I can definitely recommend the two compilations put out under David Mancuso’s name dedicated to The Loft, one of the first disco venues. Here’s a partial playlist:
I’ve also got this playlist which I think was based on the Bill Brewster book, ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ :
This Is Memorial Device twitter/Bluesky account out out their 60 Greatest Disco Tracks which has almost all of the big hitters* and some unexpected pleasures.
* Although Baccara’s Yes Sir, I Can Boogie is notable by it’s absence.
I wish I could take any credit for it but it was all the hard work of whoever Memorial Device is (https://bsky.app/profile/memorialdevice.bsky.social) and of imposs1916, who put the whole thing on Spotify.
And, just for completeness, it’s also available on Amazon Music.
You can take the credit for posting the link here and providing me and other denizens of this site with a thoroughly enjoyable Friday evening @A45RWD. No small thing.
I’ll be going back to it again and again.
I thought you’d know all about Memorial Device and imposs1916. All these fascinating people out there lurking in cyberspace who create interesting playlists.
At this point I must say a special thankyou to our very own @jazzjet.
You’ve done it again.
Your LAST NIGHT A DJ SAVED MY LIFE playlist is a doozy. Jam -packed with old favourites and many tracks I’ve never heard of.
Superb playlist! Wait. Another Brick In The Wall????
You could consider some funk, such as Flashlight, One Nation Under A Groove, Talking Loud And Saying Nothing (Sex Machine might be more popular), Superstition and Burn Rubber On Me.
I’m not very knowledgeable in this area – I should have moved on past, instead of trying to get involved. I’ve let myself down, I’ve let my family down, …(etc)
Also linking back to the South African thread, Matsuli Music today are reissuing the Anchor’s 1972 album Black Soul. “Memphis Soul meets Township Jive”. What’s not to like?
It’s your lucky day @Junior. I’ve found the perfect artist for an Aussie disco party, Avilo Longomba.
Not only does he have a troupe of lively dancers, he also has a whacking great snake. Whip tht out on te dancefloor and things will get very interesting.
Someone mentioned Tiggs.
No dance thread is complete without him…
Very sad to hear that he has left us.
Roy Ayers definitely deserves a place on your playlist.
Thoroughly agree, Sal. There’s something quite hypnotic, magical and other-wordly about it. A tale of irresistible passion and attraction on the dancefloor. Nothing to do but surrender to the beat.
Another old favourite. Third World’s magnificent cover of the o jays earworm.
from the album Discosis (which is very funky throughout) it’s this brilliant track from Bran Van 3000 with vocals by the masterful Curtis Mayfield (If I remember correctly it was his final recorded vocals)
I’m not sure all of the above qualify as disco, to be honest, but never mind. The Quietus asked punk veteran Alan Jones to come up with a list of his top ten favourite disco movies. Saturday Night Fever is of course on the list. The other nine are even more interesting. https://thequietus.com/culture/books/the-music-machine-alan-joness-top-ten-disco-movies/
Oh, I ‘m no expert – I’m not sure I Iike disco that much – too camp for me. But it’s a clear subgenre of dance music – “typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars” that emerged in the US in the seventies. There are elements of funk to it as well.
Some of the music above – African, 80s pop, 90s dance – are great tunes, but just not disco. For example, I really like System 7 – Habibi, sometimes more than Screamadelica, which I bought on the same day, but there’s no way I would describe it as disco. Where are the horns, the brass, the strings of classic disco?
The classic, original disco sound, smeared in sickly strings, can be rather awful. The clean, pared down Chic approach is preferable. More synth driven is also better. Cerrone’s Supernature is among the best kind of disco I think.
I don’t think there is a correct definition of disco. Definitions that are used today, don’t always apply to records which were popular in New York discos (which is where it came from) in the early 70s.
Manu Dibango’s Soul Makossa was considered by some as the first disco record. It was the first hit that got in the charts entirely through exposure in discos, rather than radio play. One of my sisters was very into “disco”. Her record collection consisted of stuff like James Brown, Fatback Band and War – funk as we know it today.
An explanation which I like, is disco music is music which was made to be played in discos, not to be played live.
There’s a definite distinction between “Disco” as a musical style, described pretty accurately above by @salwarpe, and records that were made for dancing to, which are well represented above in the thread but are not “Disco”.
Not being a Disco Boy, I’m just as guilty as you of straying into those areas of the dancefloor that aren’t Disco.
I’m unrepentant. Anything that makes me jump up and wiggle (badly) is alright by me.
Great choice @fitterstoke. Go for it. Mike H is so right. Any music that makes us jump up and wiggle (badly) belongs on this thread.
I hadn’t realised, until I began foraging around for this thread, that Roxy Music were a great inspiration to CHIC. Here’s Nile Rodgers explaining it all.
As a great fan of both bands, I was delighted to learn about that connection.
