UNEARTHING MUSICAL GEMS - 70s Disco Special No. 1 (23/11/12)

After last week's genre-specific blog (it was a Rock Special, so if you missed it you can find it here), I thought I'd do another one in a very different genre today. So this week's Musical Gems are all 70s Disco tracks. It's No.1 of the series, so expect to see more over the coming months.

As always, the tracks are generated by my ipod on its shuffle setting, so there's no rhyme or reason to the order, or as to why certain songs don't appear yet. That's the beauty of my Unearthing Musical Gems blogs, they are completely random!

So without further ado, here is the first batch...

1) Best Of My Love - The Emotions
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Released in 1977, this song was composed by some of the members of another legendary disco band, Earth, Wind and Fire, and won both a Grammy and an American Music Award. It has been used in many films and has been covered by everyone from Mary J Blige to Christina Milian to Sheena Easton to CJ Lewis (the latter reaching no.13 in the UK charts in 1994).

2) More, More, More - Andrea True Connection
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Sung by a porn star and initially released only to discos in 1975, this song went on to be a chart hit, reaching the top ten in the UK, USA, Canada and Ireland and the top 25 in Europe and Australia. It has subsequently been rerecorded by the likes of Samantha Fox, Bananarama, Rachel Stevens and Dannii Minogue, and sampled in numerous songs such as the 1999 hit by the band Led, "Steal My Sunshine".

3) Relight My Fire - Dan Hartman
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Yes, believe it or not, the original version of this song was NOT sung by Take That, but rather Dan Hartman, and was originally released in 1979. It was the follow up to Hartman's other disco smash, "Instant Replay", and featured the late legendary vocalist Loleatta Holloway in the "Lulu bits". In terms of sales it didn't match those of Take That's version, but outlived Take That's two week stay at Number One in the UK charts by four weeks. Regardless of which version is played, it is a guaranteed floorfiller.

4) Never Can Say Goodbye - Gloria Gaynor
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Perhaps not quite as popular as her other disco chart topper, "I Will Survive", this track is still a stomping disco number. It was released in 1974 and was originally recorded by the Jackson 5 in 1971 before being recorded by Gaynor. It was subsequently released by The Communards in 1987 with Jimmy Somerville's distinctive falsetto starkly contrasting against Gaynor's soul diva vocal in the earlier version.

5) That's The Way (I Like It) - KC & The Sunshine Band
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Another disco smash, this track has been sampled in more than 32 other tracks, and covered at least 9 times, including by Dead Or Alive and Clock. Released in 1975, it was considered racy at the time because of the sexual connotations or the title track and the "uh-huh"s in the chorus (oh, how times change...).

6) Can You Feel It - The Jacksons
YouTube (original director's cut version) Amazon
Ok, so this is not strictly 70s disco as it was released in 1980, but is included here as one of the final disco smashes before anti-disco protesters finally had their way, and the takeover of disco as one of the premier genres of the era was halted, with punk/rock taking over. Whilst the video is fairly over-indulgent, the track itself has stood the test of time and can still fill a dancefloor in seconds.

7) Theme From Shaft - Isaac Hayes
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From the film, "Shaft" (obviously), this was recorded in 1971 and went straight to Number 1 in the US on its release. Both written and performed by Hayes, the song describes the film's lead character and, again, was considered risqué at the time. It has been used in many TV shows, has been parodied by Sesame Street, has been covered more than 16 times, and has been sampled more than 30 times in tracks such as "Get Down" by LL Cool J, "Street Tuff" by Rebel MC and Double Trouble, "100 Miles and Runnin'" by N.W.A., "Power To The People" by Public Enemy, "Lovely" by Bubba Sparxxx, and "Reservoir Dogs" by Jay-Z.

8) Movin' - Brass Construction
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A brass and synth lover's dream, this track was cut down from a 16 minute jam session which was recorded by the band in 1976. It is perhaps best known from the sample used in TLC's "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg", and The Bucketheads' track "Got Myself Together" in 1992 and 1995 respectively.

9) Every 1's A Winner - Hot Chocolate
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Featuring that distinctive rock guitar riff, this was as big a hit as "You Sexy Thing" but doesn't usually get as much airplay. This brings back memories of me and my Mum playing this at full volume to wind up my Stepdad because he absolutely hated Hot Chocolate (in fact he wasn't too keen on disco as a whole). This track was released in 1978 and followed their popular tracks such as "Brother Louie", "Emma" and "So You Win Again" as well as the aforementioned "You Sexy Thing".

10) Forget Me Nots - Patricia Rushen
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Ok, again this was not a 70s disco number, having been released in 1982 as a post-disco song, but it's often lumped into the disco genre due to its discoey feel. However the shift into the 80s is marked by the introduction of a short sax solo, prevalent in a lot of 80s pop, R&B and soft rock records. It has been sampled many times, most notably in "Fastlove" by George Michael and "Men In Black" by Will Smith.

So what did you think of today's selection? Comments? Criticisms? Did they stir any memories? Send me a comment below!

