MYSTERY OF THE TEXAS TWOSTEP

CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE:

COLLISION OF TWO WORLDS

Written by Rick Archer 

The Civil War created by Urban Cowboy was fought on a very unlikely battleground, Houston's country-western dance floors.  The opening of Cowboy in February 1979 should be considered the first shot.  However, the upcoming Collision of Two Worlds was a slow burn.  As long as there were still some Discos around, the tension was kept to a minimum.  That changed in October 1979 when the Pistachio Club closed its doors.  Houston was down to three clubs that still used a Disco format.  However, two of the three added a floor dedicated to western dancing in a separate area of the club.  The loss of Discos here in Houston was an omen of bad things to come because the final pressure valve had been removed. 

My first awareness of the growing hostility took place in November 1979.  Readers will recall the Ides of Waltz incident.  At the time, the sum of total of my exposure to Western dancing had been a dismal 20-minute visit to the Cactus Club back in June.  Since no Waltz music had been played, I had no idea that people dancing the Waltz traveled in a Circle around the floor.  One night in November, Devin and Mona stayed after class to ask me to show them a Waltz move.  They were planning to get married and had heard that Waltz music was a popular choice for a Wedding Dance.  I showed them the Box Step, a pattern used for dancing in a limited area on small dance floors.  When Devin and Mona tried their Box Step at the cavernous Winchester Club that night, they were rudely jostled by several Waltz dancers who circled the floor.  Devin and Mona were so bitter they were ready to lynch me for setting them up. 

My students and I were spared the growing tension at Cowboy.  Can you guess why?  Because Cowboy played Disco music in addition to their Western format.  In addition, Cowboy played the melodic Country Rock music reminiscent of the Eagles.  The Disco music, the new Western music plus an abundance of prosperous businessmen dressed as Fake Cowboys acted as a strong deterrent to the Old Country crowd.  They preferred to drink their beer elsewhere and listen to Outlaw Country music.  The battle lines were being drawn, but things stayed relatively quiet during the first half of 1980.  That changed in June thanks to the premiere of Urban Cowboy.  That is when the Civil War began in earnest. 

The cause of the war was Urban Cowboy.  The movie definitely made quite an impact on Houston, but not necessarily for the better.  Anyone who visited a C&W dance club following the premiere would have witnessed something akin to pandemonium. 

Prior to the debut, there were two kinds of Western dance clubs, Old Cowboy and Fake Cowboy.  Unless someone was looking for a fight, dancers had the sense to stick to clubs that played their kind of music.  So what changed after the debut?

Two things.  Now that Western dancing was officially the hottest thing in Houston, a tidal wave of newcomers joined the party.  These people had never danced Country in their life.  Unfortunately, the dancing was easy enough to get out there and try anyway.  This was a sure invitation to accidents.  In addition, the floors were so crowded no one was happy.  The old-timers had no room to dance.  The Fake Cowboys had no room to dance.  The Newcomers ruined the dancing for everyone. 

There was another important development.  Previously I mentioned the ex-Disco dancers remained patient as they awaited the movie's debut.  The moment they saw how lame the dancing was, they realized it was time to take matters into their own hands. 

Houston is hot enough as it is during the summer.  Once the the War Zone took place on Houston's Country-Western Dance Floors, things got even more heated.  Although no blood was shed, there were fistfights aplenty and frequent ugly showdowns in the middle of the dance floor.  The ever-present hostility was fierce. 

This is a complicated story.  I could probably write ten chapters.  However, you don't have the patience, so I am going to simplify things quite a bit.  There were three teams.  One team was the ex-Disco dancers.  That was my team.  The dominant team was the Old Country Dancers.  We did not like each other.  The third team was the Newcomers, i.e. the Johnny-come-lately Fake Cowboys.  Nobody liked them. 

The easiest way to explain the tension would be to compare it to 'Forced integration'.  Forced Integration refers to policies that compel people to become part of a larger group against their will.  Given no choice in the matter, people are compelled to abandon their unique cultural or ethnic identity to conform to a dominant culture.  No one is happy.  Certainly not the ones forced to adapt.  Nor the dominant group forced to absorb people who are not welcome.

Thanks to Urban Cowboy, the Kickers assumed this was their day in the sun.  They were the new administration.  Disco had just gone down in flames thanks to John Travolta.  Now that the Dancing Cowboy had eliminated virtually every Disco club in Houston, it was the Old Cowboys' turn to gloat.  "Ha ha, those stupid Disco Dancers are forced to visit Western dance halls for the first time in their lives."  The Cowboys licked their lips with anticipation.  Welcome to the Rodeo, City Boys!  We're gonna kick your ass.

