Donna Summer

[Lateralthinking1]

Disco-philes might well have missed this, Soft Machine's solitary take on I Feel Love - not being a Disco-phile myself, but I wouldn't have blamed them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IFdnMXeidQ

I've never heard that before. Sounds like a different song. I was more into art rock - but not prog rock - in 1975-1977 and later indie but I started with soul, folk and reggae in 1970 aged 7 when I was producing my own Top 30s every week. Sad but true.

I'd be interested to hear what your one hour talk covered. Did you mention Otto Bekker, for example?

[Serial_Apologist]

I've never heard that before. Sounds like a different song. I was more into art rock - but not prog rock - in 1975-1977 and later indie but I started with soul, folk and reggae in 1970 aged 7 when I was producing my own Top 30s every week. Sad but true.

I'd be interested to hear what your one hour talk covered. Did you mention Otto Bekker, for example?

It was a very last minute depping operation, Lat; I must admit I have never heard of Otto Bekker. I needed to get some examples together quickly, so I took some LPs and cassettes which included tracks with a piece by Eisler from 1940 combining early electronic keyboards with a mixed chamber group, one written for Trautonium by Hindemith in 1937, Ondes Martenot pieces by Milhaud, Koechlin, Messiaen and Jolivet, and I just had time to play two pieces of Musique Concrete: one by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, and one by Luc Ferrari, all three from the 4 LP Philips Electronic Panorama. I also handed round photocopied photos of some of the instruments. I only wish I had had time to play the Electronic Studien I and II and Gesang der Jungelinge of Stockhausen. I don't think the students were that impressed!

[Lateralthinking1]

It was a very last minute depping operation, Lat; I must admit I have never heard of Otto Bekker. I needed to get some examples together quickly, so I took some LPs and cassettes which included tracks with a piece by Eisler from 1940 combining early electronic keyboards with a mixed chamber group, one written for Trautonium by Hindemith in 1937, Ondes Martenot pieces by Milhaud, Koechlin, Messiaen and Jolivet, and I just had time to play two pieces of Musique Concrete: one by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, and one by Luc Ferrari, all three from the 4 LP Philips Electronic Panorama. I also handed round photocopied photos of some of the instruments. I only wish I had had time to play the Electronic Studien I and II and Gesang der Jungelinge of Stockhausen. I don't think the students were that impressed!

Blimey. I'd have learnt something. He is Okko actually. I got that wrong. I'm not recommending him but he's a moment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9qSTy4_egU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP1RA...7292837D630B45

[burning dog]

Bowie was always into black dance music. He was a guest on Soul Train in 75 or 76 and took questions from the audience explaining he was keen on James Brown as a teenager (he was into modern jazz too and plays alto sax).

It's true what LAt says, dance music didn't sound much "I Feel Love" until the mid/late 80s at least, possibly Detriot Techno when that got grittier and more "urban" and escaped from the overt Kraftwerk influence.

PS
If anyone except Lat and myself is interested - examples of Kraftwerk inspired Detriot music and a later urban sounding disc from the same stable

1984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFL2Ewo-oI

1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvHwEouB9xE

[Lateralthinking1]

Bowie was always into black dance music. He was a guest on Soul Train in 75 or 76 and took questions from the audience explaining he was keen on James Brown as a teenager (he was into modern jazz too and plays alto sax).

It's true what LAt says, dance music didn't sound much "I Feel Love" until the mid/late 80s at least, possibly Detriot Techno when that got grittier and more "urban" and escaped from the overt Kraftwerk influence.

PS
If anyone except Lat and myself is interested - examples of Kraftwerk inspired Detriot music and a later urban sounding disc from the same stable

1984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFL2Ewo-oI

1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvHwEouB9xE

An interesting post Burning Dog. That clip from 1984 does sound early to me whereas the one by them alongside it on YT from 1981 seems more like a standard 1980s production. Perhaps more was happening in Detroit in the first half of that decade than I had realised. By contrast, your 1987 clip sounds a little New Orderish, if I can put it in that way. I recalled late this afternoon "Magic Fly" by Space which was European and recorded in 1977. That somehow seems more relevant too than at that time.

Space - Magic Fly (Chart hit in 1977) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSLWKw4NImA

Space (updated Robert Miles like Trance Mix) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rfWI7YqMI8

I don't dispute Bowie's interest in soul and dance music by the way. One of my starting points in this thread was Bowie and Berlin and, hand on heart, I hadn't Googled it. It just felt very much in parallel with that Summer/Moroder vibe so the fact that the latter was noted and commented on during the recording of the former really does fit well there. I hadn't though realised that DB was a fan of JB. I suppose I expected cooler, even watered down, tastes but then again both had theatricality in their prime.

Going further back, the Wiki entry for "moog synthesiser" has left me with a list of things I now want to hear including Terry Manning's "Home Sweet Home", Tonto's Expanding Head Band's "Zero Time" and Gary Wright's "The Dream Weaver". I might even be giving Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" a new hearing with fresh ears. Funnily enough, I dug out a track by the Jackson 5 recently called "(We've Got) Blue Skies" which appears to be another unexpected early use of moog.

Jackson 5 - (We've Got) Blue Skies (1971) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxHNAERNAA0

And this is a bit different. Bruno Spoerri - Les Electroniciens (1971) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp0SZf5iRJM

[burning dog]

I'll give those clips more of a listen later Lat. Alongside the use of electronics in soul/funk/dance there seems to have been a movement away from conventional song structure, either dispensing with it altogether, or lessening it's importance, although James Brown was a "hot" performer it's his music that best shows these changes IMO. This track was influenced by the much "cooler" So What and is the earliest I'm aware of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrExO-EYf7U

[pilamenon]

Yes, 'I Feel Love' still gives me goose bumps - a timeless classic. 'Love To Love You Baby' I will always associate with 'Abigail's Party', it conveys perfectly that soulless, suburban world that Mike Leigh wanted to depict. Donna Summer had a very uplifting voice at her best, and a number of her songs brought me a good deal of pleasure.