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Disco - oh, no! | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
But wait! | 0:00:06 | 0:00:08 | |
This programme contains very strong language. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:12 | |
The Joy Of Disco? Like the joy of Christmas, ha-ha-ha. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
I said, "Everyone," I'm like, | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
"You're my girl, you're my girl, you're my girl." | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
Oh, isn't that one word - joy and disco? | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
Then you cross your arms and you disappear. Boom! | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
It's a bliss-making machine. It will just make you abandon | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
all your worries and your cares. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:33 | |
Between 1969 and '79, disco would change the world. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:39 | |
You look at the music press in the '70s | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
and, you know, you're taking Jethro Tull seriously, | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
and you're heaping scorn on The Bee Gees. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
# Ha, ha, ha... # | 0:00:48 | 0:00:50 | |
Your priorities are all wrong, you know. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:52 | |
So he would bring the hips down and go like this. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
Down and go like this. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:56 | |
It was the beat, honey. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
You could not sit down to disco music. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
You had to move. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
From an underground scene created by black and gay New York | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
to a global phenomenon. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
Disco transcended racial and sexual barriers in the '70s, | 0:01:18 | 0:01:22 | |
creating the birth of club culture as we know it today. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
So let's get down to the joy of disco. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
MUSIC: "The Love I Lost" by Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
The phrase "musical revolution" is a cliche, | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
but disco truly was that. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
# The love I lost was a sweet love... # | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
It was the birth of modern club culture, | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
an underground scene created by black and gay America. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
# ..Was complete love... # | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
And it all happened without hype, | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
major record labels or radio airplay. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
# ..No, no, never love again... # | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
I suppose what sets disco apart... | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
it's actually, properly | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
revolutionary music. It's, you know, people talk about | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
punk as revolutionary music, and they've got a point. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:28 | |
But disco is more revolutionary. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
Disco is literally outsider music. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:36 | |
It's music based in oppressed minorities. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
# ..We loved each other We just couldn't get along... # | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
It's gay, black, Puerto Rican. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
# ..I'm in misery! Can't you see...? # | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
It was people who'd been repressed. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
A minority of people, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
the gay New Yorkers, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:54 | |
who'd been so oppressed by the police | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
that they are all bounding out with a new-found enthusiasm. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
We thought we were | 0:03:04 | 0:03:06 | |
going up this hill | 0:03:06 | 0:03:08 | |
towards the shining city at the top, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
where we thought liberation, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
and things were getting better and better. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
And it was all soundtracked by a never-ending, orgasmic music. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:21 | |
It's very hard for people | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
to understand that it actually | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
was a new sound. I mean, now of course, | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
we all know the sort of, the classic disco songs, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
but back then, they were really fantastic. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
You have this sort of beautiful string arrangements, | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
incredibly lush, sumptuous, kind of high camp. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
It's about euphoria and about this moment on the dance floor. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:45 | |
And hearing them, you know, swirl around you from the speakers. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
There were the mirror balls, and then dry ice and the flashes. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:54 | |
It really was like living in the middle of a Hollywood movie. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
Imagine you're driving down to the beach on a sunny day with the sunroof down | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
and everything feels right in the world. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
That was the best of disco. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
# Two girls for every boy... # | 0:04:05 | 0:04:10 | |
To understand the joy of disco, let's skip back a few years. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
# Surf City, here we come... # | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
America in the '60s | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
and a sexual revolution based on a new libertarianism | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
was supposedly sweeping across the land. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
# And all you got to do is just wink your eye... # | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
However, attitudes towards one particular section of society | 0:04:34 | 0:04:39 | |
were still rooted in the dark ages. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
If you were homosexual, you were seen as a threat to society. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
'Jimmy hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
'Then, during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
'Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested, but, well, he was curious. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
'What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
'A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
'but no less dangerous and contagious. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
'A sickness of the mind. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:19 | |
'You see, Ralph was a homosexual.' | 0:05:21 | 0:05:23 | |
The only available models for homosexuality were | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
a mental illness, | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
a crime or a sin. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:35 | |
That was it. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:36 | |
For instance, there were many states, up through the '60s, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
that still treated homosexuality with capital punishment. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
You could have your head chopped off in Georgia if you were gay. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
Er... So, I mean, it wasn't a joking matter. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
MUSIC: "Midnight Cowboy" by John Barry | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
While straight America explored new freedoms, | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
homosexuals made do with a furtive existence. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:04 | |
Tolerated only on the liberal fringes of the country, | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
in San Francisco and New York, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
and then under the watchful eye of the authorities. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
In the '60s, there was the so-called "sexual revolution", | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
but gays were not part of it. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
It still, you know, the word gay | 0:06:21 | 0:06:22 | |
didn't even really exist in the '60s. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
as a term for homosexuality. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
It was still, "Oh, isn't it gay?" meaning, "Isn't it festive?" | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
# Nowhere to run to, baby | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
# Nowhere to hide. # | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
The police would suddenly raid a disco | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
and catch people who were dancing with members of the same sex. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
So what you had to have was one woman at least in every group. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
And you might have seven boys dancing together and one girl. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
But there had to be the girl. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
