I’ll go back to the 80s to start…when things were way more colorful in the club scene:
Title: Native Love (Step by Step)
Artist: Divine
Label: Break Records
Genre(s): Hi-NRG
Year released: 1982
With disco pushed back down to the underground, and electronic instruments moving their way into dance music, Divine was the perfect splash of no-holds-barred drag queendom that pretty much illustrated the real club scene in the early 80s. The song was written and produced by 80s legend Bobby ‘O’ Orlando, and it remains Divine’s biggest hit of her career.
The “Hi-NRG” genre designation was mainly a genre name for this dance music of the 80s. It wasn’t really seen as “new wave”, and “house” hadn’t become a known term beyond the underground of Chicago. However, one couldn’t use the term “disco” and hope for success back then.
I think beyond the song itself, the opening bassline became a staple of much house music for a period, as I’d hear variants of it looped on many releases.
This isn’t my usual forte for this topic, but I wanted to post it simply because Richard Spencer was actually paid some royalties for his famous break:
Title: Amen, Brother
Artist: The Winstons
Label(s): Metromedia, Pye, Festival
Genre(s): Funk
Year released: 1969
If you have never heard of this tune, or have no clue what the “Amen Break” is, then fast-forward the video to 1:26. You’ll basically hear the one sampled beat that became the backbone to some hip-hop, breakbeat, jungle, drum & bass, and much more.
The Winstons were a mixed-race funk and soul music group that started in the late 60s. They didn’t last long, but had released three singles. Their biggest hit was actually Color Him Father, which sold a million copies and won a Grammy in 1969. I’ve even read how it was a hit within the Northern Soul community in the Northern UK.
Despite the success, they didn’t last, and more or less fell to obscurity until DJs in the early days of hip-hop and breaks found love in the drum break on the Winstons’ b-side to Color Him Father, an instrumental tune called Amen, Brother.
At that point, it became one of the most sampled drum loops in history, next to James Brown’s Funky Drummer. Percussionist Richard Spencer never received a dime in royalties up until this week, when a GoFundMe campaign raised over $36,000 USD to give him as royalties.
This is one of those tunes I personally think is worth sharing to the younger generation…just to educate them in the history of all this.
+100 for Talking Heads – Slippery People. Must be a DJ track, takes lots of planning to make this work in a set (trust me I tried), but I think this song rocks!
Or what happens when a (gospel)Rock chick produces a track that is (sort of) danceable and you know the distributor for The Netherlands and try playing that out in clubs as a favor. Guess what? Made it work LOL!
I posted “The Breaks” earlier from the grand-daddy of Rap, but this is one on his debut album I liked even more. It’s a complete story, so listen to the lyrics 😛
He talks about what he is gonna do with someone unwilling to dance, there is a lot of that to be learned by all you young ones out there! That’s the true DJ attitude!
And do notice the first “shout-outs” promoting … Kurtis Blow.
Ah, yes, I remember Eartha Kitt. The golden 80s, everything was possible musically.
I have those maxis still in my old vinyl collection.
Personally I like more the ‘I like men’ track from 1984.
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