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Cheezy disco
Oct. 25th, 2008 08:51 pmOk, I really like some disco music. I like to excuse it by the fact that it's one of the early electronica music styles. People often think it was the Moog, musique concrete artists, Kraftwerks et al who where the main influences on electronic music, but actually, disco was just as important (particularly for house and techno). Of course, that's just a justification - I just liked the groovy sounds, although I'm sure they were influential in developing my later tastes.
I'm not going to embed these YouTube tracks, but I'll make some linkitude of 10 my favourite tracks (not all of them), in descending order. There will be no BeeGees, though. Faugh!
10. Lipps Inc, Funky Town. Probably one of the last disco songs to hit the top 10, in 1980. Not bad for a one-hit-wonder studio band. For the record, I can't stand the Pseudo Echo remake. So, we have a drum machine equivalent and something doing the deet-deet-deet-deets in there. Not that exciting for 1980, really.
9. The Trammps, Disco Inferno. Hey, I had to include one song from Saturday Night Fever. And it wasn't going to be the (faugh) Bee Gees.
8. We can't leave out Boney M and Daddy Cool. Cheesiest of the cheese, but great bass line and those fucking disco-strings-of crackupitude. Also, Bobby Farrell as the sexy manbeast precursor of Lennie Kravitz - there is no question.
7. Eruption, I Can't Stand the Rain, featuring the amazing Precious Wilson. HAWT. Frank Farian also produced Boney M, but I he managed to lay off the over-processing with these guys a bit.. I love this track, but I also love the original Ann Peebles' Mississipi soul version... one of those disco precursors with those pre-funk rhythms.
6. Chic, Le Freak. Funky bassline, disco strings, disco rhythm guitar, soul diva singing. What else do you need? (Although it's actually one of those tracks it's better to dance to than to just listen).
Then we're going to have a couple of those soul divas who turned their hands to funk and disco.
5. Anita Ward with Ring My Bell. I love her voice, even though I'm not normally that big on high-pitched singers. Peeeow! I remember dancing around to this in Standard 4 (year 6?), waving my hands in the air. Heh. Things haven't changed that much.
4. Amii Stewart, Knock on Wood. She slightly beats out Anita Ward because of the bloody awesome costume, headdress and effects. And totally heavy synth action. Also, I thought she was HAWT.
3. Also from 1980, and part of the dying disco gasp, Blondie with Atomic. That's such a disco bassline, and in fact one of the best basslines ever (d-dun-dun DUN), and I love the effects in the chorus and in the "middle 8". Honestly, I think Blondie played pretty much every genre around at the time, and the next year (extra bonus) they morphed the disco into hip-hop with Rapture (still a disco rhythm guitar and bassline, but hilarious saxophones, and hey, the rap).
2. Probably one of the earliest big hits for disco, in 1974, La Belle, Lady Marmalade. I absolutely have to get up and dance to this one. Funky bassline, piano, brass, harmonies, and that clip shows them in great outfits. And turquoise eyeshadow. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?
1. And Her Majesty, the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, and her consort of the keyboards, Giorgio Moroder. I Feel Love is the absolute pinnacle of disco. That deep bassline, those synths (all synths!), the tikka-tikka and pew-pew drumlines, her voice and her moves. OMG. I love those backing singers and their moves as well. This is a clip of a really early version of the track, which is fascinating for her dancing moves (I do prefer the single release, even to the 12"). When I heard the single for the first time, I felt like my brain had fallen out of my head. It was the first time I was spaced out by a music track, and it's something I love when a song does it to me. I should mention Hot Stuff for more traditional disco beats, but great strings (slideshow clip, alas). And it's just an excellent track. I actually don't like Love to Love You Baby. I don't like the kittenish vocals, or her "orgasms" (but I did like Terry Nunn's! - only 2 years after Lipps Inc, and compare those synths). For disco camp, we have her and Barbra Streisand with No More Tears (feminist empowerment FTW! and hee, the days when Barbra was supposed to be a sex symbol) And just for a nice juicy cheeze sprinkling, MacArthur Park, the most stupid song ever, in a really OTT arrangment - hey, she's still got a fab voice (and she's playing that crowd of thousands like it's a couple of hundred)
I'm not going to embed these YouTube tracks, but I'll make some linkitude of 10 my favourite tracks (not all of them), in descending order. There will be no BeeGees, though. Faugh!
