Reply With QuoteWell, I loved and still do love those lyrics Marcio. As much as any other song, the words paint a picture in my head about Lola, Rico and his killer. 8)
Platinum Record [Level 8]
:o I'm afraid of...
Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
with yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
she would merengue and do the cha-cha
and while she tried to be a star
Tony always tended bar
across the crowded floor, they worked from 8 til 4
they were young and they had each other
who could ask for more?
CHORUS:
At the copa (CO!) Copacabana (Copacabana)
the hottest spot north of Havana (here)
at the copa (CO!) Copacabana
music and passion were always in fashion
At the copa.... they fell in love
His name was Rico
he wore a diamond
he was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancing there
and when she finished,he called her over
but Rico went a bit to far
Tony sailed across the bar
and then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two
there was blood and a single gun shot
but just who shot who?
REPEAT CHORUS
At the copa... she lost her love
Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl,
but that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show
now it's a disco, but not for Lola,
still in the dress she used to wear,
faded feathers in her hair
she sits there so refined,and drinks herself half-blind
she lost her youth and she lost her Tony
now she's lost her mind
REPEAT CHORUS
At the copa... don't fall in love
don't fall in love
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Well, I loved and still do love those lyrics Marcio. As much as any other song, the words paint a picture in my head about Lola, Rico and his killer. 8)
Find them and destroy them!
*** Forum Leader / Moderator ***
Great lyrics !!!!! An instant sing-a-long! But it doesn't excell Paul's floorbuster "Sa-sa-sa-sa-Salma, U drive me krazy". Still available on Amazon though!
Underground Hit [Level 5]
I like those lyrics too, but when it comes to Barry Manilow's lyrics I prefer to hear "New York City Rhythm" (cowritten by him with Marty Panzer). That song was performed disco style a few years ago and is available on his latest live CD - it sounds great too. And don't forget his great words in "Could It Be Magic" (cowritten with Adrienne Anderson) which Donna Summer remade so well. And Barry Manilow made magic again by singing Will Jennings' lyrics on the slow song "Somewhere in the Night".
Barry Manilow has remade "Copacabana" in several more dance styles over the years, including "Copacabana 2005" through Concord Records last year!
Underground Hit [Level 5]
My favorite is Its a Miracle. I remember this being played at the clubs. Seems the ladies loved it and would dance every time.
DiscoMusic.com Owner / Administrator
Funny how a most hated lyrics thread turns into a best of Manilow thread :-)
Bernie (Bernard Lopez)
Owner/publisher of DiscoMusic.com - on the web since 1996.
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Chart Hit [Level 6]
Barry Manilow made some great music in his heyday, and nowadays many have rediscovered him. I can remember my mom playing his "Greatest Hits" album in the late '70s (the one with his white shirt and medallion). Does anyone remember when "American Idol" contestant LaToya London sang "I Made It Through The Rain" when Manilow was a judge? Sadly, the teenyboppers didn't like LaToya.
"Everyone knows the real reason why you got that part it was the time you spent on that casting couch"--Antoine Merriwether
"Excuse me, Miss Thing, but both of us spent time on that couch"--Blaine Edwards
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Sorry Bernie :o
I still say "Is Something Wrong With You?" by Bobby Thurston has some really bad lyrics for disco. And "MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer, "First Be A Woman" by Lenore O'Malley, "Ring My Bell" by Anita Ward ("put away the dishes..." and "ding dong ding oooooh"), and "D.I.S.C.O." by Ottawan (D is for this, I is for that, etc.), plus a couple of the lesser-known Village People tracks from 1978, which sound canned. The "words" to "AA AA UU AA EE" by Zack Ferguson are really lame too (I forget if he said anything real in that song).
Most disco haters seem to pounce most on "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste of Honey.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
if you want to talk about bad disco lyrics, none I can think of are worse than the thrown-together-at-the-last-minute, kindergarden-sounding, cringe inducers in KC and the Sunshine band songs. Couldn't stand them when they were popular and I still can't.....Originally Written by discosavvy
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
MacArthur Park! Oh, say it ain't so! To me, it is an anthem, as well as Richard Harris' version in the 60's. I was mesmerized by Harris' version when it was a hit, and I only musta been 10 at the time. Both classics, in my opinion.
