Machine-There But for the Grace of God Go I (1979)
The social commentary of this song is unique for the disco genre. It’s a bittersweet morality tale of a runaway child who craves freedom from her oppressive Caribbean parents and is delivered into the subversive and not always healthy, world of rock n’ roll. What else is a “natural freak” from the suburbs to do? The high energy beats drive the message home, evoking a flight from something pressing. The stretching vocals of singer August Darnell adds to the urgency. This “apocalyptic disco” song continues to be a favorite with disco and Hi-NRG DJs and is often mixed with Lime’s Babe We’re Gonna Love Tonight for an anthemic, rousing dancefloor set.
A question for the ages: “Is too much love worse than none at all?”
Kid Creole and the Coconuts – Stool Pigeon (1982)
Until I read The Secret History of Disco, I had no idea Kid Creole & the Coconuts was a follow-up group to Machine, with August Darnell fronting both outfits. With Kid Creole, Darnell created a retro world of music drawing on vintage Zoot Suit fashions and 1940s musical nods including the requisite trio of female vocalists. It’s not my cup of tea but I have admiration for folks who don’t follow trends and push culture into new and innovative places.
Speaking of which, M.I.A is a good example of an artist doing her own thing while at the same time drawing on past musical influences. She does a cover version of Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’s (another August Darnell band) Sunshowers.
M.I.A.-Sunshowers
Previous Secret Disco posts.
Trans X-Living on Video
Stop-Wake Up
Lime-Babe Were Gonna Love Tonight
Considering the term “Chicano Oldies” is accepted and in popular use, I’d like to create a genre called “Chicano Disco.” Some favorite examples above.
In Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco, author Peter Shapiro explains how the influence of the European musicians’ love for synthesized music fundamentally changed the essence of dance music. Whereas disco used to be based on funk, live beats and real drummers bands like Kraftwerk showed there was another way to create a rhythm. The synthesizer with it’s fake handclaps, hi-hats and bass drums helped create a whole new genre of disco music: Hi-NRG.
Hi-NRG had a huge following amongst Mexicans and Chicanos in the Los Angeles area in the 1980s. It was the musical fuel for an amazing DIY scene of DJs, backyard parties and dance clubs that ruled over large sections of the city. It’s a movement that isn’t well known outside Chicano circles in Los Angeles, back then most people could not care less what was going on in our communities.
I wasn’t part of this scene but my brother was a DJ and a member of Boyz in Kontrol, one of the hundreds, if not thousands of party crews that existed at the time. The crews were responsible for organizing parties, dance contests, DJ battles and cruising (cars) spots. While punk may get a lot of credit for being a DIY scene, the disco scene of 1980s rivaled punk in it’s “let’s organize ourselves” philosophy. Unlike punk it wasn’t a political choice, the self organization was done out of sheer necessity. Our neighborhoods offered very few forms of entertainment or diversions for youth.
Towards the late 1980s, the backyard parties started attracting the attention of the authorities, and by using the excuse of minor incidents of violence, these authorities begin to systematically shutdown and target the parties. Some involved with the scene said this heavy handedness by LAPD and the sheriffs department helped to create the revival of cholos and gangs on the Eastside. During the height of the disco scene, to be a gangster or cholo was the epitome of being uncool. Kids would snicker at the site of old veteranos riding on the bus with baggy pants like some anachronistic figure of the past. The disco scene had Latino kids going from neighborhood to other neighborhoods across the city to attend parties and to battle each other on the dance floor. The rivalries that existed and any tension were quickly diffused through dancing and partying. The violence that occasionally happened at these parties was mostly due to fights over girls/boys and the usual love dramas.
When the authorities started cracking down on the party crews and cruising, the essentially were forcing teenagers with lots of energy to stay home. And who was waiting for them? The old gangs who provided them with diversionary outlets. Many of us saw this process play out in front of our eyes. I’m not saying this was the only catalyst for the upsurge in gangs but it was a significant one and gives us a few clues to how we can deal with our current gang problem. The more you try and control youth, the greater the eruption of chaos. Young people need something to do, they have a lot of energy and excitement for their new world that cannot be bottled up and funneled into a path that adults approve of. Let the kids party!
