VOLUME 1 · LUCKY 13
Bobby DJ has great new songs for you.
Bobby DJ reviewed 103 new releases, and has developed some very nice summer sounds for you.
Don't Take Away Your Love / Keisa Brown. The first song in Lucky 13 is a special flashback to the summer of 1975. Keisa's "Don't Take Away Your Love" and Little Star Records' "Keisa Brown Live!" LP became one of the hottest disco cult songs at The Ice Palace on Fire Island, where Bobby was playing. Real disco was very new in the U.S. then, and you probably haven't heard of the song, or the artist. Keisa is from Atlanta, and is noted for telling the story in a song as it, was meant to be told. H.B. Barnum arranged and produced the LP, and it was recorded to give Keisa the freedom she enjoys rapping and playing with her live audience. Three years later, with a much wider disco audience, Keisa's talents should come through just as well for you as they still do when Bobby DJ plays.
Dancer Dance / Pussyfoot. Mick Flinn produced and arranged Pussyfoot's hot new Canadian disco disc on EMI/Canada, and it's packing the dance floors in Montreal and Toronto. You'll probably find a great and immediate audience response from this song, as it is somewhat reminiscent of "I Feel Love." As you hear it again, you'll find Mick's arrangements keep unveiling some nice twists and touches to keep the song wearing well, and your audience wanting more of it.
You're All I Need To Get By / Jaye P. Morgan. Jaye P. Morgan? Right on… the real, one and only Jaye P. Morgan. Bobby and JP became good friends after a memorable ride on the Great American Revolution roller coaster near Los Angeles last summer, and David Foster produced and arranged J.P.'s Candor LP with a topnotch group of musicians. Donny Gerard sings the lead male vocals with J.P. on the song Bobby selected (one of 9 on the LP), and Bill Champlin's Champletts provide the background vocals. Ashford & Simpson wrote the song, and the LP is presently available in very limited quantities from a few select stores in the San Francisco area.
I Can Hear Music / California. California is a new group from California (Los Angeles), produced by Curt Becher. Their new RSO disco single is literally making waves with the same song which the Beach Boys originally made famous almost 10 years ago. Curt also did the arrangements, with Joe Chemay, and both are to be congratulated on their excellent translation of the 1960's music form Into today's disco-oriented terms. It's hardly a remake with just more thumping… California's harmony and rhythm breaks would be just as welcome on your dance floor with an entirely new song as they are with this familiar one. "I Can Hear Music" will be part of a longer medley on California's debut LP, now being completed.
SPECIAL NOTE TO DJs: Side A runs 19:37, and builds slightly from 126 BPM (beats per minute) to 128.
Poinciana (Song Of The Tree) / Gato Barbieri. Gato is one of the world's most talented tenor sax players, and his new LP on A&M entitled "Tropico" has music they'll dance until dawn to. David Rubinson produced and arranged the song Bobby selected, and Michelle Barbieri conceived the super cover (with a surprise record sleeve in it) and was associate producer. The Automatt did the recording in San Francisco, and thank The Waters for those smooth background vocals.
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves / The Gospelaires. Bobby was driving through Clemson, South Carolina a few weeks ago when The Gospelaires started to sing on a gospel radio station. Bobby and group stopped the car, and got out and danced. No wonder! The Gospelaires are from Dayton, Ohio and are one of gospel music's most sought-after groups. The song is from their new Savoy LP entitled "Jesus of Nazareth" Bobby Eli (of Eli's Second Coming) co-wrote it with Jeff Pruson. The LP was produced with an ear for the dance floor by John "Love Machine" Daniels.
There Are Many Stops Along The Way / Joe Sample. Bobby ends this set with a very upbeat song from Joe Sample's first solo album entitled "Joe Sample/Rainbow Seeker" on ABC. Joe has been the keyboards player with The Crusaders, one of the world's continuing top-notch jazz groups, and The Crusaders (Joe, Stix Hooper and Wilton Felder) produced. Bobby feels that this song demonstrates again that talent moves the dancing floor, not necessarily music form.
SPECIAL NOTE TO DJs: Side B runs 18:30. It starts at 108 BPM, challenging you to downshift your audience's tempo gears with a minimum of gear grinding, and builds back up to 122 BPM.
The Best of DISCONET/Volume I. Be sure to return the feedback card. We want your scores, audience and personal reaction, and other comments… these help us bring you better and better programs. In addition to possibly winning a beautiful LCD chronograph watch (just ask Al Siewert, Joe Pandolfi, Donn Gray, Bob Viteritti, Chuck Charleston, or Al Paez what time it is, and they'll tell you to the 100th of a second!), your scores are very important for our final selection of "The Best of DISCONET/Volume I." We'll be presenting four bonus sides, with four mindblowing medleys of the songs you rated the best. Like "Automatom/1977" (the Top Tune medley for 1977), each bonus medley should raise the dead and pack your floor.
Volume 2. The next DISCONET program begins Volume 2. (There are, 13 programs in each "volume.") Bobby DJ is working on it now. Our sincere thanks to the disco DJs, discos, radio stations, and record labels and producers and artists that have been with DISCONET from the start. It was great to see so many of you at the Billboard Disco Forum IV, and when someone told us that they're still playing Volume 1, Number 1 once in a while and getting the same strong reaction that it did months and months ago, we felt real good.
Guest DJs. We'll try and work in as many Guest DJs as possible on Volume 2. There will be 13 programs, and Special Bonus Programs, between now and the end of the year. All it takes is an audition tape (reel to reel), your name and subscriber number, photo, and time and place of birth.
Tom heads east. Tom is now in Munich, Germany, working with Claudja Barry and Jurgen Korduletsch on Claudja's new LP. To keep his hands in shape for Volume 2, he'll be playing at La Pineta near the Adriatic Sea on the Italian Riviera for most of August. If you're in the neighborhood, drop in and say hello.
They don't sound the same. Much as a professional disco DJ gives his or her audience a wide variety of music each night, each DISCONET program has a distinctly different sound and feel. Each side of a program is a tool for you to use in constructing your magic musical jigsaw puzzle each night. So when you hear a new program for the first time, please remember that we're only giving you some new pieces to work with.
John Laug wins the LCD chronograph. John sent in his feedback card from Program 11, and his pressing serial number (#133) matched our winning number. We've sent John a big thank you and our solar-powered LCD chronograph. John plays at the Evening Edition in Cocoa Beach, Florida, and mixes back and forth between DISCONET #11 and A Taste of Honey's LP to claim a new world record of "Boogie Oggie Oggie" for 56 minutes in a row!