🎧 The Crate of Carnal Knowledge, 10 Disco Records That Turned Up the Heat 🔥

The Twelve Inch 217 Addendum

Summer’s here (something that’s been impossible to ignore in Europe these past few weeks 😁), so what better time to give you a sneak peek at what usually happens every week on the B-Side?

I’m currently enjoying a holiday, which for me means reading, listening to music, and spending quality time with my partner, friends, and family. The regular schedule resumes next week, but to bridge the gap, I thought we’d turn up the temperature even more with a selection of ten disco records that were every bit as sexy, if not sexier, than Musique’s In The Bush.

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👋 Welcome, I’m Pe Dupre, thanks for stopping by.

This is The Twelve Inch, a community about the history of dance music from 1975 to 1995, told one twelve-inch record at a time.

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🎧 The Crate of Carnal Knowledge, 10 Disco Records That Turned Up the Heat 🔥

First things first.

My sincere apologies to everyone reading this somewhere in Europe.

I know.

It’s hot.🥵

I’m experiencing it myself as I write this.

So suggesting we spend the next half hour talking about disco’s naughtiest records is probably irresponsible.

And yet…

…here we are. 😁

Putting together this playlist was both great fun and surprisingly difficult. Not because there aren’t enough candidates, quite the opposite.

I could easily have made a Top 50.

Probably a Top 100.

Disco loved a good double entendre. Sometimes subtle, sometimes about as subtle as a brick through the bedroom window. So I forced myself to stop at ten.

Think of this as a guided tour through disco’s more mischievous side. Some of these records were banned by radio stations. Some were whispered about. Others somehow slipped through the net altogether.

No prudish posturing here. We’re all adults. Besides, you’ve read two chapters about sex and disco last week. Now it’s time to hear it.

Let’s drop the needle…

💋 It All Starts With Donna

Every good story needs a beginning, and so does this playlist.

If one record opened the bedroom door for disco, it was Donna Summer’s Love To Love You Baby. Today we’re so familiar with it that it’s easy to forget just how shocking it sounded in 1975. Twenty-three simulated orgasms later, the world of dance music had changed forever.

Of course we also know Donna herself was considerably more reserved than the record might suggest. The famous album-length version only exists because Casablanca boss Neil Bogart, reportedly calling Giorgio Moroder from the middle of a rather drug induced orgy party, wanted something long enough to fill an entire side of an LP.

The seventies really were… different. 😁

❤️ Barry White Didn’t Need To Shout

If Donna introduced disco’s most famous moans, Barry White had already proved that you didn’t actually need them. His voice did most of the heavy lifting.

I’m convinced, underwear around the world simply dropped down the moment Barry opened his mouth. 😁 Gravity had nothing to do with it.

If you remember our discussion about the original meaning of “funk,” on last week’s B-side, Barry White might just have been one of the funkiest men who ever lived.

I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby, presented here in a magnificent live version, is enough to make you sweat without any help from the current European heatwave.

😏 Some People Didn’t Need To Pretend

I’ve already devoted an entire episode to Andrea True’s More, More, More, so I won’t repeat the whole story here.

The short version? Andrea started her career in adult films. Let’s just say she probably needed less acting than most singers recording sexy disco records.

The title really tells you everything you need to know. She promised “More, More, More”…and she certainly had the professional experience to back it up. 😁

🔥 Ben Liebrand Turned Up The Temperature

Track four is another familiar friend to regular readers.

Poussez!’s Come On And Do It.

If you thought Donna Summer was pushing boundaries, wait until the breakdown arrives. Especially because I’ve chosen the later Ben Liebrand remix, where somebody clearly decided there simply wasn’t enough moaning on the original.

An understandable production decision, obviously… 😁

Legend has it that one of Dutch television’s best-known personalities provided those additional vocal contributions.

Whoever she was…

She fully understood the assignment.

🧴 Unlimited Supplies

One of my personal favourites comes next.

Slick’s Sexy Cream.

Apart from being a fantastic disco record, it features none other than The Sweethearts of Sigma, the wonderful voices behind countless Philadelphia soul classics. I’ll eventually dedicate an entire episode to Slick because they deserve one.

As for the cream…

Well…

It isn’t something you buy at the chemist.

