Disco? Get The Funk Out Of Here!

Side 2 of a C90 cassette that I recorded for Mrs. K on 21st March 2002.

I posted Side 1 in April 2023 and had thought that I'd get around to the follow up a little sooner!

Starting off in fine style with the mighty Barry White, there is no let up as Boney M. then Kool & The Gang get your boogie shoes working.

You wait ages for a bus (stop) then two come along at once! After the recent appearance of the album version of (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop by The Fatback Band, here's the single, shorter but no less sweet.

Both Sly & The Family Stone and Curtis Mayfield appeared on Side 1, but it was impossible to limit them to one song each, so they pop up again on this side with a couple of stone cold classics.

As before, I swapped out the single edit of Curtis' contribution for the full length album version; the same with Barry White, for your extended pleasure. I've also replaced the single version  of Van McCoy's The Hustle for the 12" disco mix, to balance out the running times of both sides.

The compilation ends and it starts, with Garnett Mimms & Truckin' Company and What It Is. The vocal single version opened Side 1 and the closer here is the 12" flip side, mostly instrumental with a smattering of backing vocals and a huge dollop of disco glitter.

After two days of upbeat grooves, something a little calmer for Monday....?

1) Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up (Album Version): Barry White (1973)

2) Sunny (Single Edit) (Cover of Bobby Hebb): Boney M. (1976)

3) Celebration (Album Version): Kool & The Gang (1980)

4) (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop (Single Version): The Fatback Band (1975)

5) Fight The Power (Part 1 & 2) (Album Version): The Isley Brothers (1975)

6) Family Affair (Album Version): Sly & The Family Stone (1971)

7) Kung Fu (Album Version): Curtis Mayfield (1974)

8) Get Down Tonight (Single Version): KC & The Sunshine Band (1975)

9) The Hustle (Disco Mix): Van McCoy ft. The Soul City Symphony (1979)

10) Take Me To The River (Album Version): Al Green (1974)

11) Don't Let Love Get You Down (Album Version): Archie Bell & The Drells (1976)

12) What It Is (Part Il) (12" Version): Garnet Mimms & Truckin' Company (1977)

1971: There's A Riot Goin' On: 6

1973: Stone Gon': 1

1974: Explores Your Mind: 10

1974: Sweet Exorcist: 7

1975: (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop EP: 4

1975: Get Down Tonight EP: 8

1975: The Heat Is On: 5

1976: Sunny EP: 2

1976: Where Will You Go When The Party's Over: 11

1977: What It Is EP: 12

1979: THe Hustle EP: 9

1980: Celebrate!: 3

Side Two (55:54) (GD) (M)

Side One here

Wake Up Everybody And Get Down Tonight!

Some funk, soul and disco to enliven your Friday. 

All date from 1975, apart from a Tom Moulton mix, which may have followed a few years later, and every single second oozes with groove!

For those of you interested in such things, some production statistics for today's selection.

90: Minutes from idea to design to creation and upload of this post (all of it!)

12: Number of songs in the '1975' shortlist, arrived at 80 minutes ago; whittled down to the final 6 approx. 5 mins later

6: Times removing cat from keyboard or mouse

5: Minutes to crop and resize cover photo for post and 'sleeve art' (photo of graffiti wall taken last week)

3: Mugs of camomile tea quaffed 

2: Minutes to prepare breakfast

1: Miaowing cat fed and fussed; breakfast eaten; post finished and posted

Enjoy!

1) Wake Up Everybody (Album Version By Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

2) Get Down Tonight ("A Tom Moulton Mix"): KC & The Sunshine Band

3) Somebody Up There Likes Me (Album Version By Tony Visconti & Harry Maslin): David Bowie

4) I Can't Turn Around (Album Version By Isaac Hayes): Isaac Hayes

5) Fly, Robin, Fly (12" Version By Michael Kunze): Silver Convention

6) Hope You Feel Better Love (Part 1 & 2) (Album Version By Malcolm Cecil & Robert Margouleff): The Isley Brothers

1975: Chocolate Chip: 4

1975: Fly, Robin, Fly EP: 5

1975: The Heat Is On: 6

1975: Wake Up Everybody: 1

1975: Young Americans: 3

1994: Part 3... And More (Expanded Edition) (USA): 2

Wake Up Everybody And Get Down Tonight! (43:14) (KF) (Mega)

The Long Good Friday

If you're expecting a Bob Hoskins inspired compilation of crime fuelled carnage, then I'm sorry to disappoint you. 