Hi-NRG is still popular among successive generations of backyard partygoers. Go to any baptism, quinceañera, wedding or birthday party on the Eastside or in the San Gabriel Valley and there will be at least one DJ set devoted to the pantheon of Chicano Disco aka Hi NRG.
Please see Pachuco 3000′s post: 30 Years of DJ Culture from East Los Angeles for further reading.
Liquid Liquid – Cavern (1983)
Does this song sound familiar? If it does, you might think it’s a rip-off of Melle Mel’s White Lines except it was Melle Mel who borrowed this song for White Lines while neglecting to give the band Liquid Liquid credit. A lawsuit ensued causing the band’s record company to go bankrupt and the band to fall apart and in the end, Liquid Liquid received no credit for being the originators of this popular and seminal hip-hop song.
Formerly a punk band from New Jersey, Liquid Liquid became influenced by bands like Can and Fela Kuti and soon after found themselves in the Leftfield Disco scene. The Secret History of Disco describes them as “rock deconstructionists with a ferocious but minimal groove.”
Melle Mel-White Lines (1983)
For this installment of Secret Disco, I’m presenting notable bands on Y Records. Started by Dick O’ Dell in 1978 and based in Bristol, England, The Secret History of Disco describes Y Records as “twisting the dance floor into new shapes.” Cowbells seem to be the unifying element in all these songs.
Pulsallama-Devil Lives in My Husband’s Body
I thought I was over music like this but when it’s done well like this song from Pulsallama, the appeal of these quirky tracks is rediscovered. I love the steel drums and the way they wander around the atonal chorus and spoken lyrics.
Pulsallama was an avant-garde art band from New York and a part of the the burgeoning new wave scene. Ann Magnuson of Bongwater was once part of the group.
From the blog Bleeding Panda:
Pulsallama was a short-lived, yet legendary, 12 piece all-girl percussion band who ruled Manhattan nightlife for a brief period in 1981 and 1982. Their sound has been described as “13 girls fighting over a cowbell.” Pulsallama got a rave review in New Musical Express in which the reporter said he was “dancing, screaming and laughing, all at the same time!”
Pigbag-Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag
Another Y label hit, Papa’s Got a New Pigbag was one of the most awesome experimental post-punk, funk, dance-floor hit songs of the early 80s. The amazing bassline later gets heavily referenced by The Style Council in the song Precious.
Maximum Joy-Stretch (Discomix & Rap)
I often assumed this kind of music was just funky new wave. I had no idea it was being played in dance clubs, I was too young for those activities when these records were released.
We Are All Prostitutes-Pop Group
Pop Group: a few leaps into punk and a boogie into funk and then back into some experimental musical world of their own making, all accompanied by Situ/anarko lyrics.
Also, check out The Slits.
Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind
Lots of end of the year posts coming up soon. I don’t know about you but 2010 just kinda snuck up on me. I’m still surprised when people keep mentioning the “end of the decade.” Ooops, can we rewind a bit? I’m not quite ready for the new times, on the other hand, I’m so happy to say goodbye to the miserable decade behind us. My apologies to the youth who called the aughts their heyday. May you soon know a new world of pleasure and joy! Afterall, the new world is there in our hearts.
I’ll start the joy fest early with this little gem of a jam I’ve been listening to non-stop for the past few days. Another Secret Disco find. It’s the break that I love. The energy of the song slowly building up with the introduction of a earthy bassline, the tempo begins to gather steam, the falsetto gets more plaintive, the beat harder and finally releasing into a hands-in-the-air anthemic break punctuated with syncopated horns and a little bongo solo. It’s the kinda sound that inspired House music.
Here’s hoping your New Year’s Eve is filled with all kinds of boogie!
Space – Magic Fly
This clip should have been grouped with the cheesy robot post but alas, I forgot. So here it is, in all it’s synthesized glory. The video is pretty swell, it looks a lot like the videos of current day electro producers.
One of my favorite artists, Felix Da Housecat does a version of this song.
Bisquit-Roller Boogie
I tried my best to resist the lure of this video which I was first introduced to through artist Porous Walker‘s Facebook page.