Employees of the disco would sit on top of very tall ladders | 0:06:55 | 0:07:00 | |
with a flashlight | 0:07:00 | 0:07:01 | |
and if they saw you with a girl-less group, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
they would turn the light on and you'd have to immediately | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
get yourself a girl if you were going to continue. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
However, in 1969, an event at a mafia-run gay bar in New York | 0:07:14 | 0:07:18 | |
would change the course of history. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
This is the Stonewall, where gay liberation began. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
Where street queens | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
who'd had enough | 0:07:34 | 0:07:35 | |
rioted and decided | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
to become part of the world. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
# People moving out People moving in... # | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
A routine drag queen bust turned into something | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
that the police were not expecting. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
# Run, but you sure can't hide... # | 0:07:49 | 0:07:51 | |
They just said, "Right, get going," | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
with that horrible look. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
And they turned around, but no-one left. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
And they couldn't believe it. So they turned around again and said, "I told you to get going." | 0:07:57 | 0:08:02 | |
And then, for some reason, we all started marching towards them. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
# Oh, great googalooga Can't you hear me talking to you? # | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
# Just a ball of confusion... # | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
That was the birth of the gay... | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
of the gay rights movement. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
That happened on Friday night, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
June 27th, 1969. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
# Tension everywhere Unemployment rising... # | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
The gays, instead of dispersing, stayed there, began to chat, | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
got more and more angry, | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
tore up parking meters and used them as battering rams. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
Threw waste paper into the bar once the door gave way and lit it. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:49 | |
And turned over cars, broke windows. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
It was quite a scene. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:52 | |
And nobody had ever seen gays behave this way before. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
Well, we all got together and started kicking | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
to provoke the Tactical Police Force with their shields | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
and their heavy riot gear. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
And we sang, # We are the Village girls, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
# We wear our hair in curls, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
# We wear our dungarees above our nellie knees. # | 0:09:09 | 0:09:13 | |
And they did charge. Ha-ha-ha-ha! | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
We all did the last kick and fled. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
# Great googalooga Can't you hear me talking to you? | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
# It's a ball of confusion | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
# ..That's what the world is today... # | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
The Stonewall riot would be a catalyst for a revolution. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:39 | |
Gays were no longer happy to remain invisible. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
They were out and proud, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
a vocal community demanding equal rights in all aspects of life. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:58 | |
And gay liberation would create the perfect conditions | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
for the birth of disco. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
We got the law in New York repealed, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:15 | |
where two people of the same sex couldn't dance together. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
And we felt very powerful. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
We were feeling united and powerful. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:24 | |
It was the biggest thing that happened for the club culture. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
Before that, two people of the same sex couldn't dance together. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:35 | |
But all the clubs that catered to gay people | 0:10:35 | 0:10:39 | |
were kind of | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
Mafia owned and operated. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
Because they were the only ones who would take a chance | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
at the cops coming in every two months | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
and raiding the place. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
And fucking up their business. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
When that law became repealed, | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
it opened up a window for people like myself and David, | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
to open places for people. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
This is the unlikely Godfather of disco. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
Brooklyn-born David Mancuso hosted private parties | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
in his downtown loft apartment in the early '70s. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
Mancuso was the first person to create the tone and atmosphere | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
of what would become disco. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
You get together with your friends. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
Everybody helps. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
There's that little tablecloth. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:36 | |
And some cupcakes. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
And some cookies. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:39 | |
Home-made cookies. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
That's how it starts. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
As a party. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
Was that a good idea, or not? | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
MUSIC: "Law Of The Land" by The Temptations | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
A late night venue, the Loft attracted an ethnically | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
and sexually diverse crowd. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
After going to other places, you'd then go to the Loft. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
It wasn't really thought of as a disco. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
It was more hanging out. Not so much raving and dancing. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:14 | |
There was dancing going on. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
And other things. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
Certainly, LSD had a role in it. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
It was his house. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
You'd go into the little bathroom. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
You'd see his shaving cream, | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
and his deodorant, | 0:12:31 | 0:12:32 | |
and all this stuff on the shelves. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
Most of us were, socially, outcasts. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:44 | |
# Lay your cards on top of the table... # | 0:12:44 | 0:12:48 | |
It doesn't matter where you came from. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
It's just having fun. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
The music was not yet known as "disco", | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
but the groove of late '60s soul | 0:12:59 | 0:13:00 | |
was the soundtrack for a nascent club culture | 0:13:00 | 0:13:05 | |
that formed in abandoned and dilapidated downtown New York. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
The Loft and the Gallery were on the Lower East Side. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
Which is now called "SoHo". | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
Back then it was not "SoHo", it was the Lower East Side, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:24 | |
and it was a crap shoot, the worst place you can go. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
You wouldn't go there at night. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
There were no people on the streets, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
except muggers and drug dealers. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
The first club to truly crystallise the idea of disco was the Gallery, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:49 | |
where a mainly gay crowd would lose it to euphoric black dance music. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:55 | |
The Gallery, first of all, was very affordable. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
Seven dollars, you got in, and that was it. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
That was all you had to pay. Except if you wanted a piece of acid, | 0:14:05 | 0:14:10 | |
maybe a dollar more. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
Or a dollar for a joint, | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
of fifty cents for a Quaalude. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
It was very affordable. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
