Bbc documentary "the joy of disco"

[Hotspurman]

You got good taste. A few of the artists/tracks I never heard of though. But I'll see what I can find on them.
We need to start a Fatback Band thread. And as for your daughter, this video will answer her question:

Happy memories! I have this annoying habit [[at least my family tell me it's annoying!) of speaking parts in well known comedy programmes just before their actually said. You know the kind of thing, telling everyone 'It's your fault, you invaded Poland' just before Basil Fawlty tells the German guests just that in Fawlty Towers. I also do it from time to time with music, so I often drive along banging the steering wheel whilst bellowing out 'Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop - I'll tell you when' whenever this track is on!

Let me know which tracks/artists you don't know from my previous list - I can let you know which albums to try and locate.

[marv2]

I honestly never heard that song until it came out on a Rhino CD comp back in the early 90s. Fatback wasn't big where I lived.

They were very popular on the East Coast. I remember hearing them and Foxy at every party in the summer of '78 and we partied OFTEN in those days! LOL!

[marv2]

Damn i'm glad people can't smoke where they want today. I have asthma and smoking bans make life much easier. I can go to night clubs now.

I'm sorry to hear that but up until the mid 80's or so , you could even smoke at your desk at work. A lot of people smoked in those days. Some arena concerts were filled with smoke of varying kinds , hehehehehehe!

[Hotspurman]

" King Tim, Backstrokin'" were our fun time party records in the late 70's! This was before rap caught on.

Isn't King Tim now accepted as one of the first rap records? As I recall, it was the flip side to whatever single the Fatback Band had out at the time, thus allowing Sugarhill Gang to get there first as far as having a hit record is concerned.

[Hotspurman]

I'm sorry to hear that but up until the mid 80's or so , you could even smoke at your desk at work. A lot of people smoked in those days. Some arena concerts were filled with smoke of varying kinds , hehehehehehe!

Even as recently as a few years ago, we were allowed to smoke at our desks after normal work hours, if we were working late!

[P-Shark: The Revenge]

Thanks Hotspurman. I found them.
Vocally this one doesn't do much for me

OK you had a typo. You meant Willie Bobo, lol. Cool song but I prefer Rnnie Law's vers

And this one which I actually did here. Just didn't know the name. Really like this one

[Hotspurman]

I like Ronnie Laws version too - I remember getting his album on import from a small record store by St Paul's Cathedral and playing it to death. The Willie Bobo version grew on me too, as had Side Effect and Incognito's respective versions. Ronnie Laws' is still the killer version.

[soulster]

Another thing that struck me soulster is that the show dated the "birth" of "Disco" as the Stonewall Riots in NYC when the patrons of the Stonewall "dance bar" got fed up with being raided by the police as in 1969 it was illegal in NYC for members of the same sex to dance together. The convention being boy-girl couples.

Yet here in Britain for as long as I can recall it hasn't been thought in the slightest bit unusual for people to dance on their own, or in groups [[same sex or otherwise). Indeed, at "Northern Soul" events it is unusual for people to dance together at all, everyone claiming a little bit of dancefloor for themselves to show off their moves.


Roger

This makes me believe that the maker of the doc had an agenda.

[soulster]

I'm sorry to hear that but up until the mid 80's or so , you could even smoke at your desk at work. A lot of people smoked in those days. Some arena concerts were filled with smoke of varying kinds , hehehehehehe!

I know. I had to work with smokers in the early 80s.

[Roberta75]

This makes me believe that the maker of the doc had an agenda.

You don't mean a Gay agenda do you? Surely not.

[soulster]

You don't mean a Gay agenda do you? Surely not.

Yes, I do mean that. Look at that documentary. Look what it keeps going back to.

[marv2]

Yes, I do mean that. Look at that documentary. Look what it keeps going back to.

Amazing huh? Because it was Black music that was created for the most part by Black artists and largely bought by the black community from the very beginning. Dancing? All through the years in the black community so how this guy who produced this documentary come up with his view on things is completely beyond me.

[soulster]

Amazing huh? Because it was Black music that was created for the most part by Black artists and largely bought by the black community from the very beginning. Dancing? All through the years in the black community so how this guy who produced this documentary come up with his view on things is completely beyond me.

The director might not be wrong about the gay aspect. I don't know about that experience because i'm not gay, nor did I grow up in New York. But, again, the director made it seem like disco was nothing but a gay movement, and that a few female singers benefited from it by being sexual. So, people who weren't alive during that era and look at the doc will think that's all disco was about. When the narrator says that we need to go back a few years to understand the beginnings of disco, you'd think he would talk about go-go clubs, and how Black dance music was adapted. But, no, he goes into some mess about how gays were repressed. Even in the opening scenes of the doc, you see mostly scenes gay guys and pride marches in clubs. There was very little discussion about how the women's liberation movement, the emergence of Black America, or how Latino exposure all played a role. What about all the factors that brought on the backlash? What about the music industry recession partly brought on by the wild excesses, releasing millions of anything that sounded remotely dancible, no matter how bad it sounded. What about the impact that disco had on Black music? How about salsa music down in Miami?

I'm not being anti-gay by mentioning any of this, just pointing out how flawed the doc is.