Gee, I could hardly wait.  Having just seen Urban Cowboy, I disliked the movie for two reasons.  One, the dancing was mediocre.  Two, the premise was complete nonsense.  The movie suggested Cowboys, i.e. displaced Country folk, and Urbans, i.e. city folk, were willing to cross class lines to blend two dissimilar cultures into one happy Utopia.  Harmony and understanding.  Sympathy and trust abounding.  Don't be ridiculous.  So much for the Age of Aquarius.

Personally, I thought the hiring of John Travolta was largely to blame.  He was a polarizing figure from the start.  Travolta was seen by country folk as Disco disguised as Country.  He was an insincere Fake Cowboy attempting to cash in.  His movie was nothing but a money grab.  (Guess what?  They were right.)

Houston's cultural rift began when filming commenced in the summer of 1979.  Newspaper and TV reporters simply could not get over the fact that John Travolta, the hottest actor on the planet, was filming a movie nearby.  But get this... Travolta refused to live in Pasadena.  Instead he found a posh Houston mansion to rent.  Travolta claimed to love being a Cowboy, but everyone knew whose side he was on.  Just look at his address.

Houston reporters were locked in perpetual tizzy.  For weeks on end, I could not open the morning paper without some breathless reference to 'John' in the Gossip Column.  Nor did it stop with the newspapers.  Nary an evening went by without some breathless mention of a Travolta sighting on every TV channel.  Travolta was worse than Waldo... he was everywhere!  But what people failed to realize was that all this hype was a major insult to Houston-area Cowboys.  They hated him!

Although national box office benefitted greatly from Travolta's appearance, local box office would have done much better if Houston-born Patrick Swayze or Dennis Quaid had played the lead.  Many True Blue Cowboys boycotted the movie strictly due to Travolta's presence.  Indeed, local Kickers directed all kinds of disgust at 'Ravolta', pretty boy symbol of the hated Disco crowd.  The very thought that smug, conceited John Ravolta, the Disco King, had been chosen to play the role of the Dancing Cowboy made country people sick to their stomach.

Things got worse at the Premiere, much worse.  This was the day when Urban Cowboy showed its true colors when all those Hollywood celebrities dropped by to show off.  Andy Warhol at Gilley's?  Oh please.  You cannot be serious. 

Starting in 1980, the Cowboys were appalled to see Disco people enter their clubs.  Referring to us as 'Fake Cowboys', the Kickers were hardly in a good mood.  These clubs belonged to them!  They made sure their hostility was apparent by pushing, yelling, shoving, insulting, frowning, sometimes even going so far as to throw a punch and use profanity.  Well, I am sorry if the Disco crowd upset the Kickers, but I guarantee the Disco crowd would never have dreamed of going to a kicker club if their preferred form of dancing had not been forcibly taken away.  The Disco people considered going Western dancing as a form of 'slumming'.  This simplified dancing was beneath them.

The Cowboys were bitter.  They were Country when Country Wasn't Cool.  They felt invaded and violated by Disco dancers flooding their floors.  But what about the displaced Disco dancers?  Trust me, the Disco crowd was just as bitter.  No one likes to have something forced on them, especially without apparent justification.  Disco music wasn't hurting anybody.  If you don't like it, don't listen to it.  Why did Disco have to go?  None of us could understand why this boring style of dancing had been arbitrarily imposed upon us.  

Fortunately, this revulsion was anticipated by McFaddin-Kendrick.  They created clubs like Rodeo and Cowboy well in advance of the movie debut.  These clubs attempted to please everyone by playing both kinds of music.  I always wondered which genius had the foresight to create the exquisite Cowboy, a country palace quite acceptable to Disco snobs.  By the way, the Original Cowboys were disgusted by Cowboy.  In their opinion Cowboy sucked almost as much as Disco did.  Cowboy was considered Realm of the Fake Cowboys.  So imagine how angry the Original Cowboys were when some of the other C&W clubs began playing Disco music as well.  This was unacceptable!

In my opinion, much of the tension was rooted in class distinctions.  As the stereotype went, Disco was the preferred music of educated, elite Houston professionals while Country music was embraced by the less educated working class.  Although this is a serious over-simplification, it is the quickest way to look at the problem.  This was white collar versus blue collar, privileged versus less privileged. 

