TheMax said:

Me, personally, I enjoy the more funky or r&b-type disco (better known as House music to those of us who grew up shortly after disco passed). I was never into the campy pop styled disco, and in my opinion, THAT was what made disco suck. Once everybody and their mommas started doing disco, it really did begin to suck. I'll stick to my house music (not the casio keyboard & drum machine songs that later came to be considered "house"...I'm talking urban disco music).

That being said, I am a collector of REAL house music, so if anybody would like to share or trade, let me know.

gooeythehamster said:

Totally disagree about the clothes - they were gorgeous!

Supernova said:

DavidEye said:

u for got the classic Forgotten Bryan Adams Disco song from 1978 "let me take you dancin" lol... and come to me by France Joli... come on dance dance by staurday night band... anything from Prelude Records from 1978-79 was classic

codshort said:

i got every 12'' from Traxx... dj International...every white label and Test Pressing that came out of Chicago now what u got for me hmmm? lol

Everybody forgot KISS I WAS Made For Lovin You? Listen the Disco is still being played on certain stations. I don't think the music Sucked but the whole Stupid Attitude Sucked. It was Rock vs Disco and it was the Disco Queens /Cushines Donna Summer /Chic vs I am Iron Man/ Stairway to Heaven vibe. It was the whole Decade that Sucked. The Stones said it best...Sucking in the Seventies...

PFunkjazz said:

i have to give a big amen to everything you said there...

i have to agree that part of the backlash against disco was a racist/homophobic thing... then again, a good portion of it was just the fact that a lot of the music lacked soul... this is the same problem we have with techno today... it's just a lot of technology and not a lot muscianship and soul... i have just never been able to feel either form of music... there are disco songs that i like and techno songs that i like, but on the whole, i don't really like either genres of music...

another thing is that not all of the backlash came from white rock artists/fans... a lot of it also came from funk & soul artists... on the funkadelic album "uncle jam wants you," george clinton states that their purpose is to "rescue dance music from the blahs," which i imagine would have been disco... it killed a lot of funk and soul careers because it was more uplifting and less emotional than soul music and less organic and less strange than funk music... and a lot easier to dance to, because of the mechanical rhythms...

thank god for punk & punk-funk... kickin' discos ass back underground...

no offense to those who love it, i've just never been able to understand it...


oh muthafuck you, edit...
[This message was edited Sat Jul 20 21:37:33 PDT 2002 by EllisDee]

Finess said:

Oh yes,I rememeber that early Brian Adams song "Let Me Take You Dancing"...lol...that's probably one song that he would love to forget:).His vocals were speeded up,making him sound like a cartoon character...lol...

Here are a few other favorites that I forgot to mention...


***"Livin It Up (Friday Night)"Bell & James (1979)---This is the perfect song to blast on a Friday afternoon,when you're almost off work and planning what you're gonna do that night.

***"Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel"Tavares(1976)

***"Found A Cure"Ashford and Simpson(1979)

***"Take Me Home"Cher (1979)

ZaZa said:

Agreed! Many of the early Disco songs (1973-75) were slower and heavily orchestrated (Gloria Gaynor's "Honeybee"(1973),The Silver Convention's "Fly Robin Fly"(1975),etc) although there were still some great songs from this period.The truly great Disco songs came later in the decade,roughly the years 1977-79.

DavidEye said:

and also "Nothing's gonna keep me from you -Teri Di Sario (1979)
Standing in the Rain- Don Ray 1978 ( Basically anything Cerrone Produced kicked ass)
Risky Canges-Bionic Boogie ( 1978)
Here comes that sound- Love Deluxe ( 1979)
Sun Sun Sun - Jaaki ( 1976 ) very rare single now



"

Disco definitely stymied the funkativity of one the great funk bands of that time.
Kool & The Gang were known for their, albeit, simple chants, but the underlying funk rhythms
and jazz-influenced horn arrangements served notice that they took their funk seriously. Even
James Brown remarked that bassist Ronald Bell & company had a handle that rivaled his own.

They latched onto the disco bandwagon in late '78 when they picked up vocalist James Taylor and
producer Eumir Deodato and summarily cranked out disco tunes like "Ladies Night" and "Celebration" that grew to be huge sellers. This funk was lightweight when compared to the magnificent jazz-funk
opuses of WILD & PEACEFUL, LIGHT OF WORLDS and OPEN SESAME. They tried to recoup their lost funk with the EMERGENCY in the 80s which featured a few great slices of funk, but the band still catered to the soft and fluffy on subsequent releases.

PFunkjazz said:

Yeah me and some of my other funkateer homies talk about the early days of Kool And The Gang before thy got SOFT. Man that "Emergency" is too lightweight for me...UGGGHHH!!!

I thought picking up JT was a good plus for the band. I like the SOMETHING SPECIAL album though. JT had some good vocal peformances of that album. He could go falsetto too, as evidenced by the danceable "Steppin Out". I need to cop the CD version of the album. Wonder if there is a digitally remastered version of this album???

GeneMohawk said:

DISCO KILLS AND IT SUCKS!!! I also DJ and I have to say that I have a strong disrespect for disco. I am very surprised that all the fellow music experts and -lovers in here praise disco. did none of you ever realize what disco did??? that it killed the soul in music??? Until the early 70s the soul was real. people were dancing to the FUNK. James Brown, Kool & the Gang, Earth Win & Fire, The Barkays, Mandrill, etc.. they were making REAL music for REAL people. and they were touring the planet offering live-shows people havent seen before. and then came disco... even more sad is the fact that it came from the country where I live: Germany. in the discos people decided to dance to DJ music rather than live-music. a decision which killed the Soul movement. yes, you are reading it correctly, DISCO KILLED SOUL!! read what james brown is saying in his autobiography: promoters didnt wanna book the real acts no more. disco producers took the funk and simply watered it. they made it too easy, no real drive, no dirt, they made it clean and happy. thats how house and techno could emerge 15 years later.
all the great artists I have mentioned before HAD to compromise, or they would have been dropped by their labels. even the godfather JB has been remixed by polydor producers so much that almost nothing was left of the original tune. we can thank the disco hype that funk legends like EW&F and Kool & The Gang, who did outstanding work on their pre-1975 records, will always be remembered for "Celebration", "Fantasy", etc. many musicians gave up in the late 70s and sunk into depression... until around 1990 when people realized what went wrong, what tremendous music got lost in the hype.
DISCO is commercial BS, it got no feel, its just there to give you a happy feeling. nothing wrong with that, but then you might drop an exstasy pill as well. it made the masters of funk look ridiculous when they had to fight for their lives.
come on guys, think it over. disco never did anything for music except house and techno. I am proud that I never had to compromise and play that shit

June7 said:

those titles are everything but disco! most of them qualify as funk- or soul classics! I know you took the list from a compilation june... thats the sad shit about disco, they abuse the real shit!

CinisterCee said:

I agree that disco was big in the gay community. however fact is that black funk musicians hated disco. they felt it was the white part of the industrie which took the funk and made it mainstream, so they can sell that shit to a white public.

soulpower said:

I think you're being a little harsh.The funk was still alive during the Disco era! You had P-Funk,Slave,Brick,Cameo,Con Funk Shun and many other funk bands to represent the funk during the Disco era.Nowadays,we complain that R&B music is sample-heavy,watered down nonsense (which it is),but it's worth noting that,for the most part, 70s Disco music relied on REAL INSTRUMENTS being played.Like any other type of music,Disco had it's share of embarassments (The Village People,Sylvester,etc).But it also had trendsetting groups and artists like...

***Chic---Listen to the bass on their records!

***Donna Summer---she did many groundbreaking recordings that defined an era ("Bad Girls","MacArthur Park","Hot Stuff").

***Heatwave---leader Rod Temperton is one of the greatest songwriters ever.Just ask Quincy Jones,who stole him away from this band.

TheMax said:

redneck taunt? actually it was, as I stated in my post above, the black musicians which hated disco most... because it didnt allow them to play their real shit anymore

soulpower said:

How do you define a "Disco" song? I have many Disco compilations,and the Rose Royce song "Car Wash" is on many of them.Is that a "Disco" song? Is "Dancing Machine" by the Jacksons a "Disco" song? Where do you draw the line? In the 1978 movie 'TGIF',you got the Commodores performing "Too Hot Ta Trot" during the dance contest! It seems like the line between "Disco/funk/soul" was very thin!

TheMax said:

Earth Wind and Fire was not a "Disco" group.A few songs on their 1979 album 'I Am' are unquestionably "Disco" but I always considered them an R&B band that could branch out into other areas with ease (jazz,pop,etc).But I was not afraid of the word "Disco" to describe other bands I liked back then (GQ,Chic,etc).

DavidEye said:

its the drums, dave. its the drums that make the difference between funk and disco. I heard a lot of funk drummers complain how they were forced to play disco. its a different drive. its very clean, sometimes its not even really there. a good example is mandrill. neftali santiago is one of my favorite funk drummers. but listen how he sounds on "new worlds" (1978), a disco-flavored album. it seems like his playing is non-existing. same counts for james brown. clyde stubblefield and jabo starks as well as melvin parker gave his music the funk-beats. tony cook was disco. in later music they mixed down the syncopating rhythm guitar by nimmy nolen as well. a transformation from funk to disco was complete.

The songs I've listed r from a compilation, not a "disco" compilation, rather a set celebrating the "sounds of the 70's".

It just so happens disco was large at that time, thus the over abundance of disco songs in the compilation.

Did disco kill soul? Did redneck's kill disco? It's all bullshit, man. All people of color (latinos, blacks, italians, puerto ricans...and even WHITE PEOPLE *gasp*) loved the shit. It was happy music that made u wanna dance like John Travolta. It was what was needed in that time, and like all fads, it wore out it's welcome.

Every decade has it's own style. The "roarin' 20's", the "swingin' 40's", "be-bop" and "rock n' roll" in the 50's, the "groovy" and "psychodelic" 60's, the "disco" 70's, the "electro-digital" 80's, and the "house", "hip-hop" and "grunge" of the 90's etc...some of it is color blind, some of it isn't.

The only consistancy u can find in music is country music. It has maintained a strong hold throughout all of the changes in every decade.

It had it's moments of change during the "Urban Cowboy" days, and Garth Brooks & Shania Twain styles have even changed it's tune 4 a bit...but it always, always reverts back 2 it's old ways with new artists like Brad Paisley and The Dixie Chicks bringing back the old "twang" and the steel guitars in the songs.

Nobody said anyone's music has 2 conform 2 what's "hot" at the time. Nobody forced EW&F 2 do "Boogie Wonderland", or Rod Stewart 2 do "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"...they choose 2 do it 2 stay on the charts.

Of course, this is just my very humble opinion.

After reading the thread, and thinking about the type of music I listening to during that time up to now, I can see how disco, R&B, and funk got mixed together. For the longest time I thought it was sort of the same, but within the past few years of really listening, you can even go so far as to break down certain songs by artists and how it sounded more R&B or funk or disco-oriented. Just like any other genres, disco had some stinkers. I believe there's such thing as cheezy good/fun songs (Star Wars Theme by Mecco), and cheezy bad songs (i.e. Disco Duck). I've rediscovered some old faves via the internet like "Cher Chez La Femme" by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, and "I Was Made for Lovin'You" Kiss. I forgot that it was a disco song masked as rock or vice versa. During the hey days of disco, I was only between 3-10 years old, so it really should have been more like my parents music, but I embraced the sounds of that time, sometimes more than the early to mid 80's music as a teenager. I LOVED "Boogie Wonderland," if I were an ice skater, that would be my skating song. The Bee Gees are my heart. Don't you remember "Emotions" with Samantha Sang that got remade by Destiny's Child? I could make a top 50-100 list of disco/R&B/funk songs of the 70's, but I must get back to work. hahaha! Oh, there's this club, Polyester's, which is chain that has a great disco/R&B vibe. There are a couple of radio stations that will block off several hours a week just for disco, and if you have digital cable, DMX has the best stations without the commercial, and you hear more than the same old songs.

funkyslsistah said:

you make some very good points!

Now david, u know i was a Disco Boy all through my life LOL, the people that said "Disco Sucks" were people that had no sense of a dance step.. and were just mad because we knew where our 2 and 4 were..as opposed to these otha cats who couldnt walk and chew gum at the same time, and had no clue what good music was LOL...we've had major fights in school us disco Boys would actually throw down with the disco sucks cats and usually the opposition would lose badly and convert lol

i wasn't around in the '70s, but i dig disco. thing about it is that not all disco wuz good--the super-cheesy, repetitive, annoyin cuts i can't stand. there were a lot of cuts that shone like diamonds in the disco genre, from what i've heard and learned; here's some of my faves:

donna summer, "heaven knows"

dr. buzzard's original savannah band, "cherchez la femme (c'est si bon)"

gary's gang, "keep on dancin'"

jimmy "bo" horne, "you get me hot"

chic, "strike up the band"

odyssey, "native new yorker"

george mccrae, "cut the rug"








coke spoon n'moon edit.
[This message was edited Fri Jun 6 10:31:41 PDT 2003 by Handclapsfingasnapz]

THe disco backlash can closely be tied to the recent (and not so recent) hip hop backlash. Very racial! R&B has managed to survive although it changes all the time. Maybe that's how it has survived all the right wing groups. THe other thing about disco that sucked to people was that it was indentifed with gays. Blacks (and to some degree even Latinos) and gays! It must go! However, it should be pointed out that the Bee Gees, a straight white group suffered horribly when disco sucked. They had Bee Gee free weekends that become such a trend they become Bee Gee free years! I wasn't alive back then (well, I was born in 1980) so I don't know for sure what happened to their hit streak. I know the wrote hit for Dionne Warwick ("Heartbreaker"), a duet with Dolly and Kenny ("Islands In The Stream") an entire album for Barbra Sterisnd (don't know the title but she was huggging Barry Gibb on the cover) so they had hits with other artists. But what about them? I don't thinkt hey had many hits. The only person that really came out of the disco era having really big hits was Donna Summer, and with a combination of bad promotion and her being born again, that didn't last long). I know everyone else already said something to the same degree but while I never loved the Bee Gees (might be one of the few that loves some disco like Donna and Barry but doesn't dig them) I thought I would point out they suffered too.

And as for Hip Hop, the backlash died down a lot when Eminem came ont he scene. Only a few groups kicked up any dust. For the most part, he is golden boy. While hip hop might be safe now that a white guy is it biggest star, I wonder what will happen when they find out he is gay.

Hey Youngca,now I know where you get your thread ideas from

DavidEye said:

Neither of those are disco songs, tho'.

And why didn't Love You Inside Out get a mention?

Cloudbuster said:

I didn't say they were disco songs,I just asked you what you thought about them

"Love You Inside Out" is a masterpiece!! A smooth,midtempo R&B classic.