Reply With QuoteFunky Dude--Refer back to "Best From Artist 6" on Page 3.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I know the Village People are on most disco lovers least favourite list and I am dead sick of "YMCA". But I must admit I enjoy listening to their not-so-mainstream disco, so here's a list of my favourite Village People songs:
San Francisco 1977 (although mainstream it would have to be on of their best songs)
In Hollywood 1977 (another one I like listening to a lot)
Just A Gigolo 1977 (I like how the they go "gigolo gigolo gigolo")
Key West 1977 (This song is fantastic)
Ups & Downs 1978 (Although this song is about pills, it's got a great sound and it's my favourite from the Cruisin' LP)
Get Away Holiday 1979 (My No.1 favourite from the "Go West" LP)
Magic Night 1980 (Although the movie was the biggest flop in movie history I must admit I enjoyed the songs on the soundtrack LP, please don't egg me for saying this)
These days I rarely listen to Village People as I listen to the extremely rare disco grooves I download from Audio Galaxy or get on record but the above songs are my favourites. If any of you actually like any Village People at all, which would you consider your favourites?
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Funky Dude--Refer back to "Best From Artist 6" on Page 3.
\"...a once in a lifetime feeling that returns every week...\"
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Jeff H says the truth...there was a Village-
People-Fave-side on side 3...
Nevertheless here are my favorites:
- VILLAGE PEOPLE"Village People"(77)
- I AM WHAT I AM(78)
- SAN FRANCISCO(77)
- GO WEST(12"/Disco Version/79)
- CAN´T STOP THE MUSIC(12"/Spec.Disco V./80)
I read that the Biker died last year from
LungCancer...
Cosmic Love & Kisses From SIRIUS & DARKTUNES
Underground Hit [Level 5]
My fave Village People songs are:
1. "Fire Island"
2. "Go West"
3. "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody"
4. "I Am What I Am"
5. "Sodom and Gomorrah"
Dance With Me In The Disco Heat
-------------------------------
Robbie
Underground Hit [Level 5]
YMCA
Go West
Can't Stop The Music
San Francisco
In The Navy
Underground Hit [Level 5]
San Francisco/Hollywood
YMCA
Macho Man
In The Navy
Keep the faith and everything will come your way as time marches on!
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Village People is not among my faves, but I like "SAN FRANCISCO".
Blaxman
SENHORES DO GROOVE - BRAZIL
Underground Hit [Level 5]
all of their best known songs are horribly overplayed and I wouldn't mind not hearing ANY of them ever again, but I'm pretty fond of the little known "Sleazy".
Gold Record [Level 7]
My all-time fave is GO WEST but I always had a soft spot for KEY WEST,the extended version of CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC,CITIZENS OF THE WORLD [great strings and singing by Victor Willis.] and the laid-back VILLAGE PEOPLE.
KRIS
Chart Hit [Level 6]
My fave picks are:
San Francisco
Sleazy
Go West (but the best version is the Pet Shop Boys version)
New York City
Save Me (Up Tempo Version)
5 O'Clock In The Morning
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I'm with Kris . . . my fave tune by the group is: Go West.
HOWEVER . . .my favorite VERSION of one of their songs (for sheer lunacy) is a Muppetized version I have on VHS of one of their 1979 big hits. Unfortunately, couldn't find it on youtube, BUT the SPANISH version is there (which is even more insane):icon_eek:
YouTube - En la armada
Underground Hit [Level 5]
San Francisco, Citizens of the world, New York City.
Not at all camp of course!!!!
Gold Record [Level 7]
"San Francisco / Hollywood" & "Fire Island"
It sounds elitist (and I know all their biggest hits came later), but everything after the first LP sounded like re-treads.
Except Glenn Hughes' accapella version of "Danny Boy", from Can't Stop The Music.
My God!:icon_eek: I swear I lost 2 buttons off my 501's and you had to scrape me off the chair with a spatchula, the first time I saw that!
