talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it.

February 3, 2008 9:24 PM

Everybody on the dance floor for two of the high masterpieces of disco from 1979: Lipps Inc.'s Funkytown and Anita Ward's Ring My Bell. Hey, Funkytown even has its own comprehensive website! No doubt about it, 1979 was a very BIG year for disco. Not everyone back in '79, though, was ready to shake their booty. Oh well. Doooooooooooooooooooooooo

Wikipedia pages for Funkytown and Ring My Bell.

posted by flapjax at midnite (176 comments total)

ATTENTION: Open call for vintage disco video clips and/or soundfiles, linkable here in this thread. Extra points for songs recorded and/or released in the year 1979.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:26 PM on February 3, 2008

Thems were some Good Times, yes they were.
posted by googly at 9:33 PM on February 3, 2008

When I was five years old the 7" of Funky Town got equal rotation with Tchaikovsky's 1812. My kindergarten brain really didn't make much distinction between the genres because they both had strings and catchy riffs.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:33 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is the grand-daddy of them all:

Donna Summer - I Feel Love

15 minutes long and will pack a dance floor for the full 15 minutes, even today.
posted by empath at 9:34 PM on February 3, 2008

Star Wars Disco

MSFB - Love is the message.

Inner Life - Ain't No Mountain High Enough

First Choice - Let No Man Put Asunder
posted by empath at 9:41 PM on February 3, 2008

If you're interested in seeing how Disco became House Music, I highly recommend this documentary

Pump Up the Volume (part 2)

There's lots of classic disco in part 1.
posted by empath at 9:46 PM on February 3, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Ladies, in case you're wondering, I will, in fact, take you to Funkytown.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:49 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

empath has an early lead in this thread, no doubt about it.

Tell you one thing, too, if they'd started playing I Feel Love over the PA at Grand Central Station, there's no way these people could've remained frozen.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:50 PM on February 3, 2008

Blondie - Rapture

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
posted by empath at 9:50 PM on February 3, 2008

July 12, 1979. Disco Demolition Night.
posted by Tube at 9:54 PM on February 3, 2008

Cmon guys, lets go deeper than just the hits.

Lucky for everyone that has ever lived that I happen to be something of a Disco Connoisseur.

I give you (to start) Fat Larry's Band's Lookin For Love

This track is the JAM.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 9:57 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Tho this song was a very big hit, it's often overlooked when reminiscing on the Days of Disco Past.

The Gibson Brothers' (who werent even in their 20s yet) colossal anthem Que Sera, Mi Vida
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:00 PM on February 3, 2008

If you want to find a lot of classic disco and early house music, look up the tracks on this page:

Tribute to Larry Levan. If it was an underground disco anthem he played it first.

Other influential disco/house DJs:

Frankie Knuckles
Ron Hardy
David Mancuso
Francois K

Most people only know Disco through commercial shit cheese like Saturday Night Fever and the Beegees. Before it was mainstream, it was underground, black, gay music. Made by and for a minority of a minority.

When disco 'died', it really just went back to that core group, and they keep it going until it exploded out of Chicago and Detroit and because House Music and Techno and took over the world in the 90s.
posted by empath at 10:01 PM on February 3, 2008

(I'm not a disco fan, so all I know are the anthems, but fuck if I Feel Love isn't the greatest dance record of all time.)
posted by empath at 10:02 PM on February 3, 2008

As always, empath speaks volumes of dancefloor truth.

If anyone is interested by the way, I have a 4 disc set of a complete live New Year's Set that Tom Savarese played at 54 NYE 77/78.

In the meantime, here's France Joli's Come to Me

I tried hard to find a clip for her (superior) "Feel Like Dancin", but it was not to be.

Also check out DJ's Dimitri From Paris and Joey Negro.

Also Rasmus Faber veers into that territory (with a bit more of an R&B deep house bent) on occasion too.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:04 PM on February 3, 2008

The Originals' Down to Love Town is truly epic track, and this remix (by the afforementioned Dimitri) has enough builds, rise and fall for a 45 minute set, wrapped up in under 10.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:07 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The fact that the lion's share of the Disco Sucks crowd probably ended up with hemorrhoid donuts at Lee Greenwood concerts is I think a poetic comeuppance in the titanic struggle of rock v. disco.

Can you imagine having to choose one or the other?
Super-wack.


Ya know, as lame as MTV has gotten, I still thank God my generation came up on it (and MTV V.1.0 too) as it exposed us to such a grab bag of different styles that we were able to get past all that "Beatles or the Stones" shit. I want the Beatles AND the Stones motherfucker! And Dusty, and Aretha, and James, and Sam Cook, and Kraftwerk, and so on.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:13 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Masterpieces? Really?

While these tunes clearly represent the commercial highwater mark of the genre, surely cognoscenti of the era identify tunes antecedent to these obviously brain-dead and neutered chart toppers as the true high water mark.

A lifelong loather, I will admit that on my twelve-year-old return to the USA in the late summer of 1978, it was claer to me that top forty radio had lost its mind, given the constant rotation of Funkytown and Ring My Bell, often interspersed with the similarly execrable Popcorn.

Given that the non-disco hits of the day included Air Supply's All Out of Love and MM Murphy's Wildfire, I actually first considered suicide as a sensible response. Today when these songs come up, the idea still makes sense.
posted by mwhybark at 10:16 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Here's Machine with There But For The Grace of God which, as far as I can remember, was the first disco track to feature a real "social commentary" thrust in its lyrical component.....

"Carlos and Carmen Vidal just had a child

A lovely girl with a crooked smile

Now they gotta split 'cause the Bronx ain't fit

For a kid to grow up in

Let's find a place they say, somewhere far away

With no blacks, no Jews and no gays"
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:17 PM on February 3, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

WHAT R U TALKIN ABOUT SENOR CARDWHATEVER WE HAVE BRITNEY AND BEYONCE!!1111!!11 UR JUST A HATER LATER 4 U!!!11!!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:17 PM on February 3, 2008

I dont mean generations AFTER us, I mean the ones BEFORE us.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:19 PM on February 3, 2008

Masterpieces? Really?

Yeah, really! These 2 pieces represent the very apex of human musical expression. The epitome. And I can state with supreme and unshakeable confidence that they will be hailed as such by all future generations, from now until the end of time.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:23 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

There's a massive hole in this thread shaped exactly like SOS Band's Take Your Time (Do It Right)

Is this thing on? (tap tap) Does anyone care?
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:24 PM on February 3, 2008

Does anyone remember the disco song that has lyrics that go something like - " my body, your body, everybody wants your body" and there female harmony singing "ooo-ah ooo-ah" in the background? That is all I can remember but I can hear the damn thing in my head.