The Backbeats label had a compilation album out of independent New York Disco from the 70s out a while back. It’s called Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah and is on Apple Music apparently. Details below:
I think you can divide Disco into two eras. The first was from about 1974-78 and includes things like Turn the Beat Around, Philadelphia International and Saturday Night Fever. Lots of strings. Kinda camp. The second was from 1979 to about 1982, and includes, well lots of things really, everybody went disco in 1979, but it’s characterised by a harder drum sound, synths and fewer strings. Not so camp. Think Giorgio Moroder or Funkytown.
I like both, but prefer the former. I don’t think anyone has mentioned Native New Yorker by Odyssey yet, so I will.
The “yowsah, yowsah, yowsah” part of the title, which appears as a spoken interjection in the middle of the song, originated with the American jazz violinist and radio personality Ben Bernie, who popularized it in the 1920s. The phrase was revived in 1969 by They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, a film about a Depression-era dance marathon.
According to co-writer Nile Rodgers,
Bernard came to my apartment one day and he had laid out the complete lyric, but we wanted to add a catch phrase, so we went through a few ideas like “23 skidoo” and “Oh, you kid” and all that stuff. We had in mind something like the old dance marathons, where the emcees made the people dance, and finally we thought of how Gig Young kept saying “Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah” in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?[6]
I ordered a copy of the book, which arrived today (two days later) – it’s a history of disco/dance music through it’s key period that reprints Hamilton’s columns, including most importantly his fantastically idiosyncratic reviews, which were more interested in trying to describe the track than the reviewers opinion of it (though you get that too).
One interesting bit not mentioned in the article – Hamilton used to compile a weekly disco chart based on chart submissions by DJs across the country. Suspecting dishonesty amongst the DJ returns by those trying to look cool, he reviewed a fictional record by a made-up artist, Kanu Sukalagwan, which low and behold, made the chart the following week, thus identifying several hipster charlatans in the process. I’m pleased to say that review is also in the book!
Disco probably remains my favourite genre – a singles medium where perhaps most music afficianados are album focussed (there’s a good, if probably short, side post: “great disco albums”), one led by the beat and the melody, not the words, but one mostly focussed towards joy (though some of it’s best have an element of melancholy).
Time for a little etymology and a little architecture.
When did the word discoteque enter the English language?
We can thank the French.
discotheque | Etymology of discotheque by etymonline
discotheque (n.)
“club where recorded dance music is played,” 1954 as a French word in English; nativized by 1964, from French discothèque “nightclub with recorded music for dancing” (by 1951), also “record library,” borrowed 1932 from Italian discoteca “record collection, record library,” coined 1927 from disco “phonograph record” (see disc) + -teca “collection” (from Latinized combining form of Greek thēkē “case, receptacle;” see theco-), probably on model of biblioteca “library.”
also from 1954
Discothèque (disambiguation) – Wikipedia
A discothèque, is an entertainment venue or club with recorded music rather than a live band. It may be part of a nightclub.
Young people in the UK were doing out to dance at the weekend before the arrival of the disco.
There were dance halls, jazz clubs, working men’s clubs and Top Rank Suites.
Back to disco architecture for a moment. Here’s another excellent piece from Alexis about the radical Italian architects of the 1970s who designed discos which were in a class of their own.
“To be honest, I think the discos were the only places that would have their designs. They were a new kind of neutral space where there were no boundaries between disciplines like architecture, art and music.”
Even 45 years on, the results look astonishing. Some of the discos – or “pipers” as they were locally known, in homage to Rome’s legendary Piper nightspot – were visibly influenced by Andy Warhol’s multimedia experiments at the Dom nightclub in Manhattan, home to the Exploding Plastic Inevitable events, where the Velvet Underground would play amid lightshows, dancers and projections of Warhol’s films.
Here’s another , well-illustrated, article about the architecture of discos.
The book and exhibition Disco: The Bill Bernstein Photographs sees the one-time Village Voice photographer surveilling the golden days of disco-era New York, capturing regulars at Studio 54, Paradise Garage, Mudd Club, Hurrah and GG’s Barnum Room in the late 1970s. In repurposed warehouse spaces, politicians, artists, trans people and other fabulous creatures rubbed shoulders on the dancefloor until the AIDS crisis and the IRS brought the disco scene tumbling down at the end of the decade.
The ICA in London had an exhibition about those Italian radicals. The curator, Catherine Rossi made this comment..
As nightclubs close by the dozen in the UK and beyond, Rossi questions what is being lost in the wider culture. ‘Discos haven’t really featured much in architecture history in general, they’re not seen as serious as other spaces,’ says Rossi. ‘We’re maybe under appreciating the cultural importance of clubbing – clubs are portrayed as important in terms of music, performance and dress, but what other cultural experimentation are we losing concomitant with that?’
