Disco Sucks! (but what else was there?)

     Yeah, okay I’ll admit it. I had my fair share of disco albums in my collection. Whether you were a brother or whether you were a mother you probably had a copy of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I had a copy, but who didn’t …hey, I was young and innocent. When I was in 8th grade SNF was THE R-rated movie everyone was sneaking in to see. The movie studio even released a PG version to get more kids in to see it, but only the loser kids went to see that version. Disco was everywhere, multiplying like a virus, consuming all in its path. Let’s face it, Disco was all but synonymous with top forty radio from 1977 through 1979. But when my oasis of the radio - WIBG succumbed and switched to an all disco format in 1977, it became an all out war! At the time I didn't know it, but the resistance was growing, in the seedy clubs of NYC, in London, Boston and even LA  The underground movement was gaining strength.

     I’m going to track the last two years of my grade school experience against the K-tel collections from 1976 and 1977. I think they tell the story of my alienation with pop music and a search for something more substantial.


The Hit Machine Collection

     Some people think Happy Days “jumped the shark” when the Fonz, you know, JUMPED THE SHARK. I think it really happened when they switched theme songs from Rock Around the Clock to the Happy Days Theme by Pratt and McClain. I realize I am risking the integrity of the Space-Time Continuum by saying Happy Days jumped the shark before the actual shark jumping event occurred in the show that popularized the saying “jump the shark”. Ummmm… where was I?




SIDE ONE:
KC & the Sunshine Band - (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty
Maxine Nightingale - Right Back Where We Started From
Starbuck - "Moonlight Feels Right"
War - "Summer"
Linda Ronstadt - "When Will I Be Loved"
Pratt  McClain - "Happy Days"
Frankie Valli - "Our Day Will Come"
Paul Anka - "(You're) Having My Baby"
Billy Ocean - "Love Really Hurts Without You"
Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots - "Disco Duck (Part 1)"


SIDE TWO:
Elton John - "Island Girl"
Walter Murphy the Big Apple Band - "A Fifth of Beethoven"
Bellamy Brothers - "Let Your Love Flow"
John Sebastian - "Welcome Back"
The Electric Light Orchestra - "Evil Woman"
Rick Springfield - "Take a Hand"
Kiss - "Rock and Roll All Nite"
Jessi Colter - "I'm Not Lisa"
Four Seasons - "Who Loves You"
Johnnie Taylor - "Disco Lady"

     This collection marks the appearance of one of my favorite bands, ELO – The Electric Light Orchestra. Evil Woman was their break-through hit, but they were bouncing around the charts a bit before then, most notably with a symphonic fueled version of Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven, which together with the disco-fried A Fifth of Beethoven spearheaded a mini-Beethoven resurgence. Kiss’ Rock and Roll all Night is here, representing the rock camp. This album was an odd mix – 2 of the year’s top 10, 5 hits from up and comers, a handful of one-hit wonders, a uneasy mix of rock and disco , a token nod to easy listening and the only top forty song that featured a xylophone solo! And Paul Anka? How the hell did that song get on this record?  It's song like Having My Baby that gave the 70s a bad name!


     There are two great songs from this album that I remember listening to over an over, but never really hearing on the radio. Both are from upcoming stars that would have decent careers in their own right. The first is Billy Ocean’s Love Really Hurts without You. If you heard this song now, you may have a hard time believing this was the same guy who would eventually top the charts with Caribbean Queen. Love Really Hurts was a straight forward up tempo Pop-rock song with great hooks and a Motown-inspired sound.

     The other is a driving Pop-rocker from Rick Springfield, the fledgling teen idol, called Take a Hand. The song had great dynamics, quiet, low keyed verses and rocking choruses. This song gets overlooked since most folks will mark the start of Rick’s career with Jesse’s Girl. Even I had forgotten about it when Jesse’s Girl came out, but it’s still a pretty good song! And what do you know - I just went to iTunes and downloaded both of them. I guess I know what I’ll be listening to on my drive to work this morning!

Off to work
Okay, I'm back

     So I listened to both of these throw-back tunes on the way to work today. I was nervous about whether they would be as good as I remember. Some songs just don’t hold up over time. What struck me about the Billy Ocean song was how much of a Motown influence it had. It reminded me of the Four Tops hits like Sugar Pie Honey Bunch and I thought how important timing was to a make a song a hit. Ten years earlier, and the song would have fit right in, but in 1976 it was out of place, even thought it was a pretty good pop song. If I were to make a mix tape, (or create an iTunes playlist), I would have grouped this song with the Motown Classics before I put it on a tape with it’s 1976 contemporaries. Billy Ocean would get the vibe right a few years later, when he released Caribbean Queen.

     Missing from the collection was representation from what would be the greatest selling debut album in American music history. Boston’s debut album came out in 1976 and has been with us ever since. I still get chills listening to the one part in More Than a Feeling where Brad Delp’s vocal blends right into Tom Scholz’s guitar, near the end of the song: “I see my Maryann walking awaaaaaaayyyyyyyy”. Every one of the eight songs still gets airplay and the opus Foreplay/Longtime was pretty intense for it’s time, blending Bachian keyboards with rock sensibilities. Peace of Mind had a great acoustic guitar opening and memorable riffs. I loved Something About You, from the flip side as well. By combining clean acoustic guitars and rich, Marshall-powered electric guitars, Boston (okay, Tom Scholz, really) created a sound for itself that wasn’t hard and bluesy like fellow Bostonians Aerosmith or the J Giels Band, but was strong on melody and harmony. And geez could Brad Delp sing. His voice was one in a million and the perfect fit for Boston. Rock lost one of it's truly great voices when he took his own life a few years ago.  Later, when I started playing guitar, this was one album I immediately wanted to learn how to play.

     Life in 7th grade at St Pete’s was fairly routine and rote. You read the books, listened to the teachers and took the tests. Catechism was a monotonous drill. Actually the Catechism was the worst because I had mistakenly thought that once we all made our Confirmations in 6th grade we would put away the Baltimore Catechism for good, but I was wrong. Very wrong. There weren’t a lot of outlets for any creativity for imagination at St Pete’s, but I tried to find some for myself. In seventh grade we were studying Greek mythology and I remember creating a short play about some of the gods. The premise was a news reporter (me) goes to Mount Olympus to interview the gods. I think there were 4 or 5 of us and we all helped write it and Ms Dempsey let us perform it in front of the class, and then shipped us over to other 7th grade class to perform it there as well. We got a nice ovation, but it really gave me a taste for trying to create something of my own. Over the years I would try my hand at plays, stories, poetry and eventually songs, but this is where that creative spark may have been kindled.


Next:  Lost in the Record Store