Has anyone heard the latest Manilow 70's comp? What dreadful DROCK! I caught him on Entertainment Tonight singing one song live, and they previewed about 5 or 6 others...all of them complete TRASH! He RUINED the Carpenters "Close To You". I actually cringed when they played a snippet of that. I think his voice is shot now. But, I did love some of his earlier classics...but "Somewhere In The Night" not being one of them. I was first turned on to this song on one of Kim Carnes early lps and adored it. Then one day I was in the car with my mother when I heard it being done by Helen Reddy. If you recall, she had a hit with it in the 70's before Manilow came along and had a hit with it all over again, leaving poor Kim out in the cold. That's okay...she had her revenge sometime later with Bette Davis Eyes!
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I like both versions of "Somewhere In The Night" but Helen Reddy's version just beats Manilows version for me.
I still like Barry Manilow's older stuff personally and don't think he did that many bad songs - hey shoot me! I like all kinds of music.
But as to lame lyrics. Hmmmm.... I think my vote for this would have to be ...
Funkytown
Will you take me Funkytown
Blah, blah, blah, blah...
I absolutely hate this song and what lyrics it does have!!!!!!!!!
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
agreed that Funkytown has lame lyrics, but I think it's a great song. whereas sometimes KC was 0 for 2 (Boogie Shoes, anyone?)
y'know, I often pick this song to start arguments with disco haters, as it is (imho) just a perfectly arranged, produced, conceived and performed song. I probably pick it because the lyrics are silly, but they're so well sung, and the instruments so well played, and the record had multiple breaks that allowed for easy blends or quick cuts. I'm off-topic again, but there are records you grab when you need to pack a floor, and there are records you grab for an easy in or an easy out; B-O-O work on all counts.
Last edited by eddieo; September 30th, 2007 at 11:18 AM. Reason: trying to the pics to show, then removing them altogether
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Well, like many others here, Donna's 'Once Upon A Time' is one of my all-time fave LPs & I play it frequently but whenever I do my 'husband' often comments on the rather contrived line in 'Faster & Faster To Nowhere' which goes 'its a nightmare, a daymare, it's a bad mare no matter which way mare':icon_eek: - good job everything else about the track is excellent 'cos that lyric is pretty suspect!
...ya gotta beat the street......
Underground Hit [Level 5]
It's interesting how different people can be!:o I'm afraid of...
Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
with yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
she would merengue and do the cha-cha
and while she tried to be a star
Tony always tended bar
across the crowded floor, they worked from 8 til 4
they were young and they had each other
who could ask for more?
CHORUS:
At the copa (CO!) Copacabana (Copacabana)
the hottest spot north of Havana (here)
at the copa (CO!) Copacabana
music and passion were always in fashion
At the copa.... they fell in love
His name was Rico
he wore a diamond
he was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancing there
and when she finished,he called her over
but Rico went a bit to far
Tony sailed across the bar
and then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two
there was blood and a single gun shot
but just who shot who?
Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl,
but that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show
now it's a disco, but not for Lola,
still in the dress she used to wear,
faded feathers in her hair
she sits there so refined,and drinks herself half-blind
she lost her youth and she lost her Tony
now she's lost her mind
At the copa... don't fall in love
don't fall in love
Marcio doesn't like it.
I love it.
For me, this is the best set of lyrics found in a disco song (apart from Domino Dancing by the Pet Shop Boys).
I love to hear stories told in music-lyrics and this one is a complete story with beginning, middle part, climax and end.
This is a short story about passion, sex, power, corruption, murder, death... about the promisse of a love that was never fulfilled...
...then by the end of the song, it's about the passage of time and the coming of old age... about sadness, dacaying and alcoholism...
This is a very human story with a fatalistic (but real) portrait of life.
PS:
And since the song was recorded in 1977, it is also about a night-club that had to change with times: from a cabaret to a Disco Club.
All these human feelings compressed in a 6 minute song. The writer has a great quality: he knows how to be concise.
Last edited by Paulo; September 29th, 2007 at 08:46 PM.
