Disco? Get The Funk Out Of Here!

Side 2 of a C90 cassette that I recorded for Mrs. K on 21st March 2002.

I posted Side 1 in April 2023 and had thought that I'd get around to the follow up a little sooner!

Starting off in fine style with the mighty Barry White, there is no let up as Boney M. then Kool & The Gang get your boogie shoes working.

You wait ages for a bus (stop) then two come along at once! After the recent appearance of the album version of (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop by The Fatback Band, here's the single, shorter but no less sweet.

Both Sly & The Family Stone and Curtis Mayfield appeared on Side 1, but it was impossible to limit them to one song each, so they pop up again on this side with a couple of stone cold classics.

As before, I swapped out the single edit of Curtis' contribution for the full length album version; the same with Barry White, for your extended pleasure. I've also replaced the single version  of Van McCoy's The Hustle for the 12" disco mix, to balance out the running times of both sides.

The compilation ends and it starts, with Garnett Mimms & Truckin' Company and What It Is. The vocal single version opened Side 1 and the closer here is the 12" flip side, mostly instrumental with a smattering of backing vocals and a huge dollop of disco glitter.

After two days of upbeat grooves, something a little calmer for Monday....?

1) Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up (Album Version): Barry White (1973)

2) Sunny (Single Edit) (Cover of Bobby Hebb): Boney M. (1976)

3) Celebration (Album Version): Kool & The Gang (1980)

4) (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop (Single Version): The Fatback Band (1975)

5) Fight The Power (Part 1 & 2) (Album Version): The Isley Brothers (1975)

6) Family Affair (Album Version): Sly & The Family Stone (1971)

7) Kung Fu (Album Version): Curtis Mayfield (1974)

8) Get Down Tonight (Single Version): KC & The Sunshine Band (1975)

9) The Hustle (Disco Mix): Van McCoy ft. The Soul City Symphony (1979)

10) Take Me To The River (Album Version): Al Green (1974)

11) Don't Let Love Get You Down (Album Version): Archie Bell & The Drells (1976)

12) What It Is (Part Il) (12" Version): Garnet Mimms & Truckin' Company (1977)

1971: There's A Riot Goin' On: 6

1973: Stone Gon': 1

1974: Explores Your Mind: 10

1974: Sweet Exorcist: 7

1975: (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop EP: 4

1975: Get Down Tonight EP: 8

1975: The Heat Is On: 5

1976: Sunny EP: 2

1976: Where Will You Go When The Party's Over: 11

1977: What It Is EP: 12

1979: THe Hustle EP: 9

1980: Celebrate!: 3

Side Two (55:54) (GD) (M)

Side One here

Bad Santa VIII

Lord help me, is it that time of year again...?

Something that seems to have become an annual tradition, it's the last Sunday before Christmas and here's another Bad Santa selection, 25 tracks in just under an hour and cheaper than an inflatable reindeer to stick in your front garden.

I'll continue to post throughout the festive season and hopefully I will get to replying to your lovely comments...thanks for your patience!

1) Away In A Manger (Cover of traditional song): Josh T. Pearson (2011)

2) Last Christmas (Instrumental): Wham! (1984)

3) Holiday I.D.: Bullet Boys (1988)

4) Christmas Boogaloo: Big Boss Man (2000)

5) Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord (Single Edit): Boney M. (1979)

6) Blue Christmas (Remix): Dead Or Alive (2000)

7) One Christmas Catalogue: Captain Sensible (1984)

8) Lonely Pup (In A Christmas Shop): Adam Faith (1960)

9) Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Cover of Darlene Love): Holiday Sidewinder (2018)

10) Frosty The Snowman (Cover of Gene Autry & The Cass County Boys): Cocteau Twins (1992)

11) Got A Cold In The Node For Christmas: Gayla Peevey (1954)

12) Back Door Santa: Clarence Carter (1968)

13) Xmas In Motherwell: The Plimptons (2011)

14) Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Cover of Judy Garland): The Beths (2019)

15) All I Wants Is Truth For Christmas (Demo): The Anchoress (2024)

16) Eggknock: Jonwayne (2018)

17) Child's Christmas In Wales (Album Version): John Cale (1973)