MUSIC: "Girl, You Need A Change Of Mind" by Eddie Kendricks | 0:14:18 | 0:14:22 | |
It had the most excessive, comprehensive light system | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
of its time. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:29 | |
The sound system was state-of-the art. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
It sounded like you were being caressed by the music. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:39 | |
# Yeah, you need a change of mind... # | 0:14:39 | 0:14:44 | |
It was the birth of a new democracy. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
A secret world, built on inclusivity and pleasure, | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
where it really didn't matter who you were, and where everything went. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:57 | |
It had that kind of bohemian nirvana, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
utopian idea. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
Here were these groups, not usually in the same place at the same time. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:08 | |
They were all there, and everybody thought this was a good idea, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
at least for these three or four hours they were here. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
We basically come to release frustration. I do, anyway. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:23 | |
Let me tell you, this is the kind of place you could bring | 0:15:23 | 0:15:27 | |
any one of your cool friends. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
They have all types of people. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:31 | |
People who dance, people pop up and down. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
You can get high. Stay all night. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:35 | |
You can live at the Gallery every Saturday night. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
That's what I like to do. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
Shaking till you don't know what's what any more. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
# Girl, you need a change of mind | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
# Oh-oh... # | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
At the heart of disco was the new concept of the architect | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
of an evening's grooving, the DJ. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
Mixing records together was a revolutionary concept in the '70s. | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
Foremost amongst DJs was Nicky Siano, renowned for his skill | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
at beat matching and known as the Jimi Hendrix of the turntables. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
Until then, you had a DJ. He'd play a record, then he'd talk. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
Then he'd play another record. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
The idea of the seamless segue, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
we used to call them "segue". | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
The music would never stop. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
Just keep on going. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:27 | |
There were people like Nicky Siano, and those guys. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
They were known as having the really cool segue. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
I had a dream I had three turntables. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
I was mixing "Girl, You Need A Change of Mind", | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
and "Love Is The Message". | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
And I was playing a 707 jet plane sound effect, while they were mixing. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
I thought, "What a great idea!" | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
I took my turntable, brought it to the club, and I did it. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
MUSIC: "Love Is The Message" by MFSB | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
The records that early DJs played were typically deep R'n'B cuts, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
not yet known as "Disco". | 0:17:04 | 0:17:05 | |
"Love Is The Message" is a crucial record, | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
because it has all the elements of what we consider disco. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:14 | |
As well as elements that would later on become hip hop. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:19 | |
That is one of the essential dance records of all time. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
It's not disco music the way people listen to it now, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
or even think of disco music. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
It was basically these R'n'B songs with elongated breaks in them. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:38 | |
MUSIC: "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
Early disco culture may have been based on the hedonism | 0:17:47 | 0:17:52 | |
of gay liberation, but its soundtrack | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
was street tough, heterosexual, and black. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
MUSIC: "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes | 0:17:58 | 0:18:03 | |
Born somewhere in the softening of soul, post-James Brown, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
disco music has many godfathers, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:08 | |
but if any one city could be considered its spiritual home, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
it would be Philadelphia. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
Philadelphia International Records, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
run by songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
took the mantle from Motown in the '70s, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
to create The Sound of Philadelphia. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
I think the whole Philadelphia sound, | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
with Gamble and Huff being at the helm, they had a formula. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
They would use certain musicians that would instantly connect, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:39 | |
and instantly, I believe, reflect Philadelphia, as well. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:44 | |
# Don't leave me this way... # | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
What the Funk Brothers were to Motown, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
MFSB were to Philly International, a crack in-house band. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
MFSB was a combination... | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
..of some of the greatest musicians that you could think of. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
That orchestra WAS the sound of Philadelphia, in my view. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
Because people came from all over the world to try to get that sound. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:18 | |
That's what we did in the '70s. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:23 | |
We were working. Yeah. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:24 | |
MUSIC: "TSOP" by MFSB | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
Gamble and Huff's urbane songwriting combined with the strings | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
and horns of MFSB, to create a sound that would transcend | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
Philadelphia's gritty inner city to grace dance floors the world over. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
The Philly sound was very important to disco. | 0:19:57 | 0:19:59 | |
It was like an extension of the Motown sound. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
They added more luscious orchestration, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
and got a little bit more soulful, and slinky. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
-Again, "glamour". That word. -HE LAUGHS | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
MFSB, for the public and radio stations, what does it stand for? | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
"Mother, Father, Sister, Brother". | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
Whereas, the reality is, it stood for "Mother-Fucking Son of a Bitch", | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
which I don't know if you have to bleep out for the TV... | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
MFSB really was that black, street thing, | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
but it really was sophisticated black. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
It was not raw black. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
These marvellous musicians, like Earl Young, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
played on every one of these early disco records. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
Disco needed a beat and Earl Young, drummer with MFSB, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
was the man who invented it. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
The disco groove came along when I started the four-on-the-floor. | 0:20:55 | 0:21:00 | |
-On the bass. -BASS DRUM PLAYS | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
Then you put two on the snare. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
SNARE DRUM PLAYS | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
That's basic disco. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
Now, the side cymbal determines how the sound will sound like. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:23 | |
It changes up the whole thing. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:25 | |
DRUM KIT PLAYS | 0:21:25 | 0:21:30 | |
Now, watch. I'm going to change the groove on the side cymbal, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:35 | |
and it changes the whole thing. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
DISCO BEAT | 0:21:41 | 0:21:42 | |
Everything else stays the same. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:44 | |