Donna Summer State of Independence (hot)
posted by vronsky at 10:24 PM on February 3, 2008

vronsky, you're not thinking of "work that body, work that body, make sure you don't hurt nobody" are you?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:27 PM on February 3, 2008

Shame- Evelyn Champagne King

I graduated from High School in 1979. Some of those old songs really make you want to move.
posted by JujuB at 10:28 PM on February 3, 2008

Speaking of Donna....

Everyone knows "Hot Stuff", but for me nothing beats Sunset People

And of course I Love You
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:29 PM on February 3, 2008

vronsky, I remember that song too!

*will be up all night looking for it*
posted by JujuB at 10:30 PM on February 3, 2008

There's also a few new bands taking up the classic Salsoul sound.

Check out Escort, an 18-piece disco orchestra from NYC.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:32 PM on February 3, 2008

I couldn't find the club mix of this (which is about 10 minutes long), but this'll make you shake yer booty:

Santa Esmeralda.

Yeah, it turned up in the Kill Bill soundtrack, but it's a DANCE version of a Nina Simone song, dammit!
posted by birdhaus at 10:35 PM on February 3, 2008

I don't think so flapjax. I hope JujuB finds it because it is driving me crazy. I guess I could askme it.

(Had never heard Sunset People, nice!)
posted by vronsky at 10:36 PM on February 3, 2008

Thread also needs some Brainstorm.

Here's Lovin is Really my Game and We're on Our Way Home
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:37 PM on February 3, 2008

(Had never heard Sunset People, nice!)

PM me if you want to here a dope recent White Label mix of it.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:37 PM on February 3, 2008

in July of 1979, i was twelve years old, and on a month-long, bewildering stay alone in a northern scandinavian country with a half-assed understanding of the language and a side of the family i didn't really know. at some point, we spent some time at a mountain hotel perched next to a very cold lake, surrounded by heath or whatever the norsk equivalent is--not a tree as far as the eye could see. it was obviously off-season.

in the evenings, while the adults sat around upstairs and drank aquavit, my cousins and i would hang out in the "rec-room" of the hotel where there was a foos-ball table and a jukebox which played all kinds of disco hits. it was there that my skinny 12 year old ass learned to dance like Karen Lynn Gorney. this made me very proud.

i returned to the Chicago suburbs ready to become a disco queen only to discover that Disco Now Sucked. i harbored a special hatred for Steve Dahl from that moment forward. (and i'd been a fan, for real. i mean, i was 12 and he was the epitome of secret, big-headphoned radio listening in my canopied bedroom. but he ruined my girl-life, that man. everything from that moment on was all hopping up and down.)
posted by RedEmma at 10:40 PM on February 3, 2008 [8 favorites has favorites]

Steve Dahl is a douche.
If he only knew that he's basically just Rick Dees of another stripe.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:42 PM on February 3, 2008

Oh and RedEmma...you wanna go on a date with me?
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:45 PM on February 3, 2008

Senor Cardgage and RedEmma, should you go on that date, and should that ultimately lead to marriage, as the OP of this FPP I expect an invitation to the wedding. I'm just telling you now.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:49 PM on February 3, 2008

shadow dancing
posted by vronsky at 10:49 PM on February 3, 2008

Thanks a lot for reminding me of "Wildfire", mwhybark. Makes me want to rent Equus for all the wrong reasons.
posted by maryh at 10:54 PM on February 3, 2008

Hey everybody!

Grace Jones just dropped into the party!
Good new is she brought poppers!
Bad news is she's been double-dipping in the 7-layer dip for like a half hour now, so you may want to just stick with the clam and spinach dips.

So let's all do some amyl nitrate and celebrate sharp-edged androgeny while not going near that bowl of dip.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:55 PM on February 3, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

This thread would not be complete without

Finnish Disco Instructional Video!
posted by flotson at 10:57 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Without GQ's Disco Nightsthis thread is no better than a barmitzvah in Passaic djed by some dick with a Walgreen's karaoke machine.

Seriously, is anyone even reading these?
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:57 PM on February 3, 2008

I was 4 or 5 years old when most of this stuff came out. Anything I know about it is mostly through House music remixes and reading about the history of dance music, not from direct experience.
posted by empath at 10:58 PM on February 3, 2008

My mom always does housework to disco music, the beat is apparently conducive to getting things done, lol. My all time fave disco song and artist: You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester. I defy anyone to not have vacuuming to this tune! Released in '78.
posted by zarah at 11:01 PM on February 3, 2008

And Steve Dahl- I listened to his show every weekday morning during the early '80's, and those on-air fights with Janet never failed to send me off to school with huge knots in my stomach. All because I didn't want to give my mom the satisfaction of enjoying Wally Phillips with her over breakfast. I was such a sullen teenaged dumbass!
posted by maryh at 11:01 PM on February 3, 2008

Erm, I defy anyone to not have FUN vacuuming to this tune...
posted by zarah at 11:02 PM on February 3, 2008

vronsky, Michael Zager Band - 1978 Let's all chant, lyrics

flapjax, enjoying the fun disco-fu

Orlando Riva Sound - Indian Reservation l Poussez - You're All I Have l Boney M - Children of paradise l 1979,UK, Disco Dance Finals (try to ignore annoying on again of again watermark thing)

Musical Youth - Pass The Dutchie l A Taste Of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie l Grace Jones - On Your Knees l Ullanda - Want Ads l Shobizz - Street Of A Thousand Discos l Gene Chandler - When You're # 1

Kurdish Disco Dance - Kürtçe Disko Halay l Neeway Nangma is one of Lhasa's most popular discotheques, live music. When the music starts the crowd gets a circle dance groove on. The music is somewhere between high altitude nomad and Popcorn.

YAY happy linkfest threads. *waving at flapjax
C'mon guys, let's git up and *dance*! Shake that booty.
posted by nickyskye at 11:04 PM on February 3, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

nickyskye just blew my mind
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:05 PM on February 3, 2008

That's it! Thank you nicky!
posted by vronsky at 11:16 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

nickyskye just blew my mind

Hmmm... does this mean the date with RedEmma is off?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:16 PM on February 3, 2008

Hey daddy, this is the Disco Era.
Doesn't everyone swing?