Well this humble thread has danced along (SWIDT). Apologies for not responding to referecnes. I was phone only for a while and being so youtube heavy it crashed on the phone.
The article mentions the connection between the heyday of disco and the release of STAR WARS….
For Jones, the high point of his disco experience came in late 1977, when he attended the Star Wars preview – “followed by the celebrity afterparty, and then dancing all night to the Meco disco version of the soundtrack on the day my first features were published in Cinefantastique magazine. The confluence of all my lives merging was just so incredible and thrilling. I can remember every second of that night!”
And of course I have to post Sheila’s SPACER. Chic, a French pop singer, some light sabres and a lot of Bacofoil proved to be an irresistible recipe for success
Alexis really dId a great job there, didn’t he @Tiggerlion?
It’s amazing how many artists Chic worked with. I think that the first single of theirs that I bought was We are family which I heard blaring out at the Porta Portese flea market in Rome and bought on the spot.´
Thinking about the connection between Disco and Star Wars, my thoughts turned to your great favourites, Earth, Wind and Fire. They formed in 1969 and thus were well established by 1977. Not strictly a disco band but they certainly embraced that intergalactic SW vibe.
Same goes for the wonderful George Clinton.
One nation under a groove is one of the great dance tracks of the 70s but funk rather than disco.
George was well into orbit long before Luke Skywalker discovered the Force. Here he is in 1973.
What to make of Parliament Funkadelic? Were they ahead of their time or simply from a different dimension than the rest of us?
Here they are in 1978 with a magnificent, rambling 25 minute version of One Nation. They make the Grateful Dead look like The Ramones.
@kaisfatdad I went to see Parliament/Funkadelic All-Stars in the Clapham Grand some time in the mid 90s. They came on stage at around 9pm and did their usual tag-team thing with musicians coming and going all night. I cannot remember exactly what time they finished but when we left the gig, it was daylight and my friend and I walked from Clapham Junction to Victoria to catch a 52 bus back to the top end of Ladbroke Grove leaving us around 15 minutes walk home at the other end. I remember talking him into sticking with the gig convincing him that Prince, who was in London at the time, would inevitably come on stage for a jam ar some stage. He didn’t – or maybe he did and I was so delirious with lack of sleep that I didn’t notice. I hope I didn’t have work the next day.
I was hooked on the P-Funk experience and have seen them live whenever I’ve had the chance. “There Ain’t No Party Like A P-Funk Party ‘cos A P-Funk Party Don’t Stop!”
I saw Primal Scream at the Brixton Academy when George Clinton was in the band. They came onstage at about 1am. I remember taking a night bus at 5am and getting home in time for breakfast.
Thanks for that wonderful story of your Clapham Grand funky all-nighter @Bamber. What luck you had to experience that.
I’ve seen Parliament Funkadelic live once at the Stockholm Jazz Festival. A wonderful open air gig on the island of Skeppsholmen. There was a strict curfew as to when they had to finish playing. But there was a small army of them on stage with all kinds of craziness going on and long, rambling, very funky songs.
I haven’t been to an all-nighter for years. If they do happen in Stockholm in 2025, then it’s techno-raves deep in the forest. On some summer evenings, from our balcony you can hear DUNKA DUNKA DUNKA. Only the initiated know where in Nacka Nature Reserve these events take place.
The poor forest mice and the poor moose must get very confused.
Your story did remind me of a memorable African gig I went to on March 28 1997 at Alviks Medborgarhus. I vividly remembered the gig but had to ask my pal, Ian, who I went with, to remind me who the artist was and where the venue was.
Shame on me.
It was Congolese singer Koffi Olomide. And the venue was a community centre, a church hall-like place, in the wilds of the West Stockholm suburbs. It all kicked off rather late in the evening and 90 per cent of the audience were Africans who were dressed up for a big night.
The atmosphere was very friendly and all Koffi’s fans were very keen to see him.
What was very striking was the way that the structure of the evening was so different from the gigs I was used to. Instead of the usual Support band- Break -Main band- Encores pattern we got a very different experience.
Koffi did two sets and his band continued playing long after he had left the stage. If I remember correctly, fans were throwing bank notes onto the stage when he was playing.
The sun had come up when staggered to the Metro station at 5.00 am. A remarkable evening.
It sounded something like this…
I love his Tiger Trousers in this clip. It certainly captures the splendidly anarchic atmosphere at these gigs
The Hot Dub Time Machine concept is simple: over two hours, Lowndes takes his audience from 1954 to the present day, skipping across decades and genres with childlike glee.
I can see why the crowds love him. He puts on one hell of a party.
There’s a link to a YT clip which is a complete show so you can see for yourself.
I am reminded of mash up maestros like DJ Cummerbund and GOHOME PRODUCTIONS who I once saw very late at night at the end of a Roskilde Festival.