That's all disco. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
DISCO BEAT | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
Now, this is also disco... | 0:21:50 | 0:21:54 | |
And that's how disco started. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:00 | |
MUSIC: "New World Symphony" by The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band | 0:22:07 | 0:22:11 | |
Three and a half thousand miles on the other side of the pond, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
the birth of disco in Britain was not quite as revolutionary, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
but no less underground. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
By the early '70s, pockets of soul music aficionados had created | 0:22:29 | 0:22:33 | |
vibrant dance scenes up and down the UK. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
Perhaps the most famous was Northern Soul, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
a scene that flourished | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
under the radar of the mainstream in northwest England. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
Northern Soul was a cult underground scene | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
that formed in the north of England. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
It started, really, around 1968. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
By 1970, it had become quite a mass appeal thing, | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
culminating, by 1974, in clubs like Wigan Casino | 0:22:58 | 0:23:03 | |
having a membership of 100,000 people. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:08 | |
MUSIC: "The Snake" by Al Wilson | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
# On the way to work one morning | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
# Down the path alongside the lake... # | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
Northern Soul was about the DJs not playing | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
what they were being force-fed on the radio, | 0:23:28 | 0:23:30 | |
but finding their own records off of B-sides, | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
or records that had flopped. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:34 | |
Looking for records that had the Motown sound, | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
after the Motown sound moved on into a more funky sound. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
They wanted that "dun-dun-dun-dun, "dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dun". | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
# Take me in, o tender woman | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
# Take me in, for heaven's sake... # | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
The dancing was pretty formulaic, very hard to do. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
Northern Soul, certainly a lot of the stuff, is beyond me. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
MUSIC: "Tainted Love" by Gloria Jones | 0:24:03 | 0:24:05 | |
# Sometimes I feel I've got to... # | 0:24:05 | 0:24:10 | |
But it WAS about being technical, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
and that nerdy thing of you know the music, you know how to dance. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
You have to work really hard at it. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:17 | |
And you had to be part of a scene. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
# ..the love we share Seems to go nowhere | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
# And I've lost my right | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
# For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night... # | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
I'd been going to Wigan for probably a year, a year-and-a-half. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
We heard of this place called Blackpool Mecca. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
That became a place we went every single Saturday night. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
Blackpool Mecca's changeover period, | 0:24:38 | 0:24:42 | |
from playing Northern Soul to a more modern version. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:45 | |
There was two DJs in particular, Colin Curtis and Ian Levine, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:49 | |
who were travelling to New York, and bringing back more upbeat, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
less of a '60s influence, soul. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
That was kind of the birth of disco in the north of England. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
MUSIC: "Turn The Beat Around" by Vicki Sue Robinson | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
# Love to hear percussion | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
# Turn it upside down | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
# Love to hear percussion... # | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
By 1975, I was fascinated by this music coming out of the gay clubs | 0:25:13 | 0:25:17 | |
in New York. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:18 | |
I actually had to go and see for myself. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
From '75 to '76, we phased all the '60s stuff out altogether, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:26 | |
and the Northern Soul at Blackpool Mecca became | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
the cult, underground, non-crossover disco of New York. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
# Love to hear percussion | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
# Yeah, yeah, yeah Turn it upside down | 0:25:36 | 0:25:41 | |
# Love to hear percussion... # | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
By the mid '70s, the disco sound was becoming transatlantic. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
Miami's KC And The Sunshine Band | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
provided the groove for disco's first UK number one, | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
in 1974, with singer George McCrae. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
MUSIC: "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
# Woman, take me in your arms | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
# Rock me, baby | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
# Woman, take me in your arms | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
# Rock me, baby... # | 0:26:16 | 0:26:17 | |
It was a Technicolor sound. It lifted your spirits. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
You had things like "Rock Your Baby". You'd feel uplifted by it. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:25 | |
At the same time, there was a kind of melancholia to it, as well. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
Something that moved you, and almost made you cry inside. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
And you listened to the words, | 0:26:31 | 0:26:33 | |
and it would be, "Baby, take me in your arms, rock your baby." | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
# Ooh, woman | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
# Take me in your arms | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
# Rock your baby... # | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
They were meaningless, in a way. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
But, somehow, the passion in the combination | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
of the live instrumentation, the voice, the yearning in that voice. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
It said it all. It didn't matter what the lyrics were saying, really. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
Record labels and FM radio were waking up to the fact that | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
records were being broken on dance floors, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
and before long, there was a rush to market. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
New labels sprang up, catering to the disco sound. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
ADVERT: 'In the beginning, Casablanca was one small place. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
'But now, it's everywhere. First, records. Then, movies...' | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
Based in Los Angeles, Casablanca was home to queen of disco, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
Donna Summer. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:33 | |
She would explode on the scene in 1975 with an infamous 12 inch, | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
created by Munich-based visionary Giorgio Moroder. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:45 | |
I kind of was always interested in sex. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
Like all the musicians, and the rest of the world, too. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
So, I thought, "Why not do some kind of an anthem to sex?" | 0:27:51 | 0:27:56 | |
And I think Donna delivered a good product. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:01 | |
# Oh, love to love you, baby | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
# Oh | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
# Love to love you, baby... # | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
Neil Bogart, the head of Casablanca Records, | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
called me and said, "I'm playing this song at the party, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
"and they want to hear it over and over. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
"Why don't you do a long version?" | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
That's when I extended the version, | 0:28:21 | 0:28:25 | |
and that's when Donna Summer did the whole 17 minutes of moaning. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:30 | |
# Oh, love to love you, baby... # | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
The record heralded the beginnings | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
of a new European direction for disco. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
From that Philly sound, there's only one thing which left, | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
and those were the violins. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
I think I had it more like up to the point. One, two, three, four. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:51 | |
