Sun Shower one of Larry Levan's last mixes along with a mini Mark Kamins tribute

*refreshed links by request, for the moment only 2 of the mixes are in it.  I may eventually update this again.
THE ZIP OF SUN
In September and October 1992 Larry Levan had a triumphant D.J. tour of Japan. Even though The Paradise Garage had closed five years before his star was still shining bright around the world. On that tour he played amazingly to rabid crowds but he was suffering physically due to his deep drug addiction.

One of his last remixes was Sun Shower by Nami Shimada. This deep house mix of a song by an 80's Japanese pop star was released in 1991 on Columbia records Japan. The 12" also featured a Mark Kamins dance mix. Danceteria legend Mark Kamins and Paradise Garage star Larry Levan enjoyed a particularly elevated status in Japan and could easily fill dance floors as often as they were willing to play in clubs like Gold, and EndMax.

When Mark Kamins came back home from this tour he made sure to bring me a few copies of this soon to be rare record and the cd too.  We both lived in Tribeca and he often walked down from North Moore to my loft on Chambers Street to hang out.  I will also associate my years in New York City to Tribeca and my great friendship with Mark Kamins.

Though I sold my white label 12" on Ebay a few years back. I do have a copy on mp3 of my cd version of it which I will provide here. It features the same mixes as the 12".

A few years ago on a visit to the city I attended The Loft,  David Mancuso played Sun Shower and it came as such a surprise to me.  I was dancing my heart out next to several Japanese couples and my shirt started to get wet.  Nope I wasn't sweating I was crying.  DAMN!  It sounded so wonderful and brought back so many memories flooding back.

As an added treat here is a minute of Larry Levan in the booth at the closing party of The Paradise Garage in September 1987.



Unfortunately Larry Levan died of heart failure on Nov. 8, 1992 just a few days after returning from his tour in Japan. Of his spinning on this tour Francois K. is quoted as having said, ‘It was so emotional because the message of all the songs said he was really hurting. We all felt it at the time, but I think he pretty much knew he was dying and all the songs he played were so deeply related to how fast life goes. He played Jean Carne’s ‘Time Waits For No One’ and The Trammps’ ‘Where Do We Go From Here’, and I realized that this was one of the best moments of greatness that I had ever witnessed in my life. It was so obvious, so grand, such a drama to it that you just knew.’

As usual I invite you to take a look at my Ebay store. Just click above on this blog title and it will take you right there. I've got several hundred vinyls offered at the moment, with new stock arriving every few days.
Lots of Paradise Garage and Loft classics too.

Special thanks to Welsh DJ Darren Stewart who provided the image of the cd cover up top. I sold it to him a while back and being that it's so hard to find I could not track down this image anywhere. Thanks Darren for making this post more complete.



On a final note Mark Kamins has left the stage.  He like Larry Levan died of heart failure on February 15, 2013 in Guadalajara, Mexico.  He had been working as the Dean of a music school.  He was a dear friend and a fantastic DJ.  An extremely successful tribute party in his honor was recently held at Santo's House Party in Manhattan.  I wish I could have been there but as per usual I was in Rome with my students.

As a special treat I'm including some videos from the Larry Levan tribute party May 2014 on King Street right outside the location of the original Paradise Garage.  Hopefully this street will soon be known as Larry Levan Way.

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Ship of Fools

I've always really loved this video.  And I of course have a major soft spot for Erasure as well as for Depeche Mode and Yazz.

Ship of Fools was a #6 hit for Erasure in the U.K.  in the U.S. they were still considered alternative even though A Little Respect made it to #14  and Chains of Love made it to #12 on the U.S. pop charts in 1988.  It took until Always in 1994 which peaked at #20 for them to have another major hit in the U.S.  and then they never did again.

Their domain was the dance chart where they had numerous hits including songs which made it to the peak position.

Erasure is a band to adore because they never shied away from wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

Here I am with Andy at a club called MARS in N.Y.C. in 1990.

ALISHA not just Baby Talk

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. April 16, 1968, Alisha Ann Itkin in art ALISHA came onto the scene in 1984.  With a sound truly influenced by Madonna yet with the pulse on the N.Y. underground ELECTRO scene she had her moment.  Unfortunately her career peaked before even hitting the age of 20.

