Platinum Record [Level 8]
What do you guys feel about Bohannon's stuff? I recently bought a bunch of his albums, and they pretty much sound the same. I think his biggest problem, especially during the Dakar years, was his drumming style. He liked to ride the snare waaaay too much. Every song was basically a remake of Pimp Walk or Stop and Go from that first LP. Ironically, his most sought after LP, and best in my opinion, was that first LP because it had some awesome funk grooves.
He kind of redeemed himself during the Mercury years, with that 'Lets Start The Dance' which was a remake of 'Keep On Dancin' from his same named '74 LP. By '78 I think he realized that playing the snare was too much to take. Not too many disco songs were using that style of drumming, except for the rare one like ORS 'Moonboots'. The albums from Summertime Groove onward seem to have better sounding beats.
Interestingly, his Carolyn Crawford LP 'Nice and Soulful' is his best work post 'Lets Start The Dance' and is very musical, unlike his own LPs.
Would you guys recommend Bohannon to newbies to disco, or would you warn people to stay away from his LPs?
Disco Funk
*** Forum Leader / Moderator ***
Absolutely. Bohannon is essential stuff and IMHO has never got the recognition he deserves. The beats are uplifting and the grooves are legendary and he made some eternal classics. My favos: "Bohannon's beat", "Let's start the dance", "Disco Stomp" and "Cut Loose".Originally Written by Disco Funk
No Longer Charting
He was a guy with only a few ideas, but without Bohannon the world of Disco Funk would have been a much less groovy place. I always had the impression that he was a hustling type of guy whose head was slightly too big, but hey!
Without the recycling we would'nt have had Let's Start The Dance or more importantly, Let's Start II Dance Again. An absolute 24 carat, Disco anthem of all time.
By buying his LPs you've only yourself to blame, if you are now less than enamoured with his output. He was definitely a guy that bought out the odd gem of a single every now and again. I soon realised that his LPs were a case of diminishing returns and just held out for the one boss track on each to be released.
Platinum Record [Level 8]
With regards to his LPs vs singles, perhaps his songs were best in the edited short form and one track from each LP pretty much summed up the respective albums. But I was curious, which is why I bought the Dakar stuff in one shot. Like I mentioned, his Stop & Go LP is the only one really worth listening to from beginning to end, and sadly, it's the hardest one to get! I would recommend his LPs from Lets Start The Dance/Me And My Gang onward, as they seem to have a bit more variety in the beat and sound. Love those 80's remixes of Let's Start II Dance and Let's Start II Dance Again or whatever they were called.
Disco Funk
Indie Release [Level 4]
He was far too prolific and released loads of very very average material. Remove Lets Start the Dance and a couple of others and you have a very lame catalogue. I can't even imagine a Best Of...would be up to much.
I hear he is a nasty piece of work too
Gold Record [Level 7]
there is a best of, deep beats did one some years ago its great,you really can get a best of out of bohannon :P
yes i remember reading he was a nasty piece of work too :o
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Funk pre-1974 on vinyl tends to be removed from store bins and put on online auction sites because with sampling and rap, it's worth big bucks.
Too much of an artist is always better than too little.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Only one song I really liked a lot. Foot Stompin' Music.
No Longer Charting
Absolutely disagree. Most artists are fairly limited when you get right down to it. They're only human after all!!
Platinum Record [Level 8]
I first heard the South African Man" on the floor of the Empire Ballroom in Leicester Square, London in 1974. They were all doing the double bump to it - two bumps in, two out. Some insisted doing two in, one out. This was when I also saw a couple doing the electric bump for the first time, all bumps in! - Play "South African Man" today to a sweaty floor and it works as good as ever.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I don't have too much of his stuff so far. I have a compilation of his Dakar/Brunswick stuff called "Footstompin' Music," and a couple of the albums he did for Mercury (his own "Summertime Groove," and the second Caroline Crawford album - "Nice and Soulful").. As far as the Dakar/Brunswick stuff is concerned, it's funky but a little repetitive. It's great if your looking for funk breaks, but it's pretty tedious listening for me at times. Maybe I need to give it another listen. He did do some good stuff then like "South African Man" and "Disco Stomp".