So people could even dance better than with the other sounds. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:56 | |
MUSIC: "Love To Love You Baby" by Donna Summer | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
The record caught the zeitgeist of the decade. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
With disco, it was as though | 0:29:03 | 0:29:07 | |
female desire | 0:29:07 | 0:29:09 | |
was just the most sumptuous, wonderful thing. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
And so, if you think about the '70s, | 0:29:12 | 0:29:15 | |
feminism is hitting big. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:17 | |
And there are all these cover stories in mainstream magazines | 0:29:17 | 0:29:21 | |
about satisfying your woman. | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
And about female orgasm. "Oh, they actually have them", right? | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
So, the point was, to try to satisfy your woman. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
And for women to satisfy themselves. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:33 | |
This is the era of the sex toy. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:35 | |
That comes through in the music in a way it doesn't with rock. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:42 | |
Disco was all about this. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
"Love To Love You Baby", Donna Summer. I mean, you know... | 0:29:44 | 0:29:47 | |
In the decade of feminism, disco foregrounded female desire. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:52 | |
And it wasn't just Donna doing it for the girls. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
It seems so silly to talk about it now, | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
because people perform much more like that today. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:01 | |
But, to be able to come on stage, | 0:30:01 | 0:30:04 | |
in outrageous headdress, whips and chains, | 0:30:04 | 0:30:08 | |
and capes and silver, | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
and looking like you'd just flown in from outer space, | 0:30:10 | 0:30:14 | |
but be very aggressive for a woman, | 0:30:14 | 0:30:18 | |
and use your strength, and express that, | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
had not happened. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:24 | |
MUSIC: "Lady Marmalade" by Labelle | 0:30:24 | 0:30:26 | |
# Itchi gitchi ya ya da da now | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
# Itchi gitchi ya ya here | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
# Mocha-choca-lata ya ya | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
# Creole Lady Marmalade | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
# Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir... # | 0:30:42 | 0:30:45 | |
At that time, you really, as an artist, were capable | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
of exploring things, without having to fit into a niche. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
It was more being ourselves. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
Having the freedom that came along with what was inspired by | 0:30:57 | 0:31:02 | |
the feminist movement. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
# Itchi gitchi ya ya here | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
# Mocha-choca-lata ya ya | 0:31:07 | 0:31:12 | |
# Creole Lady Marmalade | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
# Ma ma ma ooh | 0:31:15 | 0:31:17 | |
# Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir | 0:31:17 | 0:31:21 | |
# Voulez-vous coucher avec moi... # | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
Nona Hendryx. Terrific songwriter. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:27 | |
Writes these incredible songs that aren't fluff, at all. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:32 | |
And talk about the expression of female desire. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:37 | |
There's one song called "Going Down Makes Me Shiver". | 0:31:37 | 0:31:42 | |
As somebody put it, they were like a revolution unto themselves. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:47 | |
MUSIC: "More More More" by Andrea True Connection | 0:31:47 | 0:31:51 | |
For the first time in pop music, women were sexually explicit. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:57 | |
In 1976, the late Andrea True demanded "More, More, More." | 0:31:57 | 0:32:03 | |
It's this song, ostensibly about romance, sung by a porn star. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
The lyrics of that song APPEAR to suggest | 0:32:07 | 0:32:10 | |
that the kind of sex in porn films | 0:32:10 | 0:32:15 | |
might be more meaningful and realistic than real love. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
# But if you want to know how I really feel | 0:32:18 | 0:32:22 | |
# Get the cameras rolling Get the action going | 0:32:22 | 0:32:26 | |
# Baby, you know my love for you is real | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
# Take me where you want to | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
# Me and my heart you steal | 0:32:32 | 0:32:35 | |
# More, more, more | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
# How do you like it? How do you like it? # | 0:32:38 | 0:32:40 | |
The Tom Moulton extended mix of "More, More, More" | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
is unequivocably one of the greatest records ever made. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
It's the most indescribably exciting eight minutes of music | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
you can imagine. It's brilliant. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:55 | |
# How do you like your love? # | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
I wouldn't have done it, if I'd known what the song was about. | 0:33:00 | 0:33:04 | |
I had no clue. Who has time to watch porn? | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
I was in the studio all the time. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
I'm thinking that, "More more more"... | 0:33:12 | 0:33:16 | |
..I made it pretty, cos I thought she was talking about the music. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
When I hear it, | 0:33:26 | 0:33:27 | |
I still don't think of her doing that. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:32 | |
MUSIC: "Never Can Say Goodbye" by Gloria Gaynor | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
Disco may have presented female desire for the first time. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:39 | |
but it was still men who called the shots. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
They didn't call it "a 12 inch mix" for nothing. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
There's this great moment where Gloria Gaynor | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
is listening to the playback of "Never Can Say Goodbye". | 0:33:50 | 0:33:54 | |
This was a record that had been remixed by the famous DJ, Tom Moulton. | 0:33:54 | 0:34:00 | |
And, it was like, "What happened to my voice?" | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
"Where AM I in this? | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
"And what am I going to do when I'm performing it live?" | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
"What am I going to do when there's none of me there?" | 0:34:08 | 0:34:10 | |
And he's like, "You'll have to learn to dance". | 0:34:10 | 0:34:14 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
I didn't know what to say! | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
She said, "My God, what am I supposed to do?" | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
I said, "I guess you have to brush up on your dancing". | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
Am I red? Because I was so embarrassed! | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
# Never can say goodbye, boy... # | 0:34:30 | 0:34:35 | |
It's the old story of two steps forward, one step back. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:40 | |
Three steps, if you consider some of the artwork. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:43 | |
Disco music wasn't just about the music. It was about selling it, too. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:49 | |
Casablanca were the main label who would use any effect | 0:34:49 | 0:34:55 | |
to have your album pop out of the racks. | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
This is one of the most famous. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:02 | |
"How Much, How Much I Love You" by Love & Kisses. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
Look how they've sold this. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:07 | |
A naked girl, with boots, on a white horse. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
On the back, is even more suggestive. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:13 | |
Supposedly, the theme of this was "beauty and the beast". | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
Here's a classic 12 inch cover. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:22 | |
The Ring, "Savage Lover". | 0:35:22 | 0:35:26 | |
Another beauty and the beast theme, here. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:29 | |
A bit of murder going on in the background. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
I actually wonder if they'd allow this sort of stuff now. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
Another infamous Love & Kisses album. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:40 | |
Torn T-shirts. These are all male hands, clearly. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:43 | |
A quite rare Giorgio Moroder album. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:52 | |
Another one from Casablanca. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
Battlestar Galactica theme. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
Visualised in almost comic book erotica, I think, art here. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:02 | |
Again, I could see some Star Wars geeks going for this one, | 0:36:03 | 0:36:06 | |
without even knowing what the music was. | 0:36:06 | 0:36:09 | |
Boris Midney, one of my favourite producers. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
This is more avant garde erotica, | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
for his French release of "Companion". | 0:36:14 | 0:36:17 | |
