that didn’t help radio play or album sales.
-
Hanna-Barbera were in a bit of a pickle in 1978.
Scooby Doo had been canceled, and the show was over for the foreseeable future.
But, something had to replace it. Something big, too. Scooby couldn’t just be replaced with another Flintstone or Harlem Globetrotters spin-off. Scooby was a flagship franchise, and to replace it, they’d have to replace it with another flagship franchise.
Yet, they had to choose something safe. They didn’t want to put their bets on a new franchise just to see it flop.
Meanwhile, a Casper the Friendly Ghost spinoff show was in production while this was happening. It was to be set in the future, and was to feature Casper as a “Guardian Ghost” to two female Space Police Officers.
While this series was in its early production, Hanna-Barbera were looking for a sure-fire hit to replace Scooby.
And that’s when an idea came around.
What if, instead of being a spin-off of the Casper concept, it was instead a straight reboot of Casper? There hadn’t been a Casper cartoon show since the 60s, and Harvey Comics had already okay-ed the licensing.
It wasn’t guaranteed to work (nothing was), but it had a pretty good chance. It was an already iconic character, using the same formula shown to work before, and with Hanna-Barbera’s talent and notoriety, it could really be a hit.
So the concept went through, with it set to air around October of that year.
In June of 1979, they started advertising for the show. There were mostly Television ads, but perhaps the most famous way they advertised the new show is when they partnered with Harvey Comics to make a special Flintstones comic book, which went out on store shelves on June 29, 1979.
The comic sold fairly well, and while not being the first Flintstones comic book, was the only one published by Harvey Comics.
And so, with the word out, the Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon was ready to come out.
-
Reporter: “And what do you think of this new wave of disco-dance music?
McCartney: “I can’t speak for the others, but I quite like it. It’s funky, it’s fresh. That “Disco Duck” song from a few years back is a favorite of mine.”
Starr: “I’d agree with Paul there. I wholeheartedly welcome it.”
Lennon: “I’ve always been a fan of black music…and it’s good that it’s getting so big, and there are a lot of great songs and bands that I just adore…”
Harrisson: “Sorry to be a bit of a buzzkill, but…disco just hasn’t clicked for me yet. I’m not really a fan of it or the new punk that’s come around…”
- The Beatles in an exclusive press conference, 1978
-
By 1979, disco music had seemingly plateaued at the top. While Sgt. Peppers had been a shot in disco’s arm, disco was still trooping on. Within the first half of 1979, 10 of the 13 #1 songs were disco songs. Rock artists like The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Grateful Dead, KISS, Chicago, and the previously mentioned Wings were using elements from disco in their songs. Pop and country artists, too, with Barbera Streissand, Dolly Parton, Connie Smith, Bill Anderson, and Ronnie Milsap were recording disco or disco-inspired songs.
Pre-existing songs, like TV themes, jazz standards, and big band tunes were being remixed into very successful disco songs. Along with that, many TV themes and ad jingles from the era took influence from the genre. Many struggling rock radio stations around the country turned to disco to get more listeners.
With disco everywhere…it became a bit much, and rock fans soon became sick of the genre. Rock artists who took disco influence were accused of selling out. The Dead Kennedys “Saturday Night Holocaust” likened disco to government apathy and escapism.
But the peak of disco’s hatred came in July, when the Chicago White Sox announced they would offer 98 cent tickets for anyone who brought in a disco record. After the game, the records would be placed in a pile and blown up.
The promotion was frontheaded by Steve Dahl, a Chicago shock jock and avid disco hater. A few weeks before the event, he got a valuable asset - an interview with Ronnie Van Zandt of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The interview was about an hour long, and was fairly usual…until the end, when Dahl reminded listeners to visit the upcoming Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in Chicago, at 5:00PM on July the 12th.
The interview wasn’t an enormous success, but it did attract Skynyrd fans to the promotion, many of whom also hated disco. He also got the time wrong - the doors opened at 6:00, not 5:00.
When July 12 came, people were ready. They were walking towards the ballpark carrying Anti-Disco signs and wearing anti-disco T-shirts.
And there were lots of them…around 10,000, to be exact, at the ballpark at 5:00 - an hour before the park’s doors opened. At the rate people were coming in, there were concerns the ballpark couldn’t fit everybody. It was evident that the promotion worked, but it worked too well. They had too many people, and they were all a little too enthusiastic about their hatred of disco.
