White rockers doing funk/disco records in the late seventies

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At the time considered a sell-out, but now it sounds pretty great. What are the best examples of this genre? The Stones' 'Miss You' is probably one of the best known. Kiss practically made a career out of it. Bowie's funk/disco/rock on Station To Station has never been surpassed. The disco beats on Scott Walker's Nite Flights tracks are pretty sublime. Does Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy deserve a relisten?

― L.H.O.O.Q, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 08:22 (twenty years ago)

I wouldn't chuck it out of bed.

The ghost of Dan Hartman to thread, obviously.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

Paul McCartney's "Temporary Secretary" is absolutely mighty, though I dunno if it counts (1980, IIRC).

― Telephonething, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

Does Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy deserve a relisten?

Not, it doesn't. And "Temporary Secretary" is a miss as well.

However, ELO's "Shine a Little Love" was great because they managed to add a disco beat and still sound completely like ELO, losing none of the elements that made ELO great.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 08:45 (twenty years ago)

However, the Horst Wessel Song was great because they managed to add the agonised, dying screams of the Reichstag plotters and still sound completely like Nazis, losing none of the elements that made Nazism great.

― Heir Gongro (nostudium), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

Bfah! I have just as much loathing for McCartney as anybody, but "Temporary Secretary" is just brilliantly stupid, and eminently danceable to boot.

― Telephonething, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 09:12 (twenty years ago)

Blondie - Heart Of Glass

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 09:15 (twenty years ago)

The Clash - Magnificent 7 etc

― bham, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 09:36 (twenty years ago)

Cheap Trick - Gonna Raise Hell (bonus pts. for being ten minutes long)

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

The Who - Sister Disco and Eminence Front. Jolly good, those two.

Geir OTM about ELO.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

Well, as I've said before, I'm not sure that the King of Clodhopping Manacled Drumming, Bev "Vote Tory" Bevan, ever quite got his hairy palms around the concept of disco...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 10:28 (twenty years ago)

Bevan was always quite steady 4/4 in his drumming, so it probably wasn't too difficult for him to transcend to disco.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

Bevan was always a right-wing fascist nutcase, so it probably wasn't too difficult for you to like him.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

Bevan was always a right-wing fascist nutcase

I suppose you are basing this on his musical taste alone, like you usually do. Right?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

No I based his drumkit on your skull. Has it been squashed yet? Wrong?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 10:58 (twenty years ago)

Hows about Three Dog Night's "We can get together"?

Also: Average White Band (Scots disco a la Rod!). And weren't the people who did "Play that funky music" white, sorta ironically?

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

And weren't the people who did "Play that funky music" white, sorta ironically?
I think that may have been their only funk song, as a response to people who always wanted them to play funk/disco when they played in bars.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 11:30 (twenty years ago)

Van Halen's "Push Comes to Shove"…from 1981…that's close enuff, ain't it?

I suspect that this was a Roth/Anthony tune that Edward and Alex hated…

also, if you've never heard Judas Prayst's "Killing machine," you should. boasts an unbeatably funky groove. off of "Hell Bent for Leather."

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

http://www.doctorhook.com/images/45s/SexyEyes.jpg

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

I have a soft spot for the Jefferson Starship's weirdly spooky (and hopelessly dated) "Love Lovely Love" from 1976. The swirling strings make it a disco record, if nothing else.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 15:00 (twenty years ago)

Beach Boys "Here Comes The Disco Night".. yeah!

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

otherwise, half of the late seventies to thread.

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

there's a Chicago song that OWang posted on Soul Sides a while ago called "Street Player" that was surprisingly killer.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:22 (twenty years ago)

Wet Willie's "Weekend" - really limp, but I like it in a guilty-pleasure sort of way.

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

And then there was Macca's "Coming Up", too. Which I sure like less than teh "Secretary", tho.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

there's a Chicago song that OWang posted on Soul Sides a while ago called "Street Player" that was surprisingly killer

You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard Bucketheads' (Kenny Dope Gonzalez) "The Bomb", which is made exclusivly of chopped bits of "Street Player".

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

Heart-Straight On

― Marxism Goes Better With Coke (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

The Who - Sister Disco and Eminence Front. Jolly good, those two.

too early and too late. "sister disco" was originally written/demoed by townshend in 1976, long before any anti-disco backlash set in -- hell, a full year before saturday night fever was released. but then, because of their glacial studio working habits (and unstable drummer), it didn't get recorded/released until 1978, by which point they looked like bandwagon-jumpers (either the "we have a disco song too!" bandwagon, or the "disco sucks!" bandwagon -- the latter a result of willful misinterpretation).

"eminence front" was recorded/released in 1982, and was more skeletal funk than disco. also a brilliant way of recontextualizing entwistle's playing.

― Lawrence the Looter, Saturday, 5 April 2008 11:20 (eighteen years ago)

Kinks - Superman. What was the Grateful Dead song ... Shakedown Street.

― zaxxon25, Saturday, 5 April 2008 21:50 (eighteen years ago)

Kiss practically made a career out of it.

um, actually it was just ONE song that i am aware of -- the classic "i was made for lovin' you".

― Eisbaer, Sunday, 6 April 2008 21:11 (eighteen years ago)

Wasn't "Strutter '78" a little bit disco-fied version as well?

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Sunday, 6 April 2008 23:47 (eighteen years ago)

"New York Groove" by Ace Frehley probably counts, too.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 6 April 2008 23:56 (eighteen years ago)

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