Giorgio Moroder spoke of ''I Feel Love'' last year

[Marcio**]

from
boy culture: March 2006




"I think the sound of 'I Feel Love' inspired a lot of records. Lately even Madonna with the song 'Future Lovers' took quite a nice little bit out of the low bassline and she made a great song out of it...she said it in an interview that she took some ideas from me and from ABBA or from The Bee Gees—so she admits it. She didn't use the track in itself, but except one note the bassline was the same...I think it was the ultimate—or let's say first—all-electronic song. I may have said years and years ago that this was just a good disco song. But now, listen (sic) again, and listening to Madonna's take and listening to other recordings, I think it was not only a good song but it was something of a piece of art, something which definitely changed a little bit the feel of electronic dance music".

Giorgio Moroder, 2006

[garrybcoston]

from
boy culture: March 2006




"I think the sound of 'I Feel Love' inspired a lot of records. Lately even Madonna with the song 'Future Lovers' took quite a nice little bit out of the low bassline and she made a great song out of it...she said it in an interview that she took some ideas from me and from ABBA or from The Bee Gees—so she admits it. She didn't use the track in itself, but except one note the bassline was the same...I think it was the ultimate—or let's say first—all-electronic song. I may have said years and years ago that this was just a good disco song. But now, listen (sic) again, and listening to Madonna's take and listening to other recordings, I think it was not only a good song but it was something of a piece of art, something which definitely changed a little bit the feel of electronic dance music".

Giorgio Moroder, 2006

Dance-wise it was the birth of technotronic (techno) type music, i.e., music done just from the keyboards/synthesizers as ancient as they were at the time. It was totally new for disco but was not "the first" as a group by the name of "kraftwerk" had already put out a couple of albums (one being "trans Europe Express" (which is a must listen for us discoers) which had only the synthesizer/keyboard type of sound and was totally new and a first during that era).

It (keyboard/synth sound) also inspired the distinct new sound for popular music during the 80's because remember, when disco died, the orchestrations were also put to rest, and everything began to be composed from keyboards and synthesizers, thus the 80's pop sound.

Now thinking back, around 1980, when disco was being fazed out, record companies, producers, etc. were looking for the next new thing and new sound. Disco rock came and went, disco funk came and went, if I remember correctly disco soul also took a "stab at it," and people thought that funk and R&B would take the place disco but they basically remained in the back seat, and I guess a few people capitalized on the new electronic sounds and came to the conclusion that this should be the next wave, and, money would also be saved in the short term and long run by using anywhere from 1 to 3 instruments vice 20 to 30.

Garry

[Cory Ander]

absolutely no question that Moroder has every right to be proud of his work, but didn't Kraftwerk start recording this kind of music in 1971, LONG before Moroder did?

[BrunoRepublic]

absolutely no question that Moroder has every right to be proud of his work, but didn't Kraftwerk start recording this kind of music in 1971, LONG before Moroder did?

Kraftwerk's three albums prior to Autobahn (four if you count Tone Float) aren't anything like what they became known for, which is likely why Ralf Hütter refuses to reissue them. They are very hippie-esque experimental works, done mostly with conventional instruments with a lot of processing and tape effects. Although Ralf und Florian had a fair bit of electronics, it wasn't until Autobahn that they started to approach the sound which made them famous... and it took another two albums before they really got on track with Trans Europe Express.

Wendy Carlos was making pure electronic music in 1967 with Switched-On Bach, but it wasn't anything you could dance to.

[Cory Ander]

Kraftwerk's three albums prior to Autobahn (four if you count Tone Float) aren't anything like what they became known for, which is likely why Ralf Hütter refuses to reissue them. They are very hippie-esque experimental works, done mostly with conventional instruments with a lot of processing and tape effects. Although Ralf und Florian had a fair bit of electronics, it wasn't until Autobahn that they started to approach the sound which made them famous... and it took another two albums before they really got on track with Trans Europe Express.

Wendy Carlos was making pure electronic music in 1967 with Switched-On Bach, but it wasn't anything you could dance to.

thanks Graham, I sure would like to hear those Kraftwerk albums you're referrring to. And it's weird that you mention "Switched on Bach" as I remember buying it and playing it at the wrong speed (45) and being surprised at the fact that it seemed to make more musical sense to me when played too fast....I also remember hearing purely electronic music (once again, before Moroder made it popular) on various movie soundtracks, but can't remember the titles now.....

[BrunoRepublic]

thanks Graham, I sure would like to hear those Kraftwerk albums you're referrring to.

Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2, Ralf und Florian, and Tone Float (credited to Organisation) have all been out of print for years, but they've been widely bootlegged on the fake Germanofon label. For a while, these got passed off as legitimate product, and even wound up in major music retailers who normally wouldn't touch bootlegs. I still see them occasionally in the indie stores (along with counterfeit vinyl copies of Autobahn). They're needle-drops, of course. They shouldn't be too hard to find, but if you're going to get pirated product, I don't think there's much sense in paying for it.

[discoadam]

"I Feel Love" is the penultimate Euro disco track. If I had a personal top 40 hit parade it would still come out at number one after all these years. It is, for me, one of those songs that is perfect. Patrick Cowley did a very cool remix but I've never thought he made the song better - just different.

In some dream-space in my head Donna and Giorgio get together one more time and cut some real 70's disco tracks with 21st century edge. Ah, what bliss that could be...