That said, I prefer his Mercury stuff though, Summertime Groove and the Caroline Crawford album are both great! Those were the first two Bohannon albums I got, I'd definitely recommend those as introductions..
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Some people might find listening to, say, James Brown doing a 9 minute riff tedious, but I like it because he's got showmanship on the cuts and changes it up a bit with solos and the occasional bridge. Bohannon on the other hand has 7 minute jams of the same riff. His idea of a bridge is shifting the groove up a semi-tone, if that's how you describe it. Not really much innovation involved. If he had put some solos, had the instrumentation come in and out a bit more often, his songs might be more enjoyable. And that continuous snare hit on every beat is just too much. His songs are best heard in 3 minute edits or mixed with other cuts.
Disco Funk
Chart Hit [Level 6]
lol.. that's exactly what his stuff is like sometimes. At times it almost sounds unfinished; in that way it's almost perfect for producers looking for a break or a riff to sample..
While on the subject, as if I remember reading something where he said he could crank out an album a week if the labels would let him..
Platinum Record [Level 8]
I wouldn't be surprised, since most of his songs by the early 70's had been remakes or reworkings of his earlier hits, or of other people's hits. His albums are actually not that great. There are the occasional great ones like The Payback or some of his JBs LPs like Breakin Bread, but other than that, they were pretty weak.
Disco Funk
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid - dare I say... :o I don't care for any of his music, which I determinedly file under "funk" and not disco.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
*****
Back in those early years .... Bohannon's sound really stuck out from the crowd .... and I sought him because of his unique sound . Sort of James Brown like in the way he controlled his music .... and therefore sort of James Brownish in its repetitive predictability. .....I kept hoping for Bohannon to ripen with age ...... and when it didn't happen .. I stopped following him ..... for me his creativeness is found in those early works. Too bad he didn't do at least one project where someone just took him and over produced him ..... Gene Page say .... or maybe a nice "TOM MOULTON MIX "...
-------
IN "DANCE YOUR ASS OFF " he toys with some limited use of strings.
That song I've always liked and it now amuses me to listen to it . Bohannon was a devout Christian and every album he dedicated to his Lord and Savior .... so a song called "Dance Your ASS Off " was very risque........ for him .
The song builds and builds to this wicked punch line .... Bohannon repeatedly encouraging everyone to "make a lot of noise... make a whole lotta noise " ..... and finally he throws in "... and dance and dance and dance your ass off" ...... followed by an artificially inserted rowdy party crowd reaction to his bawdy outburst !!! :lol: ............... ....... ( oooo, Bohannon, now you done it ! )
Bohannon was so concerned about the usage of this wild non-Christian content within his music .....that somewhere near thanking Jesus Christ on the album he states :
" The use of the word "ass" is not done so as profanity " ....
:lol: :lol:
*****
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Yeah, when I read that blurb on the LP I thought it was funny. There's really only one meaning for 'ass' in that context. Certainly one wouldn't mistake it for a 'donkey' or a 'jerk'. I think the word 'ass' was considered very risque on the radio. In fact, James Brown covered the word up by heavily overdubbing the words 'future shock' on the track of the same name. And didn't Blondie have an alternate mix of Heart of Glass minus the 'ass', and that was in '78?
Disco Funk
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
no, he means .....
"and dance , and dance , and dance your donkey off ..." :lol:
____________
I'm listening to Bohannon's greatest hits and that's just the Bohannon sound..... monotonous is not the word I'd use ....." signature " or distinctive .. in the same way I'd identify Al Green's stylized music....
