Hall of Fame Nominee--Chic

     I know every one of you who went down the list of nominees at some point (for some of you many points) went, "Huh?" My moment was Chic. I know them for two songs, but their influence went much deeper than that...
     Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards met as studio musicians in 1970, and formed a rock band called, "The Boys", and later, "The Big Apple Band" up to 1976. The band disbanded after a second album failed to chart. In 1977, they recruited drummer Tony Thompson and as a trio did some club work. Thompson suggested keyboardist Raymond Jones, and to round out the group, singer Norma Jean Wright was brought in. They went in to the studio and recorded, "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah,Yowsah, Yowsah). To add more depth, the group chose to bring in a second singer. Norma suggested Luci Martin. Wright had to leave early in 78, because of an issue with her contract. Alfa Anderson was brought in as they entered into their classic phase.
    In 1978 and 79 they had three big hits, "La Freak", "I Want Your Love", and "Good Times". History points to "La Freak" as the most popular, but it was "Good Times" which became the template for many songs of that era. More importantly, the Sugarhill Gang using it on their breakthrough rap single, "Rapper's Delight". Edwards and Rodgers always contended that their music was the rock side of disco. Considering everyone from Duran, Duran, to David Bowie, to Queen were influenced directly by Edwards' bass lines, and Rodgers production values, there is a strong case to make here.
     With the end of the disco era, Edwards and Rodgers left to work together and separately on many albums. Their fingerprints could be heard all over the early and mid-80's. Madonna, Bowie, Cindi Lauper, Howard Jones, Steve Winwood, Sheena Easton, Thompson Twins and others had music produced by Rodgers. One has to wonder if this nomination is as much for the Rodgers/Edwards duo and their contributions to a decade of music rather than what they did with Chic. One never knows about the Hall of Fame voters. We report...you decide.

  
     

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Reflections on Donna Summer by her former music director.

Scott Hallgren is a friend of mine who had the privilege of working with Donna Summer for seven years. Since her death, I had been hoping to get some thoughts and stories. Hope you enjoy reading them as well. His website is:  http://scootmanmusic.com/

I had the pleasure of working with Donna 1998 - 2005; all of it on keyboards, 4 of them as her pianist, 3 as her musical director. If I'd only known as an 8 year old, driving around in my Mom's Chevette, listening to Donna on AM radio...

Ahh, the stories - WAY too many to tell, whether it was:

- the Rod Stewart impersonator we sent onstage with flowers in El Paso during "Dim All The Lights" (she'd originally written the song for Rod and talked about that every show) that made her freak out and fall off her stool laughing during our 'acoustic' segment,

- performing as the 'house band' at the reception following Sony label prez Tommy Mottola's 3rd wedding (before he was legally divorced from Mariah), and having my rig directly in front of a table - at which were seated Joe Pesci, Rhea Perlman, Rosie O'Donnell, Danny DeVito, and Michael Jackson (who planned THAT table?),

- me getting to perform with my hero Elton John's band, play his piano, and accompany him and Donna on "Enough Is Enough" for the AIDS Foundation's 2003 benefit at Elton's home, then Barry Manilow get up to join them and say, "I can't believe I'm up here with Donna & Elton - this is fuckin' great! Isn't this fuckin' great?" to the horror of many glitterati,

- or the number of times something went awry during "On The Radio", where Donna would invite 3 audience members (females, for reasons you might expect) up to sing background vocals; once, in Columbus, a girl took the mic and walked out front and sang the second verse with an astonished Donna looking on; another time, at a Sony PGA Open, only 2 females were willing to come up, so the audience begged Donna to take the guy 'in the red windbreaker'... he promptly flew up the stairs, grabbed the mic, and said, "Donna, I'm not a girl, but I do have a very small penis", just as she had taken a sip of Dr. Pepper from the cup on my piano. ***It was Adam Sandler.*** (You can imagine how long it took her to stop laughing, and us to clean off the piano!)

Donna never wanted to be an 'oldies' act, and struggled with the box that many tried to put her in. She could sing ANYTHING. We used to do 'Someone To Watch Over Me' as a duet, Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams', 'Nights In White Satin', 'New York, New York'. She sounded INCREDIBLE on the 2010 David Foster & Friends show (with Seal).

None of us had any idea she was sick, and I only hope that I'll be able to attend the memorial here in Nashville - she had so many real friends I don't know where they'd put everyone. The fact that she's gone too soon makes it that much harder.

She never stopped creating, was always musical, and my life is so much better and richer for having known her.