For example, initial Houston area box-office returns were surprisingly low.  Given the massive amounts of hype, the expectation was a big turn-out.  So what went wrong?  Curious, a Houston newspaper took a poll one month after the Premiere to see why local Houston and Pasadena teenagers were not flocking to see the film.  The major complaint from the kids was they did not have a clue what the word 'Urban' meant.  When that inflammatory statement appeared in the paper, the smug Disco crowd felt vindicated.  What a bunch of uneducated yahoos!  Did they ever think of looking up 'Urban' in a Hick-tionary?  Oh, too bad, they don't know how to read, do they?

It did not help that there was a long history of smart alecks who enjoyed insulting Country people in the form of Aggie jokes. 

"How did the Aggie die smoking a cigarette?"  "He threw the wrong butt off the cliff." 

Now thanks to Urban Cowboy, the Aggies were no longer the main target.  Gilley's jokes began to flourish instead. 

"A Redneck walks into Gilley's and asks for a drink. The bartender replies, "You got any ID?"  The Redneck says, "I don't have any idea!"

No one appreciates being made fun of.  And so the Heat Index rose in Houston.  People were getting hot under the collar.

JUNE 1980

COUNTRY WHEN COUNTRY WASN'T COOL
 

By bringing Cowboys and Urbans into direct contact, Urban Cowboy had flipped the social order upside down in the Houston area.  When a newspaper article reported that waves of yuppies and Fake Cowboys were visiting Gilley's, some wag suggested the Gilleyrats probably wondered if the Disco crowd was being bussed in.  They didn't like us and we didn't like them. 

But you know what?  I think the Original Cowboys felt more aggrieved than the Disco crowd.  After all, they were here first.  This was their home that was being invaded.  Feeling wronged in a variety of ways, a huge C&W backlash ensued.  Eventually it would be my turn to get shoved too.  One night some jerk called me a 'Disco Duck'.  He didn't like seeing me dance Disco, so he pushed my partner in the back.  Oh boy, that crossed the line.  If Bethany had not grabbed me with both arms and asked her nearby friends to help, there would have been a fight.

The Country crowd delighted in taking revenge on the hated city slickers who had spent their whole lives making fun of country people.  In their minds, acting ugly towards the citified newcomers was justified by a century of perceived disrespect.  However, this bitterness was hardly a one-way street.  I was bitter and so were my Disco friends.  Urban Cowboy had cost us our Disco lifestyle.  Country-Western was being shoved down our throats.  Furthermore, the Cowboy people who had been glorified by the movie were behaving like jerks. 

Throughout the summer of 1980, the centuries-old 'city versus country' tension was played out on C&W dance floors.  Certain misguided people engaged in silly turf warfare.    I began to give serious thought to the Kicker rally cry 'I was Country before Country was Cool'.  Why are these people so darn mad at us?  And what exactly are they objecting to? 

I identified five areas of tension... John Ravolta, Fake Kicker Clubs like Cowboy, Fake Country Music, Insulting Fashion changes, and the presence of Disco dancers who acted like they owned the place.  Houston-area Cowboys were upset over the inclusion of the Disco King as their unwanted movie hero.  The Cowboys got mad because fake Kicker joints like Cowboy had come along to steal Gilley's thunder.  They were especially angry that Cowboy had the nerve to add Disco music to their playlist.  The outrage continued when Willie and Waylon were snubbed on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack.  The old-timers were mad!  This new 'Eagles' sound was interpreted by old-timers as pandering to Yuppie Puppies new to the scene.  The nerve of Urban Cowboy to faze the out the Outlaw Sound against their will and replace it with smooth Eagle-style harmonies and soothing lyrics. 

Country people hold dear to their beliefs.  They believe in trucks, guns, rodeos and country music.  Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Willie and Waylon were their heroes.  Now they were being shoved aside for the Eagles and other California pop artists.  What the hell is going on here?  Some idiot Disco person must have put this soundtrack together.  What happened to Angry music?  What happened to Fighting Back?   The rapid music transition caused a lot of hard feelings and I could see their point.  I was angry when I lost my beloved Disco music.  Now the old-timers were angry because they were losing their beloved Outlaw music. 

With justification, the Original Cowboys felt like Hollywood was thumbing its nose.  They blamed the Disco crowd for Hollywood's decision to change the music from 'Real Country' to 'Country Fake'.  Country people detested the Urban Cowboy soundtrack because traditional music had been ditched in order to promote rhythms more suited to the tender ears of 'Disco Ducks'.   

