Friday, May 18, 2012

Friday Disco Special

RIP to Donna Summer - I won't pretend to be too much of a fan, but I won't deny that she caught the ear. Hating disco was something my demographic was supposed to do, but I guess I was lucky enough to be living in the woods of Maine and not realize we were supposed to hate it, until later, by which time it had mostly morphed into certain strands of new wave, and then came Madonna - things that were never hated quite like disco... a good thing, since you could listen to them in peace. But I never minded the thing itself, until the rock groups started trying to fake it, and then it became comical...

None of which has much to do with Donna Summer - her songs were always just striking music to me... so - I will let Genius generate the list today, from everyone's favorite - MacArthur Park, which seems to bring back more varied results...

1. Donna Summer - MacArthur Park
2. ABC - Poison Arrow
3. Chic - Dance Dance Dance
4. George Michael - Kissing a Fool
5. Madonna - Borderline
6. Kate Bush - The Man With the Child in His Eyes
7. Gary Numan - Cars
8. Pretenders - Brass in Pocket
9. Tears for Fears - Mad World
10. New Order - Blue Monday

Video? MacArthur Park, live, in 2005 or so:



This may or may not have anything to do with being 12 or so when it came out, but this song has always made an impression...



Though I Feel Love is the song that can still grab you. The way Summer's voice is the only identifiably human element on the track - and the complete commitment to the electronics... This still sounds fantastic, and the video below, miming or not, gets the quality across - maybe better because it's mimed... complete with doing the robot... it;s close to glorious.

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