Disco Juice #2
1974, this Cosumer Rapport’s record sold 100.000 copies in the first two weeks without even the benefit of having a radio airplay. People were just going straight from the clubs to the record shop. Good times ! People now are not even buying a simple mp3 file 0.99€ each just a click away…
Come on, this song is about having sex sooner or latter and the big smiley thin stem in the middle that barely makes an effort to dance in his polo neck is Eddie Kendricks, and I am pretty sure he did not come back home by himself that night…I am maybe going to far in inventing people’s life here, but but you have to know that none the less, Eddie was the lead singer of The Temptations from 1960 to 1971.
This track “Girl you need a change of mind” was a classic played at the NYC underground club “The Loft”. There definitely is a New-York soul in this song.
Here is a perfect example of what a Philadelphia sound could be. Philadelphian producers were the masters at using strings energetically. The other particular thing about productions from Philly is that they really made and effort to keep a strong songwriting while other productions was more about repeating words and simple verses.
We are in 1974, and The Three Degrees here might appear to you as a disco cliché, but they were kind of the essence of what Philly disco was.
Some artists may have participated to make disco a cliché that was actually more about using formulas that would make your sound recognizable by a growing audience and then, potential consumers.
Gloria Gaynor, Barry White and McCrae really took advantage of these “disco formulas”, but McCrae kept the beat more laid back introducing sweet vocals that I particularly prefer…
In the meantime, disco freaks didn’t get trapped in the Disco biz and got heavily into imports like this classic French disco track from Bimbo Jet…
I am kind of embarrassed to post that here, but faithfully this track is a now a common classic.
by La Mesch