Supernatural Thing is the grooviest groove in musical history. I knew Siouxsie and the Banshees brilliant version for years before I ever heard the original. The Budgie intro is my favourite drumbeat ever. Very loop friendly!
I can definitely recommend the two compilations put out under David Mancuso’s name dedicated to The Loft, one of the first disco venues. Here’s a partial playlist:
I’ve also got this playlist which I think was based on the Bill Brewster book, ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ :
This Is Memorial Device twitter/Bluesky account out out their 60 Greatest Disco Tracks which has almost all of the big hitters* and some unexpected pleasures.
* Although Baccara’s Yes Sir, I Can Boogie is notable by it’s absence.
Wow @A45RWD. That playlist is a doozy.. thanks a lot.
so many wonderful songs. so many memories.
Thanks @Kaisfatdad.
I wish I could take any credit for it but it was all the hard work of whoever Memorial Device is (https://bsky.app/profile/memorialdevice.bsky.social) and of imposs1916, who put the whole thing on Spotify.
And, just for completeness, it’s also available on Amazon Music.
https://music.amazon.co.uk/user-playlists/5d1933e61ae849bfa6a6d6b390ce5a8fengb?ref=dm_sh_vQo8RvwotMCBZHiEKiKvsNOxD
You can take the credit for posting the link here and providing me and other denizens of this site with a thoroughly enjoyable Friday evening @A45RWD. No small thing.
I’ll be going back to it again and again.
I thought you’d know all about Memorial Device and imposs1916. All these fascinating people out there lurking in cyberspace who create interesting playlists.
At this point I must say a special thankyou to our very own @jazzjet.
You’ve done it again.
Your LAST NIGHT A DJ SAVED MY LIFE playlist is a doozy. Jam -packed with old favourites and many tracks I’ve never heard of.
483 tracks.
That’s the way i like it.
Great thanks to you both.
Calling @Tiggerlion to the fray…
There is an Afterword podcast on this with accompanying playlist!
Huzzah! Time I listened to these podcasts again…
Tig was on the ‘cast!
Time for another AFTERWORD PODCAST!!!!!
Great idea!
Superb playlist! Wait. Another Brick In The Wall????
You could consider some funk, such as Flashlight, One Nation Under A Groove, Talking Loud And Saying Nothing (Sex Machine might be more popular), Superstition and Burn Rubber On Me.
Stevie Wonder – Golden Lady, Another Star & I Wish
Rag & Bone Man – Human
Funkadelic – Electro Cuties
I’m not very knowledgeable in this area – I should have moved on past, instead of trying to get involved. I’ve let myself down, I’ve let my family down, …(etc)
I’m off to listen to some Van der Graaf…
I thought you redeemed yourself with the Can track – very palatable. I Want More is generally recognized as Disco.
Nah…no horns, brass or strings…
Can I nominate Ring My Bell by Anita Ward? Probably past disco’s peak but an absolute killer groove.
Seconded, one of my few disco 12 inchers!
Where is that confounded Moose??
Added to list!
This doesn’t get enough love.
And this version is great too.
Disco is alive and well today in 2025.
There’s the wonderful Jungle.
Then there’s funky pastichist Bruno Mars
And Rammstein of course…..
If you want a modern floorfiller, you can’t beat Robyn. Her backing vocalist in this clip isn’t too bad either either.
A floorfiller from Brazil.
This is my absolute favourite Robyn floorfiller:
How about a bit of Jessie Ware – does she hit your spot, Junior?
I love this song, and I’m a huge disco fan.
Shakedown Street?
(I’ll get me tie-dyed beard…….)
…and, talking of tie-dye…
Disco? No? Maybe?
if you want to fill a dancefloor, you could do a lot worse than playing a few of those South African tracks from a few weeks ago….
or some Kanda Bongo Man
Kwassa kwassa!
Also linking back to the South African thread, Matsuli Music today are reissuing the Anchor’s 1972 album Black Soul. “Memphis Soul meets Township Jive”. What’s not to like?
https://matsulimusic.bandcamp.com/album/black-soul
It’s your lucky day @Junior. I’ve found the perfect artist for an Aussie disco party, Avilo Longomba.
Not only does he have a troupe of lively dancers, he also has a whacking great snake. Whip tht out on te dancefloor and things will get very interesting.
Someone mentioned Tiggs.
No dance thread is complete without him…
Very sad to hear that he has left us.
Roy Ayers definitely deserves a place on your playlist.
i heard this track on Swedish radio yesterday. It should really get them frugging.
Some disco is great pop music as well as dance music, some only works in a club. My favourite is funky disco. A few examples:
T Connection – Do What You Wanna Do
Hamilton Bohannon – Let’s Start The Dance
Quincy Jones – Stuff Like That
Not classic four to the floor disco, but kept a dance floor filled (in my limited experience)
Sparks – Number One Song In Heaven
Great choice @rigid-digit.
