Gold Record [Level 7]
I was Jogging and I put the " Once Upon A Time" CD in my headset..VERY LOUD..
WTF is an I-pod..lol..
I hadn't listened to the Cd "Once Upon a Time"in quite awhile.I was again AWE struck by the beauty of the Record and how it told a story.
with songs like
Working The Midnight Shift
A Man Like You
Sweet Romance
and nothing is as fabulous as when "Rumour has it" goes into
"I Love You "then into "Happily Ever After"..
and of course the Title cut the Fast and slow versions.
Listening to this transported me back to a most magical time in my life.
As I was running ,exhilarated , feeling one of the first day's of fall on my face and Donna in my ear it brought tears to my eyes .
The memories it envoked were so precious that just to know no one could ever take those away from me brought a big smile to my face and the tears were gone..
Test Pressing [Level 2]
What beautiful words .. I guess that the 'first generation' disco lovers get a lot of these feelings nowadays, as it IS all about 30 years ago now...
Personally (looking back) the 'Once Upon A Time' album is the most beautiful disco album i've ever heard .. 'Now I Need You' in particular .. it still sends shivers down my spine... (how many disco records can do that ?). Giorgio Moroder at his very best on production. I've always had a fantasy about Donna doing a Musical about this album .. i don't like musicals really but as this album is a true concept album .. "Once Upon A Time" right up to "Happily Ever After" it would be just magical !.
The whole 2nd side (act 2) of the album has been described as 'curiously removed from time, sounding at once retro and futuristic', a perfect description.
YouTube - Donna Summer - Now I Need You (1977).
Cheers.
Gold Record [Level 7]
It is the 30th anniversary of the release in November. Coming on the heels of her I Remember Yesterday lp.
Those were the days; when artists released albums twice a year.
Though I never saw it, I think Donna did a TV special that had borrowed from the Once Upon A Time record.
Can anyone confirm this?
Test Pressing [Level 2]
A remaster of this album would be great with the 30 year mark coming up.
As far as i know there was no TV special surrounding 'Once Upon A Time' but she did do some tracks from the album in later tv-specials (Once Upon A Time, Fairytail High) but that's all really ..
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Originally Written by Dayna
The power of the music ......how grateful I am that it likewise moves me so ....
..... so it's winter of (197?) when ONCE UPON A TIME is released . And Donna Summer is making an appearance at a casino in Reno (four hours or so from San Francisco). So a group of us ....mostly waiters from The PS Restaurant on Polk St. (remember that place anyone?) agree to meet up there for it . It was a beautiful time of year to trek up and through the Sierra Nevadas as they and the tall conifers on them were blanketed in the season's first snow .
Imagine driving through it (in a new lime green Porsche too... to complete the picture ) while becoming familiar with the entire new LP of ONCE UPON A TIME as you are driving along knowing soon you'd be seeing Donna perform it in person.
Upon arrival we gambled and all that while anxiously awaiting the night's concert ...then held Donna in adoration as she put on a great show (couldn't be anything less) ... ... and typical of my partner at the time when she was finished he approached the stage and handed her a dozen red roses (as did others ...many bouquets were laid at the stage) .
The next day, as a group still feeling the high from our Donna Summer rush , we went off into the woods and did some sledding in that fresh snow , finally reloading into our separate cars to wind back down the mountain pass while once again listening to ONCE UPON A TIME all the way home, loving it even more.
Yep the music that was ( and is) the soundtrack to our lives....:icon_cool:
*****
Last edited by remicks; September 26th, 2007 at 04:05 AM.
you'd still be waiting for me at the airport
while my ship was coming in
Test Pressing [Level 2]
It was the winter of 1977.
Do you remember any details of that appearance, as in the tracklist, how many tracks she performed, etc. ?
Did she do 'Now I Need You' (and more tracks from that album) for instance, or was it just a bit of a 'greatest hits' gig ?.
Gold Record [Level 7]
I Can feel the love you have for the Music and the Era~!!!The power of the music ......how grateful I am that it likewise moves me so ....
