Let There Be Rock!
The MISL's embrace of rock music affects in-game entertainment across the sports world to this day.
This week’s MISL 1980s story comes from longtime Kansas City Comets historian Brian Holland. You can catch his weekly history of Kansas City soccer on his Facebook page, Hot Winter Nights.
If ever there was a true Rock ‘N’ Roll sport, it’s indoor soccer. The original Major Indoor Soccer League, which existed from 1978 to 1992, featured fast, end-to-end action on an AstroTurf pitch. This totally lent itself to being accompanied by upbeat music with a bit of attitude, both before and during the games. The MISL pioneered the concept of offering the sizzle AND the steak as part of their game presentation, which enhanced the fan experience and augmented the on-field product.
Most Major Indoor Soccer League teams were known for their flashy pregame shows that accompanied player introductions, punctuated with neon lights, pyrotechnics, Disco mirror balls, lasers, lots of smoke, and loud, driving music. No organization embraced that concept more than my team, the Kansas City Comets, who, starting in 1981, were an instant hit with the fans who filled Kemper Arena to capacity for several seasons. If you look around at sporting events today, you clearly see the influence of the Comets and the old MISL in all the pyro employed at NFL and NHL games, minor league hockey, and even the once-stodgy NBA.
The Rock ‘N’ Roll connection to the Major Indoor Soccer League was tangible from the beginning, as teams not only played it during pregame, but music blared over the public address system during play, which no other sports league dared to do. Even today, music can play during stoppages in play in the National Hockey League and all the other minor hockey leagues, but once the puck drops again, the music stops.
Some MISL fans (and players) complained about the noise back in the day, but for the most part, the practice was readily accepted as standard operating procedure in the “Missile.” Here in Kansas City, the hypnotic and pulsing synthesizer-driven “Chase” theme (from the 1978 film Midnight Express) by musician Giorgio Moroder was used not only as the music bed for pregame introductions but during selected intense points in the game (like power plays or overtime) to really get the crowd on the edge of their seats.
Several other MISL teams also played “Chase” (including the New York Arrows and St. Louis Steamers) from time-to-time, but the song is most associated with the Comets, right up to this very day, as it serves as the national anthem for “CometNation” and the current incarnation of the team in the Major Arena Soccer League.
In fact, prior to the ‘80s, prerecorded music on public address systems at sporting events was very rare. Most NFL teams, including the Kansas City Chiefs, employed a live pep band/orchestra in their stadiums. At virtually all baseball and hockey games, fans were entertained with the sounds of organ music.
Around the late ‘70s, prerecorded music began appearing at Major League Baseball games, especially during batting practice and rain delays, then it gradually worked its way into the game presentation itself, ultimately leading to players having their own pre-selected “walk-up” song each time they came to bat—mine would be the intro to “Eminence Front’ by The Who, by the way.
In a fun nod to tradition, some hockey teams still employ organists in their arenas to this day, even if it does sound a little hokey at times. Then again, the St. Louis Blues’ organist wailing away on AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” is almost worth the price of admission alone. Even during Los Angeles Lazers games at the “Fabulous” Forum in the late 1980s, the stadium organist played current hits by the likes of Belinda Carlilse, Los Lobos, Psychedelic Furs and Tiffany, and played them quite well. We had certainly come a long way from “Lady of Spain” in the movie Slap Shot!
Throughout the league’s history, Major Indoor Soccer League teams often used Rock ‘N’ Roll songs as their theme music for a whole season. For instance, the Comets’ 1988-89 slogan was “The Heat Is On," with Glenn Frey’s 1985 hit of the same name played during pregame and as goal celebration music. One song Comets fans never wanted to hear was Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears," because it always played overhead at the conclusion of Comets losses. However, if “Old-Time Rock ‘N’ Roll” from Bob Seger’s live album Nine Tonight blared on the P.A., the Comets were making a victory lap around the pitch at Kemper Arena.
There were even a few MISL players who shared the same names as Rock ‘N’ Roll performers and musicians. Mark Lindsay, who shared a name with a member of Paul Revere and the Raiders, played for the Baltimore Blast and Los Angeles Lazers—“Kicks” just kept getting easier to find for him!