Are you starting the get picture?  Urban Cowboy stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble.  The Discos were angry over the loss of their lifestyle and the Cowboys were angry over the corruption of their music and the loss of their dance club privacy.  Is anybody happy here?  In a manner similar to racial tension, we didn't know who we were mad at, but we were all looking for someone to take our frustrations out on.  Due to all this hostility, Houston's Country-Western dance clubs turned into a War Zone.

CLASS WARFARE

As if people's nerves were not rubbed raw enough, the Original Cowboys and Cowgirls seriously objected to the radical Fashion shift created by a bunch of anonymous New York people. 

Although I hardly consider myself an expert, after years of watching TV shows like Bonanza, Rawhide and Wagon Train, it was my impression that Western clothing had not changed much since the days of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  Well, those days were over.  Thanks to Urban Cowboy, something crazy was going on in Western fashion.

Based on the success of Saturday Night Fever, once Travolta committed to the new movie, it didn't take much to convince the fashion people in New York's Garment District to push every poker chip to center table.  Saturday Night Fever had been a surprise hit to everyone involved, but the success of Urban Cowboy seemed guaranteed.  Hyped as the 'Sequel' to the Disco behemoth, this movie felt like a surefire investment.  Consequently the marketing wheels were set in motion full speed ahead.  The Urban Cowboy fashion project shaped up as a gold mine certain to pay off in a big way.  But it was also an insult to some because these new western fashions had nothing to do with the far less glamorous country people portrayed in the movie.  More Hollywood was being stuffed down their throats.

Tasseled shirts, sequined vests, expensive boots, fancy hats, turquoise necklaces, matching earrings, spiffy belts, skirts with Navajo designs.  With the Fashion Industry championing these outfits as the New Normal, there were certain Yuppie women who put garish over taste.  Meanwhile, the people who most identified themselves as 'Country' could not afford these clothes. 

I could definitely understand why a person raised in the country would feel disrespected.  These gaudy new fashions were an insult because they implied country girls were not attractive wearing the clothes they were comfortable with.  The newcomers didn't just tiptoe across the line with their elitist snobbery, they demolished it. 

Showing off does not come natural to Country people.  They believe in being down to earth.  This ethic includes dressing for comfort.  Country folk are hard-working people who wear practical clothing.  They don't have time to worry about hair, cosmetics, jewelry and fingernail polish.  They wear dirty boots to work, not open-toed high heels.  With good reason, women raised in the country asked what exactly was wrong with wearing blue jeans and denim.  I heartily agreed. 

The Country people immediately blamed the Disco people for this abomination.  And why was that?   Because John Travolta was being linked to these ridiculous western clothes.  Since we were being told that Urban Cowboy was a 'Sequel', everybody jumped to the conclusion that the same people who marketed Disco fashions were trying to make a similar killing on Western clothes.  Disconcerting messages were being sent.  This was a movie about people from the country, but they got a city boy to play the lead, they used city music, and they marketed preposterous clothing presumably worn by city people.  Country folk did not need a college degree to see the insincerity.  It was increasingly obvious this movie was targeting City people as its desired audience, not Country people.  Travolta was fake.  Cowboy was fake.  The music was fake.  And this ridiculous clothing was fake. 

The dramatic change in women's fashion had everyone startled.  Clothes like these had never graced the planet before.  Where had this unusual trend come from?  I (correctly) suspected the twisted mind of a New York-based Wizard of Oz.  Someone operating with inside advanced knowledge had orchestrated this unexpected wave of Western designs long before anyone knew Urban Cowboy was in the works. 

Speaking for myself, I liked some of the Western fashions that popped up in Houston during the Urban Cowboy Era.  On a beautiful woman, these new Western clothes were very attractive, especially if she toned it down a bit.  However, there were certain women who went too far.  They would show up in a C&W club wearing attention-getting costumes that were inappropriate.  Why on earth would any woman dream of wearing fancy outfits like these to a dance hall?  There is a right place and a wrong place.  The C&W dance clubs were definitely the wrong place.  These alien outfits were a direct insult to the country crowd, so wearing them was certain to invite resentment from the traditionalists.  

