Disco

Spring 1974.  Winter Gardens Llandudno.  Yours truly is slightly inebriated and hears the sweet sounds of Rock Your Baby by George McCrae being played by Orville J Heap.  That was one of my first encounters with Disco music and began an era that helped make the rest of the 1970s that little bit special.

Rock Your Baby was written and produced by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch of KC and the Sunshine Band who released some of the greatest singles of the next few years including That's The Way (I Like It), (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty and Keep It Comin' Love.  However,  there would be many fabulous songs over the next half decade that were related to Disco.  From Donna Summer to David Bowie and from The Bee Gees to Chic, dance music ruled the charts. 

People tend to hark back to "golden ages" as they get older and each person has their own particular one(s).  The music of the 60s was a marvellous soundtrack to my childhood, but the 70s saw my teenage and early twenties years...the years that seem to stick the most.  What wonderful music accompanied this decade.  Many pundits drone on relentlessly about how the 1970s was a time of upheaval,  grimness and decline.   However,  what they miss is what a great time it was to be alive for so many people.  The freedoms won in the previous decade were added to and instead of wallowing in self pity, the people decided to enjoy themselves and dance.

1977 saw Saturday Night Fever hit the screens and turntables and The Bee Gees comeback was complete.  Georgio Moroder helped Donna Summer make the fantastic Once Upon A Time LP which married electronic music to more traditional sounds.  Similarly, David Bowie's groundbreaking Low album mixed a funktastic rhythm section with synthesisers to amazing effect.

Standout singles of the era included Boogie Oogie Oogie, I Love You, Wishing On A Star and Rappers Delight.  Best of all perhaps were Chic.  Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers fronted a band that encompassed funk, r & b, soul and violins.  Songs such as I Want Your Love, Le Freak and    Good Times sound as good today as almost forty years ago.  Of course, Disco has never really gone away and Daft Punk's Random Access Memories album from 2013 featured incredible songs such as Lose Yourself To Dance  and Give Life Back To Music harked back to Chic at their best (helped by Nile Rodgers on rhythm guitar).