SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Flannel shirts, tortured rock stars and teenage spirit – the story of Seattle music is popular culture mythology. However the weirdest chapter of that story, the Teen Dance Ordinance, is commonly neglected. Whereas grunge was taking up the world, metropolis leaders imposed a regulation that criminalized younger individuals going to concert events and dance golf equipment. Predictably, the youth fought again. From Member station KUOW in Seattle, “Let The Children Dance! ” is a seven-part podcast that reveals the untold battle between punks, mother and father and politicians for the soul of the town.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: In the event that they wish to hold youngsters off medication and children off, like, wandering on the streets, give us one thing to do. , I am 16 years outdated, and I am unable to do something. It is like, you need us to remain at house and smoke weed? Or would you like us to exit and. like, dance round and have enjoyable?
DETROW: It is hosted by veteran journalist Jonathan Zwickel. On this excerpt, he describes the chaos that erupted when the police enforced the Teen Dance Ordinance, or TDO, for the primary time. The 1985 incident led to a avenue riot in a snowstorm, indignation from a well-liked TV commentator and a musical prank that turned an anthem.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LOU GUZZO: Who wants teenage punk rock nightclubs anyway? In reality, who wants punk rockers? If ever the remainder of us wanted to place our foot down and say sufficient is sufficient, the time is now.
JONATHAN ZWICKEL, BYLINE: Lou Guzzo was a TV commentator for KIRO 7 Information in Seattle within the early ’80s. Guzzo was an expert curmudgeon within the vein of Andy Rooney.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GUZZO: The world of medicine and booze made enticing by punk rock has them mesmerized.
ZWICKEL: He’d seem on air a couple of occasions every week to unload no matter was on his thoughts. In the present day, Lou was notably labored up. What caught his consideration had been the unprecedented occasions that occurred in his beloved metropolis the night time earlier than.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: An grownup and 5 juveniles are in custody tonight following a melee final night time exterior a Seattle punk Rock nightclub.
ZWICKEL: The membership was known as Gorilla Gardens. The band performing that night time was an up-and-coming act known as Circle Jerks. Seattle police shut down the present, and the following chaos can be referred to as the Gorilla Gardens Riot. It was the first-ever enforcement of the TDO.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: A number of police automobiles and a hearth division automotive had been broken after the youths started throwing issues at police. However, as at all times, there are two sides to a narrative, and a few of the youngsters who had been there final night time say the police roughed them up.
ZWICKEL: The accusations of police brutality apparently escaped Lou Guzzo. Possibly he was unaware that cops had been beating the crap out of Seattle punks for years.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GUZZO: We have now no obligation to offer youngsters nightclubs and alternatives for mayhem. In reality, I feel our obligation is simply the other, to forestall them from ruining their lives.
ZWICKEL: The Gorilla Gardens Riot was the opening skirmish in a conflict between Seattle’s music group and institution forces, a conflict that waged for 17 years and, within the course of, dramatically altered the world-changing music that will quickly explode out of the town.
ZWICKEL: The battle traces had been drawn. Punks had been prepared for a battle.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (Singing) Let the children dance, let the children dance, let the children dance.
DAVID PORTNOW: This bar was right here, but it surely was rather more seedy, and the…
ZWICKEL: Oh, seedier than it’s now?
PORTNOW: Far more seedy. Yeah.
ZWICKEL: Wow, ‘trigger this place is fairly…
I am standing exterior the previous Gorilla Gardens with David Portnow. In 1985, David was a 14-year-old doorman on the membership, working after faculty nearly daily. In the present day, he is our wiry excitable tour information by way of the Worldwide District. He is sporting a PIG Information T-shirt, merch from one of many a number of document labels he is run since he was a youngster. The place he is stating is boarded up, painted a boring grey. In the present day, it is completely silent, however again in 1984 and ’85, when it hosted reside music nearly each night time of the week, it might have been full of music followers in and out.
PORTNOW: Effectively, your metalheads had lengthy hair, leather-based. There have been mohawks and stuff however not these trendy, faux mohawks.
ZWICKEL: The membership was positioned in a constructing that after housed a two-screen Chinese language movie show. The man who ran it, Tony Chu, turned its two separate theater areas into two separate phases that ran on the similar time. The Omni Room hosted punk and new wave, and the Rock Theater was devoted to metallic. Chu’s pairing of disparate musical tribes below one roof was dicey. Brawls between punks and metalheads had been frequent. However Chu made the genius choice to cost a single value to entry each rooms. The rival clans could not deny a budget cowl. The consequence was alchemical.
PORTNOW: Again then, if you happen to had been into punk, you did not get together with metalheads, and if you happen to had been into metallic, you hated punks. That each one began altering about ’85 to ’90, and this was one of many first locations on the planet the place that befell. They commingled, and by the commingling, a few of the bands sort of performed a crossover.
ZWICKEL: That crossover and commingling between punk and metallic – the music it spawned turned Seattle’s signature sound. In accordance with Seattle lore, Gorilla Gardens gave the world grunge.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “10000 THINGS”)
GREEN RIVER: Crawling by way of, darkish, with streaks.