"MUSIC IS AN EMOTION, SEARCHING FOR IT'S VOICE"
...come with me, "BACK TO MUSIC", on DISCOTERIA
http://www.live365.com/stations/cdnbob2
Gold Record [Level 7]
San Francisco
and
YMCA (U.S. 12")
are the only cuts I would want to revisit. Just a little to camp for my taste.
Gold Record [Level 7]
Originally Written by STEPHEN L FREEMAN
Except Glenn Hughes' accapella version of "Danny Boy", from Can't Stop The Music.
My God!:icon_eek: I swear I lost 2 buttons off my 501's and you had to scrape me off the chair with a spatchula, the first time I saw that!
I know I remember thinking ; OMG he can sing !!! [Must be something about a big leatherman showing his mushy side.]
CAN'T STOP...is one of my guilty pleasures because I spent the summer of 1980 in NYC...so to watch Valerie Perrine skip through the park while licking her cone brings me back everytime :icon_biggrin:
The "dts" sound on that DVD [killer artwork BTW] is great...I swear I turn on the home theater system and it's like I'm in my bubble for an hour & 1/2.
KRIS
Gold Record [Level 7]
The Village People releases and Can't Stop The Music, were jam-packed with Gay community references and histrionics. Danny Boy, itself, being one of the most obscure of all. Though it hit some of us in the audience, over-the-head like a frying pan!
I know I remember thinking ; OMG he can sing !!! [Must be something about a big leatherman showing his mushy side.]
In the 60's and 70's, pre-Disco Gay community - when Leather was a lifestyle and not a fashion statement. still shunned by the general Gay community, along with Drag - Danny Boy was adopted as the unofficial song for Leather Daddies. (For those who don't understand the structure of the Leather community, I won't explain it here. But rest assured the reference has nothing to do with children.) Steve Algozino even produced an electro-intrumental version of it for Hot Tracks, back in '84.
I'd been introduced to that subculture in the mid-70's. So, when I saw Glenn singing it, in full Leathers,
"MUSIC IS AN EMOTION, SEARCHING FOR IT'S VOICE"
...come with me, "BACK TO MUSIC", on DISCOTERIA
http://www.live365.com/stations/cdnbob2
Platinum Record [Level 8]
I like a lot of the ones already mentioned, like San Francisco, but my favorite is 'I Am What I Am'. I also still like 'Macho Man'. The vocals on those tracks are okay. I wish Jacques Morali had put out instrumental mixes of these tracks on 12". There was a DVD put out a number of years ago that featured Karaoke versions of 4 of their songs, so hearing Macho Man without the vocals was really great!
Disco Funk
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Of course I am now very intrigued Stephen.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Anybody familiar with VP's 'In The Street' LP that was recorded between 'Live & Sleazy' & 'Cant Stop The Music' & didn't get released until years later & was their attempt at funk/hip-hop?:icon_confused: I'm intrigued.:icon_eek:
...ya gotta beat the street......
Indie Release [Level 4]
"San Francisco!" not just because it sounds so good but probably because I always wanted to visit that city. Maybe I will sometime in this lifetime.:icon_sad:
I always liked "Can't Stop the Music" because I loved the movie and the Ritchie Family song (got my education, got determination) that was on the soundtrack. I was a high school senior then so that was my anthem.
:icon_smile:
Disco! Where the Happy People Go.
Underground Hit [Level 5]
I love the Pet Shop Boys cover of "Go West". They really nailed the VP sound on the backing voices.
Underground Hit [Level 5]
you should have been in San Francisco discos (as I was) back in the 80s when they played "San Francisco". It sent an electric jolt through the crowd.
Gold Record [Level 7]
If you're point of reference is that first review on the Amazon page for the LP, it's a bit off-base...
As with most early VP information (or ANY Can't Stop Production, for that matter...) you have to do some digging to find the truth. So much is rumoured, or Casablanca-esque promo stuff.