..... so it's winter of (197?) when ONCE UPON A TIME is released . And Donna Summer is making an appearance at a casino in Reno (four hours or so from San Francisco). So a group of us ....mostly waiters from The PS Restaurant on Polk St. (remember that place anyone?) agree to meet up there for it . It was a beautiful time of year to trek up and through the Sierra Nevadas as they and the tall conifers on them were blanketed in fresh snow .
Imagine driving through it and becoming familiar with the entire new LP of ONCE UPON A TIME as you are driving along knowing soon you'd be seeing Donna perform it in person.
Of course we gambled and all that ...then enjoyed Donna as she put on a great show (couldn't be anything less) ... ... and typical of my partner at the time when she was finished he approached the stage and handed her a dozen red roses (as did others ...many bouquets were laid at the stage) .
The next day, as a group still feeling the high from our Donna Summer rush , we went off into the woods and did some sledding in that fresh snow , finally reloading into our separate cars to wind back down the mountain pass while once again listening to ONCE UPON A TIME all the way home, loving it even more.
Yep the music that was ( and is) the soundtrack to our lives....
*****
That sounds HEAVENLY...................:icon_biggrin:
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
:icon_cool: :icon_cool::icon_cool:I Can feel the love you have for the Music and the Era~!!!
That sounds HEAVENLY...................
And I thank you Dayna for unexpectedly drawing forth from me such a vivid memory of an exciting weekend so many moons ago ....
Wouldn't that be great if I could just relive that entire concert in my mind ...alas ... no can do.:icon_sad: I do recall though that when getting her LIVE AND MORE album I thought how familiar much of her banter was ....and I'm sure that she was already polishing up her performance that she knew would soon be recorded onto vinyl.DISCOEMPERIUM: Do you remember any details of that appearance, as in the tracklist, how many tracks she performed, etc. ?
Did she do 'Now I Need You' (and more tracks from that album) for instance, or was it just a bit of a 'greatest hits' gig ?.
*****
you'd still be waiting for me at the airport
while my ship was coming in
Chart Hit [Level 6]
doesn't your CD player skip and mistrack when you're jogging and moving around a lot?
Gold Record [Level 7]
Chart Hit [Level 6]
To hear "Faster and Faster' and "Now I need You" in a club setting is to be in pure disco nirvana....Absolutely,a classic and favorite.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
In a previous thread about this brilliant classic LP someone said that Bob Esty had a big hand in the production as well as Giorgio. When I listen to Now I Need You/ Working The Midnight Shift I often imagine myself driving through a snow-covered bavarian forest in something like a Porsche 911 Carrera so remicks memories are really strange to hear -he almost lived my dream!:icon_confused: How strange.
Spooky even.
...ya gotta beat the street......
No Longer Charting
I still have a mint copy of the album....that tells you a lot, doesn't it?:icon_rolleyes::icon_lol:
Being the sort of guy who invariably liked singles over albums, concept albums were a personal pet hate, especially after one of my favourite early influences, the Who, went ga-ga on me when they released Tommy. IMO, a few great songs padded out by too many also rans, only included to make the concept work. However, I see that 'Once Upon A Time' is considered by many of Donna's fans to be her (&Moroder/Bellotte's) finest hour.
Maybe one day I'll discover it!
Gold Record [Level 7]
ONCE UPON A TIME is a masterpiece.
To this day ; just seeing the jacket sends me in a happy place.
NOW I NEED YOU is pretty much my #1 favorite Donna song of all-time.
As a major contributor to a Donna Summer forum ; I have written a lot about this album and all the others.
But OAAT [along with BAD GIRLS] will always be thought of as her best album ever.
KRIS
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
. 
. 
A lot of disco concept albums failed as a concept, but I would say that Once Upon A Time is one of the few where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The story is actually coherent, and although a little trite, still enjoyable. The album is worth it for Act II alone.
It's quite telling that so many fans consider this her best work, despite the fact that unlike all her other 70s albums, it doesn't contain any of her major hits.
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