18) Father Christmas (Cover of The Kinks): The Joyzine Christmas Band (2025)

19) It Will Still Be Christmas: The Boy Least Likely To (2020)

20) Christmas Ain't Christmas, New Years Ain't New Years Without The One You Love: The O'Jays (1973)

21) Christmas Alone: Yacht (2020)

22) Frosty The Snowman: Santa Sabbath (2015)

23) A Christmas Message From John & Yoko: John Lennon & Yoko Oko (1971)

24) Christmas Lullaby (Full Length Version): Shane MacGowan & The Popes (1996)

25) Seasons Greetings: Jonwayne (2018)

Bad Santa VIII (56:43) (GD) (M)

And, if you are a glutton for punishment, here are the previous Bad Santa selections from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2017 and 2016. 

Links are currently inactive, but I will have them up and running in the next day or so...

Unselfish Love

Another "one of those weeks" which I won't be sorry to see the back, whilst simultaneously fretting that 2025 is frittering away.

Music is the cure for all that ails ye, and that goes double for disco, especially on a Friday. I'm 99.9% sure that none of today's picks have appeared in previous Dubhed selections, so wrap your ears around these beauties.

Even the tech is less laggy, compared to yesterday. Music is the answer!

1) It's A Love Thing (Album Version By The Whispers, Dick Griffey & Leon Sylvers): The Whispers (1980)

2) I Got Protection (Album Version By Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards): Chic (1980)

3) Do Or Die (A Tom Moulton Mix): Grace Jones (1978)

4) You Can Do It (Special U.S. Disco Mix): Al Hudson & The Partners (1979)

5) Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night (Album Version By Frank Farian): Boney M. (1978)

6) Macho Man (Special Edit By Jacques Morali): Village People (1978)

7) Over And Over (Full Length Disco Mix By Harvey Fuqua & Wes Bradley) (Cover of Ashford & Simpson): Sylvester (1977)

1978: Do Or Die EP: 3

1978: I Am What I Am EP: 6

1978: Nightflight To Venus: 5

1979: You Can Do It EP: 4

1980: Imagination: 1

1980: Real People: 2

2002: François K: Choice: A Collection of Classics: 7

Unselfish Love (44:26) (GD) (M)

Hell Bent For Leather...Russia's Greatest Love Machine

I Start Counting were David Baker and Simon Leonard, a couple of Middlesex University students who started DJing then recording demos together. Daniel Miller was sufficiently impressed to sign them to Mute in 1984, with their debut album My Translucent Hands debuting in 1986.

In July 1988, a month after the release of second album Fused, I Start Counting released their sixth single. In an unusual move, the pair combined the closing track of Side 1, a cover version the theme from 1950s/60s US TV Western, Rawhide, with a deadpan take on a Boney M. song. Thus, Ra! Ra! Rawhide was born. I'm guessing this might have been a crowd-pleasing mix from their DJing days and Mute were prepared to take a punt, releasing the single on 7", 12" and limited edition 12" remix by Mark Moore and Mark McGuire. 

 

There was even an official video, which I'd not seen until researching this post but YouTube happily offered up.

 

I got the 12" single secondhand in the 1990s, probably as a multi-buy, bargain bin job lot, and repeated plays regularly veer between morbid fascination, in-on-the-joke amusement and grimacing at how truly awful it is. If the four-minute version wasn't enough for you, here's the Moscow Chicks Mix by I Start Counting which features on the 12" and throws in the synth riff from Kraftwerk's Radioactivity for good measure.

 

I Start Counting released what proved to be their seventh and final single, Million Headed Monster, in May 1989. David Baker and Simon Leonard recorded new material but subsequently decided that it warranted a rebirth and so in 1990 I Start Counting transformed into Fortran 5. That story is for another post.

 

In September 2021, the duo released two albums of outtakes, demos and early versions of tracks from I Start Counting's 1980s albums, Re-Fused and Ejected. Both are available on Bandcamp, the latter containing an (excuse the pun) raw version of Rawhide.

 

For people of a certain age, the definitive version of Rawhide of appeared in 1980, courtesy of The Blues Brothers:

And if all that has whet your appetite for the original versions, then here's the opening and closing credits of the Rawhide TV series from 1959, sung by Frankie Lane, and featuring a horse-riding cast including a certain Clint Eastwood...

