My Sound Of Philadelphia Blog

[Boogiedown]

Thank you Jim for the details concerning ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE !


I had mentioned earlier here that I thought that ONE NIGHT AFFAIR was the first record to have the "disco" sound. I didn't want to complicate things, so I didn't mention I've always felt that distinction should be shared with this record , each with their own reasons , and also because I'm not really sure which record was actually recorded first [[ONLY STRONG charted first). My confusion comes from the O'Jays poor [[dated) sound quality as compared to OTSS , which implies that it was recorded in an older less sophisticated studio and as you point out, Jim, OTSS wasn't:

Recording “Only The Strong Survive” and most of The Iceman Cometh at Joe Tarsia’s recently opened state of the art Sigma Sound Studio brought Philly music to new sonic heights
https://jimbagleyphillymusic.wordpress.com/

What a difference! This gives OTSS a much clearer expansive sound , one that would advance it into a new era of recording quality , whereas ONE NIGHT AFFAIR is disadvantaged as sounding like music from earlier times , even though really it wasn't . [[just a product of a lesser studio)
I won't go into this comparison completely , just a bit more about ONLY THE STRONG:
The clarity in the sound recording , it makes each instrument so much more significant, Vince's xylophone , the busy strings , Roland Chambers guitar, even the female back up , the clear presence of elements that helped define disco music. The primary TSOP disco cast of the future is involved here including Thom Bell and Bobby Martin.
The only thing holding this back from being disco is that the song's structure is disjointed , the storytelling being slower and non dancable, but when it shifts into its upbeat mode, all the needed elements are there, including its uplifting optimistic vibe. The churning baseline in OTSS is the same that will be brought back and used in Trammps songs like DISCO INFERNO and THAT'S WHERE THE HAPPY PEOPLE GO .

They obviously didn't recognize that they had pioneered a special new sound here , one that was about to grab the imagination of the public in a huge way: incredible that this would be the FOURTH single off the album and even then they had to be coerced into it.



listen two minutes on : there's one word for it : disco!


Boogiedown!