Plato's Retreat..Love it or Hate it?

[Dayna]

Plato's Retreat by Joe Thomas

I have always loved this song
Great Orchestration and
vocals by
Jocelyn Brown, Diva Grey and Gwen Guthrie
and that fierce TK DISCO Vibe
What do you think of it?

[SandraDee]

Absolutely LOVE this track!:icon_cool: It's got everything on it that makes a perfect pure 'disco' record IMO. Powerful yet classy female unison singing, killer break, catchy song, excellent percussion & keyboards, fab orchestration & horns all wrapped up in an energetic glossy production. Perfection. (Yes, I like it!) Oh & it has the saucy theme too which was essential on late 70s 'disco'.

[QUINNY]

It has a certain zip and class. In a similar mould Starcruisin' by Greg Diamond's Starcruiser, which I probably like better.

[ashley]

.. sadly this never got a British release .. despite much support from the UK soul/jazz-funk crowd .. this tune still sounds fresh today .. sporting the most enthusiastic female vocals I've ever heard ..
:icon_razz:

.. by the way .. did anyone here ever visit Plato's Retreat? .. was it a gay club? .. does anybody know anything about it? .. where was it exactly?

.. I guess one of the reasons this record never got a UK release was because it was basically a 6 minute advertisement for an American nightclub ..

[ashley]

.. oops
:icon_redface::icon_redface:
.. I should have known this very site would have a page especially dedicated to this legendary nightclub ..
Plato's Retreat 509 West 34 Street, New York, NY DiscoMusic.com
.. sounds more fun than any of the local clubs here in Manchester ..

[BrunoRepublic]

Love it. :)

[discophil]

Put me down as a lover!

I think SandraDee summed it up best. I fully agree.

[Videoskooter]

Classy track, very pleasant, almost as hot as the notorious club BITD:

It's also mentioned in the Spike Lee pic "Summer Of Sam", a movie with a big Discofeel BTW.

[FunkyChris]

Love it!!!! :D

[Cdnbob]

I have to admit that I'd not heard this track before today. I know, I know. :icon_redface: Bad me. But I really like it a lot. Great track. Another to add to my list of sought after tunes.

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Loooove it, to pieces!!!:icon_mrgreen:
Anyone else have the 12", that it was Joe Thomas' follow-up single to?
The disco re-make of Dolly Parton's "Two Doors Down" TKD-86 / 1978

[JussiK]

Love the track, a perfect example of American disco at it's classiest. As for the Plato's Retreat club itself...truth obliges me to admit I actually did have a look at that place when I went to New York for the first time in 1979. Remember we were all young and irresponsible. I was taken there by a bunch of locals after a now-let's-do-something-crazy discussion. At Plato's there was a general air of sleaziness, a slightly dubious smell, a foyer and if I remember right a 12 dollar entrance fee or something like that, very expensive for the time. You entered a bar area beyond which was a dance floor, locker rooms and a couple of orgy spaces with red vinyl mattresses on the floor. On the floor, couples dancing badly, some wearing towels. Nobody was naked. On the mattresses in the back rooms, heavily made up women with heaving breasts were pawed by greasy slobbering men with gold chains and lots of body hair. Everyone seemed to be over 20 so we never participated in the ack-shon. We stood there ogling at the unappealing folds of flesh for a few minutes, pointed at the most horrific displays, took our bows and screamed with laughter on our way out. We also went to the Show World where they apparently had private shows available featuring a woman with a live male chimpanzee. Those were the days or what.

[Disco Funk]

I like the track. In fact, I'd recommend all of the Joe Thomas stuff from that late part of the 70s. He was a jazz funker that did a great job moving into the disco sound. As far as I recall those later 70s albums were either full on dance numbers or mid tempo funky grooves. Nothing too 'jazzy', unlike the Lou Rawls PIR albums, for example.

Disco Funk

[discophil]

I have to admit that I'd not heard this track before today. I know, I know. :icon_redface: Bad me. But I really like it a lot. Great track. Another to add to my list of sought after tunes.

Don't feel bad! In fact, isn't that one of the HUGE bonuses of belonging to a community like this? As much as I hate to admit it, too, I certainly haven't heard every disco tune ever recorded! I was a tad too young to be in the clubs (didn't turn 18 until late Dec. of '82) so my exposure was limited. Coming here, though, I get to run into so many great folks with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the genre and they enrich my disco experience at so many unexpected turns!

So, REJOICE! Rejoice that you found a "new" disco tune! We don't get to turn on the radio any longer and hear Greg Diamond coming out with a new tune or John Davis and his Monster Orchestra slipping in with a new song. But, because there was so much great disco music of the era that sometimes we stumble happily upon a tune we missed out on and its like a brand new release to us! WHAT JOY!!!! :icon_mrgreen:

I'm actually happy for you that you found Plato's Retreat. It's such a good song!

[QUINNY]

.. sadly this never got a British release .. despite much support from the UK soul/jazz-funk crowd .. this tune still sounds fresh today .. sporting the most enthusiastic female vocals I've ever heard ..
:icon_razz:

.. by the way .. did anyone here ever visit Plato's Retreat? .. was it a gay club? .. does anybody know anything about it? .. where was it exactly?

.. I guess one of the reasons this record never got a UK release was because it was basically a 6 minute advertisement for an American nightclub ..

