No Longer Charting
Giovanni: Your reasoning is flawed in that records produced today have over 25 years of influences to draw upon and todays disco records are most probably conscious efforts to try and recreate a specific sound. They are highly unoriginal in that respect. Respected mixer 25 years on does not a disco record make. If you're talking the original West End tracks, why the hell should they have needed a remix if not to try and make them, more acceptable for today's tastes? That's re-inventing the wheel I reckon.
Not every city has disco nights (or half nights). Only major cities. Even if I could go to a disco night, what would I hear? Someone like you probably playing everything but the well known tracks? Very few discos were like that back in the day, eh? Surely, it's actually much more clever to play hits in among the more obscure things so that they too can be appreciated? It's so easy to dismiss the hits and much harder for all of us to actually still love 'em after so much exposure, but they undoubtedly were a most important part of the fabric of our lives. If anyone here can't see that then I'm afraid you're in denial.
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Giovanni, it's me that brought the Queen into discussion ;), but I have to say that, if the Queen is a gay club, it's only on saurday and sunday. This is why the Disco Inferno is kept out of the Week End, to enable all the people to come and enjoy.On the other hand, many clubs that play disco today (e.g. "The Queen" in Paris -thank you Jussi for the tip-), are gay
You would be probably amazed by the number of beautiful women during this party.
I\'m a Victim ( of th very Song I sing )
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Quinny, I'm not talking of remixing old classics but mixing new sounds. Tom Moulton mixed a newly released product in 2002.Originally Written by QUINNY
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Com King,
I thank Jussi because he gave me the tip a few weeks ago when I was in Paris. I'll be back in Paris at the end of February and will try to go there on monday.
But I saw lots of beautiful women in other clubs I went too (I mean "Le cabaret", "Bar Fly", "Le millionaire", "Barrio Latino")
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
you re damned right com king.
bombardez moi ce son indescent colonel!
Underground Hit [Level 5]
yes Paris is a nice place to be ... there are good parties everyday ....:)But I saw lots of beautiful women in other clubs I went too (I mean "Le cabaret", "Bar Fly", "Le millionaire", "Barrio Latino")
if you go the dico inferno don't expect rare disco stuffs, the playlist is composed by disco and some 80's hits ....
you should go to the V.I.P. Room on the Champs Elysées ....
you won't be disappointed ;)
I\'m a Victim ( of th very Song I sing )
Test Pressing [Level 2]
I sure think that the well-known, mainstream disco tunes (ABBA, Bee Gees, Baccara etc) are nice, not to say great, disco tunes. And they were also rightfully appreciated then, as are they now, by many people.
Though, there were quite as many great disco tunes that did NOT get as much audience as they deserved. And this, I think, don't have to do with peoples "bad taste" in general or so. I think it depended on the lesser budget of the respective record companies, with lesser means of distribution and promotion. Thats why I think it's more fun to "promote" just these lesser known, but all the same, great disco tunes today, when we've had 25 years to find out which the great tunes really were.
No Longer Charting
MPS: No, No, No. How dare you assume that you have the monopoly on taste. What you've written is outrageous. The reason many didn't make much of an impact was because they weren't very good, compared to the best that were around. Club Djs were making hits of club records and unlike their radio counterparts, they weren't quite so restricted in what they could play (if at all). Do you really think the top DJs wouldn't have played the best records available to them? All the top DJs had masses of records given to them by the record pools/promotion people, many titles of which were on small indie labels with little distribution. If a record was really good, it would make it, except possibly that there was too much product, but even that cuts both ways 'cos certain records did still rise to the top.
BTW: ABBA BACARRA BONEY M et al weren't really considered Disco with a capital D, even by us old morons! :lol:
If you really think none of the Disco hits were any good, you're deluding yourself. Get rid of your predjudices and just listen a little closer to some of the grooves. I still don't particularly like some of them, but I hope I can appreciate what made them winners. It's actually incredibly difficult to write a hit tune or produce a record with a hit arrangement/sound. Hence for every big 'un there's dozens of also rans.
Platinum Record [Level 8]
One more thing about those disco revival nights - Quinny, if you'd venture out of the island (GB) you'd be surprised...
Test Pressing [Level 2]
This is what I said about the disco hits:
"I sure think that the well-known, mainstream disco tunes (ABBA, Bee Gees, Baccara etc) are nice, not to say great, disco tunes."
This was what you said:
"If you really think none of the Disco hits were any good, you're deluding yourself."
Didn't you read what I said? I said: I think many of the disco hits were nice or great! How can you, out of that statement, draw the conclusion that I would think that "none of the Disco hits were any good"? Strange conclusion, to me...
So, for clarity, once more: I still think that many of the disco hits are great! :D
And I still assert that many great disco tunes didn't get the attention they deserved. Neither back then, nor today.