Sometimes a talented dj can fill a dancefloor with a very unexpected tune, like this one.
it wasn’t even in the film.
Here’s a more conventional, but delightfully scorchio, floorfiller from Shannon,
That second song is one of the finest tracks in the world ever. Supreme perfection.
Thoroughly agree, Sal. There’s something quite hypnotic, magical and other-wordly about it. A tale of irresistible passion and attraction on the dancefloor. Nothing to do but surrender to the beat.
Another old favourite. Third World’s magnificent cover of the o jays earworm.
See also In Deep. Last night a dj saved my life.
Ok, maybe not quite as good but still a banger
We
Played that on my show the other night followed by mclaren madame butterfly then la dusseldorf.
Sorry if someone’s already suggested this, and I missed it: Yvonne Elliman – Love Pains
Or this…
This song is like nothing else; I loved it instantly when it came out and went straight out to buy it.
r.e Miss You, you can then throw on the B side when you want everyone to go home!
from the album Discosis (which is very funky throughout) it’s this brilliant track from Bran Van 3000 with vocals by the masterful Curtis Mayfield (If I remember correctly it was his final recorded vocals)
time to get Astounded
and something from the lady who has taken on Prince’s funk Janelle Monae
Not sure if it’s on one of the recommended playlists:
Btw, just learned that Deodata’s granddaughter is married to Justin Bieber.
This is a gem of a disco track that is almost erased from history.
Kool and The Gang ‘Straight Ahead’.
Pure disco heaven.
Very glad to see the magnificent Janelle Monae appearing on this thread. Thanks @exilepj.
She is a quite stupendous live artist.
And so are LCD Soundsystem..
How did we get so far wíthout mentioning Daft Punk?
The undisputed kings of the modern dance floor.
Well, almost undisputed. Outkast were equally irresistible…
as were Gnarls Barkeley…
There you go @Junior Wells
This should keep you and the rest of us pleasantly occupied…
I’m hoping that this thread will chuggle along all weekend, unearthing gems of dancefloor fabulousness.
I’d better mention Sophie or there’ll be murder on the dance floor…
Could you please change One Nation Under A Groove to the longer version?
Bedtime in Sweden.
Dance time down under.
This one should do the job.
I’m not sure all of the above qualify as disco, to be honest, but never mind. The Quietus asked punk veteran Alan Jones to come up with a list of his top ten favourite disco movies. Saturday Night Fever is of course on the list. The other nine are even more interesting.
https://thequietus.com/culture/books/the-music-machine-alan-joness-top-ten-disco-movies/
I’m always happy to learn from an expert, Sal – so: how do YOU define disco; and which “non-qualifiers” would you remove from the thread?
Oh, I ‘m no expert – I’m not sure I Iike disco that much – too camp for me. But it’s a clear subgenre of dance music – “typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars” that emerged in the US in the seventies. There are elements of funk to it as well.
Some of the music above – African, 80s pop, 90s dance – are great tunes, but just not disco. For example, I really like System 7 – Habibi, sometimes more than Screamadelica, which I bought on the same day, but there’s no way I would describe it as disco. Where are the horns, the brass, the strings of classic disco?
Horns, brass and strings – got it!
Loud hi hats were often featured. I wore one once in Studio 54 along with a fluorescent jock strap. Got a lot of attention.
The classic, original disco sound, smeared in sickly strings, can be rather awful. The clean, pared down Chic approach is preferable. More synth driven is also better. Cerrone’s Supernature is among the best kind of disco I think.
I don’t think there is a correct definition of disco. Definitions that are used today, don’t always apply to records which were popular in New York discos (which is where it came from) in the early 70s.
Manu Dibango’s Soul Makossa was considered by some as the first disco record. It was the first hit that got in the charts entirely through exposure in discos, rather than radio play. One of my sisters was very into “disco”. Her record collection consisted of stuff like James Brown, Fatback Band and War – funk as we know it today.
An explanation which I like, is disco music is music which was made to be played in discos, not to be played live.
When I first went to ‘disco’s, popular floor fillers included Alright Now, Brown Sugar and Do It Again.
This slice of funk bass and flute with strings and piano is more disco to my ears
There’s a definite distinction between “Disco” as a musical style, described pretty accurately above by @salwarpe, and records that were made for dancing to, which are well represented above in the thread but are not “Disco”.
I must admit I am slightly suspicious of any records that are not made for dancing to – all good music should move you to move.
I always dance following the suggestions here.
You hit the nail on the head there, @Mike-H.
I will happily confess to contributing to the tendency to posting songs here
that are great dance records bur not Disco which Sal defined so well.
I do enjoy it when everyone starts dusting off their floor-filling favourites, old and new.
