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> The Disco Box
Various
Artists
The
Disco Box (Rhino R2 75595) ©1999
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Copyright
©2000
PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Revised:
March 12, 2021. |
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Description: |
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Disco has
gotten a bit of a bad rap over the years. You had the hard rock "Disco
Sucks!" Nazis in the late 70s (they still exist in the year 2000, listen to
Everclear's single "A.M. Radio") who made the music go deep underground, popping
up over the years under other names like synth-pop, techno, rap... Even the
proponents of the music acknowledge that it was mostly just about getting high or getting
laid. Well, who the hell cares? The fact is, and this is the only thing that
matters, much of this is still damn good music. |
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What's Good About It? |
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This has
all the usual suspects, "I Will Survive," "Boogie Oogie Oogie,"
"We Are Family," "Good Times," et al, and while those are terrific
songs, they are far from the best stuff on here. Those don't even touch the smooth
dance groove spun in Carol Douglas' "Doctor's Orders" and Candi Staton's
"Young Hearts Run Free." If you like your dance music a little more down
and dirty, wrap your body around Disco Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes (a group of drag queens
doing live dance music) shakedown "Get Dancing." "Shame Shame
Shame" by Shirley & Company (the same Shirley who sang "Let the Good Times
Roll" back in the fifties) is teeth-chatteringly good booty-bumpin' jam and
does not deserve its relative obscurity... interesting but strange trivia fact, in 2001
David Bowie acknowledged when he and John Lennon wrote "Fame" in 1975, they were
trying to copy "Shame Shame Shame." There are dozens of dance classics
with only a few clunkers on the whole set. |
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What's Bad About It? |
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Most of
the fourth (and last) disk really is pushing the term "Disco." The last
song on the box set should be "Funkytown." Stuff like Kool & the
Gang's "Celebration," Patrice Rushen's "Forget Me Nots" and Freeez's
"I.O.U." aren't disco, they are just soul dance
music. |
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What's Missing? |
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I know
that it must have been impossible to license, but you can not ever tell the
history of disco music without having any songs by the BeeGees. It would be like
trying to talk about the history of rock without mentioning Presley or the Beatles.
On a more personal note, Rhino did a great job of tracking down almost every significant
jam, but how could they miss Odyssey's "Native New Yorker" or Santa Esmerelda's
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood?" |
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PopEntertainment.com
final grade:
A-
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Nearly wall to wall booty bumpin' magic. Very few
slow spots. A party in a box.
David Strohler
Copyright
©2000
PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Revised:
March 12, 2021. |
|