If you see the whole album, I think it's the nipple and the asteroid. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
I mean, "Excuse me, what's this about?" But, it's still quite lovely. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:25 | |
1977 was the year disco went uptown. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:33 | |
In April, a club would open in New York, | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
and instantly become the hottest ticket on the planet. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
MUSIC: "Dance, Dance, Dance" by Chic | 0:36:39 | 0:36:41 | |
# Dance, dance, dance, dance | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
# Keep on dancing... # | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
Studio 54 was owned by Brooklyn lads, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:54 | |
It was like holding on to a lightning bolt. | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
It seemed to be the right thing at the right time, at the place. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:03 | |
It just resonated with people. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:10 | |
It struck a chord with people. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:12 | |
The first superclub, Studio 54 turned the inclusive, | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
underground nature of the early disco scene on its head, | 0:37:17 | 0:37:21 | |
to become the epitome of '70s exclusivity and glamour, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
and opened the way for disco to enter the mainstream. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:28 | |
I like it because it's really the nightclub of the future. | 0:37:32 | 0:37:35 | |
It's a culmination of a nightclub | 0:37:35 | 0:37:37 | |
that's been arriving gradually for the last ten years. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:42 | |
The feeling, the excitement of the props coming down, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:46 | |
and the balcony. It's just exciting. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
It gave people the incentive to want to dress up and go out. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
The most beautiful women. Brooke Astor types would keep coming in | 0:37:56 | 0:38:00 | |
at two o'clock in the morning. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
Limousines around the block. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
It was a fabulous, wonderful happening to be a part of. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
It was really wild. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:14 | |
It was wild abandonment. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:17 | |
It wasn't a very cerebral experience. It was almost tribal. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:22 | |
You came in to really let your hair down, and get released. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
And leave the real world outside the doors. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
# ..Dance, dance, dance, dance | 0:38:32 | 0:38:35 | |
# Dance, dance, dance, dance | 0:38:38 | 0:38:42 | |
Disco came up at the same time | 0:38:42 | 0:38:43 | |
as cocaine emerged as the drug of choice. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
And cocaine, we didn't see it | 0:38:46 | 0:38:48 | |
as something self-destructive, like heroin. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:52 | |
Even Jimmy Carter's Surgeon General classified it with marijuana, | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
and said it was not addictive. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
But cocaine, and Quaaludes, and poppers, they all contributed | 0:38:57 | 0:39:03 | |
to wanting to have sex, basically. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
The famous thing about Studio 54 | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
is that they had a coke spoon in the shape of the moon. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
The place was just a blizzard. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:14 | |
They pumped it through the air conditioning. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:17 | |
-Is it true you pumped cocaine through the air conditioning? -No. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:23 | |
It sort of captured the imagination of everyone. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:27 | |
MUSIC: "The Chase" by Giorgio Moroder | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
There was sex everywhere. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:34 | |
At that time, there wasn't anything you couldn't do, | 0:39:37 | 0:39:41 | |
that you couldn't get up the next morning and walk away from. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
For a long time, I used to spend my entire evening | 0:39:46 | 0:39:51 | |
in the women's bathroom, | 0:39:51 | 0:39:52 | |
taking up one of the stalls. "Come on, get out of here". | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
But I had lots of coke, | 0:39:56 | 0:39:58 | |
and the woman in charge let me stay. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:00 | |
And no girl ever complained. Not one. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
Many times, I'd get oral sex, | 0:40:04 | 0:40:09 | |
or full-on...hardcore sex. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:13 | |
If I sound nonchalant, it's only because we were just partying, | 0:40:17 | 0:40:21 | |
and everything felt cool. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:23 | |
Quite a lot of outrageous stuff went on in Studio 54. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:27 | |
-I wonder if Rollerena was ever propositioned? -She was a lady. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:31 | |
She was always a lady. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:33 | |
She was a fairy godmother. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
What others did, she didn't see. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
Whatever people say that went on, | 0:40:39 | 0:40:44 | |
that was not something that she touched on. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
She wasn't there to judge. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
It wasn't just clubs that were becoming futuristic. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:56 | |
Giorgio Moroder would crystallise an orgasmic, totally synthetic | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
disco sound that would mark the birth of electronic dance. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:04 | |
MUSIC: "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
I started with the bassline. Then I thought I wanted everything played | 0:41:07 | 0:41:12 | |
by the synthesizer. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:14 | |
That includes the percussion, | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
the snare, some of the effects, | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
the vocoder, which is a synthesizer, too. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:23 | |
# Oooh, it's so good | 0:41:23 | 0:41:27 | |
# It's so good, it's so good It's so good, it's so good... # | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
It was very interesting, | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
because the rhythm was really dramatic and uplifting, | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
but the melody's very smooth, almost romantic. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:41 | |
# Oooh, I'm in love, I'm in love | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
# I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love... # | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
Here was a black woman, steeped in a gospel past, | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
with a white, European guy playing a synthesizer, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
and producing bleeps and sounds, | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
and taking it to number one faster than any of the pure soul records. | 0:41:56 | 0:42:01 | |
This must have frightened the living daylights out of people. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:06 | |
# I feel love... # | 0:42:06 | 0:42:12 | |
That invented Eurodisco. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
It invented techno. It invented... | 0:42:16 | 0:42:21 | |
It's "Hello, Disco." | 0:42:21 | 0:42:22 | |
Suddenly, it made disco European. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:26 | |
Europe now had a disco sound. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
I hear songs in that style still, | 0:42:31 | 0:42:33 | |
the same bassline. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
Sometimes, I think I could sue the whole world | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
for infringement of copyrights, | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
but I'm happy if they like the sounds and melodies, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:46 | |
the better. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
MUSIC: "Jive Talkin'" by the Bee Gees | 0:42:48 | 0:42:51 | |
Moroder invented Eurodisco in 1977, | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
but it would be these three Europeans, copying the Philly sound, | 0:42:54 | 0:42:58 | |
who would take disco firmly into the mainstream. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:02 | |
The Bee Gees were songwriters, with scant interest in disco. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:06 | |
A casual decision to allow some of their songs | 0:43:09 | 0:43:13 | |
to be used in a movie would create a phenomenon. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
# Jive talking, so misunderstood Yeah | 0:43:16 | 0:43:21 | |
# Jive talking You're really no good... # | 0:43:21 | 0:43:25 | |
We were writing our new studio album in the Honky Chateau, in France. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:31 | |
Robert Stigwood called from Los Angeles, and said, | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
"We have this low budget film for Paramount, | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
"based on an article in the New York Times by Nik Cohn. | 0:43:38 | 0:43:42 | |
"Have you got any NEW songs?" | 0:43:44 | 0:43:46 | |
We said, "We haven't got time to write new songs. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:49 | |
"We have these songs written, | 0:43:49 | 0:43:51 | |
"'Stayin' Alive', 'How Deep Is Your Love?', 'Night Fever'... | 0:43:51 | 0:43:54 | |
