The Lost Art of DJ RE-MIXING (Part 1)
Lets head out to your favorite Club, they no longer call them DISCOS (another victim of the animosity towards the term DISCO), and see what's cooking. The place is packed, full of hundreds of dancers and partiers. Nothing much has changed in the thirty years plus since I was the man who made things happen. It looks more or less the same. The light shows are better, technology tends to improve things like that. The people are dressed different than they did in my hey-day. But the place is full of young women and the young men with lust in their eyes are after them. That remains the same. The dance floor is full, but those are not the dances that I remember? They seem to be much more SEXUAL in their nature. That is a good thing, I guess! Unless you're a 52 year-old man with teen-age daughters! Then you have to be worried. Wait a second, THAT'S ME!!! I guess my oldest daughter will never see the inside of this place!!... Anyhow, so far everything seems to be the same!
I seem to remember the beat of the song being played? It sounds like good-old-time DISCO, but with all these silly lyrics and words that weren't part of the the music I remembered. WOW, I thought, this deejay is really good, he is creating a "re-mix" just like I would in the "good old days".
I make my way through the crowd towards the deejay booth, after fighting off this "metro-sexual" person, I wasn't sure what it was?? I arrive. I take a look expecting this guy to be going crazy, bouncing from turntable to turntable. Instead, he is leaning back, smoking from a pipe? Talking to two others that are with him? I hear the re-mixes, but he ain't moving, he is not doing anything other then getting high? What a bummer, this fabulous re-mix isn't being executed LIVE!! I look and see that he has a CD playing. The song cuts, a fabulous cut, into a similar sounding song?!!? I am very disappointed. I would never stoup to playing anything other then VINYL in the PRIME TIME HOURS of the night??
I could understand if it was at the beginning or end of the night, I remember other deejays doing that (Not me!), but no REAL deejay would miss the opportunity to JAM records at the high point of the night! I started to grumble out loud my disappointment. "Hey, why aren't you deejaying? How come you don't re-mix the record?" As I was going to say something else, the guy who was supposed to be a DEE JAY tells me that he IS deejaying! "No your not" I shout back at him, surprised that he heard me over the garbage that now was playing,"This isn't deejaying, you're not really re-mixing anything?" This young man, old enough to be my son, defiantly screams back, "Yes I am, I burned this CD earlier at my hotel!"
What the HELL is he talking about? Having recently arrived into the 21st century myself, just learning how to operate a computer in December, I still didn't fully understand what he was talking about? I asked him, "You did WHAT?" "I burned this remix back home ." He said. I think I was starting to understand. He pre-mixed it! "No, I downloaded it from the computer." He said!!!WHAT THE FUCK!! "Do you mean you didn't do it, it is not you who is the deejay?" He was getting pissed off at my ignorance."Yes I am the DEE JAY! It is my MIX, and MY re-mix!!!" NO IT WASN"T!! What on earth is going on? Have these kids gone crazy? He can call himself a deejay, (in his defense, I did see him attempt to mix records later. He even managed to do it on beat, sort of!!) but not by my definition, by the group of guys from my generation who actually knew what they were doing! This guy just couldn't be a serious deejay.
WRONG, he was WORLD FAMOUS, brought over from Holland, or was it HARLEM? My hearing is getting bad. And I didn't have my reading glasses, so I couldn't make out the printing on the flyer they gave me as I arrived. But I did find-out that this club paid him five thousand dollars to come here for a NIGHT!!! Are you serious, this guy who couldn't tie the shoe-laces of most deejays from my generation, gets FIVE thousand dollars a night!!! This guy was supposed to be the BEST! WHAT THE FUCK!!??
What Happened?? Did something change the ART of deejaying? Is simply playing pre-recorded music all that deejaying has evolved to?? These kids today not only can't enjoy all the wild-crazy Sex of my generation, but they are also deprived of the actual experience of a real live deejay mixing and re-mixing vinyl records all night long. We have become dinosaurs! They talk about us as we used to talk of Allan Freed or COUSIN BRUCEY. They look at us as Heroes who paved the way to this party of a life they now enjoy. If only I was thirty years younger (oh my GOD I've turned into my father)! I could be making that silly money!
