Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

Thump-thump-thump. '70s disco songs you actually liked


Recommended Posts

On 5/28/2022 at 7:02 PM, hamerican gigolo said:

Anything Chic. Great band. 

Confirmed. Just bought the first album a few months ago. Wonderful bass playing on them. And Nile Rodger’s guitar playing. I had been taken by the plexiglass guitar at the time.

Boney M were very popular over here. What about Xanadu?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't call Pet Shop Boys 'Disco', they seem to fit more in the 'New Wave'/Synth-Pop' mold to me.

I remember hearing a story where Al Stewart ('Year Of The Cat', remember that '70's song?) first heard a PSB song on the radio, and Neil Tennant apparently sounds so close to his singing style and sound, that Al first thought that the song might have been something he recorded but forgot about.  :rolleyes::lol:

I liked the first version video of 'Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money) much better than the cheesy, watered down second version, the first video is much darker in tone:

First version:

Cheesy, 'happier' second version:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/29/2022 at 9:21 PM, veatch said:

 

 

Doh!  Can't believe that I forgot that one....it's on my band's set list for nearly every gig.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yea, I think yer right

19 hours ago, crunchee said:

I wouldn't call Pet Shop Boys 'Disco', they seem to fit more in the 'New Wave'/Synth-Pop' mold to me.

I remember hearing a story where Al Stewart ('Year Of The Cat', remember that '70's song?) first heard a PSB song on the radio, and Neil Tennant apparently sounds so close to his singing style and sound, that Al first thought that the song might have been something he recorded but forgot about.  :rolleyes::lol:

I liked the first version video of 'Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money) much better than the cheesy, watered down second version, the first video is much darker in tone:

First version:

Cheesy, 'happier' second version:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember watching this live on tv, it was awesome. Sold out the park, a zillion joints burned and thousands of records flung. Wish I was there.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't care cool (you think) you are, how can you not like, "Stayin' Alive"?  In my opinion, this should be required listening for anyone serious about falsetto.

By the way, you need to check out Prince as well:  he was a musical genius when it came to arrangement.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, a.bandini said:

I really didn't like disco, but I think this fantastic song might have spawned it.  

 

Hokay, ya caught me. Was just listening to this a few days ago on my new $5 swap meet 8-track player.

PXL_20220531_232631709~2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, HamerCustomEr said:

I don't care cool (you think) you are, how can you not like, "Stayin' Alive"?  In my opinion, this should be required listening for anyone serious about falsetto.

By the way, you need to check out Prince as well:  he was a musical genius when it came to arrangement.

 

The Bee Gees documentary that recently aired on HBO (which was excellent, btw) had a portion devoted to the disco backlash and what I agree is much of the real reason why so many (<cough>white and allegedly straight<cough>) people hated it so much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, a.bandini said:

I really didn't like disco, but I think this fantastic song might have spawned it.  

 

I tried to get my band to cover that tune, but it sounded too clunky during rehearsals and I finally called time of death on it.  It is incredibly simple in structure, but there's a deafening white space in between the quarter notes and everything has to be clean and crisp in order for it to work.  The three-octave vocal line during the chorus is not easy to replicate, either.

In contrast, the Alan Parsons Project tune is much looser feeling and easier to reproduce the overall vibe. It's also incredibly fun to play,  and while everyone in the audience knows the song, very few have any idea who originally recorded it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the sub category of songs that were pretty much disco but didn't present themselves as such crunchee beat me to "I was Made For Lovin' You" and Veatch beat me to "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" but I will add ELO's "Last Train to London" and Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" to the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up4WjdabA2c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hphwfq1wLJs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, HAMERMAN said:

In the sub category of songs that were pretty much disco but didn't present themselves as such crunchee beat me to "I was Made For Lovin' You"...

I never had any doubt that Kiss was doing a song with a Disco beat, if I was driving at night and it came on the radio, I used to head-bang in time to it a la 'Night At The Roxbury' style, long before that was ever an SNL skit. 🤘

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/30/2022 at 3:21 AM, veatch said:

 

 

I have seen APP always as a project or LP band rather than a singles charter, although, they had been aired plenty and charted successfully for a long time. The latter became a blocker for listening to the albums as I don‘t want to hear the hits any more. So, preferably, I tend to select the less popular albums. Similar for Queen‘s News Of The World, that I mostly start on track four. Anyways, that‘s nothing like Video Kills The Radio Star. B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never thought of Alan Parsons as a disco maven but some of his stuff was danceable, I guess. I was more interested in the arrangements and impressive fidelity of his works. Still got all of his stuff on CD except Eve and the live album....and anything post A Valid Path (haven't kept up).

Accordingly, it was interesting to hear him in concert with the A Walk Down Abbey Road with an all-star band that included Ann Wilson, Todd Rundgren, John Entwistle, and David Pack. Performance was 27 JUN 01, a year to the day before Entiwistle died. 

Parsons more than held his own on a solo version of "Blackbird" but he'd done the arrangements for the rest of the material IIRC. Impressive.

ALan Parsons.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/6/2022 at 3:10 AM, Willie G. Moseley said:

and anything post A Valid Path (haven't kept up).

Recently, I have filled the gaps I had on the post project era on vinyl. I must say, this is excellent high fidelity material.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I had to put songs into different buckets, I'd have a hard time with some that are more funk/soul/R&B oriented, but have some disco ingredients mixed in. Fight the Power is included in my "In Yo' Face! The History of Funk" multi-CD compilation set, for example.. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been casually digging into the clearance 45s at the local Half-Price Books for the last couple of years, grabbing some random things along with stuff I recognize.

This was one of the random, for-the-heck-of-it pickups.   Kitchen-sink disco/funk that makes me laugh and crank the volume.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...