And I haven't ever assumed that I would have monopoly on taste. That's one more too far drawn conclusion. I do only talk about what I think, what my personal opinion is. But still, I think that many people would agree. Actually, I KNOW that many people agree about certain UNKNOWN disco tunes, since as a dj I've played them several times to different crowds that never had heard them before. And these crowds were definitly not some hip club-goers, but just normal party people. They went wild to real unknown disco. For me, that is a prove that the tunes are great, and not just that I think they are.
No Longer Charting
It was the final sentence that infuriated me. It does read as if you (today's generation) are now the absolute authority on what's good and bad.
You've had 25 years to realise what's obscure and what's not. We didn't have that luxury either. We just played the strongest, most appealing tracks we could lay our hands on. Big Disco Hits in other words, as well as other less well known records.
Which records made your audience go wild, 'cos that would be of interest?
Test Pressing [Level 2]
To make one more thing clear: I don't think that I or my generation are the absoulte authority on what's good or bad.
What I write is not meant to be some kind of "competition" between the djs in the seventies and todays djs. Not at all. On the contrary, I think there were many great djs back then, as are there now. But as you say yourself, today we've had some 25 years to figure out what tunes are good or bad. And my point is still that there are many great disco tunes that unfairly havent been played as much as the "disco hits". I think they are just as good as the "disco hits", but just lesser known and played.
I will mention some tunes that really uses to set the crowd on fire. And they don't necessarily have to be ultra rare. I sure think they were played a lot back then. Only, among "normal" people, they don't have the status as disco classics or disco hits. Simply because they've never heard them, I think, which is a shame.
Also, its hard to classify them as orthodox disco. Influences of jazzfunk, funk, soul and r'n'b surely appear. And I don't feel like getting in some tired discussion about whether they are good or bad, disco or not-at-all disco, etc.
Family Tree - Family Tree
All About the Paper - The Dells
Bourgie Bourgie - John Davis & the Monster Orchestra
Got to Have Loving - Don Ray
Keep On Jumpin' - Musique
Plato's Retreat - Joe Thomas
Two Hot for Love - The THP Orchestra
Love Insurance - Front Page
Love Thang - First Choice
I Need You - Sylvester
Heartache No 9 - Delegation
Underground Hit [Level 5]
MPS, the amount of great disco tracks that are unfortunately unknown by the majority of people is such enormous that I think it's impossible to make a list ....
To be honest, maybe just 30 or 40 tracks have become famous to the crowd (when I say crowd I do not talk about the generation that was going to nightclubs in the disco period, but all the other generations).
I agree with Quinny to say that, if disco hits have become hits, it's because they had something special, but there are a lot of songs that could have become, but haven't ... Those songs deserve to be better known ....
and I am absolutely sure that everybody would dance on it ....
PS : MPS How old are U? (you talk about generation)
I\'m a Victim ( of th very Song I sing )
Test Pressing [Level 2]
>"MPS, the amount of great disco tracks that are unfortunately unknown by the majority of people is such enormous that I think it's impossible to make a list ...."
My intention is not to make a list, as i said: "I will mention SOME tunes..." (just as an example of tunes).
But I agree, there are a lots of them!
>"To be honest, maybe just 30 or 40 tracks have become famous to the crowd (when I say crowd I do not talk about the generation that was going to nightclubs in the disco period, but all the other generations)."
Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. I think it's a pity that these people don't know about all the other great tunes that exist. When they are to mention some disco tunes, they usually mention the same old worn out tunes. And once more for clarity: I still think these are great tunes, only they have been played to death. To make disco interesting for "normal" people that are tired of (for example) YMCA, I Will Survive, Yes Sir, I Can Boogie, Le Freak etc, It's a good idea to play the not so known (but nonetheless good) and not so worn out tunes.
>"I agree with Quinny to say that, if disco hits have become hits, it's because they had something special, but there are a lot of songs that could have become, but haven't ... Those songs deserve to be better known ....
and I am absolutely sure that everybody would dance on it .... "
Well, sure you can say that the disco hits had something special. But that's not the whole secret. If you take a look at the Billboard charts of, say, 1979, you will recognize many classic disco hits. These were all backed up by large record companies. And during 1979, there were so many great (and bad) disco tunes made! There simply was not room for all of the good tunes at the charts at the same time. I think that is a PART of the explanation to why they aren't as known as the classic disco hits. But what good is: NOW we HAVE TIME to give the forgotten tunes some attention! :D Especially at the dancefloor! So why don't we?
>"PS : MPS How old are U? (you talk about generation)"
Well, I wasn't the one starting to mix in generations as a part of the discussion. :-? But anyway, I'm 28. What about yourself?
No Longer Charting
MPS: I don't know why you go banging on about 'big record companies and their budgets influencing what became disco hits'. It is simply not true unless you're counting, Prelude, West End, SAM, Salsoul, TK etc as big record companies. They were still relatively small compared to the CBS, Warner Brothers, RCA and Polygram conglomerates.
Don't forget, many records made a big impact on indies and were then 'picked up' by a major.
