Welcome to the B-side.
This is where things get a little closer to the source.
The parts of the story that donāt always make it into the main piece. The details behind the sound. The personal notes. And the versions that really tell you how a track worked on the dancefloor.
If you missed the A-Side story, you can read it here. š
Every twelve inch had a B-side where the DJs and collectors found the extra tools: beats, dubs and alternate versions.
This is the B-Side of this weekās episode, where we dig deeper into the story behind the record. Read it in one go or enjoy the different sections on different moments. The choice is yours
š„ Mix 1 ā The Beats
Why Am I So Fascinated by Artists Going Disco?
On todayās B-Side I want to go a little deeper into a subject that has fascinated me ever since I started buying and collecting twelve inches: that short-lived trip, pop and rock artists, and apparently country artists too, made to the peak disco dancefloor.
And I still donāt really know why I find these records so fascinating.
When I started looking into this again in the slipstream of this weekās Dolly Parton story, I realised that Iāve already devoted episodes to quite a few of them: KISS, The Doobie Brothers, Boz Scaggs, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Barry Manilow, Roxy Music, Blondie and Elton John.
And looking at my list for the coming months, I can tell you there are more on the way. š
But why?
Why do I keep buying these records and wanting to know the stories behind them?
Itās one of those lingering questions I hope weāll gradually find an answer to as we move through time and more of these records get their story told.
Disco? Donāt touch it!
Sometimes I think part of it is that I feel the need to defend these records against the backlash some of the artists received afterwards, especially in the US.
Disco can still be a little radioactive today, but during much of the eighties you wouldnāt have touched it with a ten-foot pole. Remember the story I told about the Pet Shop Boys and how markedly different the US sales were for their first remix album, Disco, compared with the rest of the world? And much of it can be attributed to the title?
That stigma lasted.
Now, Iāll happily admit that some of these crossover attempts werenāt particularly good. Some stood out like a sore thumb in the artistās repertoire.
Elton Johnās Victim of Love immediately comes to mind. It is the only album in his enormous career from which he never performed a single song live. Not even immediately after its release. Elton later dismissed the whole thing as a mistake.
And still, I like it.
What can I say? š
A large part of that is probably the production, which pulls me in every time.
Or take The Beach Boys and their almost eleven-minute disco remake of Here Comes the Night. When they performed the disco version live, the reaction from parts of their audience was brutal.
I like that one too.
Although Iāll concede that it hasnāt aged particularly well, and Iāve always wondered whether choosing Bob Esty as producer was such a smart move. What worked beautifully for Cher clearly didnāt automatically work for The Beach Boys.
And that brings us to something that keeps returning in these stories.