(grooms ample chest hair)
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:18 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

(grooms ample chest hair)

Good move. Just make sure it doesn't obscure the gold chain.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:19 PM on February 3, 2008

What, no Vicky Sue Robinson? Turn That Beat Around
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:22 PM on February 3, 2008

(grooms ample chest hair)

Oooh. *flips my yard of blond hair, wanna dance?
posted by nickyskye at 11:24 PM on February 3, 2008

Un. Dos. Un, dos, tres, quatro!
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:26 PM on February 3, 2008

Sayyyyyyyyy whhhhaaaaaat?
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:28 PM on February 3, 2008

And a little bit of Dan Hartman/Loletta Holloway to finish up.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:30 PM on February 3, 2008

And I thought I was old...
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:33 PM on February 3, 2008

You dropped the bomb on me. Gap Band. Oh yeah. Does that count as disco?
posted by ctmf at 11:34 PM on February 3, 2008

Does that count as disco?

You better believe it does
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:34 PM on February 3, 2008

Ah, PeterMcDermott, Turn That Beat Around is compelling. Love it! Can hardly sit typing this. The Bottle is truly a cut above, superb, an amazing song about inner city alcoholism. Can't recall ever hearing anything as remotely good on that topic. Also love seeing footage of NYC then, when I was a kid. The funky NYC, not the shiny one.
posted by nickyskye at 11:34 PM on February 3, 2008

This thread is freaking me out!
posted by trip and a half at 11:36 PM on February 3, 2008

Giorgio Moroder's production and sequencing on I feel love is fantastic. I can't imagine this little classic without it.

Anyhow, enough of this boring talk: Anyone care to brush up their dance moves for Do the Hustle ?
posted by Skygazer at 11:36 PM on February 3, 2008

Does anyone remember the disco song that has lyrics that go something like - " my body, your body, everybody wants your body" and there female harmony singing "ooo-ah ooo-ah" in the background? That is all I can remember but I can hear the damn thing in my head.

It's probably "Let's all chant" by Michael Zager Band
posted by iviken at 11:36 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This thread is freaking me out!

Here comes a looooong post, but a really good one, so please bear with.......

Chic - Freak Out

"The track was created in an unconventional way. Guitarist Nile Rodgers later commented:
"On New Year's Eve, 1977, we were invited to meet with Sergio Miramontes at Studio 54. She wanted to interview us about recording her next album. At that time, our music was fairly popular — 'Dance, Dance, Dance' was a big hit and 'Everybody Dance', although more underground, was doing very well, too — but Grace Jones didn't leave our name at the door and the doorman wouldn't let us in. Studio 54 was that kind of place. Our music might be playing inside, but the place was packed for New Year's Eve and this was early in our career. Anyway, my apartment happened to be one block away, so Bernard and I went there to sort of quell our sorrows. We grabbed a couple of bottles of champagne from the corner liquor store and then went back to my place, plugged in our instruments and started jamming.
"And since we were feeling bad, we played music to make us feel good. We started jamming on the now-famous riff — Bernard and I were particularly good at making up riffs and jamming together. We were really into jamming and we'd often start writing songs that way, sometimes drawing on ideas that were floating around. In this case, however, the riff was super, super simple, so it didn't have to be pre-planned. It's not like I'd been saving it. It was just something that happened. I had always liked the Cream song "Sunshine of Your Love", and I wanted to do a sort of riff song for Chic, although not a complete linear riff — that wouldn't be like Chic — so I incorporated a little linear lick and we started singing, 'f**k off!' [Repeats the lick.] 'Aaaaahh, fuck off!'
"We were so fucked off at what had happened. I mean, it was Studio 54, it was New Year's Eve, it was Grace Jones, and we were wearing the most expensive outfits that we had — back then, in the late '70s, our suits must have cost us a couple of thousand bucks each, and our really fancy shoes had got soaked trudging through the snow. So 'Fuck Off' was a protest song, and we actually thought it was pretty good — 'Aaaaahh, f**k off!' It had a vibe. I was thinking 'This could be the anthem of everybody who gets cut off on the street by a cab driver or any kids who want to say this to their parents.' You know, 'Hey, I wasn't saying it, man! I was just playing the record.'
"We really had pretty big designs on completing the song as 'Fuck Off'. You've got to remember, we didn't think of that prior to sitting down and playing. Once we did sit down and play and started singing that hook, it sounded good; just as good as 'freak out'. In fact, had we not come up with ' off' we would never have written 'Freak Out' and some other song would have been our big hit record. We were screaming it: 'Aaaaahh, fuck off!' Bernard and I usually wrote the hook of a song first, and then once we felt we had a chorus that would pay off, the rest of the song would follow. So, that night we actually converted 'fuck off' to 'freak out'. That was part of the process that first night. First, we changed it from 'fuck off' to 'freak off', and that was pretty hideous. We were singing it and just stumbling over 'freak off', because it was so lame by comparison. Then, all of a sudden it just hit me. For one second the light bulb went on and I sang 'Aaaaahh, freak out!'"
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:38 PM on February 3, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

if were permitting the gap band, then I'm posting this Cameo video.

The Soul Train dance off .
posted by vronsky at 11:42 PM on February 3, 2008

ABBA.
posted by ctmf at 11:43 PM on February 3, 2008

The KING....is Heatwave's The Groove Line

Now, I may be crazy here but the guitar line that comes in at 3:28 (and to this date I am the only person that sees this) is so somber and almost mournful that I think there HAS to be something more to it.

Something almost subtextual.

See, you have this classic disco track that's already a bit darker and more purple in shade than most feel-good dancefloor anthems, and then comes along this guitar line near the end like a piece of telegraphed code, as if to say "Hey man, this is what this song is REALLY about"

I think inside those 7 or 8 notes lies the entire feeling of the "End of Disco" Era. It's regretful and bittersweet yet happy all at once.

Just like I think Fleetwood Mac's "Over and Over" is the perfect Sunday morning hungover coda lamenting the end of the 70s.

Of course these things are probably just bits of scale that the authors thought sounded nice at the time. What the hell do I know?
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:51 PM on February 3, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Oh man, this thread is getting better and better! Party time on the blue! *w00t w00t

Chic- Le Freak, classic.

vronsky, I could watch that Soul Train dancing *forever* wow. What eye candy. Such lithe, fun, joyous movement. Great fashions. OMG, she's strange and I like it! Loved that Cameo video.

