Worst disco songs of the 70s

**jazz_pilgrim** · August 13th, 2002, 03:25 PM

On 2002-08-13 08:37, Blaxman wrote:
[Example: I consider Roy Ayers a great musician and I have a lot of songs from him, but I hate "Running Away" the "doo bee doo" song.

pax, meu amigo!

**jazz_pilgrim** · August 13th, 2002, 03:33 PM

On 2002-08-13 03:57, QUINNY wrote:
Dear Jazz Pilgrim,

A very personal view, but 'white sounding,sanitised,formulaic,beautiful music' was not what disco should have been all about. OTHERWISE DISCO RULES!!

Yes, I think you have a point there. There was a lot of bad disco music dross out there, cashing in on the music scene, and that had little to do with black music...

**QUINNY** · August 13th, 2002, 03:47 PM

Dear Markydefad,
I think you slightly misinterpreted what I'd written and I was merely trying to put my own personal slant on history.
Undoubtedly T.S.O.P. was the blue print for mamy many imitators in Disco. Slurping hi hat instrumental, hustle rhythm at about 125 bpm?, orchestration, girlie chorus. Do they ring any bells? You have to imagine that many of their successors sat down, listened to that record and said "if that's what makes a hit, let's do it!"
IMHO I was merely try to express my view that that and some of the Thom Bell types of arrangements were copied wholesale once Disco got started. It was soul trying to do what Bennie Goodman did at the famous Carnegie Hall gig in the thirties with jazz. Trying to cross over more into the mainstream and become 'respectable' to a white audience. I don't really think that TSOP was made with just an R&B audience in mind. By then they were becoming a hit factory and the smell of the greenbacks became part of their ambition.

**DanceMan** · August 13th, 2002, 04:26 PM

Leave Rinder and Lewis alone....they had so few things worthwhile that I feel was disco worthy (and that I liked. I just burned that wonderful 1978 musical orchestration into a new CD the day before I read these commentaries...everything cannot sound the same...I agree...too much Philly or Barry or disco jazz.....so you write a pretty string thing and play all the instruments yourself...gotta give 'em credit, boys....

Also, what was wrong with the Theme from the Love Boat...the show sucked ----but I da sung it had bin axed.

**markydefad** · August 13th, 2002, 04:30 PM

I understand your point Quinny, but isn't that what Motown was accused of ten years earlier-- i.e. making "Black music" more palatable to whites? At least that was the criticism leveled at The Supremes, the most succesful "crossover" of all Motown acts at the time. Yet that music is still magical to me. The high level of world class-quality songs/records that emerged from Motown in that decade is astounding. The harder edged Stax/Volt/Atlantic music sounds great today--BUT black record executives were courting the "white market" long before "T.S.O.P.", I think.

**QUINNY** · August 13th, 2002, 04:38 PM

MARKYDEFAD
I TAKE YOUR POINTS, but at the time Motown only sold to the R&B market in the States and was largely only heard on black radio stations. The same goes for Stax.
Whether it was down to the music or the political climate, Gamble & Huff and Thom Bell were the first ones to actually achieve it in their homeland. By 1973/4 Motown was old men's music.

**DISCODISK** · August 13th, 2002, 05:42 PM

On 2002-08-13 16:47, QUINNY wrote:
Dear Markydefad,
I think you slightly misinterpreted what I'd written and I was merely trying to put my own personal slant on history.
Undoubtedly T.S.O.P. was the blue print for mamy many imitators in Disco. Slurping hi hat instrumental, hustle rhythm at about 125 bpm?, orchestration, girlie chorus. Do they ring any bells? You have to imagine that many of their successors sat down, listened to that record and said "if that's what makes a hit, let's do it!"
IMHO I was merely try to express my view that that and some of the Thom Bell types of arrangements were copied wholesale once Disco got started. It was soul trying to do what Bennie Goodman did at the famous Carnegie Hall gig in the thirties with jazz. Trying to cross over more into the mainstream and become 'respectable' to a white audience. I don't really think that TSOP was made with just an R&B audience in mind. By then they were becoming a hit factory and the smell of the greenbacks became part of their ambition.

hi QUINNY where are the girlie chorus in these records ??
"just got to be more careful" carolyn crawford
"hey baby"anthony white
"breaking and entering" dee dee sharp gamble
"always room for one more" mcfadden and whitehead
"old people" archie bell
of course this sound was copied every musical form IS and if tsop wasnt we would be missing,
"look on the good side" invitations-silver blue
"just cant say goodbye" philly devotions-columbia
"dont take your sweet lovin away" ghetto children-roulette
"bet you if you ask around" velvet-perception
"youre my one weakness girl" street people-vigor
"got to have you back" sons of robin stone-atco
"youve got to try harder" ronnie walker -event
"it takes both of us"act 1-spring and 100s if not 1000s more,
and there would be a very LARGE hole in my record collection,thank god they did :grin:

greetings to southampton youre my nearest neighbour here!