Unfortunately, that sentiment was lost on Houston's Fashionistas.  They could have cared less that money-challenged, low-life yahoos with their narrow minds were unhappy.  They were Divas.  Divas have a right to shine.  Disco clubs were known for outrageous outfits, so why not Western clubs?  The Divas loved the Night Life.  During the glory days, no one objected to their extreme outfits due to the emphasis on glamour and fashion.  Women who once used their affluence to wear the most expensive outfits to the Discos turned around and did the same thing in the Western clubs. 

Despite all the hostility, leave it to Bob to make me laugh.  Pointing to a woman decked out in a heavily-tasseled Western outfit, he said, "Women like her probably stopped off at the Titanic dress shop to see if there was a going out of business iceberg sale."

In the Western clubs this ostentation was seen as showing off.  It was perceived as a way of putting down women who embraced the tradition of normal Western attire.  When in Rome, dress as the Romans do.  That means show respect for how the Original Cowgirls dress, you know, keep it modest.  The Glitter Gals disagreed.  They figured if they could wear anything they wanted to the Disco, they could do the same at the Kicker clubs.  And so they did, wearing outfits more suited for Halloween or Hollywood.  Appearing at venues which catered to hard working, down to earth people with dirt under their fingernails and calluses on their hands, they drew dirty looks all night long.

Truth be told, only a few women had the nerve to flaunt their wealth and so-called social superiority.  The majority of Disco women kept it under control and made a modest adjustment to designer jeans such as Gloria Vanderbilt.  If the Disco ladies had made an effort to blend in, I think the Original Cowgirls could have lived with this.  It was the gaudy 'Western chic' fashions that got everyone worked into a dizzy tizzy.  The old saying suggests one bad apple spoils the barrel.  These ridiculous fashion displays gave Country people good reason to think the Disco crowd was deliberately showing disrespect.  And they were right!  In my opinion, the decision to wear these over-the-top Western outfits to a Kicker club constituted an act of snobbery.

The word 'Pretentious' doesn't even begin to describe it.  Spending fortunes on Western clothing and accessories, the former Glitter Divas showed up in the Western clubs wearing outrageous outfits that had nothing to do with milking cows or mud on their boots.  To Real Country people, the clothing issue was about rich people thumbing their noses.  The message was that wealthy Disco Urbanites believed they were superior to less affluent, wrong side of the track Country folk. 

In addition to the disrespect, there was a second problem that was even more insidious.  Dare I say that some of these new outfits looked good on the Disco women?  Let me put this delicately.  When done tastefully, some of these modern outfits looked good, too good.  Once the Cowgirls saw their boyfriends discretely checking out the stylish Disco women who invaded their turf, they resented the newcomers even more.  The Original Cowgirls were furious.  They resented getting outclassed by good-looking, well-dressed women.  No one likes to be shown up, especially in their own backyard. 

Any woman who entered a club wearing flashy western fashion attire inevitably stirred up a hornet's nest of anger.  This was Class Warfare!  Who let these vermin in??   Cowgirls did not appreciate being shoved to the corner by uppity outsiders from the silver spoon side of town.  Royally pissed off, they made damn sure their men knew about it.  Now the Cowboys had another reason to be angry.  Their girlfriends were driving them crazy with complaints about rich bitches strutting their stuff. 

This whole thing had an ugly, rotten Disco smell about it.  Nothing... I repeat... NOTHING irritated the Real Cowgirls more than the thought that this unnecessary fashion invasion was favoring the Disco women.  Damn it, we were Country before Country was Cool!  Where do these uppity Disco women get their nerve?   These Disco frauds need to be put their place!! 

A trip to the Western clubs during the Summer of 1980 was fascinating for all kinds of reasons.  I could see the Real Cowboys and Cowgirls were seriously offended by the drastic changes.  I didn't blame them one bit.  The change in music and this fashion makeover were obviously deliberate.  Hollywood and Madison Avenue were dictating what Country people should listen to and how they should dress.  However, what the Country Crowd did not realize is the Disco Crowd felt upset for the same reason.  To put it in simple terms, thanks to some Hollywood or Madison Avenue jerk, the Disco Crowd lost their music, their dancing, and their venues.  The Western crowd lost their music and enough room to dance.  Plus their strongholds had been invaded by unwanted, disrespectful people. 

To put things in plain terms, now that Urban Cowboy had changed the dance floor landscape into some sort of Rodeo meets Disco abomination, NO ONE WAS HAPPY. 

But guess what?  It was about to get much worse.  Why?  We haven't talked about the dancing yet.