Where and when did the deejay simply become a human JUKE-BOX?? What happened to all the REAL deejays? We got old, time passed us by. But HOW did the deejay become so "Un-important"? It was my DUTY to pass on my knowledge to those that came after me, I did! But those guys, didn't TEACH their craft to the generation after them! So it became "watered down", not as good, not as potent, and not as awesome. The ART is gone. There must be some old-style deejays out there some where? There has to be!! If we have to think about it, obviously there simply aren't that many left.
Oh, oh. wait a second, he has two copies of the same record, and heads towards the turntables. Finally, he is going to do a LIVE mix or possibly, dare I say, AN ACTUAL RE-MIX!! He CUTS away from the CD, and started the record at its beginning. He does nothing else?? As the song almost ends, he CUTS away to the beginning of the the second record, the same song! He goes back to his pipe! Thats it! That was his re-mix!?! " Hey was that a re-mix?" I ask. "Yeah, It was great wasn't it, perfect!" he responded. I was amazed, dumb-founded. He was serious. I was ashamed! I expected that with all the new technology and advancements in today's world, that the deejays would be better then ever. To my surprise I now know different.
In comparison to the deejays of the seventies and eighties, the deejay of today really sucks!! I start talking to this so-called deejay, and as the night goes on he now understands my position. He thinks that I am full of shit. He invites me to come in and SHOW him how to remix."Do you have any OLD DISCO records here" I ask him. He turns, reaches under a table and pulls out I FEEL LOVE by Donna Summer, the DISCONET 12", and an old Donna Summer album, the one that has the original version of I FEEL LOVE. "Any other OLDIES?" I ask, he searches and eventually pulls out a DON ARMANDO AND THE SECOND AVENUE RUMBA BAND LP." I was told that this was pretty good" he says. "That's all you got here?" He tells me that the crowd doesn't like this stuff. He doesn't play it, ever!! Boy the youth sure is waisted on the young, isn't it!!
"I am going to pack the floor for you." I tell him, he giggles and gives me access to the turntables and the mixer. Problem number one appears as soon as I see it isn't a BOZAK or any other mixer that I've ever seen. But after a few seconds, I figure it out. He has some song on, I time it, it is 124 BPM. I cue up the DISCONET version, slow it down a little with the pitch control on the Technic 1200 turntable (thank god some things never change). I wait for a break in the song playing. Timing the beat perfectly, getting the measures ready for my mix. Here we go, I slowly have the synchronized songs in perfect pitch and harmony. I slowly ease it in, you hear nothing, its on beat! Now I can hear the the I FEEL LOVE coming in right over the top of the break, the mix is on. As the two songs play simultaneously, the dance floor looks up, they are hearing something strange, and are not sure how to react. Suddenly as I FEEL LOVE takes off, I finish the mix. PERFECT!! I haven't lost it! The crowd groans in surprise, more dancers get on the floor. Taking the album version, I hook it up, find the break, and now there are two versions playing, it sounds like one record. The deejay stays back, in amazement, as I go from record to record, mixing one break, then another . This is sounding good! Back on the longer break of the DISCONET version, I cue up DEPUTY OF LOVE. When there is solely that electronic music from Patrick Cowley playing, I ease into the intro of DEPUTY OF LOVE, The piano solo comes in perfectly over the top of the instrumental music. It starts to reach its peak, there is anticipation on the dance floor, I can sense it! Just as the vocals from DEPUTY are going to start, I take it fully off, and increase the volume of I FEEL LOVE, just when it's break ends and Donna Summer starts singing "I FEEL LOVE, I FEEL LOVE, I FEEEELL LOOOVVEE". The crowd goes nuts, they cheer and scream at me. It was a perfect fake-out, got them wanting more!!! I cue up the album version of I FEEL LOVE, four beats behind the one playing. I play them simultaneousness. Then switch to just playing the second and forth beat. The whole song has changed, I keep playing with it, going two beats slower, then playing the album version and use the special effects on the DISCONET version to shoot lazer sounds on top. This place is going crazy! The deejay is in a state of shock! As I set myself up for my finale, I go back to the long break, and ease in DEPUTY OF LOVE again, when the time was perfect, I brought in DEPUTY from nowhere, it was perfect. The crowd erupted in delight, they screamed and shouted in a furious roar that was heard throughout the club. The manager even came out to see what had happened. The deejay explained that I just BLEW THEM OUT! I told the deejay, that if he wanted to learn how to do this, call me. He has. In my next chapter, you'll see what he learned. Til then keep on truckin!!
[Article Continued on Part 2]
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