10. Lipps Inc, Funky Town. Probably one of the last disco songs to hit the top 10, in 1980. Not bad for a one-hit-wonder studio band. For the record, I can't stand the Pseudo Echo remake. So, we have a drum machine equivalent and something doing the deet-deet-deet-deets in there. Not that exciting for 1980, really.
9. The Trammps, Disco Inferno. Hey, I had to include one song from Saturday Night Fever. And it wasn't going to be the (faugh) Bee Gees.
8. We can't leave out Boney M and Daddy Cool. Cheesiest of the cheese, but great bass line and those fucking disco-strings-of crackupitude. Also, Bobby Farrell as the sexy manbeast precursor of Lennie Kravitz - there is no question.
7. Eruption, I Can't Stand the Rain, featuring the amazing Precious Wilson. HAWT. Frank Farian also produced Boney M, but I he managed to lay off the over-processing with these guys a bit.. I love this track, but I also love the original Ann Peebles' Mississipi soul version... one of those disco precursors with those pre-funk rhythms.
6. Chic, Le Freak. Funky bassline, disco strings, disco rhythm guitar, soul diva singing. What else do you need? (Although it's actually one of those tracks it's better to dance to than to just listen).
Then we're going to have a couple of those soul divas who turned their hands to funk and disco.
5. Anita Ward with Ring My Bell. I love her voice, even though I'm not normally that big on high-pitched singers. Peeeow! I remember dancing around to this in Standard 4 (year 6?), waving my hands in the air. Heh. Things haven't changed that much.
4. Amii Stewart, Knock on Wood. She slightly beats out Anita Ward because of the bloody awesome costume, headdress and effects. And totally heavy synth action. Also, I thought she was HAWT.
3. Also from 1980, and part of the dying disco gasp, Blondie with Atomic. That's such a disco bassline, and in fact one of the best basslines ever (d-dun-dun DUN), and I love the effects in the chorus and in the "middle 8". Honestly, I think Blondie played pretty much every genre around at the time, and the next year (extra bonus) they morphed the disco into hip-hop with Rapture (still a disco rhythm guitar and bassline, but hilarious saxophones, and hey, the rap).
2. Probably one of the earliest big hits for disco, in 1974, La Belle, Lady Marmalade. I absolutely have to get up and dance to this one. Funky bassline, piano, brass, harmonies, and that clip shows them in great outfits. And turquoise eyeshadow. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?
1. And Her Majesty, the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, and her consort of the keyboards, Giorgio Moroder. I Feel Love is the absolute pinnacle of disco. That deep bassline, those synths (all synths!), the tikka-tikka and pew-pew drumlines, her voice and her moves. OMG. I love those backing singers and their moves as well. This is a clip of a really early version of the track, which is fascinating for her dancing moves (I do prefer the single release, even to the 12"). When I heard the single for the first time, I felt like my brain had fallen out of my head. It was the first time I was spaced out by a music track, and it's something I love when a song does it to me. I should mention Hot Stuff for more traditional disco beats, but great strings (slideshow clip, alas). And it's just an excellent track. I actually don't like Love to Love You Baby. I don't like the kittenish vocals, or her "orgasms" (but I did like Terry Nunn's! - only 2 years after Lipps Inc, and compare those synths). For disco camp, we have her and Barbra Streisand with No More Tears (feminist empowerment FTW! and hee, the days when Barbra was supposed to be a sex symbol) And just for a nice juicy cheeze sprinkling, MacArthur Park, the most stupid song ever, in a really OTT arrangment - hey, she's still got a fab voice (and she's playing that crowd of thousands like it's a couple of hundred)