Not being a Disco Boy, I’m just as guilty as you of straying into those areas of the dancefloor that aren’t Disco.
I’m unrepentant. Anything that makes me jump up and wiggle (badly) is alright by me.
Damn’ straight! Time I stopped apologising for getting it wrong!
Great choice @fitterstoke. Go for it. Mike H is so right. Any music that makes us jump up and wiggle (badly) belongs on this thread.
I hadn’t realised, until I began foraging around for this thread, that Roxy Music were a great inspiration to CHIC. Here’s Nile Rodgers explaining it all.
As a great fan of both bands, I was delighted to learn about that connection.
The Backbeats label had a compilation album out of independent New York Disco from the 70s out a while back. It’s called Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah and is on Apple Music apparently. Details below:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/yowsah-yowsah-yowsah-70s-new-york-disco-mw0002041796
It’s really good.
I think you can divide Disco into two eras. The first was from about 1974-78 and includes things like Turn the Beat Around, Philadelphia International and Saturday Night Fever. Lots of strings. Kinda camp. The second was from 1979 to about 1982, and includes, well lots of things really, everybody went disco in 1979, but it’s characterised by a harder drum sound, synths and fewer strings. Not so camp. Think Giorgio Moroder or Funkytown.
I like both, but prefer the former. I don’t think anyone has mentioned Native New Yorker by Odyssey yet, so I will.
We talked about it on the pod. One of my favourite disco tracks!
Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah. I knew that expression from Chic’s first single, @Hawkfall.
But what does it mean? Where doe sit come from?
wiki provided the answer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance,_Dance,_Dance_(Yowsah,_Yowsah,_Yowsah)
The “yowsah, yowsah, yowsah” part of the title, which appears as a spoken interjection in the middle of the song, originated with the American jazz violinist and radio personality Ben Bernie, who popularized it in the 1920s. The phrase was revived in 1969 by They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, a film about a Depression-era dance marathon.
According to co-writer Nile Rodgers,
Bernard came to my apartment one day and he had laid out the complete lyric, but we wanted to add a catch phrase, so we went through a few ideas like “23 skidoo” and “Oh, you kid” and all that stuff. We had in mind something like the old dance marathons, where the emcees made the people dance, and finally we thought of how Gig Young kept saying “Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah” in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?[6]
Fascinating.
A slight tangent, but I was delighted to read this article (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/10/everyone-knew-who-he-was-james-hamilton-the-eccentric-aristo-who-catalysed-british-club-culture) about one of my musical heroes growing up. I got the Record Mirror religiously from the late 70s on, mainly for two reasons – I was a chart music kid, and this had the UK charts in it, and for James Hamilton’s disco pages, which kept me extraordinarily well-informed on a weekly basis as to what was new in my favourite genre.
I ordered a copy of the book, which arrived today (two days later) – it’s a history of disco/dance music through it’s key period that reprints Hamilton’s columns, including most importantly his fantastically idiosyncratic reviews, which were more interested in trying to describe the track than the reviewers opinion of it (though you get that too).
One interesting bit not mentioned in the article – Hamilton used to compile a weekly disco chart based on chart submissions by DJs across the country. Suspecting dishonesty amongst the DJ returns by those trying to look cool, he reviewed a fictional record by a made-up artist, Kanu Sukalagwan, which low and behold, made the chart the following week, thus identifying several hipster charlatans in the process. I’m pleased to say that review is also in the book!
Disco probably remains my favourite genre – a singles medium where perhaps most music afficianados are album focussed (there’s a good, if probably short, side post: “great disco albums”), one led by the beat and the melody, not the words, but one mostly focussed towards joy (though some of it’s best have an element of melancholy).
There’s an interesting podcast on the book on Mixcloud.
Looking forward to that one on a long car journey in a couple of weeks time.
Disco album? We Are Family is the best!
There’s a documentary , DISCO – Soundtrack of a Revolution, which I’m told is excellent.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30877114/
Here is a snippet.
I couldn’t find the whole film but I did find Bob McGILPIN live on Italian tv in 1979 performing for a wonderfully enthusiastic audience.
Sadly no longer on the iPlayer, but hopefully it’ll come round again on BBC4…
The first two episodes are essential viewing.
Time for a little etymology and a little architecture.
When did the word discoteque enter the English language?
We can thank the French.
discotheque | Etymology of discotheque by etymonline
discotheque (n.)
“club where recorded dance music is played,” 1954 as a French word in English; nativized by 1964, from French discothèque “nightclub with recorded music for dancing” (by 1951), also “record library,” borrowed 1932 from Italian discoteca “record collection, record library,” coined 1927 from disco “phonograph record” (see disc) + -teca “collection” (from Latinized combining form of Greek thēkē “case, receptacle;” see theco-), probably on model of biblioteca “library.”
also from 1954
Discothèque (disambiguation) – Wikipedia
A discothèque, is an entertainment venue or club with recorded music rather than a live band. It may be part of a nightclub.