But despite that, the show went on. By 6:00, around 50,000 people had arrived to the park - a little more than the park’s capacity of 45,000.
It was looking like a shitshow, and there was no going back…or was there? That’s when an idea came around. What if, to manage the massive toll of people and to shake off excess visitors, they delayed the game, blaming it on another matter? It was projected to rain, so the excuse wasn’t that suspicious…
And so, at 6:20, they announced a delay of the game to the following day due to projected rain and storms.
…This was a very stupid decision that only made the situation worse, for the simple fact that it pissed people the fuck off.
And when this news spread outside the ballpark, they did not take it lightly. Many started rioting, yelling, and throwing their records at guards.
And that’s when things got bad.
One man - who still, nearly 43 years later, is still unknown - was pissed off enough that he made an attempt to rush into the ballpark…and he made it in. Suddenly, many others who saw the successful rush attempted it themselves…many of which also got in.
Soon, there was a large-scale rush into the ballpark, and the park was overrun with tens of thousands of very pissed off disco haters, a good few of which were drunk.
And they started utterly trashing the place. Batting cages, cafes, food stands, and dugouts were destroyed, bases were stolen, records were thrown and set ablaze, and the ballpark was completely trashed. Employees inside the park reportedly locked themselves in the press box to avoid the rioting. 73 people in total reported injuries relating to multiple factors, including getting crushed or trampled in the entryway, getting hit by thrown objects, injuries relating to fights, tripping on fallen objects, and one man who drunkenly fell down a flight of stairs.
The crowd seemed to have gone by 9, but the completely trashed ballpark still remained. The White Sox ended up having to forfeit the game to their competitors, the Detroit Tigers.
The next day, everyone involved apologized, but the damage was still there, and the White Sox were forced to forfeit not just the game the night of the Disco Demolition fiasco, but two others with the Tigers. Manager Don Kessigner was fired in August.
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This isn't correct, I acknowledge that, but in my heart, it was Steve Dahl himself.
Seems the Beatles have gone into a bit of a slump and Disco is burning itself out - wonder if the backlash will see it revive and run for a bit longer?
Casper reboot? Meh.
Paul’s work with Wings reminds me of Freddie’s solo work outside Queen- no one to push back on /challenge/expand Paul’s ideas so it’s less ‘full’ than his Beatles work like Freddie’s was.
How is John, Ringo, and George’s solo work going?
Casper reboot? Meh.
Paul’s work with Wings reminds me of Freddie’s solo work outside Queen- no one to push back on /challenge/expand Paul’s ideas so it’s less ‘full’ than his Beatles work like Freddie’s was.
How is John, Ringo, and George’s solo work going?
Ringo and George should drop their next albums in 1980, John most likely later (83/84).
Most likely no, as he did that once for Revolver was a one time thing, and so I don't see him doing it unless he does it on his own accord.
Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your stance), that doesn't seem to be the case. IOTL's Disco Demolition Night (which was less destructive and had less injuries), he wasn't criminally charged with anything and his popularity increased. If anyone's going to be criminally charged, it's White Sox manager Bill Veek, who ITTL would've made the executive decision to delay the game.
I personally cheered Disco Demolition and the DJ who came up with it and I'm glad no chargers were filed.
Disco sucks, always has always will.
I did have some personal matters to take care of over March, but those are all over now. next update is coming before the start of April - expect this upcoming Thursday or Friday.
Sorry for being a little bit late - On Friday, the only day I was open this weekend - there was a tornado warning in my area, so I had to stop editing for a while. The next update will be out tomorrow - that's a promise.
End of '79
"I actually went around the baseball park yesterday after the chaos, and I found that it was just surrounded with disco records dropped on the floors and thrown around - Which, I have to say, it's a bit counterintuitive that we ended up opening the biggest disco record shop in all of Chicago. The record are even free!"
- Steve Dahl on his radio show the following morning, July 13, 1979
“No, we’re not going to be working on anything soon, or at least we’re not planning on it. Although, one day, about a month or two ago, Paul came up to me and asked, ‘Hey, I’m working on a Christmas track, wanna? And - While to be honest, I was interested - I had just finished a year and a half’s work of recording and promoting Starting Over. And that album was huge - I think it’s sold like 20 million albums by now - But I had to decline. And this is a bit of an announcement for my fans, too - To put it simply, I'm tired. I need some time to rest after all of that, y’know, care for my family too. My next album - I don’t anticipate it coming out for a few years. As for songs, perhaps in a year or so, if Paul asks me again to do a song, i’ll agree, but - I just need some time off. Don’t we all?”
