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---- So I'm digging into and listening to old music as of late and today I put on The Pointer Sisters ' "That's A Plenty " Lp. I was especially intrigued by the last cut --- "Love In Them There Hills" --- because it clocked in at 8:30 in length and it was wriiten by Gamble & Huff --two good indicators that it might be a good dance tune -- 1974 style ----- To top it off its got Bill Summers doing "African Talking Drums, Shekere and Congas " and Herbie Hancock performing "Rhodes Piano, Clavinet, and ARP SYNTHESIZER " How bad could it be.....
Well this is evidence that long songs with lots of percussion and synthesizer do not necessarily a disco song make :) .....
------However .... upon listening a couple of times to the very long, peculiar and sparse " break" in the middle of this song ... I kept thinking " This is familiar ... what does this sound like ... sounds like something... " then it suddenly hit me ......
"Oh my God , this is Giorgio's .... "LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY " !!!
---If you have this record , give this cut a play ..... I'd be curious what you think .
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A year later and I'm still curious ! ....
???
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I'll have to check it out again. I usually listen to the other Pointer Sisters funk songs of that period. Paul Jackson was the bass player for Herbie Hancock during that Headhunters period, and his bass playing style does sound similar to the bass line on Love To Love You Baby, if that's what you are referring to.
Disco Funk
Well... in my opinion, "Love in them there hills" doesn't sound like "Love to love you baby". They don't have much in common: the bass or the break are very different in the two songs. But there is one song that could have inspired "Love to love you baby" and it's "For the love of money" by the O'Jays (1973). The bass lines are almost identical.
The Pointer Sisters are great but they are not very disco; maybe "Happiness" -1978- has some more disco ingredients than their others songs but it would be the only one. [Of course when I talk about the Pointer Sisters, it's the group, because on the other hand Bonnie Pointer as a solo act released some very good disco songs on Motown.]
Wasn't "Love In Them There Hills" the flip-side of their "Fairytale" 45?
Is Bonnie Pointer's "Free Me From My Freedom" available on CD? I have yet to hear that song. Interestingly, only recently did I hear Pointer's "Heaven Must Have Sent You" in its commercial 12" version (7:18). I am so used to seeing and hearing the edit on countless compilations.
"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
The song "Love up in them there hills" was also done by Maxine Brown in the 60's and male group called the Vibrations around '72. The Vibrations version is on a Columbia/Legacy Cd named Lost Soul which was issued around 1995. It has some great 'northern soul meets disco' tracks by artists like the Philly Devotions, Soul Children, and Gwen McCrae.
I'm glad someone at least even checked out what I'm talking about PD !Originally Written by Pierre Declercq
You make a good observation with FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY .....good call ! 8)
I think in the back of my mind I've always wondered where I'd heard that bass before .....and I think you hit it !!!:-)
But give that Pointer Sister cut another listen .... the break in it .... the pacing of it .... the open spaciness ...the way the synth is being used ( very new at the time) .....
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you'd still be waiting for me at the airport
while my ship was coming in
Don't forget Tubular Bells and it's place in the timeline. It's influence was manifested in the Champs Boys Disco version of '75 and later on a House track by Cleavage 'Barah' took up the baton and ran with it.Originally Written by Pierre Declercq
You're not saying Quinny , that the Champ's Boys TUBULAR BELLS pre-dates Donna' s LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY ???????? :-o:icon_question:Originally Written by QUINNY
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you'd still be waiting for me at the airport
while my ship was coming in
Don't I write in English, or maybe you're referring to the year quoted for the Champs Boys? In which case I may well be wrong, but in my own mind it's '75. :-o :-o :-oOriginally Written by remicks
"Free Me From My Freedom" is available on CD. I can't remember the name of the CD, but it's a compilation CD from Motown that also includes Tata Vega's "Just Keep Thinking About You" and that wretched remix/update of "The Boss" that appeared on Miss Ross' remix CD.Originally Written by Salsoul1975
\"...a once in a lifetime feeling that returns every week...\"
That CD is called "Funkology Vol. 3: Dance Divas." (I kept thinking "Vibeology" and Paula Abdul, and I knew that was wrong--in so many ways!)
"Funkology Vol. 3" is listed at Amazon for $27.45.
\"...a once in a lifetime feeling that returns every week...\"
I have all 3 volumes in Motown's Funkology series and its worth getting.
I can see what you mean remmy, I'm sure it was inspiration for 'LTLYB', along with the O'Jays 'For The Love Of Money' bassline. Seems that Gamble & Huff were a big influence on Munich at that time, & that Philly-Munich connection got official later in the 70s with Metropolis, Gaz, etc. BTW, that African chanting break in the Pointer Sisters track reminds me of a slowed-down 'Platos Retreat' too!:icon_confused:![]()
...ya gotta beat the street......
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