If you're looking for an eclectic clutch of long songs on the Good Friday public holiday, then you're come to the right place!

What better way to start than the original version of Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin? My introduction to the song didn't come via the radio: way too long for Tony Blackburn to play it on his Radio 1 request show. No, it unexpectedly came in my final year at secondary school, watching my bemulleted Biology teacher strumming and strainig to emulate both Page and Plant in one fell swoop. He had two erstwhile accomplices, both also on guitar as I recall and both PE teachers, who also stepped in to teach a science class when the regular was off sick or on hols. A memorable performance, for all the wrong reasons.

Idiot Wind - and Blood On The Tracks as a whole - is something that I came to relatively recently, after years of subconsciously avoiding a deep dive into Bob Dylan's catalogue. I don't regret the long wait - I plenty of other good (and bad) music to discover in the meantime - but I'm glad I got there in the end. A great song, and a great album.  

From Dylan to disco and I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, a song that for a long time was diminished by its ubiquity: a UK #1 for four weeks in 1979, twelve weeks in the Top 30; a staple of wedding parties (which always seemed odd to me!), themed discos and karaoke ever since. I've since come to appreciate it again for the fantastic song and vocal, though I'm a sucker for the version featured here. Not only the full length disco mix, but sung in Spanish! What's not to love?

My musical education and enlightenment has grown exponentially since joining the blogging community, with particular thanks to the roll call of other head music listed to the right (if you're viewing the web version). Shaving Is Boring by Hatfield & The North is one such treasure, which I was introduced to by The Swede on his excellent blog Unthought of, though, somehow on 30th May 2022. You can find the original post (and link) here but if it's your first visit there, stick around and treat yourself to some fabulous words, music and wonderful photos from The Swede's own collection. Hatfield & The North's inclusion here is not just a thank you but a belated happy birthday to The Swede, who is currently celebrating in New York. Here's to you, sir!

A brace of reggae greats next, with Jimmy Lindsay and Horace Andy, the latter making his second appearance here this week. Jimmy is a legend of Black British music, not least with Cymande and as a solo artist with a cover of The Commodores' Easy, but also not without trials and tribulations. Jimmy's website hasn't been updated for many years, but there's an entire page dedicated to "the people who have ripped [him] off". Where Is Your Love is the title track of his debut solo album, released in 1979.

Horace Andy needs no further introduction, and the song featured here is one that wasn't included in Wednesday's selection. Both sides of a Prince Jammy-produced Jamaican 7" from 1977, which were joined together for inclusion on an excellent 1997 compilation of A-sides and dubs called Good Vibes. Not to be confused with the similarly-titled Musical Youth song ("Dennis, come back with my apple pie!") a few years later.

Back to the disco for the final two tracks. This is the second appearance of Do You Wanna Go Party by KC & The Sunshine Band in a Dubhed selection. The first was as the opener of an all-disco compilation called Someone Taught Me How To Dance Last Night that I created and posted in September 2023. I figure a nineteen month gap is reasonable enough, so here it is again. When KC & The Sunshine Band were hot, they were hot!

In a similar vein to the Gloria Gaynor pick, Moskow Diskow by Telex is another ubiquitous song that I've chosen to present here in a foreign language variation, this time French. This 12" version has also featured in a previous Dubhed selection, by sheer coincidence posted in 2023 the day after the one featuring KC & The Sunshine Band. Spooky!

I hope you have an excellent (or should that be eggs-cellent?) Easter weekend, whatever it means to you and whatever you plan to do. More music here tomorrow and every day, as usual.

