Tom Lewis, I heard the name many times, now I can put a face to it.Good explanation of beat mixing, and I remember your list, I once saw one. Very Interesting "book". I remember that you also had "supplementals" occasionally. So you have a hundred stories?? See my article in DISCO HISTORY 101, A SURVEY... about Drugs and Disco. Can you help me with a few stories??Can you throw a dog a bone, with an opinion or two?? Glad to see you finally decided to join the family!! I'm sure we will be talking. Welcome!!

Tom, thanks for responding to my surveys. Did you ever come down to Miami, and the Florida Record Pool to market your LISTS?? I remember someone promoting it when I was running the pool for BO CRANE. Was that you??

I don't recall going to Miami, but I certainly remember the name Bo Crane. I'm pretty sure that it was Bo who called me and said he would sell a quantity of Disco Beats for me, and I gave him a discount.

Now that I'm reading all of your "Disco 101 History" I'm getting a flood of memories of people and music. I'm going to write it up and post it on DiscoMusic.com.

Real fun. It was very much my life for a number of years. Thanks for inviting me to join the family.

tom

I remember my first trip to The Rafters in Saratoga - my first time ever going to a disco - I was 18 - this was 1976 - and was immediately mesmerized by the sound, lights, and "smell" of the dry ice from the moment I walked in. My introduction to the art of DJing began almost immediately when I heard an "effect" eminating from the kick-a** GLI soundsystem - the song was familiar, yet I had never heard this particular version, and it sounded as if it was being put through a filter of some sort, as the high end would pretty much cancel itself out and then zing back in as if it was echoing through a huge sewer pipe. No, this was not a mixer "preset" as we have today, this was DJ Tom Lewis, playing 2 copies of the same record at the same time, guiding his fingernail along the platter of the turntable to decrease one of the records' rotation to just a hair away +/- from the constant spin of the other copy. I HAD to go see what this guy was playing, so I went up to the booth, waited behind a couple of "hot chick" DJ groupie types who were requesting songs, and finally got a first hand look at the inside of the DJ booth. I introduced myself to Tom and was forever hooked on the art of DJing. I was a Rafters "regular" from that night. I went out and started buying 12" singles - loved that "underground" format - most of my friends didn't even know what the heck a 12" was. I recall seeing white label promo copies and DJ only promo copies of records that Tom had in the booth and lost my mind ! (What I have realized just recently was that Tom was in his first year as a disco DJ when I met him, or very close to that. One would have thought he had been doing it for much longer.He was a natural talent.) I remember thinking to myself when I watched him spin for the first time, "I can do that....I definitely can do that...I want to do that"....It changed my life forever as I pretty much met every girl I ever dated from being a DJ, including my ex-wife and my current girlfriend. I am still DJing to this day once a week (I need my DJ fix guys - you can relate I'm sure) and have on occasion borrowed a few of Tom's mixes when playing out that were forever burned in my memory, and people are impressed. Little do they know all the history behind those mixes. Most of the people hearing them weren't even born yet.

Tom,

This is Bernie, the owner of DiscoMusic.com. I see you are interacting with the other members who have also joined us and wanted to welcome you to the site and look forward to more of your posting and recollections of the Disco era. Please tell us more about the Disco BPM publications you put out. Thanks.