- John Lennon being interviewed, October 11, 1979
-
In early August of 1979, multiple nights at the Roxy club in London had been booked by an unknown band.
That band was White Elephant Gift Exchange from Manchester. That band featured vocalist Ron Jones, guitarist Jamie Stevens, bassist Mike Goodson and drummer Charlie Palmer.
That band was not real.
Keen eyed punks in the crowd might have noticed the band looked familiar - In actuality, they were John Ritchie (Sid Vicious), Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, and Paul Cook under pseudonyms.
After the January jam session, the three remaining Sex Pistols continued meeting whenever they could - usually every month. The band started to form a chemistry together. It seemed the warring of the 1978 US tour was nowhere to be found - it was just three guys playing music together.
Still, the band felt they were missing something. Johnny was a good frontman, and he had improved as a bass player from his time in the original Sex Pistols, but he couldn’t focus on singing and playing bass at the same time. The band attempted to recruit John Lydon, but when asked, John respectfully declined, citing his involvement with Public Image Ltd as the main reason he couldn’t join.
Luckily, soon after, an opportunity came for the band. In mid-1979, Glen Matlock’s new wave band, Rich Kids, announced their disbandment after two years of being together. Almost immediately after, John, Steve, and Paul met up with him, asking him if he wanted to play bass in the reunited group. After hearing them play a few songs, he accepted the offer.
In July, the now four piece band began practicing together. Through the practices, they also started to write music.
In August, the band booked multiple nights at the Roxy under a fake name, calling themselves fake names, and had a set filled with covers of various punk songs - including two Sex Pistols “covers” (Anarchy in the U.K. and Holidays in the Sun) - as well as a few original songs the band members had written in the meantime.
When the band debuted White Elephant Gift Exchange, the reception was very positive. The crowd seemed to enjoy both the covers and the new songs.
It seemed the new Sex Pistols were in a good place…but what now?
-
Aerosmith was not in the best place after their 1977 plane crash.
Joe Perry, David Krebs and Scott Cushnie were dead. Joey Kramer was badly injured.
The last album, Draw the Line, was released in May of 1978 using mostly recordings made after the plane crash with Brad Whitford on lead guitar and Johnny Winter group drummer Johnny Caldwell, as well as a few recordings made before the plane crash. The two lead singles, “Draw the Line” and “Kings and Queens”, peaked at #34 and #50 respectively.
Soon after that, Joey recovered from his injuries and was ready to drum for the band once again. Despite this, the band was still missing a lead guitarist. To make matters worse, drug problems kept the band from recording for some time.
So, in 1978, the band held auditions for new lead guitarists. After over 1,000 auditions, the band had chosen a guitarist: Bob Deal, a blues rock guitarist from California who had a history with bands from the area. He seemed like a perfect fit for the group, and he was also an occasional songwriter.
In early 1979, they started recording for their next album, Off Your Rocker. Unfortunately, Steven Tyler had difficulty completing vocals and lyrics for the album, mostly because of his rampant drug addiction.
With the budget slowly dwindling and Aerosmith’s popularity also slowly waning, the band was sent on a short US tour. Unfortunately, the tour worsened the band’s relationships, and the rampant drug use only worsened. They often fought amongst each other, and live performances often came out sloppy.
Luckily, in August, a record materialized, and on August 31, Off Your Rocker was released.
And it was a huge flop.
Reviews of the album, both then and now, are polarizing. Some liked Deal’s harder edge in the songwriting process, seeing it as a change needed to the group, while some saw it as a hard clash towards the group’s normal style. Rolling Stone gave the album one star, and the Collector’s Guide to Heavy Metal gave the album an 8/10. Robert Christgau called the record a complete trainwreck, and Steven Tyler called it his favorite Aerosmith album.
Most reviews, however, weren’t as negative, nor as positive as many of the major ones. AllMusic gave it a 2.5/5. Rateyourmusic, a website where music fans can rate albums on a 5 star scale, has the album listed as a perfect 3 out of 5.
