Songs from the school of the Love Unlimited

[eddie]

Hey Visuals, I hear the similarity between Hutson and White even though Hutson is not a baritone. They are both indepedant artists who write, arrange, and give their songs a certain signature. Neither are truly funk nor disco and do not use political lyrics in their music. Both artists have ballads neatly crafted with strings and often feature instrumentals on their albums. They both use female backgrounds and augment their arrangements.

However, one artist that really traveled in Barry White's wake was Johnny Bristol. On tracks like "Hang on in there baby" one could easily hear how Barry was his main influence.

[remicks]

Originally Posted by eddie

Hey Visuals, I hear the similarity between Hutson and White even though Hutson is not a baritone. They are both indepedant artists who write, arrange, and give their songs a certain signature. Neither are truly funk nor disco

Eddie Eddie Eddie ......I hate to seem like I'm forever coming down on ya friend ...but I simply can't just ignore these untruths being disseminated onto a thread of mine & irresponsibly leave them left uncorrected ...

besides .... I'm getting a might worried about you :-D:roll: and unless immediate remedial action is taken I'm afriad you'll wind up down some narrow little disco road not unlike the one Quinny travels ....................................:-P

There was so much variety to disco .....such a wonderfully wide range of sounds that to try to define "A" disco sound is quite reckless if not futile .

Now Marky does us all a great service by painstakingly producing the actual 100 per cent valid DISCO charts actually created during the days of disco by actual disco djs who spun actual disco music in actual disco clubs . It's the closest thing to a deliverance of truth from the tablets of Moses that we've got ....

So......... Barry White ! not disco? This has to stop !! Barry White is the godfather of disco ...the earliest mentions of the concept of disco never fail to include him

And this is where studying the disco charts is of such great value .....
......Once the Billboard disco chart was started in late 1974 .... surprise surprise .....look who perched his big ol' self none too soon right at the top :

COMPILATION CONSENSUS TOP 16
Chart #3: November 9, 1974

1) YOU'RE THE FIRST, THE LAST, MY EVERYTHING/ b/w MORE THAN ANYTHING, YOU'RE MY EVERYTHING (Instrumental) - Barry White
(20th Century 45) (22 total points/ charts ABC) (Last week: #2)

2) NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE - Gloria Gaynor
(MGM 45) (20/ABC) (#1)
3) GET DANCIN' (PARTS 1 & 2) - Disco Tex & His Sex-O-Lettes
(Chelsea 45) (20/ABC) (#3)
4) WHERE ARE ALL MY FRIENDS - Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
(Phil. Intl. 45) (16/BC) (#5)
5) DOCTOR'S ORDERS - Carol Douglas

He bumped off Gloria Gaynor for crying out loud !!

That was 1974 ....

....and currently Marky's revealing for us .... all that was disco in the middle of 1976 ---
and before too long here .... guess what ..... Barry White's gonna be back right in the middle of it all again ....and surprise surprise .... guess where he charges his big linebacker bad self all the way back up to on the disco chart ....yet again .....8)8)8)8) .... :-).....

Those wonderfully revealing & defining disco charts .... they hold for us these truths ... !!

OK I'm done .......................:roll::razz::-D


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[remicks]

Originally Posted by Mixmachine

"make it last forever" by Donna Mcghee sounds pretty Barry White-ish to me with cow bell and all :-Pso is the remake by Inner City

Just recently re-discovered "Desafio" it's taken from the Columbia Album "Delicate & Jumpy" I wanna try to find this.

