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Disco: The Sound of A Revolution

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In the ongoing repeats repeats repeats approach that is the Beeb’s current music programming they can occasionally still knock it out of the park. Disco: Sound of the Revolution is a three-parter tracing the rise and fall of one of the sounds of the seventies. Like all such programmes it sets out why said sound has been criminally under-appreciated and why said sound was more important than you ever thought.

Episode One in particular is one of the most insightful and entertaining hours of music television I’ve seen in many a year. The makers have rounded many of those who were involved in the New York gay club scene of the late sixties, the ground zero of disco as it evolved from soul and funk. Because this is music that grew out of dancing at clubs – and the footage of The Loft or The Gallery is wonderful. It roots disco in two wider social developments: the post-Stonewall emergence of clubs where same-sex dancing was allowed, and the catastrophic state of New York itself, which meant that there were abandoned buildings that could be repurposed as clubs. Uptown black promoters were using just about anywhere people could meet as discos: restaurants, funeral parlours (ok, maybe restaurants).

Nicky Siano, DJ at The Gallery, and one of the first to properly beat-match and mix, is an absolute break-out star. He’s given loads of air-time which is only proper. Less interested in hearing what MNEK or Anna Matronic have to say, but I guess they have to always in these shows show you the contemporary relevance by bringing out people of today. Much better are all the seventy-year olds who were actually there.

AThe role of Philadelphia and the Philly sound is paid proper respect, and the five minutes where house drummer Earl Young demonstrates disco drumming should be put on the National Curriculum. We end episode one with George McCrae talking us through Rock Your Baby, his monster hit that was one of the first to take disco from an underground club music onto Top of the Pops.

Episode two focuses on the disco diva, with great contributions from Candi Staton, Anita Ward and Thelma Houston. It’s message, that disco brought liberation for two of the most marginalised groups in society, black women and gay men, of course completely passed me by as a 15-year white Brith teenager at the time. The other theme, exemplified by all the Studio 54 shenanigans, is how disco was co-opted by the wealthy and fashionable, so a music that had its roots in inclusion became associated with ridiculous door policies and having Andy Warhol or Bianca Jagger in attendance.

Episode Three is the downfall. By1979 the charts were awash with major label cash-ins (‘Ever feel like you’ve been had’) like Disco Duck, and the Disco Sucks backlash was the inevitable result of white men feeling that blacks and gays were ousting guitar music. There’s plenty of footage of Chicago rock DJ Steve Dahl and the extra-ordinary riot that happened on the night of the baseball game where disco records were blown up. Dahl is still alive and is now, quelle surprise, a shock jock. His lack of presence is one of the few gaps, along with a curious underplaying of Chic that again is presumably interview and rights related. The clubs themselves – the stars of the show along with the music – are decimated by the emergence of HIV/AIDS and the music world moves on.

The last half-hour shows us beautifully how Chicago teenagers took disco and translated it through their cheap music tech into something entirely new, house music, again something made for dancing in clubs that took over the world.

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Comments

  2. Agree, this was an entertaining and educational bit of telly. It would’ve been so easy and reductive to say: ” Donna Summer, Saturday Night Fever, Bee Gees, Studio 54 and Chic”, but this looked at what begat it, it’s commercial high point, and what came after.
    Proof to me at least that the BBC remains Reithian on any given subject.

  4. Great review Mosely, and totally agree that Chic felt a bit overlooked in an otherwise excellent series. I presume the “fair right” exemptions to use copyrighted clips and music that illustrate a documentary story would have applied here (I’m no expert), so it’s even more of a puzzle. Maybe Nile didn’t want to be interviewed, but that didn’t stop Donna Summer getting her fair due (though in her case sadly choice didn’t play a part).
    I would defend Ana Matronic’s appearance though, as she is more than just a fan, having curated an excellent deep-dive disco show on Saturday night/Sunday mornings on Radio 2 previously. Less so, Jake Shears…

  5. it was a brilliant series and coupled with the Studio 54 documentary makes up for great viewing.
    i then spent the time on Spotify listening to Nicky Siano playlists and Dr Buzzards Original Savannah Band … pure funky joy

    • Here’s a clip of Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, For me, they will always be the precursors to Kid Creole and the the Coconuts but I have a friend who reckons they were even better.

      Notice Coati Mundi on vibes and August Darnell (Kid Creole) on bass.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Buzzard%27s_Original_Savannah_Band

      Here’s singer Cory Daye talking about Buzzard and their clothing, Stony Browder was August Darnell’s brother.

      Coconut fans will enjoy this clip from 2015 when Cory Daye from Buzzard joined Kid and the Coconuts.

      • An additional nugget of Kid Creole trivia. I just discovered that he left Dr Buzzard to join Machine, a disco band who had a fair-sized hit with this rather catchy song that he wrote for them.

            • Worn t shirts and jeans?? Come on @Alias! We both know that would never have happened.

              It seems to me that August Darnell and Coati Mundi suddenly found themselves in the right place. A very popular trend to jump on!

              Can you imagine Raye, Ella Fitzgerald, Sade, Frank Sinatra, Bryan Ferry. Billie Holliday dressing down?

              • As she says in the interview, it was Europe that got Kid Creole and the Coconuts, not the USA. Those weirdos that the yanks don’t understand are more than welcome here.

  7. In a very different stream of iPlayer music docos, I watched the one about The Barrowlands yesterday. Non-Weegies might need to turn on the subtitles, and not just for the Gaelic bits.

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