Thursday, May 17, 2012
CANCER SUCKS (AGAIN): We may have occasionally debated whether the music of Donna Summer constitutes "rock," but there's no doubt that what she did made us happy, and compelled us to dance. She died today at 63 after a long battle with cancer, but as long as we've got "Love To Love You Baby," "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," "Dim All the Lights," and "Last Dance," the Queen of Disco will have our unconditional love.
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A few minutes ago, I downloaded "Hot Stuff," "She Works Hard for the Money," "Last Dance," "Love to Love You Baby," and "On the Radio," and wondered how it was that I didn't already have them. RIP.
ReplyDeleteCould somebody please tell Death to stop going through my iPod?
ReplyDeleteDonna would have said enough is enough in that regard.
ReplyDeleteMan, Heaven is assembling quite the musical act.
ReplyDeleteI was never a big Donna Summer fan (not a detractor, just not a huge fan), but, for better or for worse, there are a lot of musicians who exploit their sexuality either through explicit lyrics or suggestive costumes and dancing, and those artists owe a great deal to Summer. Madonna, e.g., was mass-market titillating instead of niche-market shocking because Summer had already blazed that trail. Whether you think it's a good thing or a bad thing, it's a thing. Summer sometimes gets lumped in with 70s radio-friendly soul, but bouncing back and forth between Summer and, say, Dionne Warwick will give you serious whiplash.
ReplyDeleteWow...I can't express the number of times I screamed/sung her songs while wearing huge headphones and thinking either a) I wasn't being too loud, or b) I sounded so good that no one would care. I loved her music and still do. When my mom just told me the news, I said "Shut up!" I really never say that to my mother. I'm sure the writers/producers of this weekend's Billboard Music Awards are busy at work.
ReplyDeleteI second what Meghan said...quite a group, with Dick Clark producing.
So: In the next 24 hours, will there be more "Last Dance" puns, or more "She Worked Hard For the Money" puns? I'm guessing the former, but also guessing we will have opportunity to get sick of both.
ReplyDeleteI'm an unabashed disco fan - my parents HATED disco and it wasn't allowed in the house, so discovering disco as an adolescent and adult felt like such an act of rebellion and then I realized I really, really loved it. Donna Summer was just the best; RIP.
ReplyDeleteI'm astonished and pissed off that (to the best of my memory) Dancing with the Stars has never done a "Disco" night, like the recent "Motown" night, and now it will be semi-pointless with Ms. Summer out of commission.
Having seen probably a dozen or so Doriana Sanchez disco numbers on So You Think You Can Dance, I have to say that it's a good thing that they don't do this on DWTS. For whatever reason, disco brings out the absolute worst in SYTYCD.
ReplyDeleteAh, I like some of the disco numbers on SYTYCD. The thing that DWTS did that was cool with Motown, though, was they had some of the original artists singing live while the dancers danced. How much fun would that have been for disco night? Plus, DWTS is even more glittery and tacky than SYTYCD - I mean a mirror ball is the FREAKING trophy - disco would be a perfect fit.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the automatic first person I think of when someone says the word "disco." RIP -- she'll be missed.
ReplyDeleteJust for Isaac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_7vRg14plA
Great songs, great voice. Sad.
ReplyDeleteThis may be worse than when Maurice Gibb died. Maybe. That woman could sing.
ReplyDeleteWatts parents sound like totally excellent people, by the way.
ReplyDeleteIf you've never seen it, THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY is a fun movie. Includes a couple of Donna Summer songs and a small amount of acting.
ReplyDeleteDancing, everything else is bullshit
Before you sing their praises too much, they switched to country music radio during that time period to avoid the disco. The era of the Mandrell Sisters, Alabama, John Anderson, The Oak Ridge Boys, Crystal Gayle, etc.
ReplyDeleteEnough to drive anyone to disco
ReplyDeleteThat link brings you to a preview of "Battleship" first. My first thought: "The production values in the '70s were much better than I remember."
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of "Last Dance", which the DJ used to play at our late '80s Catholic school dances. That is, until a parent complained about the "rampant sexuality you are encouraging on the dance floor."
ReplyDeleteMight be Jeff Goldblum's best work.
ReplyDeleteSo you came out ahead!
ReplyDeletethe Mandrell Sisters--wow, whatever happened to them? I watched their variety show. Now that's a lost form of enterainment...I think we need to bring back the variety show.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget "Heaven Knows" (no pun intended, really). Always a favorite of mine.
ReplyDeleteProtection -- the song Bruuuuuce gave Donna Summer after Jon Landau determined that the song Bruce originally wrote for her -- Cover Me -- was too good to give away. I'd have preferred it the other way around; anyway, Donna does a great job:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/hBzoIJdPiZI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
OMG, is this unintentionally funny or what? You get the feeling those involved had hopes that "dancing on cars" would be up there with classic Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire routines. Not!
ReplyDeleteOMG, I distinctly remember attending this movie with my sister and LOVING. IT. We despaired that by the time we were old enough to get into a disco, they would all be closed down. That being said, "Last Dance" has got to be one of the simplest songs ever (it's just one verse repeated, with a little middling stuff tossed in) but her delivery elevated it to anthem status.
ReplyDelete