- Steve Dahl on his radio show the following morning, July 13, 1979
“No, we’re not going to be working on anything soon, or at least we’re not planning on it. Although, one day, about a month or two ago, Paul came up to me and asked, ‘Hey, I’m working on a Christmas track, wanna? And - While to be honest, I was interested - I had just finished a year and a half’s work of recording and promoting Starting Over. And that album was huge - I think it’s sold like 20 million albums by now - But I had to decline. And this is a bit of an announcement for my fans, too - To put it simply, I'm tired. I need some time to rest after all of that, y’know, care for my family too. My next album - I don’t anticipate it coming out for a few years. As for songs, perhaps in a year or so, if Paul asks me again to do a song, i’ll agree, but - I just need some time off. Don’t we all?”
- John Lennon being interviewed, October 11, 1979
-
In early August of 1979, multiple nights at the Roxy club in London had been booked by an unknown band.
That band was White Elephant Gift Exchange from Manchester. That band featured vocalist Ron Jones, guitarist Jamie Stevens, bassist Mike Goodson and drummer Charlie Palmer.
That band was not real.
Keen eyed punks in the crowd might have noticed the band looked familiar - In actuality, they were John Ritchie (Sid Vicious), Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, and Paul Cook under pseudonyms.
After the January jam session, the three remaining Sex Pistols continued meeting whenever they could - usually every month. The band started to form a chemistry together. It seemed the warring of the 1978 US tour was nowhere to be found - it was just three guys playing music together.
Still, the band felt they were missing something. Johnny was a good frontman, and he had improved as a bass player from his time in the original Sex Pistols, but he couldn’t focus on singing and playing bass at the same time. The band attempted to recruit John Lydon, but when asked, John respectfully declined, citing his involvement with Public Image Ltd as the main reason he couldn’t join.
Luckily, soon after, an opportunity came for the band. In mid-1979, Glen Matlock’s new wave band, Rich Kids, announced their disbandment after two years of being together. Almost immediately after, John, Steve, and Paul met up with him, asking him if he wanted to play bass in the reunited group. After hearing them play a few songs, he accepted the offer.
In July, the now four piece band began practicing together. Through the practices, they also started to write music.
In August, the band booked multiple nights at the Roxy under a fake name, calling themselves fake names, and had a set filled with covers of various punk songs - including two Sex Pistols “covers” (Anarchy in the U.K. and Holidays in the Sun) - as well as a few original songs the band members had written in the meantime.
When the band debuted White Elephant Gift Exchange, the reception was very positive. The crowd seemed to enjoy both the covers and the new songs.
It seemed the new Sex Pistols were in a good place…but what now?
-
Aerosmith was not in the best place after their 1977 plane crash.
Joe Perry, David Krebs and Scott Cushnie were dead. Joey Kramer was badly injured.
The last album, Draw the Line, was released in May of 1978 using mostly recordings made after the plane crash with Brad Whitford on lead guitar and Johnny Winter group drummer Johnny Caldwell, as well as a few recordings made before the plane crash. The two lead singles, “Draw the Line” and “Kings and Queens”, peaked at #34 and #50 respectively.
Soon after that, Joey recovered from his injuries and was ready to drum for the band once again. Despite this, the band was still missing a lead guitarist. To make matters worse, drug problems kept the band from recording for some time.
So, in 1978, the band held auditions for new lead guitarists. After over 1,000 auditions, the band had chosen a guitarist: Bob Deal, a blues rock guitarist from California who had a history with bands from the area. He seemed like a perfect fit for the group, and he was also an occasional songwriter.
In early 1979, they started recording for their next album, Off Your Rocker. Unfortunately, Steven Tyler had difficulty completing vocals and lyrics for the album, mostly because of his rampant drug addiction.
With the budget slowly dwindling and Aerosmith’s popularity also slowly waning, the band was sent on a short US tour. Unfortunately, the tour worsened the band’s relationships, and the rampant drug use only worsened. They often fought amongst each other, and live performances often came out sloppy.
Luckily, in August, a record materialized, and on August 31, Off Your Rocker was released.
And it was a huge flop.
Reviews of the album, both then and now, are polarizing. Some liked Deal’s harder edge in the songwriting process, seeing it as a change needed to the group, while some saw it as a hard clash towards the group’s normal style. Rolling Stone gave the album one star, and the Collector’s Guide to Heavy Metal gave the album an 8/10. Robert Christgau called the record a complete trainwreck, and Steven Tyler called it his favorite Aerosmith album.
Most reviews, however, weren’t as negative, nor as positive as many of the major ones. AllMusic gave it a 2.5/5. Rateyourmusic, a website where music fans can rate albums on a 5 star scale, has the album listed as a perfect 3 out of 5.