Young people in the UK were doing out to dance at the weekend before the arrival of the disco.
There were dance halls, jazz clubs, working men’s clubs and Top Rank Suites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Rank_Suite
Which brings us to the wonderful Althea and Donna.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptown_Top_Ranking
I did not know until this evening that their mega-hit was an answer song to this tune by Trinity.
Here they are….
One YT comment hits the nail on the head.–
If this doesn’t make you smile and feel happy you may not be human.
You shoulda see me and de rankin’ dread, oh
Check ‘ow we jammin’ and ting
Love is all I bring
Inna m’khaki suit and ting
My point being that long before US disco music arrived in the UK, the youth were out bopping and hopping at the weekend.
Chic have been mentioned several times on this thread. Alexis Petridis has just produced an excellent list of 20 tracks in which they were involved.
Daft Punk, Johny Mathis, Carly Simon, Sister Sledge, Bowie, Madonna, Sheila B Devotion ….many artists have benefited from the Yowsah Hitmakers.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/13/everybody-dance-nile-rodgers-20-greatest-tracks-ranked
Back to disco architecture for a moment. Here’s another excellent piece from Alexis about the radical Italian architects of the 1970s who designed discos which were in a class of their own.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov/22/radical-disco-architects-italy-nightclub-design-60s-70s-ica?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
-Worth a read…
“To be honest, I think the discos were the only places that would have their designs. They were a new kind of neutral space where there were no boundaries between disciplines like architecture, art and music.”
Even 45 years on, the results look astonishing. Some of the discos – or “pipers” as they were locally known, in homage to Rome’s legendary Piper nightspot – were visibly influenced by Andy Warhol’s multimedia experiments at the Dom nightclub in Manhattan, home to the Exploding Plastic Inevitable events, where the Velvet Underground would play amid lightshows, dancers and projections of Warhol’s films.
Here’s another , well-illustrated, article about the architecture of discos.
https://thespaces.com/architects-throw-shapes-the-experimental-pleasures-of-disco-design/
A quote…
The book and exhibition Disco: The Bill Bernstein Photographs sees the one-time Village Voice photographer surveilling the golden days of disco-era New York, capturing regulars at Studio 54, Paradise Garage, Mudd Club, Hurrah and GG’s Barnum Room in the late 1970s. In repurposed warehouse spaces, politicians, artists, trans people and other fabulous creatures rubbed shoulders on the dancefloor until the AIDS crisis and the IRS brought the disco scene tumbling down at the end of the decade.
The ICA in London had an exhibition about those Italian radicals. The curator, Catherine Rossi made this comment..
As nightclubs close by the dozen in the UK and beyond, Rossi questions what is being lost in the wider culture. ‘Discos haven’t really featured much in architecture history in general, they’re not seen as serious as other spaces,’ says Rossi. ‘We’re maybe under appreciating the cultural importance of clubbing – clubs are portrayed as important in terms of music, performance and dress, but what other cultural experimentation are we losing concomitant with that?’
Well this humble thread has danced along (SWIDT). Apologies for not responding to referecnes. I was phone only for a while and being so youtube heavy it crashed on the phone.
88 comments @junior-wells.
This was a topic that many of us were interested in.
How have we go this far without mentioning Donna?
Googling around, I discovered a YT Channel from a classic German TV show, ZDF DISCO.
I believe in miracles.
This thread is so full of interesting rabbit holes to explore.
Not least Alan Jones’s list of favourite disco movies from The Quietus. Thanks a lot for that @Salwarpe.
That led me to this Guardian article about Jones. What a fascinating chap.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/12/johnny-rotten-tore-my-record-off-the-deck-the-superfan-at-the-centre-of-disco-and-punk
The article mentions the connection between the heyday of disco and the release of STAR WARS….
For Jones, the high point of his disco experience came in late 1977, when he attended the Star Wars preview – “followed by the celebrity afterparty, and then dancing all night to the Meco disco version of the soundtrack on the day my first features were published in Cinefantastique magazine. The confluence of all my lives merging was just so incredible and thrilling. I can remember every second of that night!”
And of course I have to post Sheila’s SPACER. Chic, a French pop singer, some light sabres and a lot of Bacofoil proved to be an irresistible recipe for success
I’ll leave this here, shall I?
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/13/everybody-dance-nile-rodgers-20-greatest-tracks-ranked
Alexis really dId a great job there, didn’t he @Tiggerlion?
It’s amazing how many artists Chic worked with. I think that the first single of theirs that I bought was We are family which I heard blaring out at the Porta Portese flea market in Rome and bought on the spot.´
Thinking about the connection between Disco and Star Wars, my thoughts turned to your great favourites, Earth, Wind and Fire. They formed in 1969 and thus were well established by 1977. Not strictly a disco band but they certainly embraced that intergalactic SW vibe.