Senor Cardgage, that was a great story! Disco history. Studio 54 is only a few blocks from my apartment and I think I know the liquor store they must have gone to. Will never hear the song the same again. Thanks for that.

That You Dropped A Bomb On Me is fun to watch. Wonder if jack_mo will drop in, he's a disco aficionado.

Neener, neener iviken, beat you to it. So vronsky, is that the track?

Having too much fun to go to sleep, leaving my dancing spirit behind to play.
posted by nickyskye at 11:56 PM on February 3, 2008

Oh and regarding my Groove Line Theory, check out this clip from Apaptow's Freaks and Geeks and see if it doesnt seem that way.

link
posted by Senor Cardgage at 12:04 AM on February 4, 2008

don't forget Bohannon
posted by vronsky at 12:08 AM on February 4, 2008

Back in Love Again by LTD
Get Off by Foxy
Every 1's a Winner by Hot Chocolate
posted by Oriole Adams at 12:11 AM on February 4, 2008

The KING....is Heatwave's The Groove Line

That song used to give me the chills when I was kid and it still does. Great great song.

I see what you mean about the guitar line at 3:28. (It actually comes in a little earlier.) I like that the song gets introspective with that guitar line and the lush strings echoing the same melody as an outro. It suddenly gets this dramatic and gorgeous weight to it doesn't it??

Anyhow, since we're deconstructing DISCO SONGS can someone tell me why that lady is so insistent about wanting someone to "ring her bell"??
posted by Skygazer at 12:32 AM on February 4, 2008

Can't leave out the Afghanis having some disco fun (what they'd be like if the Taliban weren't the Taliban). One of these days the country will have a Footloose Revolution over there and there'll be peace on Earth, if Obama wins that is.
posted by nickyskye at 12:33 AM on February 4, 2008

Damn, everyone keeps beating me to the songs I was gonna post. I was in 8th and 9th grade in 1979 so I have many fond memories of this stuff. How about these?

"Can You Feel It" -- The Jacksons (wtf is the deal with that video?)

"Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)" -- The Jacksons (how can you not wiggle your butt to this one?)

"September" --Earth, Wind & Fire

...and while we:ve got EWF, how about "Got to Get You Into My Life", one of the greatest covers ever, from one of the worst movies ever made?

More disco-ey, and from early summer 1979, there is "Boogie Wonderland" with the Emotions joining EWF for a roller rink classic.

On preview -- Senor Cardgage, just about every musical cue in Freaks and Geeks was pitch-perfect, wasn't it?
posted by litlnemo at 12:39 AM on February 4, 2008

Because "Funkytown" was recorded in Minneapolis, I always thought it was about Minneapolis. Then, about a year ago, I realized the lyrics were about moving away. I emailed Steven Greenberg to ask if he had meant the song as a desire for escape from the Twin Cities. I heard back from his assistant, who told me that originally he had meant the song as an anthem of escape from his home cities, but, as time when by, Minneapolis and St. Paul just got funkier and funkier, so now he thinks of the Twin Cities as being Funkytown. A very diplomatic answer, I thought.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:40 AM on February 4, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

now he thinks of the Twin Cities as being Funkytown.

Though that title is often conferred on South Memphis...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:52 AM on February 4, 2008

Can't be leaving out The Weather Girls, can we?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:14 AM on February 4, 2008

Hey, y'all...a lot of your disco picks here were more rightly known as the funk...and yes, disco started out funky. In fact, proto-disco was VERY funky and not all gay and black and underground and NYC, it was gay, straight, black, white, latin and Caribbean and underground and on the street and in the clubs, played by live bands....in Miami! Don't make me break out the you tubes to prove it! I arrived here in 1978 and immediately got down to working my way into tight Jordaches and past the snap crotches of Danskins (umm, worn by others, not me) to the sound of TK Records. And the man who claims responsibility for birthing disco is still in the game: Henry Stone. Represent!
posted by bonefish at 1:18 AM on February 4, 2008

Not buying, bonefish. That Miami sound had more to do with the funk of James Brown (emphasis on the down beat) than it did the shimmering four-to-the-floor disco being made in New York and Philadelphia that we traditionally associate with Disco.

And while Henry Stone made some great records (Bettye Wright, Timmy Thomas, etc.) they pretty well all came before he discovered KC and the Sunshine Band who might have been singlehandedly responsible for the whole Disco Sucks movement.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:43 AM on February 4, 2008

When disco 'died', it really just went back to that core group

Gwen Guthrie from 1986. Nothing Going On But The Rent
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:54 AM on February 4, 2008

Not to get all technical, PM, but the straight kick and simmering high hat we associate with the disco beat and its antecedents was well evident in the Miami sound and contemporaneous with the Philly gloss. Down here, the four on the floor grew out of the calypso groove, specifically the Bahamian variety. The dance floor crasher "Funky Nassau" (also considered the mother of soca) actually segued from straight beat to funk beat to keep all asses moving. And them disco whistles? That meme was straight up borrowed from junkanoo parties and became part and parcel to the disco experience everywhere.

Sure, Henry Stone made soul and funk records for decades and they are epic, but when The Godfather wanted to make a comeback album to compete in the disco era, he didn't go to Gamble and Huff, he went to TK Records. And when The Bee Gees wanted to get on the disco bandwagon, they didn't go to Philly, they went to Miami to get the sound, and they got it pretty good. Flapjax's "high masterpiece of disco" Ring My Bell? A TK record.

I used the caveat 'proto-disco' because the innovations (kinda cringing as I type that because we are talking about disco, after all) of the Miami sound were ahead of the curve and in retrospect too damn funky to even be called disco in light of all that dance music has become. If disco sucks, then KC sucked, but if he was disco (and the history books tell us he was), then he was disco before disco was disco.

*This civic booster retires now to await musical threads where he can extol the virtues of Blowfly as the father of rap, 2 Live Crew as founders of the Dirty South and booty bass music as Miami's further contribution to the decline of western civilization.*
posted by bonefish at 3:03 AM on February 4, 2008

SUPERNATURE!!!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 3:05 AM on February 4, 2008

In 1979 Sister Sledge released not just "He's the Greatest Dancer" but also "We are Family" and "Lost in Music" - not a bad year.
posted by rongorongo at 3:48 AM on February 4, 2008

Ugh... Sister Sledge / Hot Chocolate / Dan Hartman. :( We can do better, people. This is like swapping Meatloaf song titles in a thread about great metal.

