Disco's Influence in Very Non-Disco Music
- Thread starter redhouse_ca
- Start date
redhouse_ca
Tele-Holic
This is great. I saw her with Jeff Beck maybe 10 years ago (give or take), and sadly, for the life of me I couldn't remember her name. Now I do, and I got some listening to do tonight!
“There’s no such thing as bad music….only bad musicians”.
- Ornette Coleman
In the early 70’s I was a dedicated blues/rock guy in my early twenties…I was also starving financially.
A friend of mine told me about a gig with a traveling “show band” that was looking for a guitarist….and it payed $300 per week! Plus you got free rooms (at nice hotels/motels) and transportation….some of the nicer places we stayed even gave us 1/2 off on food.
Anyway…I swallowed my artist pride and went to the audition…and didn’t make the cut…then it turns out their first choice couldn’t go….wife problems….she didn’t want him on the road…they were leaving in three days for 20 weeks and they had to have a guitar player….so they called me….I had two days to learn 50 songs.
They keyboard player took pity on me and worked with me for the next two days about 12 hours per day.
Here’s my point:
I learned more about music doing that gig than any other gig I had done previously….the chords I had to learn….the “feel” of the music…the difference between playing “on top” of the beat versus laying back a bit….and the quality of the musicians in the band….all of the other players were top-notch musicians.
In summary…I learned more about complex chords structures….arranging….vocal harmonizing…and playing within an ensemble in general, playing “disco” music than anything I had ever done before…it was the gateway for me to be able to become an actual professional working musician.
I wouldn’t trade the lessons I learned in those years for anything.
- Ornette Coleman
In the early 70’s I was a dedicated blues/rock guy in my early twenties…I was also starving financially.
A friend of mine told me about a gig with a traveling “show band” that was looking for a guitarist….and it payed $300 per week! Plus you got free rooms (at nice hotels/motels) and transportation….some of the nicer places we stayed even gave us 1/2 off on food.
Anyway…I swallowed my artist pride and went to the audition…and didn’t make the cut…then it turns out their first choice couldn’t go….wife problems….she didn’t want him on the road…they were leaving in three days for 20 weeks and they had to have a guitar player….so they called me….I had two days to learn 50 songs.
They keyboard player took pity on me and worked with me for the next two days about 12 hours per day.
Here’s my point:
I learned more about music doing that gig than any other gig I had done previously….the chords I had to learn….the “feel” of the music…the difference between playing “on top” of the beat versus laying back a bit….and the quality of the musicians in the band….all of the other players were top-notch musicians.
In summary…I learned more about complex chords structures….arranging….vocal harmonizing…and playing within an ensemble in general, playing “disco” music than anything I had ever done before…it was the gateway for me to be able to become an actual professional working musician.
I wouldn’t trade the lessons I learned in those years for anything.
oldunc
Friend of Leo's
Try to come up with some decent sound- You Tube sound is nowhere near doing her justice.
Golden Years-Bowie
Godzilla lyrics and Golden years would be a great mashup!
“Well he picks up a bus and throws it back down then he makes his way to the center of ta- ha- hown”
”oh no, they say he has to go wop wop wop”
”oh no, there goes Tokyo wop wop wop”
”Run toward the shadows of these golden years”
Godzilla lyrics and Golden years would be a great mashup!
“Well he picks up a bus and throws it back down then he makes his way to the center of ta- ha- hown”
”oh no, they say he has to go wop wop wop”
”oh no, there goes Tokyo wop wop wop”
”Run toward the shadows of these golden years”
Like @pypa said, there was a lot of good music although (IMHO) an absolutely dreadful scene. I'm working through some '70s funk this quarter, which is a close neighbour, and am finding a lot of brilliant music that I shouldn't have missed along the way.
But I'd still drop the Big One on 'disco' as a lifestyle.
Coming out of the '70s, I reckon blue eyed soul (Robert Palmer), punk/funk (RHCP) and a certain amount of New Wave (Peter Gabriel) took a lot of lessons from disco. I may be mixing up my movements, but I hear disco in all that jass. ;-)
Interesting thread!!
I
Disco.
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A great disco hit by Thelma Houston.
It kicks butt big time when it goes into the chorus!
It kicks butt big time when it goes into the chorus!
redhouse_ca
Tele-Holic
Totally agree. I was late to funk and since getting a decent right hand I can't get enough of it. Re. Disco, the Robert Palmer and Peter Gabriel examples are great. This is unrelated to the topic but i listened to the melted face album start to finish yesterday and I realized just how singular and original he was in so many ways.
redhouse_ca
Tele-Holic
Yeah, I have tidal and they have some higher resolution masters for her and they sound great. You are 100% correct.
Yeah, I'd kinda forgotten how big a leap it was from Gabriel's prog rock albums to So. Which is odd, considering that I was pretty well across his stuff from Genesis and the solo work at that point. It sure seems a long way behind us! Am listening to Peter Gabriel (3) 'Melted Face' now. Pretty bracing stuff here in 2023. I've always reckoned he'd be hard work in person, but I admire how he throws all 100% of himself into everything he does.
Blondie's a great call. I could never see them as disco, not as a CBGB / New Wave act, but they (or at least Debbie Harry) made the Studio 54 circuit too. And the disco was strong in some of their stuff. I'll have to go do some reading to square that circle. . . .
memorex
Poster Extraordinaire
One of my favorite disco tunes:
That is why it is surprising not to see them in this thread.
This chorus sounds like the perfect example to me
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