ROLLING STONE magazine was smarter than us when it came to our disco

[remicks]

*****

For me the Us vs. Them in this story is disco vs. rock .....not straight vs. gay.

And Barry with all do respect it isn't the audacity of Holden applauding Desmond Child's early work that's the problem ...its the audacity of suggesting that the reason OUR LOVE IS INSANE failed to be embraced by the disco crowd was simply that it was "too good a record" for them .... that's the audacity.

Hmmm ... so maybe by his assailing the inferior musical tastes of the disco community ....
what Holden was really trying to do was defend a rejected musical effort of a "friend" .


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:

[markydefad]

I think my affinity for Stephen Holden may be stem from the fact that in the first Rolling Stone Record Guide he wrote the reviews for the likes of: Bette Midler, Diana Ross & Barbra Streisand. HE must be like me!!!! :icon_exclaim::icon_razz:

[remicks]

*****
Marky , did you encounter as I did .....just as many gay guys ...no make that more gay guys who didn't like disco ... as those that did??:icon_eek:

And speaking of one such sub group .... the Streisand/Garland crowd ....most of those were gays whose younger manhood days tilted more towards the sixties than on into the seventies ....they sure didn't trade in their show tune/opera records for Gloria Gaynor's !!

*****

[discokicks]

*****
Marky , did you encounter as I did .....just as many gay guys ...no make that more gay guys who didn't like disco ... as those that did??:icon_eek:
*****

Because of my involvement in the clubs, all my gay friends were into dancing and dance music back then....but I sure have met a lot in these past years who never went to discos and have never heard of a 12" single! :icon_eek: :icon_confused:

[remicks]

Because of my involvement in the clubs, all my gay friends were into dancing and dance music back then....but I sure have met a lot in these past years who never went to discos and have never heard of a 12" single! :icon_eek: :icon_confused:

In SF there were gay bars that only played country music ... in San Francisco !!! .... and for the south of market boys, some clubs featured rock and harder edged stuff, punk ....and those guys wouldn't be caught ever in a "disco". Not to mention guys that didn't care that much about music anyway ....or those that didn't care about bars/clubs .... and yes there were plenty of those too. My first partner and I ....we made tapes for bars ...and we created "disco" oriented ones ... but we also made schmaltzy/campy MOR ones where we might include a variety of stuff like Natalie Cole (who was new), Dolly Parton, or Marilyn Monroe singing HEATWAVE.

When I worked at Odyssey Records in SF we had gay people in every dept. of musical styles (and straight folk too of course) ...the tastes ran the gambit .... But I came on board as the "disco" guy ....and I was relegated to the rock annex store next door where the disco and soul was mixed in ....Of the people that worked there in the annex (all straight), none of them were into disco including the manager . Oh wait ,the second manager to come along ... he was gay ....but he hated disco ... & he played violin for the San Francisco symphony!
Even at the retail level ... the rock scene was heavily entrenched ...and disco had a terrible uphill battle from every angle. That's one reason disco specialty record stores sprang up and did so well. (((ANYBODY REMEMBER "ERNIE'S"????)))

I don't know how I ever got on board at Odyssey ....they weren't even hiring for the rock annex at the moment ... & plenty of people wanted that job.

No I initially got hired to fill in a spot in the classical section :icon_eek: even after my interview during which when asked:

"How many symphonies did Beethoven write?"
I answered, " Oh ,about fifteen."
To which VP, the manager, responded "That's funny . I can only think of nine." ............................:icon_lol:.:icon_lol:. :icon_lol:.:icon_lol:


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[markydefad]

*****
Marky , did you encounter as I did .....just as many gay guys ...no make that more gay guys who didn't like disco ... as those that did??:icon_eek:

And speaking of one such sub group .... the Streisand/Garland crowd ....most of those were gays whose younger manhood days tilted more towards the sixties than on into the seventies ....they sure didn't trade in their show tune/opera records for Gloria Gaynor's !!

*****

Absolutely. My first male roommate in SF, who actually worked at The Gramophone on Polk Street only listened to opera. He worshiped Leontyne Price and only on rare occasions would I come home and find him "slumming," listening to one of my Carly Simon records!! :icon_razz: That was like a "guilty pleasure" to him!!! Cheap pop songs!!! :icon_lol:

I have other friends who are totally into collecting all the campy, often very bad Fifties & Sixties "lounge" act stuff and anything offbeat like Yma Sumac along with the requisite Streisand & Midler, etc. So no disco --or not much in that household.

Then there ae the "show-tune" worshippers who know all the obscure Broadway & off-Broadway LPs and the London versions and all the revivals and consider Barbara Cook & Bernadette Peters, "pop."

And people who came of age after disco often only can relate to the Eighties synth-pop disco from Depeche Mode, etc. The didn't grow up loving Motown--so the R&B thing doesn't move them, I guess. :icon_eek:

It takes all kinds of people to make the world go round. Not all are "disco people" or even "Sunset People"!

