Disco

We should never have allowed disco to become a musical punchline. It was and is a valuable form of musical expression, it is almost always a lot of fun, and is oh-so fun to dance to. There was space in popular culture for it and whatever its detractors were into. But we live on this dark timeline, and disco became a punchline, and people danced upon its grave. But not here, never here, at Generally Semantics we love all dance music and try to give it the respect it deserves.

Unlike country music, I have previous exposure to disco. Unlike jazz and rock music, I do not have a lot of exposure. What I do know is from other media, largely film and television. Which makes every disco album special, I get to experience a bunch of new, and often great, songs, and I have an enthusiasm about the prospect.

This 8-track cartridge was made by K-Tel International, catelogue KF-119, with addresses in Montreal, Canada and Winnipeg, Manitoba (which is curious). It has a copyright date of 1976. The label is rather sparse on information, but does promise non-stop DISCO in both French and English, so it was for the Canadian market

Program 1 Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Ban – A Fifth of Beethoven Tina Charles – I Love to Love Andrea True Connection – More More More George McCrae – Rock Your Baby Penny McLean – Lady Bump	Program 3 Andre Gangon – Wow Silver Connection – Get Up and Boogie The Salsoul Orchestra – Tangerine K. C. and the Sunshine Band – That’s the Way I Like It Devil Sauce – Le Chat
Program 2 Biddu Orchestra – Rain Forest Stratavarious – I Got Your Love B. T. Express – Do It (Till You’re Satisfied) Martin Stevens – Mal Banzai – Viva America	Program 4 John Davis and the Monster Orchestra – Night and Day Fussy Cussy – La Vita Sam – Allo S.O.S. The Masters in Philadelphia – For Elise Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes – Get Dancin

This was my favourite mix 8-track cartridge in my collection. Was. While listening to it in the 8-track player attached to my computer, the tape inside got caught and shredded. Happily, I have most of these songs on some other bit of media, and being a K-Tel release, none of the songs are particularly rare, but I still lament its demise. I will try and repair it, but I had to touch around a metre of tape and fear it may be permanently damaged.

I at least like every song on this cartridge. Program 1 is especially excellent, reuniting me with I Love to Love, which I first heard on the show River and promptly forgot about, and introducing me to More More More, which was pure delight before I reached the sample that Len’s Steal My Sunshine uses. Gregg Diamond, the writer of More More More, has a writing credit on Steal My Sunshine because of the sample. You should not need me to tell you that Andrea True has a beautiful singing voice on this song, but I am doing it anyways.

I know I enjoyed the remainder of this cartridge, but I can no longer revisit it. My normal process here is to listen to an album a few times, formulate some general thoughts, and then listen a final time, making notes on a few songs. I could listen to the songs on YouTube, but I have it in my head that this is as much about format as music, so that feels like cheating.