From Here To Eternity, 1977, Casablanca Records. This is Side A, which was of course segued for maximum danceability. The songs:
1. From Here To Eternity
2. Faster Than The Speed Of Love
3. Lost Angeles
4. Utopia
5. From Here To Eternity Reprise
I would say jump to the six minute mark for peak funkiness, but that would require passing over the sleek verses and bubbling, romantic chorus of From Here To Eternity. It's a fantastic song. You can totally skip Utopia, though. It's hews a little too closely to I Feel Love, replacing that song's self-contained energy with soaring disco cheese. The Eternity Reprise is brief but totally wicked. Overall, another superbly crafted gem from Giorgio that defined disco. The run of Faster Than The Speed Of Love and Lost Angeles (6:00 - 10:40), is particularly great. It delivers the funk, along with a heavy dose of freaky; it almost sounds otherwordly. It's rather brilliant in how it deconstructs the vocal and throws it against the skittering beat and squelching synth to create almost abstract musical shapes. Eternity's influence is undeniable; we're still hearing elements of the sounds Moroder created way back then in music today. This album is at once completely of it's time, and yet sounds almost modern. Great job, Giorgio!
Now THAT'S a moustache! Don't f*ck with this guy, he clearly means business.
Hope you're all having a great Saturday night! Til next time!
This is too cool. Some enterprising tech-head calling himself SnowBro has taken Madonna's Candy Shop -- one of my favorites of M's more recent stuff -- and remade it in the style of the original Nintendo music. It takes two things I love -- Madonna and Nintendo -- and mashes them up into a wondrous marriage of music and nostalgia, while still feeling completely modern. M has performed Candy Shop on every tour since the song came out so she clearly likes it a lot. Each tour she reinvents it a little, so to M I offer a suggestion: perform this version on your next tour! Please! It would be f*cking cool! It's not outside the realm of possibility: a fanmade mash-up is how we got the brilliance that was Music Inferno (Music mashed up with The Trammps Disco Inferno), on the 2006 Confessions Tour. Anyway, check it out. It will appeal to fans of M, fans of old-school Nintendo, and anyone who likes to dance!
In 1967 The Moody Blues recorded and released a song called Nights in White Satin. Maybe you've heard of it. Justin Hayward sings in soulful agony of a love unrequited. The sound is lush and atmospheric, all symphonic gloom and doom. I absolutely love it, and can see the influence it had on many of my favorite modern groups, especially Air.
But, great as it is, I'm not here to talk about that version. In 1976 (oh, the 70's, how I love you), Italian disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder did a cover of it. This would've been a total disaster if not for the fact that Moroder is a supremely talented musician. He pretty much created modern dance music, as echoes of his work in the 70's and 80's are still felt repeatedly today. Over the years he has won three Grammy's, four Golden Globes, and perhaps most impressively, three Academy Awards. He got those last three for his film score work. Chances are, even if you somehow haven't heard iconic songs like I Feel Love, Flashdance... What A Feeling, or Hot Stuff, you've heard his film score work. And he's still working today. He scored the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and worked with Daft Punk on their upcoming album. Anyway, Moroder released a full album based around his cover of the song. Side A contained three tracks all built around the song: the straight up cover, a middle portion called In the Middle of the Knight (this part composed with Pete Bellotte), and a final reprise of sorts also called Knights in White Satin. Although the tracks could be played separately, they were segued so if you played the record without stopping you got a full 14 minutes and 45 seconds of Satiny goodness. Side B contained three additional tracks composed alongside Pete Bellotte.
This being the 70's, the album cover was sufficiently batshit insane.
Although the back cover does give it a run for it's money.
Moroder took on singing duties himself. His interpretation of the vocal removes the agony in the original, replacing it with a husky seediness. Not surprising, really -- this was the 70's, after all. Towards the end of the first track, however, he goes into a whisper as he says, "I want you... I need you... I love you..." repeatedly. Accompanied only by a syncopating chime, he's gone into a sort of desperate plea. Still sexy, but a bit dark as well.
His production work is ace. For a disco tune the pace is rather slow. It's all funk snares and clomping beats. This being disco, an orchestra was in order. Here it soars with smooth, glacial stabs, hitting it's peak after the second chorus, where a cross faded echo effect emphasizes the previous crescendo of Moroder's excited shouts of, "I love you, love you, love you, love you!" Amazing stuff.
Beyond the standard cover, my favorite portion comes in at the six minute mark, and lasts exactly two minutes. Here the beat gets chunky, the atmosphere (even more) funky, and the synths dreamy and ethereal. It's very "Pass me a Pina Colada, I'm heading for the Lucite!" Love it! It's followed by a trademark Moroder synth-cheese portion -- these moments would increase in his music through the 80's. At 9:15 things toughen up again, and we go into the reprise. The chorus is protracted to emphasize it's epicness, the funk comes storming back in, drums cascade around the vocal as lush freestyle piano darts in and out, and the orchestra gets increasingly frenetic. The track eventually fades on Moroder's vocal ad libs.
Here's the standard version, aka track one...
But I highly recommend the full 14:45 suite. It will give you so much more in every way...
All in all, a big, lush, romantic (in that seedy disco way), gift to those who love the dance floor. Break this one out when a friend tells you disco sucks. Chances are they didn't even realize disco could be this, well, artistic. Too many people go straight to the Funky Towns and Le Freaks for disco -- great songs to many, but also a very small representation of what disco really was. Knights in White Satin is a true gem of a song, just as good when chilling with a glass of wine as when you're dancing your cares away out on the floor.
And since it did inspire such a wonderful disco tune (and because I love it a lot, too), here's the original...
Skelita's boil perm is complete! You may remember that a few days ago I discussed my plans to give Skelita a disco roll hairdo. Although I'd been boil washing for a couple weeks I was ready to take the next step and do an actual perm. So, like a virgin, this was my very first time. I followed my printed out instructions carefully, but my knobby guy fingers and the tiny straw pieces you're supposed to curl the hair around didn't hit it off. I decided to ditch the straws and just use bobby pins on their own to hold the curls.
I figured this would lead to unexpected -- and perhaps unwanted -- results, but seeing as this was my first time I reasoned some experimentation would only enhance the learning experience. (Ahem.) Once I poured the boiled water over her head it was time for the brief warm water soak. Considering the Cirque-like contortions she had to put her body through for this portion, Skelita took it in stride...
Next came the ice water rinse. This was much simpler for our skeletal girl.
Uh, the ice water. This was the only pic I took of this part.
Then the wait. She patiently sat on her little white washcloth for 26 hours.
Once I had the pins out I gazed upon a brand new girl. She had the fat rolls surrounding her head, although they weren't as structured as I had originally planned on. I gently combed it out, did a little styling with my fingers and, well, see for yourself...
All things considered I'm really happy with it! It's not perfect, but it's not bad, either. I feel it has enough structure to make it look "put together", but a bit of messiness to give it a pleasingly (to me) carefree vibe. It's also much thicker and silkier than it was before.
What say you? Am I too close to the experiment to judge it properly? Or does it work?
And because I'm feeling a bit moony, and me and Italo disco go together like peanut butter and jelly, how about some Sally Shapiro featuring Electric Youth...
And finally, to get things really mellow, another track featuring Electric Youth, this time by College. If you've seen Drive you already know this song is amazing...
Hope you're all having a great weekend! Til next time!