What is it exactly that I find so lovable about this song? Is it the synthy Hi-NRG beats, the hypnotic vocoder robot vocals, the infectious chord changes, the catchy chorus backed by samba shakers, the requisite hand claps, the unrelenting bass line, the melodic alarm clock beeps taken from a children’s cartoon all topped by a perfectly timed cowbell pop? Or is it the video itself with the Chrissy Snow dancers, so vapid and rhythmless (you can see them counting beats in their head) following a choreography that means absolutely nothing to them cause all they are smiling about is the cocaine they were promised after the video shoot? Did Cicciolina find her inspiration here? Xuxa?
What could top the blondies’ choreography of Roller Boogie? How about a bunch of Mexicans*? I don’t have too much info about this clip but I am fairly certain it comes from el otro lado. Funny, but the stiff lackluster boogieing this song seems to inspire fits it perfectly. Do androids dream of roller boogie?
*My apologies to all my Pinoy readers, this clip is actually from the Philippines!
The Secret History of Disco Book devotes a good amount time exploring the influence of electronic and synthesized sounds in the development of disco. Briefly mentioned are a list of French “cheesy robot” musical acts that might’ve influenced disco composers like Cerrone and Giorgio Moroder. Looking up these tunes, I was taken with the pop pre-new wave sound of the genre. I also finally realized where bands like Stereo Total got their influence. They always seemed derivative of something else but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Elli et Jacno – Main dans la main 1980
Here’s some French pop reveling in all it’s cheese and fluffy bleepy quirkiness. It’s the stuff of my cotton candy dreams!
The sound cuts out halfway through, you can watch another version of the song here but I prefer this clip as it highlights Elli’s unique dancing style.
Lio-Banana Split (1979)
Oh those French! Always getting cute young girls to sing about bananas and lollipops! I must admit Lio’s outfit is would be coveted in this day and age. For the whole clip (bad quality) go here.
One of my favorite bands of the 2000s/the aughts/the zeros/the new millineum has been Stereo Total. Some of the music does border on kitsch but I always felt they were referencing or paying homage to something else and they have been, the music above. They’ve described their influences as Chanson, Gainsbourg etc. but now I realize they are the current day Elli et Jacno with a little Les Rita Mitsouko thrown in.
Hot Butter – Popcorn (1972)
An early example of synthesizers and robot beats.
If you were an early visitor to my homepage, you might have noticed I had a whole page devoted to this song, complete with three downloadable mp3 versions. Someone else actually created a webpage devoted to this song as well.
Random fact: popcorn is my favorite snack. “It’s an Aztec thing, you wouldn’t understand”
Patti Jo-[Moulton Mix] Make Me Believe in You ] (1975
Considered part of the post-Northern Soul genre that was popular in England but was remixed by by an early disco DJ (Moulton)
Due to the constant interference of jobs and the other mundane details that can consume one’s life, a backlog of posts have been piling up around this blog. They all need lots of editing and will eventually go up but for now, I’m going to start a small series of music posts based on an excellent book I’m currently reading: Turn the Beat Around, The Secret History of Disco by Peter Shapiro. I’m only halfway through because I’ve had to stop every few pages to look up many of the songs that make up this fascinating history. How can I not be intrigued by the music when Shapiro puts in passages like this?
Almost the entirety of the next thirty years of dance music comes from this single record: the cheery bonhomie, the cloying fantasy of the good life, the doe-eyed spirituality, the cushiony, enveloping bass sound, the string stabs, the adoration of jazzy chords and jazz as a sound rather than process, the keyboards like pools of liquid mercury, the mantra as lyric.
The song he’s talking about is MFSB’s “Love Is the Message.”
Shapiro takes the time to not only introduce the reader to the genre’s significant songs, DJs, performers and other musical producers but also frequently delves into the social and cultural context of the music. For instance, his take on one disco’s greats, Sylvester and his anthemic and timeless dance floor favorite You Make Me Feel:
“You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” interrogated the African-American musical tradition and asked what “realness” is supposed to mean to gay black men who, alienated from almost all of society, were forced to hide their true identities for most of their lives.
My understanding of this song was changed completely.
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)-SYLVESTER
More music in the next few days.