Though she had three albums one in 1985, one in 1987 and the last in 1990 to me it was all about that debut album.  With both Mark Berry and Shep Pettibone on her team how could she lose?  An impressive 5 twelve inch singles were released off an album with only 6 songs!  How's that for working the marketing to the fullest?  She was also one of the few NON latino artists embraced by the FREESTYLE community.

In December 1985 she had her biggest hit when Baby Talk went to #1 on the Billboard Dance Chart.  But I think my favorite was Stargazin' because it was the least played out and I really love the lyrics.  Just a few years older then Alisha I too had stars in my eyes at the time.  But I guess I just had to content myself with being one of the most fashion forward and in your face kids on The American University quad.  AN ALISHA ZIP

PEOPLE MAGAZINE FLUFF PIECE FROM 1986

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FREESTYLE and ELECTRO in my EBAY store new stuff added regularly

FRANKIE KNUCKLES MIXES, THE PARADISE GARAGE 1978, WAREHOUSE 1981, more mixes and some reminiscing

WAREHOUSE CHICAGO 1981 MIX  YOUR LOVE  
So I'm a little late to the Frankie tribute game.  But I'd have to say that it's because I've been beside myself.  But by now I've cried it out and I'm ready to share, like I always do here in Disco Vinyl.
YOUR LOVE DUSTY KID EDIT

I feel like Frankie Knuckles is the soundtrack to my years in New York City.  He was freshly back from Chicago and spinning in The Crystal Room at The World in 1988 when I was just coming up in the club kid scene and working the ticket ripping post at The World's v.i.p. club IT.
FRANKIE MIX SOUND FACTORY 1991
Then magically he got to take over the wheels of steel at The Sound Factory for a period in 1990 to 1991.  Definitely the period in which I went to factory the most.  Why?  Because with Frankie you could be insured the pretty.  You knew you'd get female vocals and not just bitch tracks.  You knew you'd never get pots and pans.  Frankie had a dreamer's touch.  The magic of a man who loved what he played and wanted you to love it too.

And when the spot got snatched back and returned to Junior Vasquez, Frankie made the ex Private Eyes, Sound Factory Bar Fridays into the primo dance spot that it was for those years in the early 90's.  A cozy spot and a great night out with his sweet buddy Manny Ward spinning downstairs.
SOUND FACTORY BAR 1993
He got a gig in Philadelphia at a circuit party.  I can't remember the name other then it had colors in the title.  But I do know that agroup of my friends and I went down and had a great time.
THIS TIME FRANKIE KNUCKLES BOMB MIX
I remember I went up to the booth once at Sound Factory Bar and even though Frankie and I had only said a few words in passing over the years, he knew exactly who I was.  And when I handed him a cassette he gladly recorded the next 90 minutes and what a 90 minutes that it was.  I played that tape out!  If only I could figure out what I did with it.
A HOT ZIP OF FRANKIE MIXES
Oh and the tears on that last Friday night in 1995.  I remember a gorgeous moment when rose petals fell from the ceiling during the peak of This Time by Chante Moore.  One of the definitive Frankie Knuckles mix masterpieces.
NOTGONNACHANGE CLASSIC CLUB MIX
I also remember that night at The Roxy on a Saturday when Frankie debuted his mix of Swing Out Sister's NOTGONNACHANGE.  Oh my God it was simply astonishing.  I was dancing yet I felt like I was being transported into the heavens.  I might've had a little help in reaching those celestial heavens but I was in my 20's and that was then.
GROOVE ON wild pitch mix...another dance floor fave from that era

LIVE AT THE PARADISE GARAGE

SOUND FACTORY BAR 1991

Tracklist Sound Factory Bar mix from 1991.

1. Michael McDonald - All We Got (Shep Pettibone Remix) [Reprise]
2. Frankie Knuckles - Workout (Original Demo) [Virgin]
3. Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives (Red Zone Mix) [Arista]
4. Basscut - I'm Not In Love [Charisma]
5. C&C Music Factory - I wanna Rock and Roll ]Sony]
6. Sounds Of Blackness - The Pressure (Frankie Knuckles Classic Mix) [Perspective/AM:PM]
7. Mike Wilson Feat. Shawn Christopher - Another Sleepless Night (Red Zone Mix) [BMG]
8. Fast Eddie - Let's Go [D.J. International]
9. Trilogy - Love Me Forever Or Love Me Not [ACTO]
10. Frankie Knuckles - The Whistle Song [Virgin]

5 DEFINING TRACKS FROM FRANKIE'S CAREER ROLLING STONG MAGAZINE

What other DJ has his own street name?