I'm surprised it never had a UK release as CBS (the record company that released TK product in the UK) were putting virtually anything and everything on 12" at the time). Maybe it was on one of those two CBS DJ samplers (instant Replay? and.....and......grrr) that James Hamilton and Graham Canter from Gullivers put together for Greg Lynn who headed the CBS record pool? I can't remember and my copies of those two are locked away in storage.

Anyone from the UK know?

[Videoskooter]

We also went to the Show World where they apparently had private shows available featuring a woman with a live male chimpanzee. Those were the days or what.

Thank you for the very detailed description of the Plato Club.

Here's some pages you'll like to read:

Jeremiah's Vanishing <br>New York: Show World
After Eluding Past Attempts, Show World Is Closed Down - New York Times

[JussiK]

Thanks due mila VSCooter for the link - there was a YouTube clip attached to the article that almost made me cry. When I get old and senile I hope I'll be transported back there in my mind, forever to loiter on the sidewalks in front of The New Amsterdam cinema where "Trap Them And Kill Them" is playing, nervously changing direction while WKTU disco music blasts from the cars sliding by. Sigh. - I sent the address of the vid to Ms Maitland McDonagh in New York, a leading connoisseur of Times Square mystique and a true expert on all the films that screened there during the golden years. On occasion, we get together and talk quietly of the Deuce ( Times Sq&immediate surroundings). Maitland used to haunt the cinemas night after night and has amazing tales to tell. I myself only got to sort-of trouble once during a film, when people kept yelling at a mother with a noisy small child to take her critter away. The woman got up, pointed a gun around and screamed she'll blow everybody away. I ducked between the seats into the slime and filth, and crawled towards the exit while people ran into all directions. No shots were fired, though, and when I got to the street the police were already coming in.
YouTube - Times Square 1970

Now of course, every last thing that made the once mighty New York great is completely and utterly destroyed and gone. No reasons to visit. Luckily in Europe, we still have places like The Ambra cinema in Milano.

[dancer5612004]

It reminds me of that same era of Loleatta Holloway's CATCH ME ON THE REBOUND and Jimmy Bo' Horne 12" dance hits. It's not really top on my list thoiugh, but I remember it.

[QUINNY]

It reminds me of that same era of Loleatta Holloway's CATCH ME ON THE REBOUND and Jimmy Bo' Horne 12" dance hits. It's not really top on my list thoiugh, but I remember it.

Very few of the records we discuss on this site are top of anyone's list.:icon_biggrin:

Why wasn't Jimmy Bo Horne more popular than he was? His grooves were infectious, generally happy sounding and could be wickedly funky. Maybe he was just the wrong side of commercial.

[DISCODISK]

I'm surprised it never had a UK release

but it did

[QUINNY]

but it did

Then tell that to Ashley or whoever it was who said it didn't. I was querying the statement NOT making a statement. I wouldn't know about a Uk release 'cos I have the US copy, which I bought on import.

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Okay... Did a little homework.

Joe Thomas was/is a flutist (and tenor-sax player), much moreso than a vocalist, (hence, the flute carrying the melody through much of the track), while the vocals are studio session BVs. His recordings from 1974 thru 1979, were produced by Sonny Lester.

Sonny Lester started producing jazz, blues and easy-listening back in the 50's. And his "LRC Records" was a sub-label of TK, that he formed when his distribution contract with Pickwick, ran out in 1976. (Thomas had a couple previous LPs from 1974 on Lester's "Groove Merchant" label.)

Thomas' previous 12" (Polarizer), as well as the b-sides of "Plato's Retreat" & "2 Doors Down" are funky, disco-jazz instrumentals. All written and arranged by Lance Quinn and Brad Baker. (Remember those names? You should...)

The credits on Thomas' 2nd and 3rd Groove Merchant, as well as the first 3 TK LPs, are the same as a Gloria Gaynor, MECO, Caress, or Camoflague LP, of the same period. Lance Quinn, Brad Baker, Tony Bongiovi, Alan Schwartzberg, Randy Brecker, Lou Delgado, Babbit... and a somewhat familiar name - Domenic Menardo (Albeit, only involved as a member of the horn section.)

Thomas (like Gaynor, MECO, Camoflague, Caress, etc...) was backed by the whole NYC Disco production gang, that was crankin' out hits from 1974 - 78. Which might explain why "it sounds like something else...but I can't place it" comes into play.

[DISCODISK]

I wouldn't know about a Uk release 'cos I have the US copy, which I bought on import.

...but you never bought imports because you thought they were too expensive... oh no it looks like quinnys d.j career is getting 'airbrushed' again:icon_mrgreen:

[QUINNY]

More importantly, so afr as I'm concerned (if I'm correct), it's the same Joe Thomas who plays brilliant sax on both Mike T's Do It Anyway You Wanna AND (I'm presuming, as it's stylistically very similar and a Mike T production) Do You Wanna Dance by Lavias. Both records are absolutely **** hot dancers in the funkier disco idiom, from the early '80s!!!!

[needlefingers]

Which might explain why "it sounds like something else...but I can't place it" comes into play.

I have to say the melody does have hints of More Love by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.

And the intro, oddly enough, reminds me of the intro into Disco Lucy by The Wilton Place Street Band.

But yes, with many of the same production teamwork, I can hear that too.

I did not hear this song in Germany, but did hear it when I came back home in the fall of '79. And while I liked it, and still do, it's time had peaked already.