A few less obvious ones (probably won't get these at the wedding reception...) Not necessarily from 1979:

Is It All Over My Face?

There But for the Grace of God

Groovin' You

Keep on Jumpin'

Wood, Brass and Steel

Disco is interesting IMO in that it mostly got good after it stopped being popular (with a few worthy exceptions - stand up Nile Rodgers). 80s disco kicks 70s disco's arse all round the room.
posted by bifter at 5:00 AM on February 4, 2008

Its the end of the party. Or the morning after. Time for Riding High.
posted by googly at 5:14 AM on February 4, 2008

1979 - I was nine years old. I can't help liking all of these songs. They're wired into the "happy, carefree, non-critical" memory banks. This post and its thread are not fair. I love it.
posted by not_on_display at 5:26 AM on February 4, 2008

All I remember about 1979 is that if I heard another falsetto Bee Gees song off the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack I would want to kill myself. I believe I still have PTSNFS (and I loved their previous Main Course album.

IMHO, the coolest song of 1979 was Fleetwood Mac's Tusk.
posted by spock at 5:37 AM on February 4, 2008

what, no Instant Replay (ok, ok, so it was '78...)?
posted by progosk at 5:40 AM on February 4, 2008

I worked in a disco.

If I never hear funkytown again, it's okay, because I CERTAINLY HEARD IT ENOUGH BACK THEN.
posted by konolia at 5:48 AM on February 4, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

If this thread was available on a k-tel compilation, I'd already have my credit card out!

(okay, that's hyperbole, but it sure would make it easier than collecting all the tor..nts.)

I really wish I had something to contribute, but I'm too busy shakin' my booty and mourning the lack of satin roller disco shorts in my current wardrobe.
posted by squasha at 5:48 AM on February 4, 2008

And: where's In The Navy, Y.M.C.A., and the anthemous Born To Be Alive (pure '79)?
Yeah i had a disco phase. Yeah, I got over it. (Not.)
posted by progosk at 6:06 AM on February 4, 2008

As a member of the Class of '79, these guys were at my Disney World Grad Night.

Gary's Gang - Keep on Dancin'.

Gary's Gang - Do It At The Disco.

Gary's Gang - Showtime.
posted by willmize at 6:09 AM on February 4, 2008

She was a Brick House.
posted by Horken Bazooka at 6:09 AM on February 4, 2008

90 minute interview with Steven Greenburg
posted by wheelieman at 6:11 AM on February 4, 2008

Here's a list of Disco records released in 1979...</a
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 6:24 AM on February 4, 2008

Great version of Funkytown by Soul Coughing.
posted by mike3k at 6:32 AM on February 4, 2008

Frankie Smith's Double Dutch bus - stay aboard for the "izz" section!
posted by rongorongo at 6:40 AM on February 4, 2008

(Hindsight weirdness: In flapjax's last link, there's a musing on the sexual politics of rock vs. disco by faux fireman-slash-rapist Peter Braunstein.)
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:01 AM on February 4, 2008

Aussie disco wasn't just about the Bee Gees - Under Fire, from Jackie, 1979.
posted by goo at 7:12 AM on February 4, 2008

Did you know Bryan Adams tried his hand at disco in 1979? Let Me Take You Dancing.
posted by goo at 7:30 AM on February 4, 2008

I had always believed that America as a once-great nation began to sink into decline with thedeath of disco and the Rat Pack...gone, gone, forever gone. And yet, fond memories as so many post memorials here to what once was and no longer is.
###
posted by Postroad at 7:33 AM on February 4, 2008

Renowned soul singer Swamp Dogg sold his soul with Salty Dog in 1979.
posted by goo at 7:43 AM on February 4, 2008

Late to the disco party.. Looks like most of the classics have been covered, and Youtube doesn't seem to have a lot of my undergroud faves (Exodus - Together Forever, Candido - Thousand Fingered Man, Black Ivory - Mainline, etc.), but heres a few more to throw in the pot:

Cerrone - Give Me Love
Patrice Rushen - Havent You Heard
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes - The Love I Lost
Teddy Pendergrass - You Can't Hide From Yourself
Sylvester - Dance (Disco Heat)
Willie Hutch - Slick
Wood Brass and Steel - Funkanova
Crusaders - Street Life
Vernon Burch - Get Up
Fatback - Spanish Hustle
posted by p3t3 at 7:48 AM on February 4, 2008

Who needs DayQuil? Shaking my groove thang to all the above masterworks is helping me forget this nasty cold. Thanks, everybody.
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:50 AM on February 4, 2008

Not 1979, but heavyweight disco gold: Girl You Need A Change Of Mind - Eddie Kendricks. Full extended remix.
posted by forallmankind at 7:52 AM on February 4, 2008

My favorite "lost" disco song is this one, "do what you wanna do".
posted by wittgenstein at 7:52 AM on February 4, 2008

Re: Funkytown

My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut.

Inspiration comes from the strangest places.
(as revealed by the Oracle Casey Kasem on AT40 back in the day. Yes, I am an old man...)
posted by djrock3k at 7:57 AM on February 4, 2008

I think this says it all. This too.
posted by jonmc at 8:14 AM on February 4, 2008

Disco Duck: Scarier than you remember
posted by GrammarMoses at 8:23 AM on February 4, 2008

Man, this is bringing back some odd memories for me. I had a boyfriend who had had a disco show on the radio before I started dating him. I really didn't think much about disco before dating him, but he really changed my opinion on the entire genre of music. I had thought is was mindless and a bit pointless. I most likely would have subscribed to the "Disco Sucks" school of thought and veered towards punk or rock had I been around in the 70's. When I brought this up to him, he pointed out the homophobic and racist undertones of the Disco Sucks movement. We'd talk about Sylvester and the clarity of "I feel love." I started shaking my booty and not giving a shit whether music was created "just" for dancing. It was glorious.
posted by piratebowling at 8:24 AM on February 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Musique - Push Push
posted by seawallrunner at 8:34 AM on February 4, 2008

progosk, that BTBA video is hilarious.
posted by GrammarMoses at 8:38 AM on February 4, 2008

Black Devil.
posted by hellbient at 8:45 AM on February 4, 2008

(warning for above - cartoon titties)
posted by hellbient at 8:49 AM on February 4, 2008

Chocolate Milk - Take It Off 1982

Stanky
posted by afu at 8:54 AM on February 4, 2008

A dissenting opinion:

The Who - Sister Disco
Frank Zappa - Dancin' Fool
posted by jonmc at 8:58 AM on February 4, 2008

DEATH BEFORE DISCO!!!!