Same goes for the wonderful George Clinton.
One nation under a groove is one of the great dance tracks of the 70s but funk rather than disco.
George was well into orbit long before Luke Skywalker discovered the Force. Here he is in 1973.
What to make of Parliament Funkadelic? Were they ahead of their time or simply from a different dimension than the rest of us?
Here they are in 1978 with a magnificent, rambling 25 minute version of One Nation. They make the Grateful Dead look like The Ramones.
@kaisfatdad I went to see Parliament/Funkadelic All-Stars in the Clapham Grand some time in the mid 90s. They came on stage at around 9pm and did their usual tag-team thing with musicians coming and going all night. I cannot remember exactly what time they finished but when we left the gig, it was daylight and my friend and I walked from Clapham Junction to Victoria to catch a 52 bus back to the top end of Ladbroke Grove leaving us around 15 minutes walk home at the other end. I remember talking him into sticking with the gig convincing him that Prince, who was in London at the time, would inevitably come on stage for a jam ar some stage. He didn’t – or maybe he did and I was so delirious with lack of sleep that I didn’t notice. I hope I didn’t have work the next day.
I was hooked on the P-Funk experience and have seen them live whenever I’ve had the chance. “There Ain’t No Party Like A P-Funk Party ‘cos A P-Funk Party Don’t Stop!”
I saw Primal Scream at the Brixton Academy when George Clinton was in the band. They came onstage at about 1am. I remember taking a night bus at 5am and getting home in time for breakfast.
Thanks for that wonderful story of your Clapham Grand funky all-nighter @Bamber. What luck you had to experience that.
I’ve seen Parliament Funkadelic live once at the Stockholm Jazz Festival. A wonderful open air gig on the island of Skeppsholmen. There was a strict curfew as to when they had to finish playing. But there was a small army of them on stage with all kinds of craziness going on and long, rambling, very funky songs.
I haven’t been to an all-nighter for years. If they do happen in Stockholm in 2025, then it’s techno-raves deep in the forest. On some summer evenings, from our balcony you can hear DUNKA DUNKA DUNKA. Only the initiated know where in Nacka Nature Reserve these events take place.
The poor forest mice and the poor moose must get very confused.
Your story did remind me of a memorable African gig I went to on March 28 1997 at Alviks Medborgarhus. I vividly remembered the gig but had to ask my pal, Ian, who I went with, to remind me who the artist was and where the venue was.
Shame on me.
It was Congolese singer Koffi Olomide. And the venue was a community centre, a church hall-like place, in the wilds of the West Stockholm suburbs. It all kicked off rather late in the evening and 90 per cent of the audience were Africans who were dressed up for a big night.
The atmosphere was very friendly and all Koffi’s fans were very keen to see him.
What was very striking was the way that the structure of the evening was so different from the gigs I was used to. Instead of the usual Support band- Break -Main band- Encores pattern we got a very different experience.
Koffi did two sets and his band continued playing long after he had left the stage. If I remember correctly, fans were throwing bank notes onto the stage when he was playing.
The sun had come up when staggered to the Metro station at 5.00 am. A remarkable evening.
It sounded something like this…
I love his Tiger Trousers in this clip. It certainly captures the splendidly anarchic atmosphere at these gigs
Hope you like this @junior-wells
I just stumbled across an interview with Hot Dub Time Machine aka Tom Lowndes, an Aussie DJ who has become a big festival favourite.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/15/hot-dub-time-machine-australia-tour-interview
The Hot Dub Time Machine concept is simple: over two hours, Lowndes takes his audience from 1954 to the present day, skipping across decades and genres with childlike glee.
I can see why the crowds love him. He puts on one hell of a party.
There’s a link to a YT clip which is a complete show so you can see for yourself.
I am reminded of mash up maestros like DJ Cummerbund and GOHOME PRODUCTIONS who I once saw very late at night at the end of a Roskilde Festival.
It was ridiculously good fun.
@Kaisfatdad yep I do mate.
Coming back to this thread intermittently coz it freaks the phone out with all the youtube.
Loving it!
Bob Stanley put together a lovely compilation of Disco era 70s tunes on Ace last year…..well worth a listen…..
Thanks a lot @colrow26. You are spoiling us rotten.
I look forward to listening to your two playlists,
Thanks for the feedback!!
Supernatural Thing is the grooviest groove in musical history. I knew Siouxsie and the Banshees brilliant version for years before I ever heard the original. The Budgie intro is my favourite drumbeat ever. Very loop friendly!
First track on here is an absolute belter, originally from 1973 but recently remixed….the remsainder is from a DJ set last month…..
A song with a title of Shake Your Body has to be a disco song. This one is from Nigeria.
Mile Umoh