{"id":1279,"date":"2010-05-08T00:10:31","date_gmt":"2010-05-08T07:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2010-09-10T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2010-09-11T05:57:10","slug":"secret-disco-august-darnells-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/?p=1279","title":{"rendered":"Secret Disco: August Darnell’s Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/object>
\nMachine-There But for the Grace of God Go I (1979)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/em><\/a> for an anthemic, rousing dancefloor set.
\nA question for the ages: “Is too much love worse than none at all?”
\n<\/p>\n

<\/object>
\nKid Creole and the Coconuts – Stool Pigeon (1982)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until I read The Secret History of Disco, I had no idea Kid Creole & the Coconuts<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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 <\/a>August Darnell band<\/a>) Sunshowers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/object>
\nM.I.A.-Sunshowers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Previous Secret Disco posts<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Secret Disco: August Darnell’s Legacy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2209,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/2209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}