Actually, I secretly loved disco back then. My sister and I used to do the Hustle all of the time. If my brother had found this fact out, I would have been noogied to death to a background track of Meatloaf.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:58 AM on February 4, 2008

That Black Devil song is amazing
posted by afu at 9:01 AM on February 4, 2008

Oh yeah, and here's the amazing Amada Lear:

Queen of Chinatown
Enigma (Give a bit of Mmh to Me)

There is of course, more, but I think those were the best songs of hers. (Videos of her on Youtube have increased a lot since I made this post.)
posted by piratebowling at 9:06 AM on February 4, 2008

seawallrunner - oh, the shameful memories. This track single-handedly jump-started my puberty...
posted by progosk at 9:10 AM on February 4, 2008

though i did always that "pizza-pie" stuff a momentary turn-off - what was that about anyways?
posted by progosk at 9:14 AM on February 4, 2008

Giorgio Moroder - From Here To Eternity
posted by hellbient at 9:33 AM on February 4, 2008

What's happenin' baby? How the heck are you?

Steve Dahl & Teenage Radiation - Do Ya Think I'm Disco?
posted by rokabiri at 9:33 AM on February 4, 2008

Well, I was a newborn in 1979, but I like Sarah Brightman: I lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper.
posted by Snyder at 9:44 AM on February 4, 2008

Venus Gang - Love to Fly, Space Woman
posted by hellbient at 9:47 AM on February 4, 2008

Ah, but disco never died in Europe. So I'll instead of following the 1979 constraint slavishly here are some examples that were made after 1979:
Spargo - You and me 1980 Holland
Righeira - Vamos a la playa 1983 Italy (!)
Alphaville - Big in Japan 1984 Germany
Baltimora - Tarzan Boy 1985 Italy
Sabrina - Boys Italy 1987 (slightly NSFW)
first part of an italo disco montage

And of course Boney M were German.
Here's the flashy Boney M dancer Bobby Farrell doing a recent commercial making fun of the financial success of his career. (it's in Dutch. The producer says repeatedly "hey Bobby, don't worry about the money, it's coming". The pay off is about a retirement plan.) You don't know whether to laugh or cry but at least he still can dance.

...

Yes. I know. I'll accept my metafilter excommunication stoically.
posted by jouke at 10:15 AM on February 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Death Disco
posted by Burhanistan at 10:20 AM on February 4, 2008

My two favorite songs of 1979 are not exactly disco, but they're certainly danceable:
Driver's Seat by Sniff 'N the Tears
Pop Muzik by M

I had pneumonia for the first time in August 1979, and I remember being confined to my bed in my lonely bedroom, the rest of my family jovially carrying on with life, unconcerned (so it seemed) that I hadn't slept in days because every time I laid flat I coughed myself into a breathless frenzy. So there I lay, with a half dozen pillows beneath my head and shoulders so that I could breathe, the radio my only friend. I remember thinking "Ring My Bell" sounded too much like Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." It was the summer of Supertramp's The Logical Song and Cheap Trick's I Want You to Want Me. And The Knack's My Sharona. I liked all of these songs, but Driver's Seat and Pop Muzik were the two songs that really made me forget my misery at the time.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:30 AM on February 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

kc & the Sunshine Band - I'm Your Boogie Man

In the Disco vs. Rock conflagration that claimed the peaceful booty shakin' of many a grade schooler, I just procalimed KC and the Sunshine band to be "rock" and let the chips fall were they may.
posted by Skygazer at 10:41 AM on February 4, 2008

Oriole -- I loved Driver's Seat by Sniff n the Tears so much it was one of the few 45s I ever bought.
posted by wittgenstein at 10:45 AM on February 4, 2008

i still listen to machine's 'here but for the grace of god'. it's the stuff.
posted by mrballistic at 11:01 AM on February 4, 2008

A Little Lovin' (Keeps The Doctor Away)" and "School" by The Raes (link is to page with MP3s)

Via Five Bucks On-By-Tor, my Canadian retro music blog.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:18 AM on February 4, 2008

Oh, and "Glitter Queen" by The Laurie Bower Singers.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:22 AM on February 4, 2008

Yes, Minneapolis is Funkytown (not).
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:37 AM on February 4, 2008

This thread makes me want to go roller-skating.

(I was six in '79. And a darn good roller-skater.)
posted by desuetude at 12:50 PM on February 4, 2008

I will make a confession here on Metafilter. A dark secret. A secret nobody but my wife has been privy too for these many years.

From my sophomore year in high school, and roughly from 1978 to 1982, I secretly loved disco. And you must all understand that there is no statute of limitations on liking disco in the town I went to high school. To this day if such an admission was to become public my license to rock could be immediately and retroactively revoked. And I would be shunned by my former rock'n peers.

Zepplin ruled with a Metal fist in my home town. About as soft as you were allowed to get was Kiss's I Was Made For Loving You and the only excuse for that was to dry hump a girl on the dance floor.

The thing was all the girls who put out... the older girls who put out in the most interesting ways I should note... well, they went to discos. So at first that was my excuse.

I literally had to deceive my friends and family. I honestly would rather my parents think I had to go to Juvie counseling that have even THEM know I was meeting my friend Tony and we were diving an entire town away to go to a disco. I would dress in my Kiss T-Shirt and seafarers but bring my white bell bottoms, black silk shirt and white vest secretly and very carefully rolled up inside a velvet black light Molly Hatchet wall hanging (which is where I usually hid my bong). That was then hidden in the bottom of my gym bag. We told our friends that we had band practice. I told my mom I was going to Young Life Christian Fellowship meetings.

But we would then take the bus (oh the shame... oh the degradation changing into our Disco outfits in the bathroom of Godfathers Pizza near the bus stop) one town north to go the Disco.

We were under age. So the most humiliating aspect was to go to all this trouble and then get rejected by the doorman. And would have to wait for the 10pm bus back home, in the rain, in our disco outfits while local toughs drove by and screamed "FAGGOTS!" at us.