[SandraDee]

*****
Marky , did you encounter as I did .....just as many gay guys ...no make that more gay guys who didn't like disco ... as those that did??:icon_eek:

*****

It always used to irritate me when I started going to gay clubs (provincial, not London:icon_sad:) & most of the club goers I got talking to hardly ever liked disco/dance music or knew anything about it; I remember saying to a guy that I liked 'hi energy' & he said 'oh whats that?' as Hazell Dean & Eria Fachin pumped from the speakers around us! I was always greeted by disbelieving comments when guys who chatted me up asked if I come here often (or similar lame lines!) & I replied that I mainly came for the music (& I did, honest!). I longed for a gay club where most people went for the music & not just a man for the night. (although I did have occasional nights like that!). I so envy guys who could go to places like Trocadero Transfer & Paradise Garage where the music was the thing for the punters.

[SandraDee]

I LOVE "Here Comes The Night"!!! I think it's a wonderful record. I truly do.

Me too Blanche! I used to hear it on Radio Luxembourg as a kid & think how wonderful it was & how I'd love to dance to it in an actual disco. It amazed me that it wasn't a huge pop crossover hit as it sounds so commercial to me. Then 'Lady Linda' was a pop hit here & I was annoyed 'cos I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as 'HCTN'. I know that there's a common belief that all those washed-up acts jumping on the disco bandwagon played a big part in it's downfall in the US but I really like alot of those records such as Ann Margret's 'Love Rush' & Peter Allen's 'Dont Wish Too Hard'.

[Videoskooter]

It's included in a great online mix that I downloaded a couple years ago: Tony Manero's Saturday Night Mix posted by one of Discomusic.com's members (can't remember who though.... )

DK, this is the one you are referring to, brought to us by JJ6ms (one of the wonderful guys from sixmillionsteps.com):

http://www.discomusic.com/forums/showthread.php/13325

[discokicks]

DK, this is the one you are referring to, brought to us by JJ6ms (one of the wonderful guys from sixmillionsteps.com):

http://www.discomusic.com/forums/showthread.php/13325

Thanks VS...that's the one....a nice array of songs cleverly mixed with soundclips from Saturday Night Fever.

[Videoskooter]

It's a very cool mix indeed. Forgot to say that this Desmond Child track...well...heavenly...it works for me....the bassline...the vocals...the beautifully arranged strings...a little jewel IMHO!

[Svend]

Getting back to the beginning of this thread---

I think it's interesting that Rolling Stone complains about disco people for not making Desmond Child a hit when "Heart of Glass" was not (initially) successful in the discos either. The song peaked at 58 on the Club Play chart in 1979. Now it causes a stampede of course!

As for Saturday Night Fever being one of disco's two great albums?! :icon_mrgreen: Don't make me laugh. Sure, I played it BITD but mostly cos that's what people wanted to hear at house parties, it's what they knew--I didn't think of it as real disco--and I was hardly that sophisticated! (I was just slightly too young to get into real clubs .)

And here's another vote for Here Comes the Night! Perhaps a little careful editing (isn't it a bit looong?) and I can't quite make up my mind about Cheeta's guest vocal at the break...

[SandraDee]

And here's another vote for Here Comes the Night! Perhaps a little careful editing (isn't it a bit looong?) and I can't quite make up my mind about Cheeta's guest vocal at the break...

It depends where I'm listening to it; if I'm in the car it flies by but at home maybe it could do with a couple of minutes shaving off (you could say that about many tracks though!). I wonder what the inspiration for 'Cheeta's appearance was? I've often wnodered that; I could understand it if apes were nocturnal but I don't think they are.

[totouk]

Me too Blanche! I used to hear it on Radio Luxembourg as a kid & think how wonderful it was & how I'd love to dance to it in an actual disco. It amazed me that it wasn't a huge pop crossover hit as it sounds so commercial to me. Then 'Lady Linda' was a pop hit here & I was annoyed 'cos I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as 'HCTN'. I know that there's a common belief that all those washed-up acts jumping on the disco bandwagon played a big part in it's downfall in the US but I really like alot of those records such as Ann Margret's 'Love Rush' & Peter Allen's 'Dont Wish Too Hard'.

I have just found this thread and when Here Comes The Night was mentioned I was trying to think where I first heard it - Radio Luxembourg! I was disappointed it wasn't a hit, I love it too.

Getting back to Rolling Stone, I used to stand in WH Smiths reading Rolling Stone when they had it in, the album reviews were almost incomprehensible and I always thought that disco was looked down upon and not considered "real music" then they came up with the Disco issue in about March 1979 (which I bought and still have), that was great reading - a who's who with pictures of names I only ever saw on record sleeves (Marc Paul Simon was in there) so I forgave its slant for a while.

toto

[SandraDee]

I have just found this thread and when Here Comes The Night was mentioned I was trying to think where I first heard it - Radio Luxembourg! I was disappointed it wasn't a hit, I love it too.

toto

Toty, we have so much in common (weren't you from Stoke too?); we truly are spiritual sisters!