1) Stairway To Heaven (Album Version): Led Zeppelin (1971)

2) Idiot Wind (Album Version): Bob Dylan (1975)

3) Yo Viviré (I Will Survive) (Spanish 12" Disco Version): Gloria Gaynor (1979)

4) Shaving Is Boring (Album Version): Hatfield & The North (1974)

5) Where Is Your Love (Album Version): Jimmy Lindsay (1979)

6) Youths Of Today / Jah Youths (Dub): Horace Andy (1977)

7) Do You Wanna Go Party (Album Version): KC & The Sunshine Band (1979)

8) Moskow Diskow (French 12" Version): Telex (1979)

1971: untitled aka Led Zeppelin IV: 1

1974: Hatfield And The North: 4

1975: Blood On The Tracks: 2

1979: Do You Wanna Go Party: 7

1979: I Will Survive / Yo Viviré EP (US promo 12"): 3

1979: Moskow Diskow EP: 8

1979: Where Is Your Love: 5

1997: Good Vibes: 6

The Long Good Friday (1:00:25) (KF) (Mega)

Unwrapped

After 2021's inaugural Boxing Day themed selection and 2022's even more tenuous link to gifts, I'm stretching credulity (and your patience) to the limit, with 14 wrap songs. That's wrap, not rap. And no, I've not hit the Harvey's Bristol Cream yet.

 

There are a couple of actual Christmassy songs in this selection, starting with Saint Etienne and a song from their fabulous festive album, A Glimpse Of Stocking. Randy Travis also makes a brief appearance, before Barry Adamson takes him around the back and duffs him up.

 

There's a bit of leftover mash (up) from Mark Vidler aka Go Home Productions - apart from The Police and Elvis Costello, how many other artists can you pick out? There's disco, Northern Soul, calypso (from O.M.D. no less), techno pop (for all you Amelia Fletcher fans out there) and some beautiful noise from The Delgados.

Green Gartside shares the mic with Annie Lennox, Idha (at least I think it's her) does the same with Edward Ball, whilst Gang Of Four clearly aren't sharing with anybody. There's a rare B-side from Sharkboy and to, ahem, wrap things up the single-that-nearly-was from XTC.

 

No refunds!

 

1) Unwrap Me: Saint Etienne (2010)

2) Shrinkwrapped: Gang Of Four (1995)

3) Wrap It Up: Eurythmics ft. Green Gartside (1982)

4) Wrapped Detective: Go Home Productions (2004)

5) Wrap My Arms Around Him: Amelia Fletcher (1991)

6) Wrap Your Arms Around Me: KC & The Sunshine Band (1976)

7) How Do I Wrap My Heart Up For Christmas: Randy Travis (1988)

8) Under Wraps: Barry Adamson (1989)

9) Gold Wrapper: Sharkboy (1993)

10) Wrapped, Tied And Tangled: LaVern Baker (1968)

11) All Wrapped Up: O.M.D. (1984)

12) Wrapped Up In Lonesome Blues: Edward Ball (1996)

13) Under Canvas Under Wraps: The Delgados (1996)

14) Wrapped In Grey: XTC (1992) 

 

Unwrapped (47:25) (KF) (Mega)

 

If you're a glutton for punishment, then click on the links at the top of the post for the previous selections from 2021 and 2022.

Someone Taught Me How To Dance Last Night

It's Friday, it's nearly the end of September, the nights are drawing in, so time to get the glitter ball out and boogie 'til we just can't boogie no more. 

An hour of disco classics and/or obscurities, all guaranteed to provide a hefty bass and beat and some funky guitar licks or soaring string sounds, or both. And some belting vocals, of course.

Today's cover star is the multi-talented Marsha Hunt who, amongst many achievements, released three albums in the 1970s, the last of which was a disco-inspired collection produced by Pete Bellote which she later dismissed as "a musical departure that had nothing to do with my own taste". I've left her off the selection.