Buy about one out of five times we would get inside. Imagine this. Sixteen year old goofs - I had braces for Christ sake - asking 22 year old college girls to dance. But the thing was there were no guys at these places. Disco was shameful to manly men in small towns of the 1970s. The only men at this Disco strangely were dancing with other men. Which at the time it never even dawned on me that they were homosexual. So anyway we often met girls and even more hilariously they would buy us drinks, make out, and usually give us rides all the way home. Which to us was so awesome that to push it any further sex-wise was to risk the wrath of the gods. I would change BACK into my rock'n clothes in our garden shed before going inside the house. My mom would always be waiting up. And she would ask what I was doing. And that I smelled like cigarettes. And I would say "Get off my back! Quit playing mind games!" And run to my room. Fearing she knew the awful truth.

Then on Monday we would go back to High School and bang heads to Zepplin and go to wrestling practice and complain about how stupid Disco was... and how it was killing American Rock.

GOD. It feels GOOD to get that terrible secret off my chest. And I'm not sorry.
posted by tkchrist at 12:58 PM on February 4, 2008 [15 favorites has favorites]

tkchrist, you must tell me the name of that small town, so I can go burn it to the ground.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:06 PM on February 4, 2008

See, that's the kind of touching personal story that needs to go on the sidebar. Nazis be damned.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:10 PM on February 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

tkchrist, I think they made an episode of Freaks and Geeks about you (sorry, I can't link, my work just blocked YouTube).
posted by hellbient at 1:39 PM on February 4, 2008

Oh crap -- Molly Hatchet! I saw them in concert. Thank you TK for dredging up such a painful memory.
posted by vronsky at 1:50 PM on February 4, 2008

Disco sucks. It's nothing more than a beat with spangles added.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 1:56 PM on February 4, 2008

I have an internet crush on tkchrist.
posted by dog food sugar at 1:57 PM on February 4, 2008

hellbient, I actually linked to that clip further upthread, oddly enough.

Here it be:

Nick Andopolis represent!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 2:05 PM on February 4, 2008

The late, lamented Sylvester was a Mighty Real disco queen.
posted by timeistight at 2:17 PM on February 4, 2008

tkchrist, you must tell me the name of that small town, so I can go burn it to the ground.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 4:06 PM on February 4 [+] [!]

Hey and this can be your soundtrack while you "Burn that Moma down": The Trammps - Disco Inferno.

Great story Tkchrist. In 1979, just hitting puberty, I was caught in school snapping my fingers in a manner deemed too "disco" and suffered the humiliation of being called "Disco Pete" for the rest of the year. The horror...the horror...

A few short years later I was listening to hardcore and post punk, and I couldn't care less what a bunch of classic rock worshiping dorks thought.
posted by Skygazer at 2:20 PM on February 4, 2008

tkchrist, I think I love you.
posted by GrammarMoses at 2:58 PM on February 4, 2008

Saturday night I was at a baseball banquet at the Ukrainian Event Center in "Nordeast" Minnapolis and heard Mike Veeck, currently the owner and CEO of the Saint Paul Saints baseball team, and Bill "Spaceman" Lee talk about disco demolition night at old Comiskey. God, what I wouldn't have given to see that. The Spaceman even had a picture of the damage and asked rhetorically "Why wouldn't Sparky let his team play on that?"

On the other hand, my spousal equivalent REALLY likes to dance and has significant quantities of disco songs in her dance music collection (along with lots of Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, and Aretha), so I gots to keep my hate for teh disco musak hush or she'll freeze me out.
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:14 PM on February 4, 2008

konolia writes "If I never hear funkytown again, it's okay, because I CERTAINLY HEARD IT ENOUGH BACK THEN."

I worked in a country western bar for a while in the early '90s.

I will never need to hear "Cotton-Eyed Joe" again, because they played it at least twice a night. Same with "Electric Slide," which is how I can claim this is on-topic. They used to pack the people in a bit too much over the code (which was 2000 people as it was), so when the fire marshal came by, the DJ would play a line dancing song to get everyone on the floor, on top of their regular rotation of the song. That happened a lot. The regular rotation was country for an hour and 45 minutes or so, with a real fast one about an hour in to get everyone going, then slow down a bit again, then a couple pop dance songs and then the line dancing song, over and over, every two hours - we opened at 5pm and closed at 2am. It was very much a disco of its own, just for cowboys, or people who liked to dress like they are. But that song ...
posted by krinklyfig at 3:36 PM on February 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I can't believe no-one has mentioned World Domination Enterprises' cover of Funkytown. Now that's disco.
posted by jonathanbell at 4:27 PM on February 4, 2008

Well, based on konolia and krinklyfigs comments, I'd say it's definitely time for someone to do a mashup of "Funkytown" and "Cotton Eyed Joe" and send that little masterpiece of mixology to those two MeFiers ASAP.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:46 PM on February 4, 2008

C'mon jonmc, don't poop in the thread. Can't you tell that Love Is In The Air?
posted by vronsky at 4:49 PM on February 4, 2008

See, that's the kind of touching personal story that needs to go on the sidebar. Nazis be damned.

I lead a double life. Or a triple life. It really got confusing when in my senior year I discovered punk and had to hide that, too.

I remember the why the whole thing came tumbling down when my buddy Tony got a serious girl friend who hated disco and then he pretended like the entire thing never happened. I felt so betrayed. By then new wave and punk and college came around and it was okay to dance to whatever (and how ever) you wanted.

This is funny. When Footloose came out in 1984 I saw it and I thought:

"Yeah man. That's right. You got to DO it, Ren McCormack! You got the RIGHT to dance! Fuck the man for keeping you down! IT'S YOUR RIGHT!"

I identified with that movie shamelessly becuase I felt I had to repress my Disco longings. Though the shame has been delayed twenty years. As I write this I am beet red with retroactive humiliation.

I also note if that movie Footloose had been a true story in my town, instead of join in and be converted, the rednecks would have kicked the shit out of him the second they saw him Fist Dance and undulate his hips to that crappy "Let's Hear It for the Boy" and Bonnie Tyler disco music. It would have been: "You lousy city fag!" Smack. Punch. Kick.
posted by tkchrist at 4:51 PM on February 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The disco videos to beat them all: Hippo & Dog sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Kozo does La Vida Loca, aka The Thong Song.

I don't get out much.
posted by ceri richard at 5:57 PM on February 4, 2008

needs a musicjonmcdoesntlike tag
posted by empath at 6:13 PM on February 4, 2008

(iRoc drives by, blasting Foreigner's "Head Games")

FAGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSS!!!!!