 

...but nothing can match this clip of Boney M. performing Rasputin on Italian variety show La Sberla ("The Slap") in 1978. As scottyunitedboy2925 comments on another YouTube clip of the same song, 

 

"A group of Jamaican performers, founded in Germany, singing in English about a Russian with a Turkish backing track. That probably achieved more cross-country unity in 4 minutes than many diplomats achieve in their entire lifetime."

Frankly jaw-dropping, I feel exhausted just watching Bobby Farrell strut his stuff.

Like The Sweet Sound Of Hip Music

Well, after that week, the only thing for it is two hours of disco.

15 songs intended to put a smile on your face, a spring in your step and a groove in your hips, creaks permitting...

Happy Friday, everyone!

1) And The Beat Goes On (Album Version): The Whispers (1979)

2) Check Out The Groove (Album Version By Rodney Brown, Willie Lester & François Kevorkian): Bobby Thurston (1980)

3) Hopscotch (Remix By Larry Levan): Gwen Guthrie ft. Sly & Robbie (1983)

4) Get Down (Special Mix By Rick Gianatos): Gene Chandler (1978)

5) Make Me Believe In You (A Tom Moulton Mix) (Cover of Curtis Mayfield): Patti Jo (1976)

6) Rivers Of Babylon (12" Disco Version By Frank Farian) (Cover of The Melodians): Boney M. (1978)

7) Make Love To Me (12" Version): Helen Reddy (1979)

8) Vertigo / Relight My Fire (Full Length Version By John Luongo & Michael Barbiero) (Re-Edited In 2005 By Ben Liebrand): Dan Hartman ft. Loleatta Holloway (1979)

9) You've Got The Power (A Tom Moulton Mix): Camouflage (1976)

10) Don't Stop The Music (Album Version): Yarbrough & Peoples (1980)

11) Got To Be Real (Special Disco Version): Cheryl Lynn (1978)

12) Galaxy (Album Version): War (1977)

13) Party, Party (Long Version By Frank Farian): Eruption (1978)

14) Right On Target (12" Version By Patrick Cowley): Paul Parker (1982)

15) Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus (Full Length Version By Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte) (Cover of Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin): Donna Summer (1977)

Like The Sweet Sound Of Hip Music (1:59:44)

Are You Still Ready For The 70's Explosion?

Side 2 of a mixtape, originally compiled 16th September 1990. 

 

This selection comes with a health warning: whilst again raiding my parents' K-Tel & Ronco vinyl collection, as I did for Side 1, this side has D.I.S.C.O. (as opposed to D.I.S.C.O.) writ large. There are high doses of Saturday Night Fever and listeners may get a bad case of the Hee Bee Gee Bees. Again, some classics, some cheese and still no apologies.

 

Whilst I'm throwing in some completely unrelated YouTube links, it's probably worth looking up all of these songs for a visual, but I'm going to single out Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinox, as he seems quite keen to show off his luscious, flowing locks.

 

1) Stayin' Alive (Full Length Album Version): Bee Gees (1977)

2) You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (Single Version): Sylvester (1978)

3) I'm A Man (Khayem's So Macho Outrovert Re-Edit): Macho (1978)

4) If I Can't Have You: Yvonne Elliman (1977)

5) Boogie Shoes (Album Version): KC & The Sunshine Band (1975)

6) The Crunch (Part 1) (Album Version): RAH Band (1977)

7) Jive Talkin' (Album Version): Bee Gees (1975)

8) Rock The Boat: Hues Corporation (1973)

9) Never Can Say Goodbye (Single Version) (Cover of The Jackson 5): Gloria Gaynor (1974)

10) Boogie Oogie Oogie (Full Length Version): A Taste Of Honey (1978)

11) Rasputin (Album Version): Boney M. (1978)

12) Equinoxe Part 5 (Album Version): Jean-Michel Jarre (1978)

13) Dancing In The City (Album Version): Marshall Hain (1978)

14) Summer In The City (Special Disco Version) (Cover of The Lovin' Spoonful): Evolution (1978)

Side Two (54:43)

Side One here