"Fania" was a famous NYC predominantly Salsa Music label, but also release other music including Latin Disco, ( LTG Express), the "All Star" ususally refers to recordings that used all (or many) the Label's musicians playing together live or in the Studio. Many great musicians in those days recorded or toured with Fania (some while signed by other label) , some familar names, Mongo Santamaria, Cheo Feliciano, Hector Lavoe, Jan Hammer (Miami Vice) Louie Ramirez ("Salsa"), Late queen of Salsa Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco, Larry Harlow, Willie Colon, and the list goes on and on. in 1973 Manu Dibango toured with Fania all star doing a wicket Soul Makossa.

thanks for the info MM ......I will also be on the lookout for this one :D
Fania All Stars - http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/3245_0_2_0_C/

Remicks-you must..MUST...check out "Love Song" by
Simon Said(a 45 on Atco-maybe1975?)a perfect
Love Unlimited faux morsel-with whispery,dramatic
spoken parts,lush strings and a gorgeous melody.
Thom

I have other Simon Said's but not this one ....more to seek !!!8)8) thanx !!


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[QUINNY]

Remicks: One that might float your boat and remind you of Barry's Love Unlimited instrumental outings is.......

Nature Zone - Porcupine

What's this narrow road I'm travellin' down? I'm flabbergasted that some of you guys (Remicks) use chart action to blast someone's supposed bad taste/non-cred and then use those same charts to back up your own pet likes.

Barry White wasn't strictly Disco, but he was played in discos and the same applies to Leroy Hutson (with the exception of 'Feel the Spirit of '76' which was pure Disco).

Sure, I played Barry White, but I didn't ever feel (as a 22-26 year old DJ, already older than my core audience) that his music was anything more than over 40's sex olympics background music. All the letharios of this world loved it. Much of his output consisted of the same tunes re-written/re-scored and musically he never really moved on, once he'd hit upon his magic formula. Your quoted example (first, last, everything) had a rhythm pattern that wasn't anything like the Disco music that was being played at the time and for me, was the beginning of the end for him. It harkened back to soul records of the late '60's (out of date), was too fast (for the time) and was a pop hit primarily. Most of his big hits redefined cheese and syrupy sweet at the same time, but there were a few that were very good tracks. Overweight and overblown in my books.

[Nano]

Yes, "desafío" means "challenge", however it's not a word used in casual conversation often.

I'm reading this and I can't think of any songs but some time ago I saw this Barry White concert DVD from BITD, it was delighting and kitschy at the same time, you know? I mean, I LOL when I saw Barry's heavy perspiration all over his face... when all he does is walk talking on the microphone! And Glodean's nails! :-o Between the bonus features in the DVD there's a recording session circa 1980 in which her nails are several inches longer still (obviously she never cut them). The fake eyelashes, the wigs, you know... Of course the music is great!

The best part is a little featurette in which Barry and Glodean show the house they are building for themselves. The couple show a big hole in the ground in which they will put their swimming pool. It's like those houses in Goodfellas, or that Ike and Tina had in the movie What's love got to do with it. Instantaneous Jussi material

[Mixmachine]

Originally Posted by QUINNY

Remicks: One that might float your boat and remind you of Barry's Love Unlimited instrumental outings is.......

Nature Zone - Porcupine

Hey, Remicks Listen to old Quinny he's not lying. :p:p



http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/7155_0_2_0_C/

Yes, "desafío" means "challenge", however it's not a word used in casual conversation often.

It could also be translated as a "Dare" as in an invitation to a duel over a question of honor. (in the old conquistadores days :-?)

[remicks]

Originally Posted by QUINNY

Remicks: One that might float your boat and remind you of Barry's Love Unlimited instrumental outings is.......

Nature Zone - Porcupine

I will definitely seek out PORCUPINE 8)8)

Originally Posted by QUINNY

What's this narrow road I'm travellin' down? I'm flabbergasted that some of you guys (Remicks) use chart action to blast someone's supposed bad taste/non-cred and then use those same charts to back up your own pet likes.

No need to be so flabbergasted :p .....
You are simply misstating my position .

Everyone is entitled to like whatever they like ....and I've never thought the charts had some special power to browbeat anyone into broadening their puny tastes..... :roll::lol:

BUT …. because someone doesn’t like a certain style of disco music ... be it European ... lush orchestration ...funk …. whatever ... that dislike doesn't then stop that music from being disco . That is my point.