(peels out, speeds off)
posted by Senor Cardgage at 6:27 PM on February 4, 2008

needs a musicjonmcdoesntlike tag

Tell you what: I'll add it, but if he gets back to us here, indicating that there's anything in this thread that he likes, I'm gonna pull that tag faster than you can say Moroder.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:32 PM on February 4, 2008

jouke, ouch, that Bobby Farrell commercial. Way ouch.

tkchrist, What awesome comments. Vivid and great descriptions. I really enjoy hearing about your life. Love your phrase but feel badly you experienced "retroactive humiliation".

I knew the late, renowned pop artist, Tom Wesselmann, who hid his love of Country and Western music for decades. He thought his fellow, sophisticated New York downtown artist 'friends', would judge him harshly. It's not even mentioned on his Wikipedia entry. He also hid the fact that he sent in cartoons (which were usually rejected) to the New Yorker under the name "Slim Stealingworth". Nothing on the web, still, about his secret life as a song writer and music producer. I don't think any country tunes of his ever were successfully produced, which might have been if he'd given his real name. But I think he was too ashamed and I felt badly for him that something he so loved was kept hidden. He needed some Gloria Gaynor feistiness, I Will Survive, to handle his fears of rejection or disapproval.

Just found this mp3, a song he played harp on, Pictures on the Walls of your Heart. Bet he wrote it too, sounds like one of his. He had a right, dammit, to croon.

You know what you said about Footloose, how you identified with it and identified with having a right to freedom of expression, I think it was an excellent movie. There are plenty of places on the planet people still aren't permitted social dancing or it's considered bad behavior. Or are afraid of sharing what they love for fear of being judged. So bravo for outing your disco side man. Right on.

I love it when MeFites share life experiences. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderfully so many MeFites write and the passionate feelings around something I'd never thought about before or even imagined.
posted by nickyskye at 6:47 PM on February 4, 2008

Debbie Harry - Backfired (w/Nile Rodgers.. and HR Giger?)
posted by vronsky at 8:57 PM on February 4, 2008

1979 interview with Jellybean Benitez from Dancing Disco
posted by vronsky at 9:08 PM on February 4, 2008

Still wandering the Youtube disco archives, so if anyone is still hungry for some more:
Brick - Aint Gonna Hurt Nobody
First Choice - Doctor Love
O'Jays - I Love Music
Brass Construction - Got Myself Together
Roy Ayers - Running Away
Gino Soccio - Dancer
Brainstorm - Lovin Is Really My Game
Chain Reaction - Dance Freak
Crown Heights Affair - You Gave Me Love
Round Tree - Get On Down
Pleasure - Glide
Kool & The Gang - Steppin Out
Lakeside - All The Way Live
Rose Royce - It Makes You Feel Like Dancin
Peter Jacques Band - Walking On Music

And then of course there's the sci-fi synthy italo disco of the early 80s, I don't have time to dig through all those, but the few I've already come across today:
Space - Magic Fly
Kebekelektrik - War Dance
Kano - Its A War
Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk
Mr. Flagio - Take A Chance
Azoto - Exalt Exalt
Purple Flash - We Can Make It
Charlie - Spacer Woman
Alexander Robotnick - Problemes d'Amour
Stopp - I'm Hungry
Viven Vee - Remember
posted by p3t3 at 10:22 PM on February 4, 2008

I played in a disco band in the early 80s — Michael Jackson, EWF, Lou Rawls, Commodores — which got me a lot of odd glances from my buddies in the Jazz Police. Like, how could I? Sometimes I spent entire evenings without running through the head of Donna Lee!

Great thread.
posted by Wolof at 2:07 AM on February 5, 2008

I've said it once and I'll say it again: FUCK the Jazz Police!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:06 AM on February 5, 2008

> A dissenting opinion:

The Who - Sister Disco

You're putting down disco by citing "Sister Disco," one of the worst songs on, arguably, the worst studio album The (original) Who ever put out? Really?
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:18 AM on February 5, 2008

FUCK the Jazz Police!

That is one seriously esoteric fetish to have.
posted by asok at 9:24 AM on February 5, 2008

Talking of fetishes, why not bend your ears around the lush sound of Jimmy (ie) Bo Horne's Spank!

As remixed and remade by just about everybody.
posted by asok at 9:34 AM on February 5, 2008

That is one seriously esoteric fetish to have.

Hey, don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

Not that I've tried it, you understand...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:49 PM on February 5, 2008

Did I miss it, or has no one mentioned A Fifth of Beethoven yet?

This is why punk had to happen.
posted by klausness at 4:09 PM on February 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

He's my favorite honky!
posted by Pollomacho at 5:27 PM on February 5, 2008

No, it's not disco, but I knew all the words back in '79 and that was pretty damn good for somneone who could barely tie his own shoes.
posted by Pollomacho at 5:28 PM on February 5, 2008

klausness writes "This is why punk had to happen."

Yeah. I was just a kid when that came out, and I did love it at the time. But I also loved "Disco Duck," so, you know, being a kid and all ...
posted by krinklyfig at 7:30 PM on February 5, 2008

Me, I love disco. Not to mention Meat Loaf and Molly Hatchet. And I'm damn proud of it.

/me reaches up to crank the volume on XM's Chrome channel 83 because "Mighty Real" is coming on.
posted by keptwench at 6:21 PM on February 6, 2008

This is why punk had to happen.

A Fifth Of Beethoven is redeemed by its use to kick off this Justice mix.

(The disco version of Night On Bald Mountain was also redeemed by them.)
posted by sparkletone at 2:40 PM on February 9, 2008

On the not-old disco front: Hercules & Love Affair bring it.
posted by sparkletone at 2:42 PM on February 9, 2008

On the old disco front: I have a soft spot in my heart More, More, More.

It is irreedemably cheesy trash. And, yet, it's like a big, greasy, cheese-covered pretzel. So bad for you, and yet every once in a while... So good.
posted by sparkletone at 2:45 PM on February 9, 2008

So I'll instead of following the 1979 constraint slavishly here are some examples that were made after 1979

And don't forget the point at which -- while they're busy creating Techno in Detroit, House in Chicago and Garage in New York and New Jersey, Italo-disco is also morphing into Italo-house:

Lee Marrow - Pain
Gino Latino - Welcome
Sueno Latino- Sueno Latino
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:06 AM on February 17, 2008