- S

Scott Hallgren
Composer/producer/pianist

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Donna Summer (1948-2012)

     Thankfully Donna Summer's talent allowed her to go far beyond disco. At the same time, I'm thankful for that dance sub-genre because it allowed her substantial talents to even be heard. She was considered the "Queen of Disco", but her abilities allowed her to break free from the backlash that effected most of her peers in the early 80's and go into a different direction, without totally disassociating herself from it's many fans. In the 90's she was still a major player, especially in the UK. With the re-emergence of dance music over the last decade, she found herself back on top of the charts with 9 top 5 hits since 2000, with her last number one being last year's, "To Paris With Love".
     On of her talents that was always underrated was her songwriting abilities having written, "Bad Girls", "Heaven Knows", "On The Radio"and others. She had 17 Grammy's nominations  and won five in four separate genres ( R&B, Rock, Dance, Inspirational). There will be many obits over the next few days and where you can get a biography on her career. For those who are between the ages of 40-50 and all who love to hit the dance floor, we have lost a major force today.
     Please feel free to share your thoughts and memories....Peace. 

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Chic--La Freak (1978)

     It's thought that I hate disco....and am not sure if it's just mellowing with age, or with reflection just realizing that just like any other trend in music, there are trendsetters, then everyone else. For every great band, there are a bunch of poseurs who do nothing but make a parody of things. How many attempted to follow the footsteps of Elvis, The Beatles, Dylan, Nirvana, etc....and just made us wish even more for the original?
     In my mind there are a handful of artists who made disco a quality genre, one of them being Chic. Guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards had been working together since 1970, but the group didn't begin to take form until 1977 with the addition of drummer Tony Thompson. Keyboard player Raymond Jones and singers Norma Jean Wright and Luci Martin rounded out the lineup.
     How La Freak was created is one of my favorite stories from the era....it sounds funnier coming from the writer himself....

     "La Freak" became a #1 hit and one of the most iconic songs from the disco era. They had two top ten hits in 1979 before getting caught in the undertow of anti-disco sentiment, and broke up a few years later. Nile Rodgers became one of the most important producers of 1980's music being involved with many of the top names of the era. Over 30 years after disco era on the charts was over, "La Freak" and "Good Times" became two of the sparkling singles of it's time.

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BT Express--Do It ('Till Your Satisfied) (1974)

     For those who didn't live through it, (and for many who did) the disco era began with "Saturday Night Fever". Actually SNF was the apex of the era, since the sound from the dance floor began to filter on the charts for a couple of years before what is considered "the disco era". For me, this song was one of the songs that began that move.
     BT Express (which stands for Brooklyn Trucking Express) started out as the R&B group Madison Street Express in 1972 and changed the name with the release of "Do It". It reached #2 on the charts in the fall of 1974, and continued to charts for the next two years.

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Peter Brown--Dance With Me (1978)

     Peter Brown had no real interest in becoming a musician. His mother was musically gifted and gave young Peter music lessons, and his dad was an electrical engineer. Both streams of the gene pool  became part of Brown's early career as, because of his father's job, became well versed in many of the early electronic devices of the day, which included a two-track recorder in which he would fiddle around with overdubbing. He would also take an interest in the early versions of the synthesizer.
     Despite all of this, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago to study painting and graphic art. He loved music, never really saw it as a career. Enter Cory Wade who Peter met through mutual friends. Wade was a music producer, but was also connected to folks in the art world, and Brown was hoping to gain access to them to help his very new career. Using a 4 track recorder, Peter had experimented with different sounds using the keyboard and percussion. Wade, upon hearing those was very interested, and encouraged Brown to turn full time to music.
     Although he was never really a fan of the music, Brown began fiddling with disco since it was popular at the time, and put a band together to see what might happen. The demos that were cut were sent to Henry Stone, who was the president of TK records. Stone was so pleased with the result that he wanted to release the demos as is. Peter asked for some time in a proper studio (he was still recording with a 4 track), which he was granted to clean up some areas that Brown thought was deficient. The result was "Do You Want To Get Funky With Me?", which was a top 20 hit in 1977.
     "Dance With Me" was the second single, which reached #8 in the spring of 1978. He continued to write and record long after the disco craze waned, and is seen by many as a pioneer of "House" music. Other than his first two hits, he is best known as the composer of "Material Girl" which became a #2 hit for Madonna in 1985.  
     Brown began to develop tinnitus in his ears in the late 80's, and chose to leave music altogether. He returned to his first love of graphic arts, which he continues to do today from his home in the Rocky Mountains.

