Vince Aletti's "The Disco Files 1973-78"

http://www.djhistory.com/files/imagecache/feature_image/files/books/images/DiscoFilesCover.jpg

Okay, there was talk about this new book over on this thread but it deserves a separate one because I'm pretty much ready to call this the music history book of the year with two-thirds time left to go. The exchange rate may not be the best right now but beg, borrow or steal cause you need this.

Part of the reason why is an essay reprinted from the Village Voice in August 1976 called "I Won't Dance, Don't Ask Me," which has knocked me completely sideways as being something close to, if not the, first and possibly most clearly realized historical statement that spells out the division between 'rock writing' (and consequent codification and valorization of certain sounds and approaches) and where musical developments in general were going then, and ultimately from there. Ostensibly it's an essay about Dave Marsh's negative review of a then-new Archie Bell album but that's just the hook to hang this all on.

The Quietus has posted said essay in full as a taster (along with the equally good "The Men in the Glass Booth") and you owe it to yourself to read the whole thing. A key section:

Because disco evolved quite naturally out of rhythm & blues and more technically advanced soul, this attitude springs first of all from a widespread critical unease and unfamiliarity with black popular music....the average rock critic's taste in black music was fixed in the '60s with the Motown and Stax/Volt sound, recognizing only modern extensions of those styles -- tight, hard-edged and "black" -- as valid. But even those critics with a wide-ranging interest in and sympathy for black music in general tend to view disco as predictable ("It all sounds alike"), alienated from its r&b roots, anonymous and studio-slick....

(Bell's) "Dance Your Troubles Away" is, in movie terms, an "entertainment" -- an album not just for dancing but about dancing, a celebration of release and shared ecstasy. The message, plain and simple: "Music was designed for the body/It's the perfect remedy/So if you wanna feel better/Come on out here and get down with me." But Marsh isn't ready to get down; even a grudging acknowledgement of several "fine dance cuts" is taken back immediately with the comment that "they aren't anything more than that." What more, exactly, do they have to be?

Then there's the conclusion:

Although it's been the main crossover music of the past few years -- and the first substantial bridge between white performers and the black audience since jazz-rock -- disco music has also begun to draw certain social lines more clearly than before, defining two audiences, each in near-total ignorance of the other's music save for what gets through on the radio. That this ignorance should be wilfully shared by a large part of the rock press is pretty dismaying, and it suggests not only a critical hardening of the arteries, as John Rockwell wrote in the Times, but a desperate attempt at shoring up the bastions of rock & roll against the first wave of a Third World assault.

Reading the actual files themselves is going to be a total treat, I can already tell. I've been dipping in and out of them since I got the book yesterday.

I read your post yesterday. You're right: it's mouth-watering. Is this getting a domestic release? As of yesterday, it's not on Amazon.

No idea whether or not it is -- certainly it deserves it.

From a 2001 interview with Dave Marsh:

Here's what happened. I wrote a piece about some of the r&b vocal groups that had been desperately trying to make disco--Archie Bell & the Drells. And Vince Aletti wrote a brilliant rejoinder to it in the Voice, which totally changed my mind about what was going on. And really--I think I may have called Vince and apologized.

http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/davemarsh/01.html

!

I would like it if Marsh called me and apologized. For a variety of things.

I've heard there is a potential U.S. release for this but nothing is in stone, apparently.

My copy arrived last night. It's a little overwhelming. (And the exchange rate is better than it's been in a long time.)

Want!

how does it work?

i mean, is it charts and stuff with commentary?

I've heard similar to Matos -- apparently there's a small batch of copies that will see a Stateside distribution but beyond that, up in the air.

More like commentary with charts and stuff. There's a PDF preview in that first link, download it and see!

oh wow

they're selling unbound, xeroxed, 3-ring-binder'd editions of this at white columns for $50/pop

It really is every column he did for Record World plus some other writing, and accompanying DJ charts for each column, as well as some "official" charts (compiled from larger data). I'm almost afraid to pick it up because I won't get anything else done.

You can send it to me and we'll both be grateful.

Very tempted to get this, I'm reading Peter Shapiro's 'Turn the Beat Around' at the moment and Aletti's name keeps popping up.

From Bill Brewster's Twitter:

Disco Files author Vince Aletti on EV Radio on Thurs April 30th 2pm-4pm NY time: http://bit.ly/c9bku

I've had this for a few days now. Been busy with other reading so just had a little skim through. Looking forward to getting in to it.

and the first substantial bridge between white performers and the black audience since jazz-rock

this gets a huge WTF from me. Black audiences were digging on white jazz rock? Really?

ya

yeah, i thought this was a "known" thing, esp. the smoother side of jazz-rock.

huh. any examples?

Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock. What else would it be?

weather report, metheny
xpost

Wasn't the idea for Miles and Herbie to cross over to younger funk fans anyway? I guess I'm surprised that you're surprised.

I knew that was the goal for Miles but I thought he mostly crossed over to younger WHITE audiences, (seeing as how black jazz intelligentsia seems to have hated Miles' electric period, cf. Stanley Crouch...?) Herbie I get, but I never really considered him jazz-rock and also um, dude is BLACK and the ref above is specifically to white jazz rock bands. I've just never heard of Metheny or Weather Report or Mahavishnu having large black audiences.... maybe cuz all the people I've ever met who were into this stuff were white nerds, I guess (but that's all after the fact, ie in the 80s and 90s)

not really sure of the source of this but whatves
Pastorius entered Weather Report during the recording sessions for Black Market, and he became a vital part of the band both by virtue of the unique qualities of his bass playing, his skills as a composer and his exuberant showmanship on stage. His stage act and melodic, propulsive solos brought Weather Report a large new black audience; before his arrival the band had mostly pulled in white college fans.

also there was something about metheny talking about the diversity in his crowds and the large black audience he gets in detroit (lol)

Yeah, but the young black audience and the older jazz intelligentsia are pretty different groups. And I didn't see the full quote until just now--I think that's not so much about white bands, per se, as white players generally.

"older"? Stanley Crouch was 25 in 1970.

which granted is not 18 or whatever, but did teenagers really dig On the Corner?

older than Stanley Crouch in 1970, even--imagine. anyway, I don't think teenagers liked OTC either. none of which is to say I'm trying to be overly prescriptive here; I'm just less surprised by that bit, and see it with a slightly different emphasis.

Got the book this week and am reading through 1975 at the moment. It certainly has me hunting online for a whole lot of disco I've never heard/heard of. Fun stuff so far.

i've just dipped in and out of this really - bit worried that i'll get suckered into it and get nothing else done for a week!

Finally upped and ordered and anxiously awaiting.

Did I mention how crazy good this week was in dance music?

NOVEMBER 6, 1976

BOOMBAMAKAOO, NEW YORK
DJ: Jorge Wheeler

ANOTHER STAR – Stevie Wonder (Tamla)
DON’T WALK AWAY– General Johnson (Arista)
DOWN TO LOVE TOWN– Originals (Motown)
GOIN’ UP IN SMOKE/THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES/MUSIC MAN– Eddie Kendricks (Tamla)
I BELIEVE IN LOVE– Rock Gazers (Sixth Avenue)
LIKE HER!– Gentlemen & Their Lady (Roulette)
MESSAGE IN OUR MUSIC– O’Jays (Phila. Intl.)
SPRING AFFAIR/SUMMER FEVER– Donna Summer (Casablanca)
WHEN LOVE IS NEW– Arthur Prysock (Old Town)
YOU’RE MY DRIVING WHEEL– Supremes (Motown)

PIPPINS, NEW YORK
DJ: The Reggie T Experience

ANOTHER STAR/I WISH – Stevie Wonder (Tamla)
BIYO– Earth, Wind & Fire (Columbia)
CAR WASH– Rose Royce (MCA)
DANCIN’/MUSIC IS THE WORLD– Crown Heights Affair (De-Lite)
GOIN’ UP IN SMOKE/MUSIC MAN– Eddie Kendricks (Tamla)
I DON’T WANNA LOSE YOUR LOVE– Emotions (Columbia)
SPRING AFFAIR/SUMMER FEVER– Donna Summer (Casablanca)
WELCOME TO OUR WORLD/I LIKE TO DANCE– Mass Production (Cotillion)
WHITE WIND– Black Ivory (Buddah)
YOU’LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER LOVE LIKE MINE– Stanley Turrentine (Fantasy)

TRAMP’S, WASHINGTON, D.C.
DJ: Linda Schaefer

CAR WASH – Rose Royce (MCA)
CHERCHEZ LA FEMME/SOUR AND SWEET– Savannah Band (RCA)
DAYLIGHT/SHOULD I STAY/I WON’T LET YOU GO– Vicki Sue Robinson (RCA)
DOWN TO LOVE TOWN– Originals (Motown)
I DON’T WANNA LOSE YOUR LOVE– Emotions (Columbia)
IT’S GOOD FOR THE SOUL/DON’T BEAT AROUND THE BUSH/RITZY MAMBO– Salsoul Orchestra (Salsoul)
MIDNIGHT NIGHT AFFAIR– Carol Douglas (Midland Intl.)
MY SWEET SUMMER SUITE– Love Unlimited Orchestra (20th Century)
SPRING AFFAIR/SUMMER FEVER– Donna Summer (Casablanca)
YOU + ME= LOVE– Undisputed Truth (Whitfield)