"In The Street" marked the 1-stop return of the VP to Casablanca, from RCA. It was recorded in 1981, following the "Renaissance" debacle. (Morali went back to the standard VP studio musician line-up, that had been completely replaced for "Renaissance". And Victor Willis came back as lyricist and lead vocals on a couple tracks.) It was released in 1982, on RCA as "Fox On The Box" and fared so poorly that RCA dropped them, along with Can't Stop Productions (including The Ritchie Family) in 1983.
Casablanca, now completely run by Polygram, signed the LP and re-released it as "In The Street". Using the back cover from "Fox On The Box", as the front cover. (The CD release also contains the bonus track "America".)
As for the LP itself... Everyone refers to it as their attempt at Hip Hop. When it really wasn't Hip Hop, at all. Just as people refer to "Renaissance" as their attempt at New Wave, or (...out of complete ignorance...) Punk. When, more precisely, it was their stab at the short-lived fad, labeled New Romantic (ie: Adam & The Ants, Classic Nouveaux, etc...)
"Fox On The Box", or "In The Street", was Morali & the VP's hope for latching onto the, then current, Prelude Records sound (D-Train, The Strikers, Secret Weapon, etc... And Producers Reid & Anderson, post-Crown Heights Affair.), which was referred to, at the time, as Street Jazz. It fails miserably...
There isn't one redeeming track on the LP. And, along with the return of Willis as lyricist, came the mind-numbing practice of making-the-lyric-fit-the-measure, by repeatedly forcing the emPHAsis upon the wrong syLLAble. Which happens on every Can't Stop Production LP that Willis wrote for. (Ian Levine did the same thing, back in the mid-80's, when he was writing all those songs based on t-shirt logos.) Personally, it always drove me nuts, to hear how they'd mangle the English language, to make it fit the time-signature.
Point of note: Debbie Allen, sister of Phylicia Allen (ex-wife of Victor Willis and future TV wife of Cosby), provides the voice of the radio DJ who's the lyrical subject of the track, "Fox On The Box".
"MUSIC IS AN EMOTION, SEARCHING FOR IT'S VOICE"
...come with me, "BACK TO MUSIC", on DISCOTERIA
http://www.live365.com/stations/cdnbob2
Gold Record [Level 7]
You're right ; it wasn't hip-hop at all.
EVERYBODY LOVES THE FUNK was even played on the radio in Montreal during those "not disco but really close to disco" radio shows.
The Prelude sound is very much what Morali was going for.
(Speaking of REID & ANDERSON ; I just bought FRANCE JOLI's NOW album on iTunes to replace my very used copy on vinyl.It's always been one of my favorites.)
That said ; it was strange to see the VP struggle with so many obstacles [the disco backlash,the "are they all gay or not" question mark and the rather embarassing "Renaissance" Lp].
But I've recently come across their GO WEST album on CD and couldn't pass up the opportunity...:icon_lol:
KRIS
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Yup. I already had the "In The Street" CD and found a Canadian copy of the "Fox On The Box" LP (I *think* it was on Able), not realizing it was the same album. It's *that* forgettable. I was quite puzzled to see Victor Willis back in the group though; I though he had left under less than pleasant terms.
I still haven't heard the "Sex Over The Phone" album, although someone linked to a youtube vid a while back. I'm in no hurry to hunt down that one either. I would declare that Morali's golden era ended on Jan 1, 1980, but he did manage to pull off a career revival for Eartha Kitt before disappearing for good.
It's ironic how both the Village People's and some of Donna Summer's post-Casablanca albums were later released by Universal... on the Casablanca imprint. Further irony is how Morali wrote "Ready For The 80s" (as well as several references to how great the 80s were going to be in the Can't Stop The Music movie) but all it did was show how he totall was NOT ready for the 80s. He went from having his own sound to making pitiful imitations of others.
Permissions
Bookmarks