What I listen to besides Disco

[Ricardo_Mata]

Hi! Some of you know I used to have a mobile DJ business in the late 70's and early 80s. Because of that, I had to listen to tons of disco. Funny enough I was so overloaded with disco that, when not practicing mixes, I listened to tons of rock, heavy metal, and anything that didn't involve hi-hats and the word "dance"!

I had several hundred LPs with Styx, Journey, Saga, Marillion, Rush, Genesis, and many obscure bands that never made it anywhere except in Venezuela. I guess some record companies used Venezuela as the market to dump all the stuff they couldn't sell anywhere else. Some names that come to mind are bands like "Harlequin" and "Wabbit" from Canada. Of course, I also had tons of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, and many others.

Something interesting is that I began to explore other styles that a typical teenager would not even think about. I began to listen to some of my dad's LPs and started to develop a taste for Jazz and classical. From there I started to buy LPs by Al Dimeola, Jean Luc Ponty, Thijs Van Leer, Kitaro, Beethove, Mozart, and many others.

That led to an interest in exploring all kinds of music. Nowadays, I have somewhere around 900 CDs that cover everything from disco to classical. I go through phases in which I listen to one or two particular types. For example, for the last 7 or 8 months I have been re-living my DJ years by listening to disco. Through this site I have been able to find quite a bit of the stuff I used to have: Gino Soccio, Azoto, Kano, Change, etc.

Before the disco phase I went through a reggae phase in which I listened to pretty much everything Bob Marley ever recorded. Before the reggaes phase, I was in a Jazz one, and before the Jazz one it was classical, specially baroque stuff.

I guess you can say I have a pretty eclectic taste when it comes to music. I do.

Isn't it wonderful how music can bring so much pleasure into our lives?

[Bernie]

It's always refreshing to hear how fans of Disco music seem to embrace many other styles of music.

Black music was perhaps my first foray into uncharted lands. My family operated a small charter bus company and I would usually go with my dad on the trips. We had many contracts with Black church groups in the New York City area to take them to other congregations throughout the northeast like DC, Philly...

It became second nature for me to hear gospel or other songs being sung "live" on the bus. They would also bring radios on the bus and play all the great Soul tunes of the day. My dad and I would always be invited to attend church and afterwards dinner downstairs. The singing and the music continued there as well! This definitely left a mark on me and paved the way for my Disco years.

Disco was later augmented with New Wave, Hi-NRG and other dance stuff. Friends and co-workers really got me into lots of other different styles like electronic, alternative, Techno/Ambient, New Age, Jazz, classical-especially Baroque and Romantic, the Blues which somehow went hand in hand with a bottle of "Chimay" and Latin/Salsa (my Puerto Rican roots) along with World music-especially Indian and Middle-eastern (my girlfriend is Iranian so she's a major influence now)

Recently, I put together some CDs for my mom from her old records. many are old Puerto Rican records from the 1950s and 60s. I had listened to them over and over when I was a kid whether I wanted to or not. As I listened to them again after all these years I can hear how great most of it really is. I wouldn't have said that back in the 70s when I kept bugging my mom to play "English music-pleeeeeeeease."

Age certainly has a lot to do with being able to appreciate different foods, cultures and music. That's why when my seven year-old niece yelled out, "wow the Men In Black song" when I played Patrice Rushen's "Forget Me Nots," I just laughed and thought, "one day you'll get it." She actually got upset when she realized that it wasn't the song she thought it was!

[nrgbeat]

When I was a young child in the dark ages, my parents had some albums of Latin music by Xavier Cugat, Perez Prado,etc. and I acquired a taste for that sound. I feel disco is a continuation of the Latin sound.

My parents also had records by Glenn Miller and other pre-Rock era acts, so I got to appreciate the big band sound too.

[sammyperez]

Bernie, it is funny you mentioned how you hated latin music as a kid, but embrace it now. Growing up in Brooklyn as a kid in the '70's my mom was always playing Willie Colon, Larry Harlow etc. I couldn't stand it as a kid as all I listened to was black music. Now I own the entire Fania collection and am always arguing that Salsa today doesn't even rate to the '70's. Another funny story about evolution; When I was 17 I went into a record store looking for rap music and funk records. The store owner was playing a Jazz LP by Gary Bartz. I asked him why he was listening to that. He said as you get older your music horizons expand. I didn't understand at the time. Twenty-two years later I own alot of classic Jazz such as Miles, Coltrane, Bird etc.
To make a long story short, I listen and own anything that sounds good from Rock to Reggae. Such is my name Sam "ALL JAM".

Easy,

Sam "ALL JAM"

[Funky Dude]

I know that my primary taste today in music is funk and disco of the 70's, but I myself have a taste for 70's rock.

Because I live in Australia, I've heard a lot of great Aussie rock groups that are real cool such as:

Skyhooks - Australian glam rock group who done great glam rock songs like "Living In The 70's", "Horror Movie", "Ego Is Not A Dirty Word", "Million Dollar Riff" etc...