LEARNING LESSONS THE HARD WAY - PETULANT TEENAGERS

Yesterday I spent the day in Festival Comedown mode, having spent the previous 3 days, my favourite weekend of the year, at Reading Festival. In fact, I love Reading Festival weekend so much that I start preparing for it months in advance by adding the bands to a big spreadsheet as they are announced, and then listening to tracks by all of the bands I don't know or have not seen before and adding notes on whether I want to see them or not.

Now, I know that sounds really nerdy, but I'm a massive live music fan, and Reading Festival is my favourite opportunity to discover bands that make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, and give me that little flutter in my chest. It never fails to deliver - I've discovered at least one of these gems every year. I'll be covering those in a forthcoming blog, but for now I want to share an experience I had yesterday, on Festival Comedown day, that nearly finished me off.

Festival Comedown day is not a good day to be with me. I'm usually so tired that I can't be bothered to open my mouth, let alone find the energy to formulate a coherent sentence. I feel like I have been run over by a herd of stampeding wildebeest. I am utterly distraught because I am not standing in a field with all of those fantastic bands, being whisked away from real life and into a euphoric trance where I am up on THAT stage with THAT band, dancing with glee and happiness. In short, I am a miserable cow.

So, yesterday morning I dragged my achy, knackered carcass out of bed and into the shower in an attempt to wake myself up and to remove the remnants of a dubious liquid that landed on my head as The Black Keys stomped their way through their set the night before (the thought of which sent me into a shampooing frenzy). I eventually stumbled down the stairs and into my little studio, thinking that I would check Facebook to see what my gigging buddies had posted about the weekend, in an attempt to postpone the inevitable slide back into the real world.

And then I heard it. Silence. The PC wasn't on.

I stood, confused, trying to cast my befuddled mind back to Thursday night, the last time I used the PC. Had I switched it off?!? Now, I should point out that I very rarely shut it down because we have a very difficult relationship. It is like a stroppy teenager. If it doesn't like something I'm attempting to do it will go into a huff, scowl and stick its fingers in its ears so it can't hear me. So I try not to antagonise it by giving it too many jobs to do.

I looked at the box. The light definitely wasn't on. I sat down at the desk and spied the external hard drive and adapter on the desk beside me, and a worrying thought crept into my mind. On Thursday it had blue-screened after I printed the spreadsheet, and I'd got the hard drive out with the intention of carrying out a full back up today, on Festival Comedown day.

I sank to my knees in front of the box and tentatively pushed the start button.

Nothing.

I pushed it again, this time a bit more urgently. I heard a tiny "pfffft" noise, and the light briefly came on and went off, albeit with all the illumination of an expiring gloworm.

I pushed it again, this time with more vigour as a rising panic started to grip me. EVERYTHING is on that computer. My entire 16,000 track music library. All of my Nikki Noodles tracks. All of the photos and videos I have ever taken with a digital camera and phone, including footage of my own gigs with my band, footage of gigs I've been to, photos of festivals, family, friends, holidays....

Again, a tiny "pffft", and nothing else.

I stared, for what seemed like a very long time, at the box. Festival Comedown day is not the day to be trying my patience. It stood there defiantly. I could sense the teenager within was smirking.

As I sat there I realised that I had not done a full back up of my files for probably around a year, so if the PC was dead all of the work I had done on my last track, "Insane" and my new track, "House Of Cards" would be gone. All I had, other than what is on the PC and Soundcloud, was two solitary mp3s that I'd added to my ipod just before Reading Festival.

I admit it. In my tired and utterly exasperated state I put my head to my knees and sat and cried, and turned the air blue with expletives at my frustration for being such an idiot. What possessed me to postpone the back up until today? Why didn't I set it going on Thursday night? I realised I had no idea how to rescue the situation. I had no idea whether I would be able to retrieve what might be lost.

Eventually I sat up and stared angrily at the box. I leant forward and switched it off at the wall, threw one last expletive at it, and stomped off to sulk in the front room. My other half, who is an absolute star and always tiptoes around me on Festival Comedown day for fear that I might take his head off with the blunt end of a spoon, put the Reading Festival footage of the Foo Fighters on the TV for me, and I slowly drifted back out of the real world and into a better mood. As they started to scythe their way through my favourite FFs track, "All My Life", I took my frustration out by yelling the lyrics as loud as I could and stamping my foot with the kick drum.

As the song finished I sauntered back into the studio, flicked the switch at the wall and jabbed the start button of the PC.

And it started up!

Hastily I plugged in the hard drive and set it on a full back up. I'm pleased to say it completed this morning.

So the morals of this story are:

1) When techies say, "Have you turned it off and on again" they might be onto something

2) If you ignore a petulant teenager they will get bored and give in

3) MAKE SURE YOU DO REGULAR FULL BACK UPS!!!!
I, for one, will be making sure one is performed on this PC at least once a month, and definitely after any major additions or changes to any files. If this blog only helps one person avoid a similar fate it will be worth it.

I told you I could talk for England....