END UP, SAN FRANCISCO
DJ: Tom Junell

CHERCHEZ LA FEMME/SOUR AND SWEET/ I’LL PLAY
THE FOOL – Savannah Band (RCA)
DOWN TO LOVE TOWN– Originals ( Motown)
FULL TIME THING– Whirlwind (Roulette)
GOIN’ UP IN SMOKE– Eddie Kendricks (Tamla)
I WISH– Stevie Wonder (Tamla)
MAKES YOU BLIND– Glitter Band (Arista)
MIDNIGHT LOVE AFFAIR– Carol Douglas (Midland Intl.)
SHOULD I STAY/I WON’T LET YOU GO – Vicki Sue Robinson (RCA)
SPRING AFFAIR– Donna Summer (Casablanca)
YOU + ME = LOVE– Undisputed Truth (Whitfield)

I mean, that's a poll right there.

Was up visiting NYC this past week and went to Coney Island Saturday night where I happened to see the Coney Island dancers (and anyone else who wanted to join in) dancing both couples style and solo to a dj spinning Latin-tinged disco. Not exactly the '70s but hearkening back to that era...

From their myspace site:

C.I.D. HAVE BEEN PARTYING ON THE BOARDWALK SINCE THE EARLY 90'S. BACK THEN BLACK UNDERGROUND WAS IN CHARGE AND THE EVENTS WERE KEPT TOP SECRET JUST LIKE THE PARADISE GARAGE.IN OTHER WORDS, WORD OF MOUTH WAS THE WAY TO FIND OUT ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON THE BOARDWALK. EVENTUALLY TECHNOLOGY CAME ALONG AND THE CHANGING OF THE (D.J.) GUARD. LAST YEAR (2008) WE THE DANCERS - THE LEGENDS OF C.I.D. - DECIDED TO EXPOSE WHAT WAS GOING ON, BECAUSE IT WAS TIME TO SHARE THE FUN WITH THE PUBLIC AND PASS THE TORCH TO THE NEXT GENERATION. SINCE DOING THIS, HOUSE MUSIC, FUNK, AND DISCO ARE ON THE COMEBACK AND BEING ENJOYED EVEN MORE THAN EVER. WHEN THE CONEY ISLAND DANCERS CLOWN LOGO CAME ALIVE, IT GAVE US A FEELING OF UNITY, EMBODYING THE COMMUNITY SPIRIT. BACK IN THE DAYS (70'S, 80'S) AT UNDERGROUND CLUBS LIKE PARADISE GARAGE, THE LOFT, THE FUNHOUSE, AND CLUB ZANZIBAR, PEOPLE OF ALL DIFFERENT SHAPES, SIZES, COLORS, AND SEXUAL ORIENTATIONS CAME TOGETHER TO ENJOY THE MUSIC. OVER THE YEARS, THAT UNITY HAS DISAPPEARED TO SOME EXTENT. NOW, ON THE BOARDWALK, WE ARE BEGINNING TO FEEL THE SAME ATMOSPHERE AS THERE WAS IN THE PAST. ANYONE, NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE OR WHERE THEY COME FROM, CAN HAVE A GOOD TIME SHARING THE MUSIC AND THE ENERGY OF THE C.I.D. FOR FREE!!

i keep meaning to check out Paul Morleys disco special in which he chats to Vince (along with Bill Brewster, and Luke Howard):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/20/paul-morley-disco

damn you mortgage paying work for keeping me from the good stuff.

I've just never heard of Metheny or Weather Report or Mahavishnu having large black audiences.... maybe cuz all the people I've ever met who were into this stuff were white nerds, I guess (but that's all after the fact, ie in the 80s and 90s)

― Kool G Lapp (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, June 3, 2009 3:34 PM Bookmark

My dad (black, born 1958) definitely has Weather Report records.

just started reading this and wow! goldmine. the record world columns are chock full of fascinating data and the 1976 village voice takedown of anti-disco rock critics is OTM. also rhapsody/youtubeing some of the tracks mentioned: "I Like What I Like" Everyday People, Isaac Hayes' "Pursuit of the Pimpmobile" "Wild Safari" Barrabas more more more...