"Come over, and have a listen." | 0:43:54 | 0:43:56 | |
So, Paramount and Robert Stigwood | 0:43:56 | 0:43:58 | |
came to the studio in France and they listened. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
"Yeah. OK." That was the last we heard. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
MUSIC: "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
Saturday Night Fever was THE disco movie. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
But it shunned the gay downtown scene, in favour of the machismo | 0:44:11 | 0:44:15 | |
and moves of a Brooklyn ladies man, played by John Travolta. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:18 | |
# You can tell by the way I use my walk | 0:44:18 | 0:44:20 | |
# I'm a woman's man No time to talk. # | 0:44:20 | 0:44:24 | |
I remember the first time he came in. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:26 | |
I said, "John, put your hands together, like this". | 0:44:26 | 0:44:29 | |
"Now, start doing that". | 0:44:29 | 0:44:31 | |
He started doing this and went, "I like that". | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
I said, "You want to point in the air. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:36 | |
"Look very macho". | 0:44:36 | 0:44:39 | |
So, he would bring the hips down, and go like this. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:43 | |
It became so popular, | 0:44:43 | 0:44:46 | |
they called it the "Travolta". | 0:44:46 | 0:44:48 | |
Then, the hard part came up. "You want to kick your foot out, | 0:44:48 | 0:44:52 | |
"bring it back and spread your legs. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:54 | |
"All those girls that our out there, | 0:44:57 | 0:45:00 | |
"you pretend you're performing for all women. | 0:45:00 | 0:45:02 | |
"What you want to do is point to every one of them, | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
"like, 'You're my girl, you're my girl.' " | 0:45:07 | 0:45:11 | |
One of the hardest ones is where he would take a step, | 0:45:13 | 0:45:18 | |
it's a 360 in the air into a split. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:20 | |
I would take him out to the clubs. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:25 | |
I'm telling you, people would back off. | 0:45:25 | 0:45:28 | |
He WAS the Fred Astaire of that time. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:31 | |
The magical combination of Travolta's moves, | 0:45:33 | 0:45:36 | |
and the Bee Gee's soundtrack, would launch disco | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
as popular music's first truly global phenomenon. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:43 | |
We knew nothing about the word "disco" when writing those songs. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:49 | |
In Europe, "disco" was only short for "discotheque", or it had been. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:53 | |
What we were doing in recording, | 0:45:53 | 0:45:55 | |
was R&B, or "blue-eyed soul", as they would have called it. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:59 | |
Nobody said this would be | 0:45:59 | 0:46:01 | |
the biggest-selling soundtrack album ever, and still is. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:04 | |
Nobody said it was going to sell | 0:46:04 | 0:46:07 | |
50 million albums. It's ridiculous! | 0:46:07 | 0:46:12 | |
Although Saturday Night Fever had managed to sidestep the subject, | 0:46:13 | 0:46:16 | |
disco's growing popularity would introduce | 0:46:16 | 0:46:20 | |
elements of out gay culture into mainstream pop for the first time. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:25 | |
MUSIC: "Mighty Real" by Sylvester | 0:46:25 | 0:46:27 | |
In 1978, the two worlds would collide, | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
when Sylvester topped the charts. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:33 | |
# When we're out there dancing on the floor, darling | 0:46:33 | 0:46:38 | |
# And I feel like I need them more | 0:46:38 | 0:46:41 | |
# And I feel your body... # | 0:46:41 | 0:46:43 | |
Sylvester, in another era, | 0:46:43 | 0:46:45 | |
would have been a closeted soul/R&B singer. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
He would not have been singing about gay stuff, or seeming gay. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:51 | |
He would have had a suit on, and be singing love songs to women. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:55 | |
# You make me feel | 0:46:55 | 0:46:59 | |
# Mighty real | 0:46:59 | 0:47:02 | |
He came around during the era of gay liberation. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:07 | |
After Stonewall, the big event that happened in the Village | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
that really triggered the gay liberation movement. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
In some ways, his career | 0:47:13 | 0:47:15 | |
is a product of the time. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:17 | |
# ..And you kiss me back and it feels real good | 0:47:17 | 0:47:21 | |
# And I know you love me Like you should... # | 0:47:21 | 0:47:27 | |
Sylvester was larger than life. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:29 | |
At that time, he was the only one, that I knew of, | 0:47:29 | 0:47:33 | |
that was gay, black, and singing in a high, falsetto voice. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:38 | |
# You make me feel | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
# Mighty real... # | 0:47:42 | 0:47:46 | |
He was flamboyant. Bracelets. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
Beautiful kaftans. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:51 | |
Beautiful costumes. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
I learned a lot from him, | 0:47:53 | 0:47:54 | |
because, now, I dress like that, too. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
Like some drag queen, or something. | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
# I feel real, I feel real... # | 0:47:59 | 0:48:03 | |
Disco was now out, proud and mainstream. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
In the same year, a disco boy band of new macho gay archetypes | 0:48:07 | 0:48:12 | |
would emerge from downtown New York, | 0:48:12 | 0:48:14 | |
and the straight masses would lap it up. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
MUSIC: "YMCA" by the Village People | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
# Young man | 0:48:19 | 0:48:21 | |
# There's no need to feel down | 0:48:21 | 0:48:23 | |
# I say, young man | 0:48:23 | 0:48:25 | |
# Pick yourself off the ground | 0:48:25 | 0:48:27 | |
# I say, young man... # | 0:48:27 | 0:48:28 | |
The Village People had this massive hit with YMCA. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
A song about, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
let's not beat about the bush, here, | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
in the forthright spirit of disco, | 0:48:37 | 0:48:39 | |
it's about having it off with blokes in the showers of a YMCA. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:43 | |
# It's fun to stay at the YMCA | 0:48:45 | 0:48:49 | |
# It's fun to stay at the YMCA | 0:48:49 | 0:48:53 | |
# They have everything for young men to enjoy | 0:48:53 | 0:48:58 | |
# You can hang out with all the boys. # | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
"You can hang out with all the boys". | 0:49:03 | 0:49:05 | |
And this is an enormous hit. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
Spawns this cheesy little dance that people do to it. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:12 | |
# You can do whatever you please. # | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
This is an amazing moment where gay culture, almost unwittingly, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:20 | |
takes mainstream culture by surprise. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:23 | |
# Young man, you can fulfil your dreams | 0:49:23 | 0:49:26 | |
# But you've got to know this one thing. # | 0:49:26 | 0:49:30 | |
They actually weren't very popular in gay discos. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
They were much more popular in straight discos. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:37 | |
It's ironic, but they're popular because most straight people | 0:49:37 | 0:49:41 | |
don't get that they're gay. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:42 | |
# ..They can help you today | 0:49:42 | 0:49:45 | |
# It's fun to stay at the YMCA | 0:49:48 | 0:49:51 | |
# It's fun to stay at the YMCA... # | 0:49:51 | 0:49:55 | |
We took the idea of walking right up to the line | 0:49:55 | 0:49:59 | |
of offence, | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
but we never offended. | 0:50:02 | 0:50:04 | |
because we winked at the audience, | 0:50:04 | 0:50:07 | |
and we smiled at them, | 0:50:07 | 0:50:09 | |
and we let that audience know, every time we performed, | 0:50:09 | 0:50:13 | |
that we were in on the joke. | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
The next figure features the hands rolling round each other. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:20 | |
And, a-one and two, | 0:50:20 | 0:50:21 | |
a-one and two, | 0:50:21 | 0:50:24 | |
a-one and two, | 0:50:24 | 0:50:25 | |
and one and two. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:27 | |
And a roly poly one, | 0:50:27 | 0:50:28 | |
and a roly poly two, | 0:50:28 | 0:50:30 | |
and a roly poly three. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:31 | |
As it travelled from niche recognition to global popularity, | 0:50:31 | 0:50:35 | |
disco's raw gay elements were also recast as camp kitsch, | 0:50:35 | 0:50:39 | |
even pantomime. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:41 | |
On television, Larry Grayson danced it with Isla St Clair. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:49 | |
Across the country, people got down in their living rooms. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:56 | |
# Here I am Waiting for this moment to last... # | 0:50:56 | 0:50:59 | |
Even your gran could have a whale of a time, | 0:50:59 | 0:51:02 | |
doing the Travolta at Pontin's Holiday Camp. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
In the wake of Saturday Night Fever, disco became a fad, | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
and nothing was safe. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:16 | |
You could get the disco "Fiddler On The Roof", | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
the disco "Evita", | 0:51:20 | 0:51:21 | |
the disco "Romeo and Juliet". Everything was disco. | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
