Category: Disco

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In Honor Of Dolly

This record is among the half dozen or so pieces of vinyl in my collection at the time that survived “the great purge” in the late 80s. I never thought it was a particularly good record, but it still held some sentimental value that caused me to keep it back then and even today I remember the afternoon I bought it—and where.

It was sometime in the fall of 1978. As is typical with Phoenix that time of year, it was balmy. The extreme heat was gone for the season but it hadn’t yet turned cold. I’d gone to Odyssey Records on the southeast corner of Camelback and 12th Street in search of something else, but this record was prominently displayed in the store’s 12-inch singles section. Naturally I’d heard it in the clubs by this point, but it hadn’t grabbed me enough to actually rush out and get a copy. It seemed that Dolly—like Rod Stewart—had been pushed in the disco direction unwittingly and it showed.

But then I saw it…the pink vinyl peeking out of the center hole of the sleeve.

I had to get it if only for that one aspect. Finding colored vinyl in the wild back in the day was a pretty rare occurrence. Would I have gotten if it were standard black vinyl?

In all honesty, probably not. This was years before 9 to 5 or Best Little Whorehouse in Texas or Fried Green Tomatoes. Naturally I knew who she was and I was familiar with many of her songs, but Dolly really hadn’t made an impact on my consciousness yet. Of course, all that changed over the next 40 years and while I considered Baby I’m Burnin’ more of a novelty than anything else at the time, it’s become one of my most treasured records.

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Tonight’s CD To MiniDisc Dub Session

Saint Tropez – Belle De Jour (1979)

I’d been a fan of Saint Tropez since their initial release, Je T’aime in 1977. It was sexy, slow-dancing disco, and in fact the main track from that album, Violation was the first time I’d ever slow danced with another man, David Martinez.

Belle de Jour is one of my favorite disco records from 1979 and one of only two album covers I have framed.

After I heard Belle De Jour the first time that night back in ’79, I left the club, gave up my prime parking spot and drove downtown to Circles Records. Firstly because if anyone in town had this record, it would be them, and secondly—well, they were open until midnight…

Sadly, they didn’t yet have it in stock, so I drove back to the club and was rewarded later that evening by the DJ playing the track a second time.

I did finally get a copy not too long after that and—like J’Taime—acquired a copy of its own translucent pink vinyl version via Discogs about ten years ago.

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Afternoon Tunes

Cerrone – Cerrone’s Paradise (1978)

Still coming off the high that was Cerrone’s debut, Love in C-Minor, the year before, when Cerrone’s Paradise appeared in 1978 I was less than impressed. I wouldn’t say I hated it, but it most definitely wasn’t Love in C-Minor.

It was only years later that I realized Love in C-Minor was a heavy collaboration with disco daddy Alec Costandinos of Romeo & Juliet fame. All of Cerrone’s releases subsequent to his first were his own work; his own sound. And over the years I came to love it.

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Afternoon Tunes

Cindy & Roy – Feel It (1979)

Obscure doesn’t begin to describe this one. It didn’t get much club play back in the day, and all the copies I’ve seen are marked For Promotional Use Only. It’s not great, but it’s not awful; middle-of-the-road disco would be a good description. It was their only release, and even now they’d rather not talk about it. There’s no CD release, so I dubbed my vinyl onto a shiny silver disc some time ago.

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Morning Tunes

Hott City – Ain’t Love Grand (1979)

This album—although never a commercial success (and as far as I know, the group’s only release)—holds a very special place in my heart. One of the few pieces of vinyl to survive my expensively-stupid great purge in the late 80s, I still have the original white vinyl copy that Steve Golden gave me all those many, many years ago.

Needless to say, it was quite a treat to stumble across the CD in 2024.

Don’t judge me.

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Afternoon Dance Party

Disco Discharge – European Connection (2010)

I had never heard this track before (weird, I know, right?) but I absolutely love it. It plays me.

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And Suddenly…

…it’s 1979 and I’m 21 again! 🥲 It’s Friday night and I’m getting ready to go out and meet my buddy Kent at Moon’s Truck for a night of dance, drink, and hopefully to catch the eye of a handsome stranger to round it all out with some unbridled debauchery. More often than not however, it would just be dance, drink, and slinking off to Denny’s on 7th Street for food at 3 am with the rest of the boys before heading home to finally get some sleep.

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Released 48 Years Ago Today

Giorgio & Chris: Love’s in You, Love’s in Me (1978)

Never one of my favorites, but looked back upon fondly, especially Burning the Midnight Oil.

I get the totally unsubstantiated feeling that Giorgio was fucking Chris at the time and was hoping to make her the next Donna Summer. Unfortunately, Chris didn’t possess the vocal talent of Summer and this is why I think this was a one-off album…

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Evening Listening And My Initial Thoughts On The Sennheiser HD600s

I Who Have Nothing and Take Me To Heaven: the first two songs I put through the new Sennheisers at angelic volume. Keeping in mind that these need a week or so to “break in” and it may change, as of right now I’m very happy with the purchase. They sound great right out of the box, and if anything, they’ve unabashedly revealed the differences between my CD players. Surprisingly, the oldest players I own, the D-10 and the D-15 (1988 and 89 respectively) sound significantly better than my newest, the D-EJ915 (1999/2000) and D-EJ100 (2004) but honestly, that may just be my imagination playing tricks.

They’re also high impedance and therefore power-hungry. On the older players I barely had to turn the volume control above it’s lowest setting to get decently loud with my other ‘phones; now I have to turn it about 1/4 of the way up. On the newer players with digital volume controls, I have to crank it to 3/4 of the way to max to get the same sound level.

On my main system, they’re

Comfort-wise, so far so good. The pads are big enough that they fit completely over my ears and the pressure on my glasses is minimal. We’ll see how that plays out as time goes by.

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