It’s important that you listen to these important songs now, because of their great import. I like the Shirley Bassey song because, when John and I were first married, it was the signature tune of one of our favorite DJs. He had a club night where he played goofy twinkly commercially popular 60s and 70s music, and this was the “get everybody out on the floor” song. The Vaughan Mason & Crew tune (Disco Remix) is a roller disco song thankyouverymuch. Not merely normal-disco. It is so good. SO GOOD. It sounds like some Derrick Carter-ness but it’s from 1979.
See? SEE??!?
So many, the sparkles. All the sparkles. And for years I couldn’t find this song somehow. Violet reminded me just now to search again and–duh there it was! The off-kilter horns make it. I’m glad I could make this significant contribution to our blog.
{ 15 comments }
bill benzon 10.24.14 at 1:18 pm
Spinning Wheel, BS&T, 1969. Sounds like their arrangement, minus the Lew Soloff trumpet solo (this is a distinctly lo-fi recording from the Woodstock performance w/ a somewhat more extended solo than on the record album):
lemmycaution 10.24.14 at 1:32 pm
Apparently, the roller disco songs need to have a lower BPM than regular disco. Because people are on roller skates.
There are still roller skate rinks and they still play certain songs that are good to roller skate to that they don’t really play much on the radio. Like Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache
J. Parnell Thomas 10.24.14 at 2:11 pm
Great post as usual!
Corey Robin 10.24.14 at 3:07 pm
Belle, Belle. You cannot launch a thread in which you talk about Shirley Bassey without talking about this unbelievable rendition of Light My Fire. I know, I know, when you got married and all, but this is just too good not to mention.
Plume 10.24.14 at 4:35 pm
Corey,
That was a tremendous version of the song. And the video is very interesting for several reasons. One of them being the shots of the audience. That’s a very scary lot. Almost the quintessence of Dustin’s Hoffman’s plastic people (and worse), with each one of them appearing to have a stick up their . . .
Bassey really did light it up. And they just stared as if they were witnessing some poor creature who may have escaped from the local hysteria rooms. Tone deaf people thinking they were above a magnificent woman, singing with passion and intensity, for folks who wouldn’t know artistry if it bit them on the ass.
It was surely one of the most asymmetrical displays I’ve seen in the long, long time.
Ronan(rf) 10.24.14 at 4:36 pm
The greatest roller disco themed song ever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_x11lrxLj8
well .. probably not. But still alright
mattski 10.24.14 at 5:11 pm
Plume,
If I’m not mistaken that performance is from around 1972 and took place in Germany. Cut ’em some slack.
PJW 10.25.14 at 2:16 am
The really good roller skaters always looked cool doing the two step to Draggin the Line when I skated as a boy in 1972-1973:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLfO738Ok5Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Belle Waring 10.25.14 at 5:12 am
Wow Corey! Stop pwning me on my music posts like that! She tore that shit up. Very, very nice.
JPL 10.25.14 at 10:36 am
I had never heard the Vaughan Mason song before (I was not in the US at that time), but it made me think immediately of one of our all- time favourite get up and get down sounds, definitely from 1979, and that’s “Hangin’ out” by Kool and the Gang. Check it out at the 3:00 mark. So who was first? One reason we liked this of course, immature as we were, was that when they say “Rock, shake” we thought they were saying “Aww … shit!” ” Come on with your disco skates, we don’t wanna be late!” The bubbly bass line in the Vaughan Mason song reminded me also of Zapp’s “More bounce to the ounce”, which did I think come later. That was the era of the Cameo vibe.
Sharon 10.25.14 at 6:16 pm
Good times.
These are the good times.
Almost the same bass line percolating under the melody.
I truly love disco .
And Shirley is smoking hot.
Damn.
Val 10.25.14 at 6:48 pm
So what happened to roller skating and why? I used to love that
bill benzon 10.25.14 at 7:01 pm
For the Coleridgeans:
bill benzon 10.26.14 at 10:14 am
INTERRUPT! INTERRUPT! INTERRUPT!
So, Belle, I was hanging out with these folks and met a woman who shares my love for Sita Sings the Blues. Tells me she went to Berkeley w/ you, Laura Gibbs. Asked if I knew you (I’d mentioned The Valve).
“Of course,” I said. “Me and Belle go way back. Used to smuggle Swedish hashish and Tibetan pomegranets along the Georgia coast. For relaxation we’d herd cottonmouths and spit pumpkin seeds at the tin roofs of old shacks. Belle got so good she could pick out Bach two- and three-part inventions. And that’s not just whistling Dixie.”
Well, I didn’t exactly say that, but you get the drift.
Belle Waring 10.26.14 at 11:59 am
Aw, cool, I should say hi!
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