Saturday, August 25, 2012

I feel love



Found this great version of Donna Summer's I Feel Love on the blog of author Will Hermes, the man behind the book Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever.

He has some great excerpts from his book on his blog, to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1977 NYC blackout.

My favourite moment is the day after the blackout, when power came back on, and Hermes writes that "...most of us New Yorkers picked up our lives as we had left them. But quite a few kids across the Bronx and elsewhere were wiring up brand-new sound systems—determined, now that they had the gear, to learn how to DJ."

LISTEN: Will Hermes, author of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire talks to National Radio's Trevor Reekie about Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever." Listen to the interview on RNZ site here.

There's a great doco called NYC 77: The coolest year in hell (made in 2007) that is well worth watching, find it here on Youtube.


Also from his book, on the late Ms Summer...

"On May 13, 1977, Casablanca released Donna Summer’s I Remember Yesterday. A concept album about musical evolution, it ends with a song that is ostensibly the future: “I Feel Love.” She cooed, “Love To Love You Baby” style, over a chugging track made up entirely of synth beats and arpeggiated chord washes, a yin to Kraftwerk’s yang. New York DJs loved it instantly. As unprecedented as “Trans Europe Express,” it became just as essential, an electronic dance music template. 

Blondie covered it live, faithfully, with Chris Stein adding Santana-style guitar licks. In Berlin, Brian Eno rushed into the studio where he and David Bowie were working on Heroes with a fresh copy of the record, raving that it would change the sound of club music “for the next 15 years” (Eno was fond of grand statements). One can imagine the record spinning while the two Philip Glass fans listened to its hypnotic repetitions, the sonic possibilities blooming in their minds like flowers in a stop-motion film."

2 comments:

Grapple said...

stumbled across that NY77 doco accidentally on Tv a few years back ...it's amazing !

Peter McLennan said...

Cheers, Grapple, yeah that doco is very cool, love how it's put together too, great visuals