**DISCODISK** · August 13th, 2002, 05:57 PM

On 2002-08-13 17:38, QUINNY wrote:
MARKYDEFAD
I TAKE YOUR POINTS, but at the time Motown only sold to the R&B market in the States and was largely only heard on black radio stations.

hello again QUINNY,
lets not forget motown would not even show some of their artists on album covers in the 60s prefering to use cartoons or pictures of white kids e.g "this old heart of mine " the isleys featured a white couple gazing into each others eyes on the beach why would that be? belive me motown were NOT aiming at the r&b market!

**markydefad** · August 13th, 2002, 06:27 PM

I remember AM radio in the 1960's in the upper midwest area of "St. Olaf" --listening to radio stations mostly from Chicago and Minneapolis, the music was very eclectic. All the Motown acts were played alongside mainstream U.S. pop/rock acts the Beach Boys, Mamas & Papas, Simon & Garfunkel; British acts like The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks,; MOR acts like Petula Clark, Nancy Sinatra, Herb Alpert; even traditional acts like Frank Sinatra with "Strangers In The Night", Dean Martin with "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes" and Pegggy Lee with "Is That All There Is?". Factor in country acts like a Jeannie C. Riley with huge crossover hits like "Harper Valley P.T.A.", Lynn Anderson with "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" or Bobbbie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Joe". Add to that Aretha, Sam & Dave, Joe Tex, and Wilson Pickett and other more tradtional R&B acts.

That's what AM Pop radio sounded like in the hinterland of Wisconsin in the 1960's. IT was VERY eclectic. IF it was a hit--THEY PLAYED IT. The demographic-ridden focus groups had not yet wreaked their havoc on radio--narrowing down the focus of what you could hear on any certain station to a very narrow range of music.

In retrospect, it was quite wonderful and probably is somewhat responsible for my far-ranging tastes in music today. I listen to good stuff in all genres--EXCEPT Gangsta Rap and Headbanger Speed/Metal. There must be some standards of taste!!!

**QUINNY** · August 13th, 2002, 06:48 PM

Dear Markydefad,
St. Olaf must have been quite hip then. The point is no one sucessfully copied the Motown Sound and within Motown there was quite a mixture of styles. The same applies to Stax, Volt, Atlantic. The soul scene was pretty diverse and long established. Classic Disco by comparison had a very short shelf life and was taken up by the white/well heeled general population in a much bigger way than any previous soul or funk incarnations. In '74 I was working in Marbella , Spain and I had old men and women dancing to the philly sound and Barry White and loving it. The Disco phenomenon had just begun and I had to play TSOP at least 5 times each night. Previous to that experience I had only worked to young hip people in England, playing soul and funk and pop. Disco simply wasn't for Old Farts prior to that tune.See where I'm coming from? That's why I say it changed it all and in many cases for the worse.

**QUINNY** · August 13th, 2002, 06:52 PM

DISCODISK
I take your points and bow to your superior knowledge. I take it you're more into Northern Soul then?

**markydefad** · August 13th, 2002, 07:05 PM

On 2002-08-13 19:48, QUINNY wrote:
Dear Markydefad,
St. Olaf must have been quite hip then.

Quinny,

MY point is just the opposite. I was living in the sticks. Yet, I heard a large cross-section of music and all the Motown and lots of the Atlantic/Stax/Volt records were part of what I heard. Granted, some of it was coming from Chicago, BUT I think many white kids were hip to black music because of Motown reaching out and touching us.

**orangefunk** · August 13th, 2002, 09:08 PM

hehe.. didn't think my comments would spark anything..

FWIW I love disco done by people like Dr Buzzards Savannah Jazz Band and even I remember yesterday by Donna Summer but when i hear some of that horrible CTI jazz disco stuff.. well I don't know what to do..

i get images of a load of tired and bitter session musicians just taking loads of coke (I remember an article I read with John Scofield and he said thats what they did all the time at CTI) and saying hey "lets play this **** music and make lots of money" and totally miss the whole point.