Nor does it come in a handy tube.

The good news is that supplies appear to be unlimited, provided the circumstances are right and everyone involved is suitably enthusiastic.🤩

One detail has always amused me though. They seem determined to rub it absolutely everywhere. Which brings us rather neatly back to that original meaning of “funk.” 😂

😂 Barbara Markay Doesn’t Believe In Euphemisms

Human beings have invented an astonishing number of ways to avoid saying the word “sex.” Sometimes I wonder whether we’ve spent more time inventing euphemisms than actually having it. 🙃

Barbara Markay clearly had no patience for any of that.

No beating around the bush”.

Or indeed “in the bush”.

As she sings:

“It’s time to stop all this Puritan shock. Cause they are dead and we are Aliiive.”

Well…

Fair point. 😁

🙈 Beyond Hope

Now here’s a record that probably escaped the attention of roughly 99.9% of humanity. With a title like It’s All Rite to Fuck All Nite, radio programmers somehow failed to embrace it.

I know.

Difficult to understand. 🤔

The chorus doesn’t exactly hide its intentions either. “It’s all rite to fuck all nite and it’s ok to suck all day.” I suspect this wasn’t destined for Sunday morning family radio.

It did, however, make my Top 10. I’m probably beyond saving anyway.

🌈 Cruising After Dark

You already know that gay men were the beating heart of disco culture. Yet surprisingly few disco records dealt openly with gay sexuality.

The Boys Town Gang’s Cruisin’ The Streets is one of the rare exceptions.

If you only know the radio edit, you’re missing half the story. The full twelve-inch contains an extended spoken section set on what is clearly implied to be San Francisco’s Folsom Street.

There’s cruising. Flirting. Negotiating. A prostitute. Police officers. And a sequence that leaves remarkably little to the imagination.

When I was DJing in the eighties, I loved dropping just that spoken section into my sets. Not every party appreciated it quite as much as I did though… 😁

🤭 Arthur Russell Wasn’t Exactly Being Subtle

If Sexy Cream made you smile… Loose Joints practically removes all remaining doubt. Arthur Russell wasn’t interested in leaving much to interpretation.

When your lyrics include:

“I masturbated till my KY faded. Unh, I’m exhausticated. It’s all over your face. Tell me how does it taste?”

…even someone with the imagination of a beige wall will probably understand what’s going on. No radio station wanted anything to do with it.

The clubs certainly did. Released on West End and mixed by François Kevorkian, it became a Paradise Garage favourite. Larry Levan wasn’t exactly building his reputation on safe choices.

Thank goodness.

🚗 We All Know What Grace Was Talking About…

We finish where elegance meets innuendo.

Grace Jones.

Pull Up To The Bumper.

Apparently some people genuinely believed this was a song about traffic. Bless them.

With lyrics like: “Pull up to my bumper baby In your long black limousine Pull up to my bumper baby And drive it in between.”

…I’m struggling to think of any motorway interpretation. 😂

Curiously, in many non-English-speaking countries nobody seemed terribly bothered. The record received plenty of radio airplay, including here in Belgium, where I still hear it regularly. Perhaps not understanding every word occasionally has its advantages. 😁

🪩 Enjoy… Responsibly

So there you have it.

Ten records that demonstrate just how enthusiastically disco pushed boundaries.

Or perhaps…

…how enthusiastically disco pushed, full stop. 😁

I’ve gathered them all into one handy playlist for your listening pleasure.

Whether you use it for serious music appreciation, a romantic evening, or simply to discover ten wonderfully cheeky pieces of dance music history is entirely your business.

I was brought up not to ask awkward questions.

And I’m certainly not going to start now.

Whatever your plans…

Enjoy.

Listen to it HERE

• Love To Love You Baby (Full Album Mix) (Donna Summer)

• I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby (Barry White)

• More More More (A Tom Moulton Mix) (Andrea True Connection)

• Come On And Do It! (Ben Liebrand Remix) (Poussez!)

• Sexy Cream (Slick)

• It’s All Rite To Fuck All Night (Barbra Markay)

• Cruising The Streets (Full Version) (Boys Town Gang)

• Is It All Over My Face? (Loose Joints)

• Groove Me (Fern Kinney)

• Pull Up To The Bumper (Grace Jones)

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