 

1) Do You Wanna Go Party (Album Version By Harry Casey & Richard Finch): KC & The Sunshine Band (1979)

2) Lovin' Is Really My Game (Parts 1 & 2) (12" Version By Jerry Peters): Brainstorm (1977) 

3) Love Magic (Special Disco Version By John Davis): John Davis & The Monster Orchestra (1979)

4) Garden Of Love (Album Version By Jean-Marc Cerrone): Don Ray (1978)

5) Thunder In My Heart (Disco Version By Richard Perry): Leo Sayer (1977)

6) Open Sesame (Part 1) (Album Version): Kool & The Gang (1976)

7) Dance Little Lady Dance (Long Version By Biddu Appaiah): Tina Charles (1976)

8) Jealousy (Album Version By Barry Leng): Amii Stewart (1979)

9) Bourgie', Bourgie' (Special Album Version By Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson & Jimmy Simpson) (Cover of Ashford & Simpson): Gladys Knight & The Pips (1980) 

10) How's Your Love Life Baby (Special 12" Version By John Luongo & Michael Barbiero): Jackie Moore (1979)

 

Someone Taught Me How To Dance Last Night (1:01:45) (KF) (Mega)

Are You Still Ready For The 70's Explosion?

Side 2 of a mixtape, originally compiled 16th September 1990. 

 

This selection comes with a health warning: whilst again raiding my parents' K-Tel & Ronco vinyl collection, as I did for Side 1, this side has D.I.S.C.O. (as opposed to D.I.S.C.O.) writ large. There are high doses of Saturday Night Fever and listeners may get a bad case of the Hee Bee Gee Bees. Again, some classics, some cheese and still no apologies.

 

Whilst I'm throwing in some completely unrelated YouTube links, it's probably worth looking up all of these songs for a visual, but I'm going to single out Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinox, as he seems quite keen to show off his luscious, flowing locks.

 

1) Stayin' Alive (Full Length Album Version): Bee Gees (1977)

2) You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (Single Version): Sylvester (1978)

3) I'm A Man (Khayem's So Macho Outrovert Re-Edit): Macho (1978)

4) If I Can't Have You: Yvonne Elliman (1977)

5) Boogie Shoes (Album Version): KC & The Sunshine Band (1975)

6) The Crunch (Part 1) (Album Version): RAH Band (1977)

7) Jive Talkin' (Album Version): Bee Gees (1975)

8) Rock The Boat: Hues Corporation (1973)

9) Never Can Say Goodbye (Single Version) (Cover of The Jackson 5): Gloria Gaynor (1974)

10) Boogie Oogie Oogie (Full Length Version): A Taste Of Honey (1978)

11) Rasputin (Album Version): Boney M. (1978)

12) Equinoxe Part 5 (Album Version): Jean-Michel Jarre (1978)

13) Dancing In The City (Album Version): Marshall Hain (1978)

14) Summer In The City (Special Disco Version) (Cover of The Lovin' Spoonful): Evolution (1978)

Side Two (54:43)

Side One here

Are You Ready For The 70's Explosion?

Side 1 of a mixtape, originally compiled 16th September 1990 and another of my cassette set cobbled together for my year abroad. This liberally pilfered my parents' K-Tel & Ronco vinyl collection, cheap and cheerful purchases from the local cash and carry when I was a kid. Some classics, some cheese, no apologies.

 

1) The 'In' Crowd (Cover of Dobie Gray): Bryan Ferry (1974)

2) Red Dress: Alvin Stardust (1974)

3) Emma (Album Version): Hot Chocolate (1974)

4) Rock Your Baby (Single Version): George McCrae (1974)

5) What Am I Gonna Do With You: Barry White (1975)

6) Reach Out I'll Be There (Cover of The Four Tops): Gloria Gaynor (1975)

7) The Love I Lost (Single Version): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1973)

8) Queen Of Clubs: KC & The Sunshine Band (1974)

9) Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting (Album Version): Elton John (1973)

10) Pool Hall Richard: Faces (1973)

11) Dance With The Devil: Cozy Powell (1973)

12) Radar Love (Single Version): Golden Earring (1973)

13) The Show Must Go On: Leo Sayer (1973)

14) Seasons In The Sun: Terry Jacks (1974)

15) I Can See Clearly Now: Johnny Nash (1972)

 

Side One (53:31)