Your list was interesting 'cos there was nothing too uncommercial/unknown on it, so maybe were not actually discussing any real differences between us. I take it that you have looked at the top 500 on this site. Probably most of those records in both lists would be completely unknown to anyone but (ex) DJs and keen discogoers of the time. They've nearly all been on CD at some time. So what does that make them?
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Man, I have had 20 one month ago, I seem to be the youngest member here ....
I started interesting in disco beacause I loved house music, and I discovered the samples, which mostly are great disco tunes ...
I think this forum is the perfect place to learn and discover new disco tracks for me .
I read the topic " So how big is yours" and I have seen that some members have 10 000 vinyls in their collection ... wow ...
I'm just a beginner, I have only about 2000 disco songs in my collection
I\'m a Victim ( of th very Song I sing )
Test Pressing [Level 2]
Yeah, it seems the differences between what we've been talking about hasn't been so big after all. Examples of tunes I refer as "unknown disco tunes" were in my former message. And no, they are oftenly not more rare than that. The rarest in that list must have been "Family Tree" I guess. But normal people have usually never heard/heard of those tunes. And that's the whole point.
And no I'm not counting the record companies that you mentioned as big companies. Contrarily, the tunes out of Prelude, West End, SAM or Salsoul are not very often heard/known by the average guy.
>"So what does that make them?"
Hmmm, well I guess it makes them if not rare, then "unknown" to average people...
The Top 500 List contain many tunes that I would call "unusual" or "forgotten" disco tunes, in the context to "normal" people, not to djs. The Top 500 List does contain BOTH the "worn out" tunes, AND the lesser known/playes ones.
But if you go out to a normal disco, and they are to play "70's disco", what will you oftenly hear? That's right, YMCA, I Will Survive etc. And this I think is a pity. Why play the worn out ones, when they could have played the just as good lesser known ones...? Lack of fantasy, or cowardish? Both I guess. It's safer to play the usual floorfillers. Boring.
>"Man, I have had 20 one month ago, I seem to be the youngest member here ....
I started interesting in disco beacause I loved house music, and I discovered the samples, which mostly are great disco tunes ...
I think this forum is the perfect place to learn and discover new disco tracks for me .
I read the topic " So how big is yours" and I have seen that some members have 10 000 vinyls in their collection ... wow ...
I'm just a beginner, I have only about 2000 disco songs in my collection"
Yes, I also just discovered this forum! As you say, it's perfect to discuss disco music here, and also discover new tracks.
:D
Chart Hit [Level 6]
we are going far from the initial topic, but that's it!
Being one of those crazy people having about 10000 vinyls, I can say that all (of us) collectors are attracted by obscure grooves and rare records, since they possess all the manstream classics.
The reasons of (crossover) success for a disco song in the disco era were:
1) the intrinsic musical value of the song itself: very rarely a bad song become a success
2) Promotion by the record label: a major label has bigger budgets to handle
3) Distribution: many beutiful disco songs had limited or regional distribution by local indies with no more than 3000-5000 copies issued
4) airing on disco radios: all of you in the US knows what F Crocker meant for a disco track
5) Promotion by djs: dj pools and single spinners can create a hit by nothing
6) Underground cult in the clubs: that's the real deal. If people like that track, it will be a cult song, and maybe some major will pick it to reissuìng (Soul Makossa is the classic example)
In his board itself there's a beautiful thread about rare and obscure grooves, where each of the poster added lots of titles of wonderful tracks that remained under the surface of the disco sea
Chart Hit [Level 6]
In answer to your question, the answer is probably No. But there is a lot of good disco influenced music out there these days...
The best track I heard last year was a new 12-inch by Idris Muhammed, no less, on a Japanese import. Didn't get the title but it was an absolute blinder of a track. Anybody else heard that one?
As for the popularity of our beloved disco sound today, I am happy to report that not only in Paris has it retained its popularity but also in London.
Take the radio airwaves on a Saturday night for example ... there are no less than three radio shows with a disco format going head to head at present!! Heart FM plays club classics (mainly 70's, 80's up till today commercial with a large percentage of 70's/80's and with the odd surprise) from 6pm - through to 1 am. Jazz FM has gone with the Tony Blackburn show 5pm - 8pm (mostly 80's). And Noddy Holder from Slade presents Disco Crazy on Capital Gold from 5.30 pm to 10 pm. A good choice of disco music to be had at a peak listening time!!
And clubwise (though I don't go any more) having had a look at the club listings, there still seems to be plenty of disco nights to be had in London - Car Wash, The Loft, School Disco etc.
So I think that puts London on the map along with Paris!! :)
If it moves - funk it!!
Underground Hit [Level 5]
yeah and I suppose that there are other revival nights in a lot of big cities ....
We are on the right way ... Disco is coming back :)
I never heard the song of Idris Muhammed, what is its title ... It seems tou sound great
I\'m a Victim ( of th very Song I sing )
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
but in fact,
what is disco music?
bombardez moi ce son indescent colonel!
Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks