Love to Love You, Donna S... - YouTube

I'm so there. I'm not watching the trailer, though. I like to go in totally green and fresh.

Time to set the DVR. Thanks so much for this post.

'Love to Love You, Donna ...diva | CNN

“Intimate” is an overused word in biographical documentaries, but with her daughter, Brooklyn Sudano, serving as co-director “Love to Love You, Donna Summer” more than fits that description, providing an up-close look at the disco diva’s life and astonishing talent, without sugarcoating its thornier aspects. Even in a boom time for musical profiles, this HBO presentation shines brighter than most.

Featuring bountiful clips of Summer performing that take viewers back to the ’70s, garish disco outfits and all, the overall effect is almost immersive. And with extensive access to home movies and interviews with Summer’s children and exes, the deeply personal aspect is evident when Sudano – who shares directing credit with Roger Ross Williams – notes that she’s “trying to figure out the many pieces of who mom was.”

"Love to Love You” opens with Summer as most remember her, crooning the hit used for the title. Elton John discusses the effect of hearing her amped-up disco numbers like “I Feel Love” at a club, with its electronic sound courtesy of composer/producer Giorgio Moroder and raw sexuality, as being intoxicating, saying, “It sounded like no other record.”

Summer had moved to Germany before returning to the US, launching a recording career that would place her in rarefied air in terms of her chart-topping legacy. That gradually included taking control over her career, illustrating her vocal power on songs like “MacArthur Park” and eventually breaking with and suing the company that launched her, Casablanca Records, over a creative dispute, before going on to additional success with David Geffen.

The warts-and-all components include the fact that despite her jaw-dropping range the singer didn’t always have great taste in men, which produced some ugly and violent interludes. Summer also embraced evangelical Christianity later in life – despite the complicating factor of having been molested by a pastor in her youth – and made comments perceived as deriding the gay community that had comprised a significant portion of her fan base in her heyday, triggering feelings of anger and betrayal.

Summer was, in other words, a complex personality, but one who left an enduring musical footprint that made her one of the signature figures of her era. That’s merely magnified by her death in 2012 at the age of 63.

By the time it’s over, “Love to Love You” might not have completely put together the pieces of who Summer was, but it has fostered an appreciation for what she produced, particularly during that inordinately fertile span of hits during the late ’70s.

Just finished watched it I really enjoyed it. That demo of "Bad Girls" is great.

just watched it.The home video footage is fun to watch.I feel like they ignored some important albums and songs but I guess they couldn't cover everything.I loved seeing the rare performance clips.Overall,this is a great documentary.If you're a fan,you must see it.

Donna deserves a full biopic.There's a good story there.Her life and career was very interesting.

Just wonderful.

I was looking on Wikipedia at her first few post-Casablanca albums and noticed Susannah Melvoin sang backgrounds on Cats Without Claws.

Didn't know it was coming on, caught it on the tube and ended up watching the whole thing, pretty impressive. Never realized what a great voice she had nor did I know, until seeing all of that footage, what an entertaining performer she was, even when on the stage all by herself.

*

Didn't know she wrote or conceptualized most of her songs and I really dug the whole "singing as a character" aspect of her art. Great documentary.

That really dark funky demo version of "Bad Girls" during the closing credits tho...

hardwork said:

That really dark funky demo version of "Bad Girls" during the closing credits tho...

Donna Summer - Bad Girls ... - YouTube

They made very good use of archival footage and guest audio, instead of video of interviews with people around her.

SoulAlive said:

hardwork said:

That really dark funky demo version of "Bad Girls" during the closing credits tho...

Donna Summer - Bad Girls ... - YouTube

Thx SoulAlive! I like the demo better than the original.

Watched this and it gave me more appreciation of her and her music.

SoulAlive said:

SoulAlive said:

Interestingly,whenever her Casablanca albums are remastered,we always hear that there are no “demos or outtakes” available.I suspect that there are,but for whatever reason,they can’t or won’t release them.Nice to hear this “Bad Girls” demo though.

Yeah, but that's sorta bullshit. Because hasn't KISS released demos of songs on their past remasters or whatever? I would think it's the artists who have those tapes, if they do exist. Universal owns them now so who knows where all that stuff disappeared to.

I loved it. It was very emotional.

Interesting the recurring theme to me was "we didn't talk about" insert anything

Had a great ride to work this morning with that Bad Girls demo, holy moly

TrivialPursuit said:

SoulAlive said:

Interestingly,whenever her Casablanca albums are remastered,we always hear that there are no “demos or outtakes” available.I suspect that there are,but for whatever reason,they can’t or won’t release them.Nice to hear this “Bad Girls” demo though.

Yeah, but that's sorta bullshit. Because hasn't KISS released demos of songs on their past remasters or whatever? I would think it's the artists who have those tapes, if they do exist. Universal owns them now so who knows where all that stuff disappeared to.

I think there is a bit of a difference in the ownership, mainly because Gene Simmons after some very early manager issues, they own everything, price everything, master, record, have control of their vault etc... I don't think Donna had this available to her, just a hunch.

SolaceAHA said:

I think there is a bit of a difference in the ownership, mainly because Gene Simmons after some very early manager issues, they own everything, price everything, master, record, have control of their vault etc... I don't think Donna had this available to her, just a hunch.

Donna owned her music well before she died. That's in the documentary, too. It's one reason there wasn't a plethora of Greatest Hits packages, etc. She wanted to control what went out under her name.

They need to put Theme From The Deep (Down, Deep Inside) on streaming, its my absolute favorite

SoulAlive said:

yeah,the demos definitely exist I wish we could get them.It sucks buying a remastered album with absolutely no bonus tracks,lol