As promised,here is the second chapter of my extensive study on unreleased albums.As Prince fans,we are all familiar with album projects that never see the light of day.I thought it would be fun to investigate unreleased projects by other artists.A week or so ago,we took a closer look at the 1979 unreleased Marvin Gaye project 'Love Man'.This week,let's examine a mysterious Donna Summer album from 1976.This project is so mysterious that some people say it's all a hoax.Whatever the case,let's take a closer look at the album,as well as the rumors and speculation.If this album ever existed,it would have been an interesting project.It was supposedly recorded in late 1975 and scheduled for release in early 1976.Here's the tracklisting...



Donna Summer "Love Machine" (1976,unreleased)


SIDE 1---
"In Love With Love"
"Make Me A Woman(Take Me)"
"First Hand Experience In Second Hand Love"


SIDE 2---
"Love Machine"
"Now I Need You"
"In Love With Love (reprise)"


This unreleased album has attained the status of the holy grail amongst the many devotees of Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's disco music.Recorded late in 1975 (shortly after Summer's first international hit "Love To Love You Baby") in Musicland Studios,Munich in a matter of weeks,the album drew heavily on Moroder's fascination with synthesizers and Summer's growing reputation for risque lyrics.The six tracks were written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte with input from Summer,who was herself becoming increasingly involved with the songwriting after the unexpected success of "Love To Love You Baby".The album was produced by Moroder and Bellotte and synthesizers were programmed by Robby Wedel.The only other musician to appear on the album was Keith Forsey for 'electronic drums and percussion'.

The intended album sleeve,featuring a barely clad Summer skipping gaily between the printed circuitry of a monstrous machine,proudly stated that "only the human voice and electronic instruments were used in this recording".Sadly,the album was never to see the light of day.Moroder's record label in the U.S.,Casablanca Records,decided that the songs were too "downbeat" and not "commercially suitable".This view was prompted,no doubt,by the poor critical repsonse to Moroder's own syhtesized 'Einzelganger' album for Casablanca a few months previously.The "robot sex" theme contained in several of the songs was also subject to criticism and it was felt that it might not go down well with some of the large US retail outlets,who had previously balked at "Love To Love You".

Such rejection for Summer was not unusual---her 1974 pre-disco album 'Lady Of The Night' was not released in the U.S. (it's now very easy to find as an import),and nealy ten years after that,her 'I'm A Rainbow' double album was also abandoned (it has since been released as a single CD,that will be another thread...lol).(This now seems ironic given the huge success of Summer's "I Feel Love" one year later,but even this massively successful song was nearly omitted from Summer's 1977 'I Remember Yesterday' album by Casablanca.On that occasion Moroder vociferously complained and pointed to the chart success of synthesizer hits such as "Magic Fly" by Space and "Oxygene" by Jean-Michel Ferre.Needless to say,on this occassion Moroder's view prevailed and "I Feel Love" went on to become both a commercial and critical hit).

Upon cancellation of the intended album,Moroder set to work on a direct sequel to 'Love To Love You Baby' and within a few weeks he,Bellotte and Summer had written 'A Love Trilogy',which was more to the liking of Casablanca,particularly with it's soft-disco cover of Barry Manilow's "Could It Be Magic".Surprisingly,nobody at Casablanca noticed that one of the other tracks from this replacement album was entitled "Wasted"---a thinly veiled reference to both the rejected 'Love Machine' project and the hedonistic drug culture now in control at Casablanca.

Although 'Love Machine' was never officially released,some advance pre-pressings were accidentally distributed---mainly to radio stations in Europe.Aside from these few hundred discs---which are now worth considerable sums of money---no further copies were produced.Sadly,as with 'Einzelganger',Moroder now has little interest in seeing the album re-released.Fortunately (for disco aficionados) few of the album's songs were completely lost as some were later recylcled on other Moroder/Bellotte-produced albums of the period."Make Me A Woman (Take Me)" was drastically re-worked in 1977 and appeared on Summer's 'I Remember Yesterday' album,while a shorter version of "Now I Need You" made it onto her 'Once Upon A Time' album,also released in 1977.



(Some of this info was taken from the American Music Almanac,1985 edition.No bootleg copies have popped up here in the U.S.,which is why some people think this story is false).



[This message was edited Mon Jun 2 6:48:42 PDT 2003 by DavidEye]

DavisEye GREAT post! I'm a big Donna Summer fan & I didn't know about this unreleased album. Good job!

Unreleased albums are alot of fun. As a fan,you have to wonder though,what if this album HAD been released? We may not have gotten 'A Love Trilogy' (which was the replacement album).It's the same way with Prince.If he had released 'The Black Album' as planned,would we still have gotten 'Lovesexy'? But then again,I hate the idea of record companies deciding that an album is "not commercially suitable".Let the fans decide that!!

Very nice post, too bad about Giorgio not caring about the re-releases... Would be interesting to hear...

WatchThemFall said:

The music that Donna and Giorgio were making back then was WAY ahead of it's time.Alot of it was techno before anybody knew exactly what techno was.Listen to "I Feel Love",that didn't sound like anything else on the radio in 1977.The 'Love Machine' project was probably very experimental and electronic and hopefully,it will get released some day,in one form or another.




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[This message was edited Mon Jun 2 6:28:10 PDT 2003 by DavidEye]

Lady of the Night from 1974 was released on ATLANTIC in europe. as for Love Machine, this was supposed to be released on Oasis the Casablanca subsidiary, amongst dj's and collectors no one has ever seen hide nor hair of a test copy or acetate,i remember having discussions about this piece. the only persons that would know really anything is Donna,Pete,Giorgio, and Neil..

Finess said:

I actually have a photo of a promo copy of this album.It's all black with a sticker that says "Loaned for promotion only...Not For Sale...Ownership and all rights reserved".This project is a total mystery and nobody really knows anything about it,except (as you said) Donna,her producers and Casablanca Records.One thing we can figure out is that "In Love With Love" probably would have been the first single,since it appears in two parts on the album.



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[This message was edited Mon Jun 2 6:55:51 PDT 2003 by DavidEye]

Finess said:

vrrry vrrry interestin...nice thread, david! keep it goin with these, i love readin about stuff like this!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I got a few surprises in store.Every week,we'll explore another unreleased project.

DavidEye said:

most likely slated for 12'' release as a "suite" thats what i miss about the original 12' singles, stuff was longer sweeter,i go back and look at my original "disco singles" and i smile because these are the soundtrack to some of our lives.

Finess said:

i got a hold of "macarthur park suite" not 2 long ago, and it's the shiiit!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Isn't it a tragedy that the "MacArthur Park Suite" does NOT appear on the "Live And More" CD? They didn't have room to include it,I guess,so instead they deleted it and added the rare song "Theme from The deep (Deep Down Inside)".