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
good point. as with most songs that came out while I was a working DJ, I paid little attention to lyrics, other than to not step all over them with a blend, but I'm inclined to agree with Paolo: as lyrics go, these are easy to understand, easy to follow, and they tell a story that's pretty germaine to the whole dance/drink/club experience, tying together different periods in the dance continuum. Barry Manilow: disco Shakespeare! (now that Barry Gibb.....different story!:)
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm.
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right, it's O.K.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Well now, I get low and I get high
And if I can't get either I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.
You know it's all right, it's O.K.
I'll live to see another day.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I agree with Paulo on this one: Barry Manilow's has to be one of the best-written disco tracks ever! the lyrics are clever, a story is told, the vocal delivery and orchestral arrangements are perfect! And I love the "he called her over" part which can be understood as "he called her Rover", which, with the following whistle, explains "but Rico went a bit too far
Tony sailed across the bar", presumably because Tony doesn't appreciate customers whistling his girl like some dog.
What I like about disco is the mood it induces, and what the sound of it does to my soul. That is: the musical component; lyrics being quite secondary. Agreed, "Boogie Oogie Oogie" delivers no serious message, but who cares? The track is mellow, cool, hypnotic, soothing, and that's all I need from it.
Now there are tracks that I find really unbearable, be it for the stupidity of their lyrics or their overall lack of interest: "It's raining men", or "So many men, so little time", anyone???!?!?
...Boogie Boogie Boogie Boogaaaaaay.....
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I agree, but for some reason (probably a fear of being considered "uncool"), Barry Manilow is in the same category with Burt Bacharach and Neil Diamond.....many people seem to deny liking these artists, though they are all gifted writers and musicians....
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
do people really deny liking Burt Bacharach? I thought he was safe!
I admit to a "too cool for school" attitude that eschews a lot of pop artists, especially where pop=schlok, but at some point you have to hand it to an artist that sells, say, 75 million records, has X amount of hits, etc. For me, Hall & Oates are the act that I loved to hate throughout their career, then came to have 20/20 hindsight in my respect and awe in their songwriting (and performing) talent. With Manilow, I was perfectly set up to be a fan, having been an early Bette Midler fan (I had very eclectic taste as a teen.....still do), so his name was instantly familiar to me when Mandy broke. I do find it ironic that many of what I would call his best songs (Mandy, Looks Like We Made It, Ready To Take A Chance Again, Can't Smile Without You, and I Write The Songs, ironically) weren't written by him, but I believe he IS responsible for the lyrics in Copacabana. Do I correctly remember playing a Spanish language version by him?
Acetate [Level 1]
Re: Disco music's most hated lyrics
Jermain Jackson - Lets be young tonight!!!
Possibly thee most cringe-making lyrics...
Ooh, baby, lets be young tonight
Lets go dancing in the party lights
Ill go and shine my shoes, you get your blue dress out
Lets hit the discotheques and well turn them out
Ooh, baby, lets be young again
Lets get back, lets get back in the trend
Cause it's not too late to celebrate
Lets go and wine and dine while we still have time
Come on, baby, lets be young tonight
Whoa, baby, dance in the party light
Were gonna boogie, baby
Boogie, me and my lady
Well never know
When well get this chance again
Acetate [Level 1]
solarflare - boogie fund
does anyone else think they say... "givvvve... tonight to the boogie fart"??
I can't listen to it without chuckling to myself.:icon_biggrin:
Test Pressing [Level 2]
I really hate
Paul Jabara - Honeymoon In Puerto Rico
lyrics!
this story is so cheesy....instrumental is quite cool but lyrics...pffff:icon_confused:
Acetate [Level 1]
I know were not supposed to just write a few words but...
Meco - The Wizzard of Oz:icon_lol:
Such a classic me and my fella love it!!! but... RUFF RUFF... PUT EM UP PUT EM UP!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA
OOHHH i just thought of another...
Love and Kisses - How much, how much I love you.... How Much, How Much, How Much, How Much, How Much
Last edited by lennymonster; October 4th, 2007 at 11:44 AM.
Test Pressing [Level 2]
I think in these eurodisco productions,lyrics are not so vital....its the classic sound:)
Going this way you can also choose judas iscariot or hunchback of notre dame .....
I have another.Poussez...I really love them but sometimes this moaaaaning in the middle is annoying:)
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