[marv2]

The director might not be wrong about the gay aspect. I don't know about that experience because i'm not gay, nor did I grow up in New York. But, again, the director made it seem like disco was nothing but a gay movement, and that a few female singers benefited from it by being sexual. So, people who weren't alive during that era and look at the doc will think that's all disco was about. When the narrator says that we need to go back a few years to understand the beginnings of disco, you think he would talk about go-go clubs, and how Black dance music was adapted. But, no, he goes into some mess about how gays were repressed. Even in the opening scenes of the doc, you see mostly scenes gay guys and pride marches in clubs. There was very little discussion about how the women's liberation movement, the emergence of Black America, or Latino exposure all played a role. What about all the factors that brought on the backlash? What about the music industry recession partly brought on by the wild excesses of budgets, releasing millions of anything that sounded remotely dancible, not matter how bad it sounded. What about the impact that disco had on Black music? How about salsa music down in Miami?

I'm not being anti-gay by mentioning any of this, just pointing out how flawed the doc is.

I really don't care about all the political stuff when it comes to music, but I can say from a person that was alive during that era and before; also one that did not grow up in New York, that his view on how and why disco emerged is bullshit!

We were dancing to people like James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Junior Walk & the Allstars to name a very, very few years before the "disco era". James Brown was the Godfather of Soul, but he could also legitimately claim the title of Godfather of Disco and Rap! When we were going to parties and they were playing records by these artists and people like Eddie Kendricks, George McCrae, B.T. Express, Brass Construction, Hues Corp. and on and one, we didn't know anything about gays liberation or even was even a thought in Detroit or Toledo where i was living. The artists we partied to just made good music and like the kids said on American Bandstand, it had a good beat and was easy to dance to. Dance music was nothing new to us and it did not have a specific "start date" to when we began to enjoy it. This documentary missed the boat if it's intent were to tell the history about the beginnings, the rise and the fall of Disco Music. When the public stopped using the term "disco", it didn't matter to anyone I knew at all because music we danced to continued on and on and on any way.

[Roberta75]

Yes, I do mean that. Look at that documentary. Look what it keeps going back to.

That's "The gays" for you. Shocking really.

Roberta

[P-Shark: The Revenge]

The director might not be wrong about the gay aspect. I don't know about that experience because i'm not gay, nor did I grow up in New York. But, again, the director made it seem like disco was nothing but a gay movement, and that a few female singers benefited from it by being sexual. So, people who weren't alive during that era and look at the doc will think that's all disco was about. When the narrator says that we need to go back a few years to understand the beginnings of disco, you think he would talk about go-go clubs, and how Black dance music was adapted. But, no, he goes into some mess about how gays were repressed. Even in the opening scenes of the doc, you see mostly scenes gay guys and pride marches in clubs. There was very little discussion about how the women's liberation movement, the emergence of Black America, or Latino exposure all played a role. What about all the factors that brought on the backlash? What about the music industry recession partly brought on by the wild excesses of budgets, releasing millions of anything that sounded remotely dancible, not matter how bad it sounded. What about the impact that disco had on Black music? How about salsa music down in Miami?

I'm not being anti-gay by mentioning any of this, just pointing out how flawed the doc is.

Just setting the record straight, right? Pun intended, couldn't resist

[soulster]

I really don't care about all the political stuff when it comes to music, but I can say from a person that was alive during that era and before; also one that did not grow up in New York, that his view on how and why disco emerged is bullshit!

We were dancing to people like James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Junior Walk & the Allstars to name a very, very few years before the "disco era". James Brown was the Godfather of Soul, but he could also legitimately claim the title of Godfather of Disco and Rap! When we were going to parties and they were playing records by these artists and people like Eddie Kendricks, George McCrae, B.T. Express, Brass Construction, Hues Corp. and on and one, we didn't know anything about gays liberation or even was even a thought in Detroit or Toledo where i was living. The artists we partied to just made good music and like the kids said on American Bandstand, it had a good beat and was easy to dance to. Dance music was nothing new to us and it did not have a specific "start date" to when we began to enjoy it. This documentary missed the boat if it's intent were to tell the history about the beginnings, the rise and the fall of Disco Music. When the public stopped using the term "disco", it didn't matter to anyone I knew at all because music we danced to continued on and on and on any way.

If I could point to the single biggest factor in the development of disco music, it was Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and their brilliant house musicians. They had brilliant people working with them like Thom bell and Vince Montana. They had veteran jazz musicians like Earl Young playing with them. There were also people like Van McCoy and a whole lot of people at Motown who helped shape what it became, and drew the blueprint for all who followed. Georgio Moroder was also an early architect of the music. He did great songs like "Son Of My Father". One song I thought was a great disco prototype is Donnie Ebert's cover of the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go". Then, the music just started coming together from everywhere. Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch played a major role. There were forward-thinking engineers like Tom Moulton and Joe Tarsia to get the sounds. And, yes, you had the DJs who spun the records. All that, combined with the shifting social and political climate, created the perfect storm for disco to come alive. The rock world, for a while didn't stand a chance!

I know there was time constraints, but there was a whole lot that doc could have been. Perhaps it should have been a multi-part series. Then it could have indeed included the stuff it seemed to concentrate on.

[soulster]

That's "The gays" for you. Shocking really.

Roberta

I'm sorry i'm offending you, but that's just the way the documentary impressed me.

[Roberta75]

I'm sorry i'm offending you, but that's just the way the documentary impressed me.

Oh you are not offending me at all.

Roberta