ZWICKEL: Inexperienced River is likely to be the primary band to grasp the sound. The situations essential to spawn that sort of revolutionary music are uncommon. However in these moments of revelation, younger individuals are at all times current. Rock ‘n’ roll, punk, hip-hop, rave – all these groundbreaking trendy musical kinds had been born from youth tradition.
(SOUNDBITE OF GREEN RIVER SONG, “10000 THINGS)
ZWICKEL: At their very first apply in 1984, the blokes in Inexperienced River had been barely into their 20s. They performed Gorilla Gardens a bunch of occasions, then they went on to start out Pearl Jam and Mudhoney.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ZWICKEL: The venue was bare-bones, simply music blasting from a makeshift stage in an empty warehouse. David Portnow labored the door. Six bucks to get in – his brother was within the opening band, The Dehumanizers. The Circle Jerks had simply gone on stage. The gang was dancing madly, when all of a sudden, with out warning…
PORTNOW: The police are available with a fireman, they usually did not say something.
ZWICKEL: David and I are actually exterior a self-storage place on the again aspect of Queen Anne Hill. In 1985, it was the second iteration of Gorilla Gardens. On that snowy November night time, the cops had discovered the place, presumably tipped off by a noise grievance.
PORTNOW: They only pushed me out of the best way, they usually go straight again, they usually had been in there, I’d say, about 40 seconds, after which all of the lights and the whole lot go off.
ZWICKEL: David says the cops did not announce themselves, did not say something as they burst in.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: About 10:30 final night time, 20 squad automobiles and dozens of Seattle law enforcement officials moved in on the Gorilla Gardens rock membership. They went inside, accompanied by the fireplace marshal, with directions to close down the place and successfully cease the music. They did. However exterior…
ZWICKEL: Nearly 30 law enforcement officials, 20 squad automobiles, to tug the plug on a punk present. They plunged the room into sudden darkness and whole confusion.
PORTNOW: No person can see. No person is aware of what the hell is happening, after which a few extra cops stopped simply got here operating in. They’d their batons out and simply began hitting individuals. No person had any warning in anyway.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ZWICKEL: Punks had been used to harassment from the cops, however this was a brand new stage of violence. Tons of of youngsters lined one aspect of the road, cops on the opposite. The youngsters began pelting them with snowballs. Regardless of the frozen streets, Seattle TV information station KIRO 7 despatched a crew to the scene.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: A number of police automobiles and a hearth division automotive had been broken after the youths started throwing issues at police.
ZWICKEL: The issues they threw included Molotov cocktails.
PORTNOW: , it was two wrongs that occurred that night time, however they hit us within the head. Effectively, guess what? You are gonna take a brick to the top.
ZWICKEL: Lou Guzzo’s rant aired the night time after the riot. He did not comprehend it on the time, however he was now embroiled in a punk rock artwork venture as a result of Guzzo’s spiel did not sit nicely with David Portnow and his buddies in The Dehumanizers. And the band’s bassist occurred to be an intern at KIRO TV, and he occurred to know the place KIRO stored the Guzzo recordings.
PORTNOW: He really walked out of KIRO with the precise tapes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KILL LOU GUZZO”)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Effectively, that is caught the eye of our commentator Lou Guzzo, and Lou tonight says he thinks a crackdown is so as.
GUZZO: I’ve to ask a query, Gary (ph). Who wants teenage punk rock nightclubs anyway? In reality…
ZWICKEL: The Dehumanizers took Guzzo’s voice and constructed a music with it. They gave it a catchy title, too – “Kill Lou Guzzo.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KILL LOU GUZZO”)
GUZZO: The time is now. And the problem is nightclubs for youngsters, in addition to the punk rockers that they entice.
ZWICKEL: Hostile, but additionally tongue in cheek – the singer take photographs at Guzzo, his spouse and his daughter. David pressed 500 copies of “Kill Lou Guzzo” on 45 and launched them on his document label.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KILL LOU GUZZO”)
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: If that is Lou Guzzo, we hate his guts (ph).
ZWICKEL: Right here you may have artists repurposing the sound of oppression as a sort of liberation. It is a thumb within the eye of authority, utilizing the person’s personal phrases towards it, artwork as guerrilla media warfare.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KILL LOU GUZZO”)
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (Singing) Kill Lou Guzzo. Kill him now. Kill him right here. Simply kill.
ZWICKEL: You’ll be able to see the pendulum course of working right here. An all-ages music scene bubbles up in Seattle. Cops and politicians beat it down with the TDO. The music group was put below such great stress that it was certain to break down, or it was going to blow up.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “EVEN FLOW”)
PEARL JAM: (Singing) Even movement…
ZWICKEL: Grunge was about to take over the world. However what most music followers did not find out about Seattle and possibly would not consider is that the town’s younger individuals had been left exterior wanting in.
DETROW: “Let The Children Dance!” is hosted by Jonathan Zwickel and produced by KUOW in Seattle. You will discover all of the episodes at kuow.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
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