There was Mickey Thomas, who beamed off the Jefferson Starship to play for the Wichita Wings, and I always wondered if Ian Anderson, rest his soul, ever played some Jethro Tull-style flute during his days in the MISL with Houston, Cleveland, New Jersey, St. Louis and Wichita. David “Budgie” Byrne of the Strikers, Blast and Wings wasn’t a musician, but I suppose he could’ve been a “Talking Head” anyway.
Pregame player introduction music was always a great way to get the hometown crowd pumped up (for instance, the Comets’ use of “Chase”), and there was a fairly wide variety of musical choices throughout the Major Indoor Soccer League. The St. Louis Steamers used McFadden & Whitehead’s 1979 Disco hit, “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” while the Baltimore Blast celebrated goals and victories with, naturally, Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.”
The Phoenix Inferno took the direct approach with the Trammps’ “Disco Inferno,” while the Cleveland Force took the even-more-direct approach by using the “Main Theme” from Star Wars to bring their players out. Staying with the movie theme, the Wichita Wings were synonymous with “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky (the Maynard Ferguson version, to be precise), with P.A. announcer J.B. Johnson inquiring before every match, “Wings fans—ARE...YOU... READY?”
The Wings were also known to use the Isley Brothers’ “Shout” (minus the togas) to celebrate their goals. Another Rocky Balboa movie theme, Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” was the Minnesota Strikers’ pregame tune. The same song was later used by the National Professional Soccer League’s Detroit Rockers to celebrate goals. But at a game I attended in 1991 at Cobo Arena, it got rather tiresome after about the eighth time the Rockers scored! Similarly, the Tacoma Stars constantly tortured me with Irene Cara’s “Flashdance...What a Feeling” every time they scored against the Comets during telecasts from the Tacoma Dome.
The Dallas Sidekicks didn’t stick with just one song for their pregame music during their run in the MISL. They went from the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited,” to Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” (from the Top Gun soundtrack), and finally to Gloria Estefan’s catchy “Get On Your Feet.”
Speaking of ‘Danger Zone," that song became rather synonymous with the NPSL’s Kansas City Attack and their penalty-killing unit, which was dubbed “The Rat Patrol” by public address announcer Ed Bishop in the early 1990s. “Danger Zone” kicked in at Kemper Arena every time the Attack killed off a power play, and the current Kansas City Comets also employ the song for their penalty kills. This always prompts color analyst Erik Bergrud to proclaim that “Danger Zone” was being played for the 8,592nd time (or some such figure) in K.C. indoor soccer history.
Here’s the real kick in the head: both “Chase” and “Danger Zone” were composed by the same man, Giorgio Moroder! Anyway, the Chicago Sting once used Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s instrumental “Fanfare for the Common Man” for player intros, but with that mighty foghorn at Chicago Stadium, there was no need for celebration music! One curious player intro tune was used by the short-lived New York Express in 1986-87: the late Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight.” Great song, especially since it featured backing vocals by the great Ronnie Spector, but not exactly a tune that would pump you up at a soccer game.
I travel to many sporting events around North America these days, and I marvel at today’s technology. With video boards and LED arena lighting that has further enhanced game presentations, the spectacles that the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken put on during pregame, for instance, are sometimes beyond belief.
Even the NBA has gotten much hipper with their game presentation, like the Phoenix Suns’ use of pyro during pregame with their infamous mascot “The Gorilla” boogeying to the music. When I attended an American Hockey League Chicago Wolves game a few years ago, they nearly blew their own arena apart with more fire and brimstone than you’d see at a Kiss concert! At nearly every pregame spectacle I witness in my travels, I always smile, knowing that it was the Comets and the Major Indoor Soccer League that started all this madness. It’s only Rock ‘N’ Roll...
Great article Brian
When i played for Memphis, one player (Ray Kunovac) joined us from Yugoslavia and his first game was in St. Louis. He was standing beside me as they started the Steamers introductions. Spotlight, steam/smoke, loud music, etc., etc.... he looks at me laughing and says, "Discotecka!"