Devoted To D.I.S.C.O.
I saw Mayer Hawthorne doing an incredible version of ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ from Electric Light Orchestra at the Liberty Festival in Groningen last month. Jeff Lynne and his mates started as a symphonic rock band in the early seventies, but by the end of the decade they were infected by the disco virus, as so many at the time. They came up with many great songs, like ‘Shine a little love’, ‘Last train to London’ (sampled by Atomic Kitten a few years ago), ‘Hold on tight’, ‘Twilight’ and ‘Here is the news’, the one included in this D.I.S.CO. mix. In the second part of the eighties Jeff Lynne became a producer of Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon and Paul McCartney. But these productions sound very similar and have nothing to do with his earlier more innovative ELO-sound, although I like Del Shannon's album 'Rock on' very much. Sparks discovered disco as well in 1979. Ron and Russell Mael started as a glam rock act in the early seventies (their 1974 hit ‘This town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ can be heard in the movie ‘Kick ass’), turned into a conventional rock band a few years later, but suddenly appeared as the first electropop duo in musical history. Soft Cell, Yazoo, Erasure and even the Pet Shop Boys learned the trick from them, musical and imagewise. Morrissey (former singer of The Smiths) wrote a letter to Melody Maker to support the band. Nowadays Scissor Sisters and Mika sound like Sparks in their glory days.
You have to listen to Erykah Badu's update of Sylvia Striplin's ‘You can’t yurn me away’, written by Roy Ayers. It’s from her latest album and it sounds really cool!
My slightly different version of M’s ‘Popmuzik’ is inspired by the edit of Todd Terje (from his excellent new album ‘Remaster of the universe'). I actually used some snippets of his re-work.
Lindstrøm & Christabelle’s edit has traces of Donna Summer and L.E.B Harmony. Both tracks can be heard in this mix as well. Sparks and Donna Summer are both produced by German synthesizer genius Giorgio Moroder, of course.
Tracklist 'Devoted to D.I.S.C.O.':
G.C. Cameron – You're What's Missing In My Life (1977)
Van McCoy – Disco Baby (1975)
Michael McGloiry – Won't You Let Me Be The One [version one] (1981)
Today, Tomorrow, Forever – It’s A Groove (Keep On Dancin’) (1979)
Dennis Coffey – Love Theme From Black Belt Jones (1974)
Erykah Badu – Turn Me Away (Get Munny) (2010)
Giovanca – Hungry (2010)
High Voltage – Limbo (1972)
Ottawan – D.I.S.C.O. (1979)
Electric Light Orchestra – Here Is The News (1981)
First Light – Daybreak (1983)
Change – A Lover's Holiday (1980
M – Popmuzik [Eddy’s Edit] (1979)
Donna Summer – I Feel Love (1977)
L.E.B. Harmony – Feeling Love [Joey Negro Edit] (1979)
Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Let’s Practise [Eddy’s Edit] (2010)
Sparks – Beat The Clock [Eddy’s Edit] (1979)
Enjoy!
Comments