Sherbet - Just as popular as Skyhooks, in which they had an international hit in 1976 called "Howzat" which is kind of rock/disco, and had great rock/glam rock songs like "Survival/Life", "Freedom", "Slipstream", "Child's Play" and many more

Stevie Wright - He almost became lead singer of AC/DC in 1974 but Bon Scott got picked instead. He's an Aussie rock legend who did really cool hard rock such as "Evie", "Guitar Band", "Black Eyed Bruiser"

AC/DC - This legendary heavy metal group was born in Australia in the fall of 1973 with lead singer Dave Evans from 1973-74, Bon Scott 1974-1980 and Brian Johnson 1980-Today. They are Australia's best rock group and before expanding overseas they had big hits in Australia during 1974-1976 such as "Can I Sit Next To You Girl", "Baby Please Don't Go", "High Voltage", "It's A Long Way To The Top", "TNT", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Jailbreak" etc...

And watching these bands on the Australian pop show Countdown, it's fantastic.

I also listen to British glam rock such as:
Sweet
Slade
T-Rex
Mott The Hoople
Alvin Stardust
Mud
etc...
I just love these bands perform on Top Of The Pops, the effects were unreal and state of the art. They used cool colour stepping effects, visual feedack, chromakey, psychedelic discolouration effects with the colour stepping, single colour silhouette effects and others.

And some USA rock groups such as:
KISS
Alice Cooper
Bachman Turner Overdrive
etc...

And Deep Purple are one of my top favourite metal groups.

I also love watching the video clips of psychedelic rock groups of the 60's because of the really cool video effects used. I have a bunch of Psychedelic groups performing live in colour on the Ed Sullivan Show during the late 60's and the video effects used were state of the art for the 1960's and a good example is:
Jefferson Airplane - Crown Of Creation 1968
Also state of the art effects were used on the Ed Sullivan show for:
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations 1968
They used effects like visual feedback, chromakey and a few others.

Some of my favourite rock songs at the moment are:

Alice Cooper - Department Of Youth 1975
Chris Spedding - Motorbiking 1975
Slade - Come On Feel The Noize 1973
Sweet - Sweet F.A. 1974
Sherbet - Freedom 1974
Sherbet - Slipstream 1974
and others.

[Robbie]

I like the "doo wop" music of the 1950's/early 60's that WCBS-FM (101.1) plays on Sunday nights. I have many tapes of shows taped from the radio. I also like 60's pop, and the 1970's are perhaps my favorite decade for music. I like just about everything from that decade, be it disco, R&B, country, rock, easy listening. The 80's music I primarily like from the early part of the decade, some rock, but mostly the soft-rock music like Air Supply.

[jazz_pilgrim]

I would say that my musical taste spreads right across the black music sprectrum (even though I am not black) - in my collection I have 50s and 60 jazz (Miles Davis, John Coltrane etc), 60's northern soul , ska and reggae, jazz funk, latin, funk, soul and of course disco. mailny, jazz-funk, soul, funk and disco. All of it I have probably danced to in one sort of nightclub or another at some time.

I was into rock at the age af 14 before I got into disco, but have not been interested in it since. I can certainly appreciate good classical music, and enjoy the occasional concert...

[Blaxman]

On 2002-06-02 00:24, Funky Dude wrote:

AC/DC - This legendary heavy metal group was born in Australia in the fall of 1973 with lead singer Dave Evans from 1973-74, Bon Scott 1974-1980 and Brian Johnson 1980-Today. They are Australia's best rock group and before expanding overseas they had big hits in Australia during 1974-1976 such as "Can I Sit Next To You Girl", "Baby Please Don't Go", "High Voltage", "It's A Long Way To The Top", "TNT", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Jailbreak" etc...

Funky, correct me if am I wrong. We can hear some funky groove in the AC/DC songs. I like their style, even though I dont have any record from them.

Blaxman

[Funky Dude]

Blaxman wrote:

Funky, correct me if am I wrong. We can hear some funky groove in the AC/DC songs. I like their style, even though I dont have any record from them.

I guess they did, however I'm not sure which songs you are talking about in particular but I guess you might be referring to some of the bass riffs in their songs. One of AC/DC's songs from 1974 called "Soul Stripper" that track sounds kind of disco to a small extent because it's got a mid-fast flowing rhythm enough to make it a good dance rock track.

[JussiK]

Mine is the usual story of a white kid who thinks he is black. I started out with Motown while most of the others were into glam rock or "progressive" bands with druggy album cover imagery. Then I got into Wilson Pickett, Manu Dibango, War, James Brown and next year it was Barry White and the first disco records. I gradually added some jazz, more funk, salsa, groovy movie soundtracks with percussion, rhumbas, a couple of the early rap tracks, flamencos, bossas, electro boogie, a bit of balearic and tekkkno and come the 90's , ambient, electric jazz and drum&bass. Now what's next?

[Blaxman]

On 2002-06-04 01:37, JussiK wrote:
Mine is the usual story of a white kid who thinks he is black. I started out with Motown while most of the others were into glam rock or "progressive" bands with druggy album cover imagery. Then I got into Wilson Pickett, Manu Dibango, War, James Brown and next year it was Barry White and the first disco records.

JussiK, my story is almost the same of yours!!! I used to listen the songs on the radio, when I was run to the record stores to buy the records.....surprised!!! The artists were blacks!! Most of them were black!! I cant explain this, it comes naturally. Thank God, great music!!!

Peace.