The point is there was some great music made during the disco period that I'd rank up there with anything such as Relight My Fire, this time Baby, Do What Ya Wanna Do etc etc.. etc... I mean compare the computerised stuff of now to say the opening of "DO What you wanna do" by T-Connection.. Thats just outrageously funky and those drums when they kick in over that Fender Rhodes riff..WOWW!

I'm a big jazz fan (I have about 500 LPs or something ranging from the 70s funk of Peter Herbolzheimer right thru to Coltrane) but when some of the jazz guys do disco they just sound like they are taking the piss..

BTW.. Jazz Pilgrim, I live in the NW of the UK so never got to hear any funky jazz on the radio until about 1993. I remember a friend playing me a Gilles show and I got to hear Ronnie Fosters "Mystic Brew" along with Julie Roberts "Never was Love" and Creative Sources "Can't Hide The Love" still great great tunes many years after I fiorst heard them..

On another note does anyone rate those weird concept disco LPs like "Space Disco" which i think came out on Motown? I really hate that record too..

**QUINNY** · August 14th, 2002, 01:34 AM

ORANGE FUNK:
And don't you think that most of those jazz musicians were the same ones playing on the Disco cuts too? And only for a session fee.
I agree with your sentiments generally though, but Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band......I ask you?

**Blaxman** · August 14th, 2002, 08:25 AM

On 2002-08-13 16:25, jazz_pilgrim wrote:

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Peace :lol:

_________________
SENHORES DO GROOVE - BRAZIL

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Blaxman on 2002-08-14 09:27 ]</font>

**jim** · August 14th, 2002, 01:18 PM

On 2002-08-10 11:13, DanceMan wrote:
We have all have our "BEST OF" lists and mine are numerous.....Now I would like to hear some of your worst.....

Record has to be from the 70s and it has to have been a sizeable disco/crossover pop hit

Now let's hear yours worst list.....

In other words anything that made the top 40 is crap.

No thank you. IMO there are plenty of GREAT records that crossed over,as they should, but there were some that should have but didn't. :sad:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jim on 2002-09-14 17:48 ]</font>

**SandraDee** · April 12th, 2008, 04:18 PM

Originally Written by jazz_pilgrim

Some of the more iffy records made by jazz musicians that I can remember include:

Idris Muhammed - Fox Huntin'

I recently heard this LP for the first time & I was shocked by a) how disco it was (no jazz content at all, which doesn't necessarily mean it's rubbish) & b) how rubbish it was.:icon_mrgreen::icon_eek:
(BTW, whatever happened to jazz pilgrim?)

**STEPHEN L FREEMAN** · April 13th, 2008, 02:16 AM

Originally Written by DanceMan

....as a matter of fact I am looking for "I'll Be Seeing You" by Jeff Evans (i had an original on a green label, I believe)

Jeff Evans - "I'll Be Seeing You"
1976 Grandstand Records / HK-401 Disco
(distributed by PIP Records / Pickwick International, Inc.)
Vocal-Instrumental, Special Disco Version
45rpm / 4'10" / 12" Single

(I can't vouch for the green label. Mine is b&w.)

**dancer5612004** · April 14th, 2008, 10:40 AM

Arthur Prysock WHEN LOVE IS NEW 12", a desperate attempt to cash on Lou Rawls flavor, and it showed.

When I first started to DJ, we had two competiting major bars in my little city. THE HANGOUT, played the "good stuff", THE SHOWBIZ had a reputation for off the wall disco. Whenever I began to play poorly (at The Hangout), the bartendar would snap at me, "Don't you have anything else! This isnt the showbiz, you know!!" I was playing Andrea True's NEW YORK, YOU GOT ME DANCING on 45. The 12' is much better, which I got later.

**pumpmug** · April 12th, 2012, 08:33 AM

Originally Written by STEPHEN L FREEMAN

Jeff Evans - "I'll Be Seeing You"
1976 Grandstand Records / HK-401 Disco
(distributed by PIP Records / Pickwick International, Inc.)
Vocal-Instrumental, Special Disco Version
45rpm / 4'10" / 12" Single

(I can't vouch for the green label. Mine is b&w.)

I remember this. LOL... My DJ bud used to play this on 33 instead of 45 in his early AM twisted Sleaze sets. oink..