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Brooklyn Dreams--Heaven Knows (1979)

     Bruce Sudano was wanting to go home. He was with the group Alive N' Kickin who had a hit in 1970 with the song, "Tighter, Tighter", but subsequent songs failed to chart and they were drifting apart. Bruce wanted to continue in music, but with his own group. So he went back home and formed the group, "Brooklyn Dreams" with Joe Esposito and Eddie Hokenson.
     The debut album garnered good reviews if not good sales, and someone at Casablanca records thought of putting Donna Summer with the group for an album. This spurred the sales of their second LP, along with the single, "Heaven Knows" which reached #4 in early 1979. Although initially a pop rock band, they were swept along the disco tide, and like many other artists suffered when the craze ran it's course.
      Esposito went on to record songs that found themselves on several major movie sound tracks of the 80's. Sudano found much more than a band with another hit song. The 80's found him writing for many artist, but his biggest move was marrying Donna Summer in 1980. The couple have raised two children and live outside of Nashville TN.

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Alicia Bridges--I Love The Nightlife (Disco 'Round) (1978)

     Like fossils in amber, music will many times encase and freeze it's artists into a time frame. So much so sometimes, that they are defined by that certain period to the determent of their later career.  The rise and fall of disco is one of those periods. Many great songs came out of the era, but the trade off was that the artist was seen as a "disco" star, and when it went out of vogue, their career did as well.
     Alicia Bridges saw herself as a rock and blues singer. She had been singing since her days as a young child on her own show at WADA radio in Shelby, North Carolina. She co-wrote, "I Love The Nightlife" with Susan Hutcheson as a R&B number, but publisher Bill Lowery heard a disco tune in it and it was fashioned into a 12'' dance mix. His instincts were correct as the song shot up to #5 on the charts.
     A better representation of her music might be found in her follow up, "Body Heat", which while very danceable, had more of a straight ahead rock sound to it. and it scraped the bottom of the charts. Could she have had more success outside the disco era? It's hard to gauge. She might have been more successful if she had not been labeled a "disco diva"...on the other hand, "I Love The Nightlife" might have been her only shot at success. Either way, the song stands as one of the shining lights on an era, and one of it's best examples.

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George McCrae--Rock Your Baby (1974)

     There is much debate on what the first disco song is. At least for me, it's kind of like Rock and Roll, where there is really no "first" song, just a gradual development of the style. However, there are some songs that we can point to as huge steps in the popularity of the genre, and this is one of them.

     George McCrae had been singing for years in his native Florida, the last few he had been working with his wife, Gwen. Nothing much had been going on and by the mid-70's was planning to go to college to study law enforcement when he had an opportunity to record a song with a then untested songwriting duo, Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch.

     The song became a massive hit, not only reaching #1 in the US and Britain, but became a worldwide dance phenomenon. In fact, it is one of only a handful of songs to have sold over 10 million copies. McCrae had chart success until about 1977, but continues to release material and tour. Casey and Finch went on to form KC and the Sunshine Band and became one of the leading bands of the disco era.

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The Bee Gees--Night Fever (1978)

     Today is Barry Gibb's 65th birthday, and it's time to give him some props....

      I've never been a fan of 70's era disco, but it's not without it's charms, and although it turned into a record producer's version of spam, at it's peak it could be innovative (not to mention fun). Enter The Bee Gees. They had a long career by the time and at least to the public had dissipated from the popular music landscape. During this time however, they had continued to put out quality albums, and write...for themselves and for others. For those who were fans, the beginnings of what was to be the disco era Bee Gees could be found in the 1974 album, "Mr. Natural", when they shed the previous styles that they had been known for and sang in a looser style, with the tempo and tenor of the album was more upbeat.

      The next album, 1975's "Main Course" was the breakthrough. For those who think that Saturday Night Fever "made" the Bee Gees need to go here. They fully embraced the surfacing disco movement, but with a major difference. The Gibb brothers' writing skills had always been good, but by this time a new and exciting musical movement meshed perfectly in a way that gave some intelligence and depth to what was considered just glorified dance music.  

     The real songwriting leader during this time was Barry, and 1977/78 was his year. Consider that from December of 77 to September of 78, the charts were ruled by song written by the eldest brother. This is the list of No. 1's he had during this time:
  
     "How Deep is Your Love"
     "Stayin' Alive"
      "(Love is) Thicker Than Water"
      "Night Fever"
      "If I Can't Have You"
     "Shadow Dancing"
     "Grease"

     In fact, Gibb holds the record for consecutive #1's on the charts with six. Looking back 30 years later, there is a lot of dreck associated with disco music, and I'd be the first to point it out. But for anyone who is still not a believer, the Bee Gees (and the songwriting of Barry) was not only the class of the era, but produced arguably the best music of the 70's.

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