BTW This Greatest Hits package on DAKAR is great
Even though the cover lists the songs as :
TRUCK STOP
THE FAT MAN
SOUTH AFRICAN MAN
RUN IT ON DOWN
MR. DJ
FOOT STOMPIN' MUSIC
DANCE YOUR ASS OFF
THE STOP AND GO
DISCO STOMP
and actually :
TRUCK STOP
THE FAT MAN... not on album :P
SOUTH AFRICAN MAN
RUN IT ON DOWN.... not on album :P
MR. DJ ..not on album :P
FOOT STOMPIN' MUSIC
THE STOP AND GO
DISCO STOMP
DANCE YOUR ASS OFF not on album :P
oh well ...close enough !!!
*****
No Longer Charting
It doesn't help when the actual title of one of the toons was
Run It On Down Mr. DJ.
Remicks: Do you know if The Stop & Go is the original 1973 track or the later one that was issued?
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Did he re-record Stop & Go? I've got the Deep Beats CD, and it has a 6 minute version, but it's just the original song doubled up using editing.
Incidentally, when I was shopping for some of the 45s from his Stop & Go LP, which will probably the closest I'll get to owning an original copy, I noticed that the 45 mix of Pimp Walk was different from my vinyl reissue. The LP version is completely instrumental, but the single version has female vocalization. Have both versions been released onto CD?
Disco Funk
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
*****
Quinny ...I'm listening to a Dakar LP issued in 1976 called:
BOHANNONS' GREATEST DISCO HITS
(notice the grammar mistake ! :P )
To be fair ....it may not have the titles listed on the cover but it does also have :
THE PIMP WALK 4:01
DISCO STOMP (PTS 1&2)
KEEP ON DANCING (PTS 1&2)
THE STOP & GO is 3:32 ....I've been listening to it and like it alot .... much more wah-wah in it
And the only song with additional writing credits.........Leroy Emanuel & Marvin Ragin .
Funny Disco Funk ...the Bohannon's Beat version on here sounds different to me than what I'm familiar with .... much more vocal ...chatty .... especially the female studio singers....
Anyone not famuiliar with Bohannon should give him a chance . A real pioneer and not afraid to call his music what it was --disco ---- even using titles like "DISCO STOMP " for his songs.
He was all about creating grooves to get people to dance :) .....
*****
Underground Hit [Level 5]
He was good at "Recycling" but apart from his early stuff I also like he's 80's stuff like "Party train sound".
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Dude, that's Melvin Ragin! He's a total guitar legend! :)
Seriously, Melvin Ragin AKA Wah Wah Watson, who on that first LP (and came back to play with Bohannon in the late 70's) was a wiz on the guitar, with his funky wah and crazy effects. On Stop & Go, if you listen to the guitar in the break, it sounds like 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone', which I believe he played on too.
Other credits include being a member of the Love Unlimited Orchestra (that's him on wah guitar); he played on the Car Wash sountrack (he does his trademark wild guitar sound effects on the intro of Daddy Rich); Take Me Home by Cher; Rollin Down A Mountainside by The Main Ingredient; Disco Suite LP by Frankie Crocker's Heart & Soul Orchestra; and a bunch of Pointer Sisters and Herbie Hancock LPs produced by David Rubinson. I think he was the best funk rhythm guitarist in the 70's.
Disco Funk
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
no amount of wah wah can validate that song :D :P
I swear DF .... the album jacket and the record label both read MARVIN RAGIN
Thanks for sharing the info . I love connecting the dots ..... trying to figure out why certain songs work better than others ... why certain ones shine .... and usually it's because of who produced , mixed, wrote, or played on certain cuts. If I see The Harris Machine's involvement my odds of something good increase ten fold .
I'm a long ways off from knowing right off what musicians to look for .. .... but I'm working on it ...
*****
No Longer Charting
When it came out in '72, Stop & Go was an absolute monster of a record. One of the absolute backbones onto which Disco was later attached. I spent the rest of the '70s listening out for records to play, that sounded as good. On the single it's called Stop & Go, on the album supposedly (as I don't own one) The Stop & Go.no amount of wah wah can validate that song :D :P
I'm confused now. I thought I'd seen Stop & Go on the tracklisting to one of his later LPs. Maybe I've fooled myself.
Marvin/Melvin Ragin info: http://www.wahwah.com/discography.html
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