Disco Not Disco Extended Guilty Pleasures
Classy disco track from 1983, produced and mixed by DJ and remixer Jonathan Fearing. The beautiful synthesizer solo is by Fred Zarr, Brooklyn based composer and keyboardist who as worked alongside numerous artists including Madonna, Whitney Houston, Debbie Gibson, Eartha Kitt, Ziggy Marley, The Strikers and Tina Turner.
Leroy M. Bell and Casey James were a songwriting and disco funk duo from Philadelphia. Thanks to Bell’s uncle they started writing songs for the roster of Philadelphia International Records (MFSB, Teddy Pendergrass, …) before signing with A&M and releasing three albums. Their biggest disco writings are Jackie Moore hit “This Time Baby” (originally written for The O’Jays) and “Are You Ready For Love” by Elton John. “I Love The Music” is the last song from their first album, it was later covered by The Spinners and recently sampled by Joe & Jessey.
I feel a little bit guilty because I never posted a proper disco ballad. Please enjoy this beautiful song by American singer Phyllis Nelson. After working and recording on several disco records in the late 70’s she written and recorded this song in 1984. It was her biggest hit. Produced by Yves Dessca and mixed by Jon Glass.
Big Country was originally formed in 1981 by guitar playing founder members Stuart Adamson and Bruce Watson both native of the band’s hometown Dunfermline in Scotland. The band broke massively worldwide with the release of the album “The Crossing” selling over 2 million copies and driving the record to 3 Grammy nominations in the USA. The second album “Steeltown” debuted at number 1 in the UK and contained the hit singles “Ease Of Eden”, “Where The Rose Is Sown” and “Just A Shadow“. Both albums were produced by English Steve Lillywhite. If you care, here you can hear directly from him some talkings about the making of the first album.
This post is dedicated to Michael Boddicker, musician and synthesizer master specializing in electronic music. In 1976, he played keyboards on Candi Staton “Young Hearts Run Free” album, he was only 23 years old. By the time he was thirty, Boddicker was one of the most requested session player in the business, appearing on over 400 albums, movies and television shows including “Saturday Night Fever”, “Thriller” and “We Are The World,” three of the biggest selling recordings in history. He played on “Give Me The Night” by George Benson, on Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose”. “State Of Independence” by Donna Summer and “Dancing On The Ceiling” by Lionel Richie are also in his curriculum. To show you his magic touch, I picked a lesser-known track written by Boddicker and performed with Japanese Logic System. Note: “If you don’t listen this album, you can’t enjoy the essence of computer music”.
Logic System – Automatic Collect, Automatic Correct (Discogs)
In 1985, Mick Jagger released his first solo album “She’s The Boss”. It was produced by Jagger himself with Bill Laswell and Nile Rodgers and included an incredible (and endless) list of guests: Pete Townshend, Sly & Robbie, Bernard Edwards, Jan Hammer, Herbie Hancock and Michael Shrieve. Just to name a few. To promote the album, Jagger made videos with Julien Temple for five of his album’s nine songs and later the footage became the (bad) homemovie “Running Out Of Luck“: which featured Mick as the main actor and Dennis Hopper, Rae Dawn Chong and Jerry Hall as co-starrings. “Lucky In Love” was the second single from the album, with guests Jeff Beck on guitar, Wally Badarou on Keyboards, Guy Fletcher and Herbie Hancock at the synthesizers. Extended remix by François Kevorkian and Ron St. Germain.
This ’86 cover by Fred Fowler of the Eddie Kendricks’ classic “Girl, You Need A Change Of Mind“, is one of those records that perfectly reveal the transition from Disco to House Music back in the 80’s. Arranged by disco pioneer Patrick Adams and mixed by fabulous DJ and producer Bruce Forest.