The disco "Pinocchio", one of my favourites. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:27 | |
# Come on and hear Come on and hear | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
# Alexander's ragtime band... # | 0:51:30 | 0:51:34 | |
Even Ethel Merman did it to her own songs, | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
in one of the most famous fiascos of all time. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:40 | |
The Ethel Merman disco album should have been a lot better, | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
but we loved it, we danced to it, we didn't care. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
# So natural that you'll wanna ask for more | 0:51:46 | 0:51:50 | |
# That's just the bestest band | 0:51:50 | 0:51:53 | |
# What am, oh, my honey man... # | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
This is "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". | 0:51:56 | 0:51:59 | |
Disco version. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:01 | |
Here we have "Sesame Street Fever", | 0:52:01 | 0:52:04 | |
which has some breakbeats on it, | 0:52:04 | 0:52:08 | |
so it's been sampled by hip hop artists. | 0:52:08 | 0:52:10 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:52:10 | 0:52:11 | |
# ..And if you care to hear | 0:52:11 | 0:52:13 | |
# That Swanee River played... # | 0:52:13 | 0:52:17 | |
This, I love. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:20 | |
This is "Penthouse Presents The Love Symphony Orchestra", | 0:52:20 | 0:52:24 | |
with "Let's Make Love In Public Places", | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
and "Let Me Be Your Fantasy". | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
That's the best track. | 0:52:28 | 0:52:30 | |
Apparently, you bought Penthouse magazine, | 0:52:30 | 0:52:34 | |
and then sent off for the 12 inch single. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:36 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:52:36 | 0:52:38 | |
And then you made love to it. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:40 | |
# Come on and hear, come on and hear | 0:52:40 | 0:52:43 | |
# Alexander's | 0:52:43 | 0:52:47 | |
# Ragtime band. # | 0:52:47 | 0:52:52 | |
The disco boom produced the oddest musical confections. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:57 | |
Taking the prize as the strangest of them of all, was a massively | 0:52:57 | 0:53:00 | |
popular Eurodisco outfit, manufactured in Germany. | 0:53:00 | 0:53:05 | |
Boney M's oeuvre is off its head. | 0:53:05 | 0:53:08 | |
It's impossible to imagine a band | 0:53:08 | 0:53:10 | |
having the degree of success in the pop charts | 0:53:10 | 0:53:12 | |
that Boney M had in the '70s, with the kind of records they made. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:15 | |
# There lived a certain man in Russia long ago | 0:53:15 | 0:53:19 | |
# He was big and strong In his eyes a flaming glow | 0:53:19 | 0:53:23 | |
# Most people looked at him with terror and with fear | 0:53:23 | 0:53:26 | |
# But to Moscow chicks He was such a lovely dear | 0:53:26 | 0:53:30 | |
# He could preach the Bible like a preacher | 0:53:30 | 0:53:34 | |
# Full of ecstasy and fire... # | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
Let's begin with "Rasputin". | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
This is a record about the decline of the Russian Empire. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:44 | |
Right, OK. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:46 | |
So that's a bit like One Direction making a record about Stalin. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:51 | |
It's not going to happen. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:53 | |
# Ra-ra, Rasputin Russia's greatest love machine | 0:53:53 | 0:53:57 | |
# It was a shame how he carried on | 0:53:57 | 0:54:02 | |
# But when his drinking And lusting | 0:54:06 | 0:54:08 | |
# And his hunger for power | 0:54:08 | 0:54:09 | |
# Became known to more and more people | 0:54:09 | 0:54:13 | |
# The demands to do something about this outrageous man | 0:54:13 | 0:54:16 | |
# Became louder and louder. # | 0:54:16 | 0:54:19 | |
After such disco saturation, a backlash was inevitable, | 0:54:19 | 0:54:24 | |
and when the downfall came, it was spectacular. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
A Disco Sucks rally held in Chicago in '79 escalated | 0:54:29 | 0:54:32 | |
into an anti-disco riot. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:35 | |
There was a big thing in Comiskey Park, | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
where they took every disco 12 inch they could find, | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
in these huge, big metal bins, | 0:54:42 | 0:54:44 | |
and they blew them all up in public, at a big ball game. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
It was all on the news, and everything. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
People had car stickers, "Disco Is Dead." "Disco Sucks." | 0:54:50 | 0:54:54 | |
I always thought it was really odd | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
when the Disco Sucks movement happened, | 0:55:05 | 0:55:07 | |
and they demonised an entire class of musicians. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:11 | |
An entire genre, if you will. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:13 | |
Because of a few bad things that stuck out. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:17 | |
I don't think there was a preponderance of "bad" disco, | 0:55:17 | 0:55:21 | |
it was just like anything else. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:23 | |
Is there a preponderance of "bad" indie rock? | 0:55:23 | 0:55:26 | |
Well, I think so! | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
The disco backlash was definitely somewhat triggered by homophobia. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:35 | |
Disco became associated | 0:55:37 | 0:55:39 | |
with constituencies that weren't "mainstream". | 0:55:39 | 0:55:42 | |
Which was black audiences, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:44 | |
Latino audiences, | 0:55:44 | 0:55:45 | |
and gay audiences. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:46 | |
Mainstream rock audiences | 0:55:46 | 0:55:49 | |
rejected a lot of those audiences, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:51 | |
on a racial, "cultural" tip. | 0:55:51 | 0:55:54 | |
Look at "Disco Sucks". Think about what they're talking about. | 0:55:54 | 0:55:58 | |
It's kind of a coded anti-gay phrase. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:02 | |
The backlash WAS an attack on disco's gay, | 0:56:03 | 0:56:06 | |
permissive associations, | 0:56:06 | 0:56:08 | |
and signalled the end for disco as a pop fad. | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
For the gay community, it would be a catastrophe of far greater concern | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
that would eventually close the clubs. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:18 | |
The first case of AIDS was reported in 1981. | 0:56:20 | 0:56:23 | |
It was tragic, to feel these people you were so accustomed | 0:56:28 | 0:56:32 | |
to seeing on the dancefloor, | 0:56:32 | 0:56:34 | |
these people who were your dancing partners, your buddies, | 0:56:34 | 0:56:37 | |
your sex buddies, | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
and now there were these holes on the floor. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
And it was really horrific. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
But, it was also the case that you had, | 0:56:46 | 0:56:51 | |
as a consequence, a ready-made community, | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
and these guys mobilised for one another, | 0:56:54 | 0:56:58 | |
in a way that... | 0:56:58 | 0:57:03 | |
I don't think could have happened had it not been for disco. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:06 | |
# I will survive, hey hey... # | 0:57:06 | 0:57:08 | |
The era may have ended, but the music didn't die. | 0:57:13 | 0:57:17 | |
In the new decade, disco would segue seamlessly into house, | 0:57:17 | 0:57:22 | |
and the beat WOULD go on. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:23 | |
One, two... | 0:57:25 | 0:57:26 | |
# Oh, freak out... # | 0:57:26 | 0:57:28 | |
October 2011, and Manhattan is once again gripped | 0:57:30 | 0:57:36 | |
by disco fever, as Studio 54 re-opens. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:38 | |
# Oh, freak out | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
# Le freak, c'est chic | 0:57:41 | 0:57:43 | |
# Freak out... # | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
For one night only, | 0:57:45 | 0:57:47 | |
a new generation will mingle with the '70s survivors, | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
and freak out to the joy of disco. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
One of the things I love about disco, | 0:57:57 | 0:57:59 | |
it resists assimilation into that world of heritage rock. | 0:57:59 | 0:58:02 | |
You never see Chic on the cover of a heritage rock magazine. | 0:58:02 | 0:58:05 | |
That's brilliant. It's still outsider music. | 0:58:05 | 0:58:08 | |
It's still looked down upon. | 0:58:08 | 0:58:10 | |
And yet, it unequivocally changed pop music for ever. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:15 | |
# I say freak... # | 0:58:18 | 0:58:20 | |
No one cared who you were, | 0:58:22 | 0:58:23 | |
what your background was, what your education was. | 0:58:23 | 0:58:26 | |
No-one cared what guitar or keyboard you played. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:29 | |
Just, did it to make people move? | 0:58:29 | 0:58:31 | |
# Now freak... # | 0:58:35 | 0:58:37 | |
You can't hold a good woman down. You can't hold disco back. | 0:58:37 | 0:58:42 | |
It didn't really die, honey, it just transitioned into dance. | 0:58:42 | 0:58:46 | |
And all these people that said disco was dead? | 0:58:46 | 0:58:51 | |
I was still working. | 0:58:51 | 0:58:53 | |
# All that pressure Got you down? | 0:58:53 | 0:58:56 | |
# Has your head spinning all around | 0:58:56 | 0:59:00 | |
# Feel the rhythm | 0:59:00 | 0:59:02 | |
# Check the rhyme | 0:59:02 | 0:59:04 | |
# Come on, come on And have a real good time | 0:59:04 | 0:59:08 | |
# Like the days of Stomping at the Savoy | 0:59:08 | 0:59:12 | |
# Now we freak, oh, what a joy | 0:59:12 | 0:59:16 | |
# Just come on down to the 54 | 0:59:16 | 0:59:20 | |
# Find your spot out on the floor... # | 0:59:20 | 0:59:23 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:59:23 | 0:59:25 |