1974 disco and funk with wicked synthesizer sounds

**Funky Dude** · December 14th, 2001, 07:09 AM

As you guys know I'm obsessed with the early days of disco music, and I've noticed quite a number of disco and funk songs of 1974 had some really cool wicked synthesizer lines in them such as:

Fred Wesley & The JB's - Blow Your Head

Dynamic Corvettes - Funky Music Is The Thing

Rufus & Chaka Khan - Once You Get Started

Blackbyrds - Future Children, Future Hopes

Commodores - Machine Gun

Commodores - Superman

Commodores - Rapid Fire

Commodores - Gonna Blow Your Mind

Kool & The Gang - Street Corner Symphony

Dionne Warwick & The Spinners - Then Came You

What sort of synths were used in these songs?

And I'm looking for more of these early synth funk and disco songs so if anyone knows of other ones please post a list.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Funky Dude on 2001-12-14 08:12 ]</font>

**BrunoRepublic** · December 14th, 2001, 08:08 AM

What sort of synths were used in these songs?

Although I haven't heard all of the above songs, it's safe to say that most of them would've used either a Moog Minimoog, or ARP's 2600/Odyssey/Pro Soloist. These were really the only performance-oriented synthesizers in existence at the time.

**Boodikka** · December 14th, 2001, 09:21 AM

Ron LaPread from the Commodores definitely used a Moog.

**Giovanni** · December 14th, 2001, 10:26 AM

The most widely used synth of funky disco acts like the ones you named was the Arp Odyssey

**modyssey** · May 2nd, 2009, 03:13 PM

Actually, The Commodores used an ARP 2600 on machine gun ;)

**modyssey** · May 2nd, 2009, 03:43 PM

You know, while it may seem like synths like a minimoog or and odyssey are used on these songs, most were performed on huge, "semi-portable" synths like the arp 2600. oh, and one song the bee gees use a minimoog on heavily is Jive Talkin for the bass line and the descending patterns

**Disco Funk** · May 2nd, 2009, 07:10 PM

Originally Written by modyssey

You know, while it may seem like synths like a minimoog or and odyssey are used on these songs, most were performed on huge, "semi-portable" synths like the arp 2600. oh, and one song the bee gees use a minimoog on heavily is Jive Talkin for the bass line and the descending patterns

I suspect that these two Vince Montana tracks use a bass synth. If you listen carefully, you can hear a bit of the 'twang' of a synth as the bass note is being played. In fact, I believe both tracks were lacking all stringed instruments, with the exception of the orchestra. In other words, no guitar, no bass guitar, which was a question I posed in a thread I had started a couple of years ago that no one guessed right. It was a radical rhythm section arrangement for its time.