….hate the Bee Gees all anyone wants ..... fair enough ... but , sorry ... still (often ) disco . Yech on ABBA? ...still (at times ) disco ....Barry White ??? same thing. All I can ever say over and over is thank GOD for the confirmation of these truths via the BILLBOARD DISCO charts .... Just check 'em out ... sho 'nuff ...there they all are ... Bee Gees , ABBA , Barry White , happily boogieing along amongst a wide assortment of musical acts ( Stones , Streisand , Stewart ) each with their own style of disco offerings ....

I can't figure out the resistance to this ????
Trust me disco fans ....this wide range of disco .... all this variety of disco to embrace .... this is a good thing !!
Broaden your narrow road !!!

Sure, I played Barry White, but I didn't ever feel (as a 22-26 year old DJ, already older than my core audience) that his music was anything more than over 40's sex olympics background music

So there it is ...that’s your own opinion and you're welcomed to it ( and you wonder what narrow road you’re easing on down !!! :p:p)

Still doesn't change reality .... FIRST LAST EVERYTHING was a #1 disco song baby !!
And no amount of negative opinions can now go back and reverse the irrefutable reality that in America: the discos loved Barry White’s disco music …
and unlike you with just an opinion of the situation …... I (WE ) have the charts 8) to confirm this truth …..



By the way .... ... I 've had to modifiy my own position on some music because of the charts .
I've always felt that Boz Scaggs’s LOWDOWN was the biggest con ever perpetuated in the name of "disco'... but I can't argue its disco chart performance which continues to be marginally impressive ......
OK then ...its disco ... not my style ... but that doesn't then stop it from being disco 8)....the charts ( derived from disco djs who played disco music in disco clubs during the disco era ) say so!
(see how that works) .....

oh well ..... it does have horns and strings I guess ... and a heavily featured Van McCoy favored piccolo /flute ........:roll:.... ....


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[Mixmachine]

[quote=thommy2458]

Originally Posted by remicks

*****

Remicks-you must..MUST...check out "Love Song" by
Simon Said(a 45 on Atco-maybe1975?)a perfect
Love Unlimited faux morsel-with whispery,dramatic
spoken parts,lush strings and a gorgeous melody.
Thom

Yes, Simon Said's "Love song" is a cross between "Can't get enough" and "walking in the Rain" I was looking for the original 7" to see if Barry had anything to do with this one, but no luck, I have it on a CDR , is short only 2:46:???:

[tony98]

Somebody gave a namecheck for Gloria Scott,i've got the album in front of me now it's on Casablanca 1974 produced by Barry White ,arranged by Gene Page & Tom Brock.It's something worth looking for.

[eddie]

Remicks:

Let me refine my context. What I was saying is that neither White nor Hutson are out and out pure funk or pure disco or pure Quiet Storm. I meant that as a compliment to these artists because it was a grave insult to for a soul or Black artist to be considered DISCO BITD. I was just trying to point out some similarities that I noticed in their sound, writing, style, and production.

Yes I do travel down a narrow road when it comes to what I spend my time listening to and spend my money on. I have about 7,000 discs all of which are soul or jazz related but many are heavily influenced by DISCO. I do have about 6 Hutson discs and about 20 Barry White discs and enjoy most everything they do. I have all Love Unlimited albums on either vinyl or CD.

I do have a bit of difficulty defining disco when some insist that Richard Rogers' "Can't stop" isn't disco. I've been told by Euro-disco fans that much soul music that I would consider disco is the blues/down-tempo soul (ie Johnnie Taylor, PIR). I view the world from the soul and jazz perspective and have to stop and think (at times quite hard) what soul music is actually considered DISCO, New Jack, Northern soul, ect.

IT SEEMS LIKE THE BEST UPTEMPO SOUL SONGS HAVE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF ONE OF THE 3 PREVIOUS STYLES JUST MENTIONED BUT DOES NOT PURELY DEFINE THAT GENRE!

This is an interesting thread but I don't want to split hairs. Where would you put something that's pure funk on the disco chart?