And how many DJ's have ever been photographed with the President and the First Lady?

And what D.J. did they mention in the N.Y. Times?
N.Y. TIMES FASHION AND STYLE SECTION

DEEP IN VOGUE AND BREAK 4 LOVE 10's ACROSS THE BOARD…..

We here at disco vinyl like to keep it real and in an era pre 90's.  This is one of my first posts that gets up near that point in time.  First with Malcolm McLaren's genius Deep in Vogue featuring the late Willi Ninja who is forever immortalized by his appearances in one of the best documentaries of all time Paris is Burning.

I really can't say enough about this film.  The way it so incredibly captured a scene and an era will be inspirational to any documentary filmmaker.  Feelings that permeated what was so fresh about my first years living in N.Y.C. and the way ballroom culture had an effect on The Sound Factory the only club which could claim the title of carrying the torch after the closing of The Paradise Garage.  So many quotes from the film are still used in street lingo today.  And the ballroom scene never went away.

Deep in Vogue was clearly all about the ball scene when it came out in 1989 well before Madonna's Vogue mind you.

The documentary's release in 1990 inspired Madonna to invite voguers from the film to tour with her and to appear in her video for Vogue, which remains one of the biggest hits of her career.

The scene was also very much championed by Johnny Dynell who is still an incredibly popular and successful DJ in N.Y.C. usually featured at all of Suzanne Bartsch's events.

A RECENT BOBBY BUSNACH EDIT OF BREAK 4 LOVE

In 1987 a release out of Grove records in D.C. shook up the scene in a big way.  Break 4 Love became a standard of the ballroom scene.  Vaughan Mason the man responsible had done roller disco classics like Bounce, Skate, Roll.  It even was covered by The Pet Shop Boys a few years later. 

Here I provide you with a few versions of each to enjoy.

BREAK 4 ZIP

DEEP IN ZIP

ITALO DISCO HOLY GRAIL BY ROBERT CAMERO

The funny thing about this 1990 Italo Disco goes Hi NRG import on Lombardoni Publishing Recordings is the fact that they misprinted the title on the sleeve. They actually called it Let me Tall in Love on the cover.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ya9dcmetnhy

Not too swift, huh?

Severo Lombardoni was the well respected boss of Disco Magic Records and appeared on some of it's releases as an artist. He produced the 1982 classic by Delanuà How Many Fill and Alan Barry's Tell me the Reason just to name a couple. He's definitely Italo Disco legendary.



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Yvonne Elliman, Liza Minnelli and their Love Pains

Don't call Yvonne Elliman a one hit wonder. I'm sure she doesn't appreciate it and neither would I. It's not her fault one of her songs was included on the soundtrack to the most important disco movie of all time.

Years before that she was playing Mary Magdalene in the stage version of Jesus Christ Superstar. Prior to the SNF explosion she had a couple hit singles on RSO. Both Hello Stranger and Love Me made it to #13 on the U.S. Pop Charts. I know I remember cause I bought both 45's at the time and I used to write Casey Casem's American Top 40 down on paper, painstakingly listening to the entire four hour show every week.

Freddie Perren, who also worked with Tavares, among others produced her swan song If I Can't Have You one of the stunning tracks off the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and incidentally a #1 pop hit.

It was followed up by Love Pains in 1979 which barely dented the Billboard Disco Charts but was well known and liked enough to be re-hashed by Hi NRG disco San Francisco Label Moby Dick in 1982. There it was promoted to the hilt and got a little more attention but didn't exactly bring Yvonne into the nations living rooms.

The Pet Shop Boys produced a fabulous cover version for Liza Minnelli in 1989 but it didn't achieve the success of the albums first 12" Losing My Mind which they produced. It was originally written by Stephen Sondheim from the 1971 musical Follies. Here included in both 12", dub and Vision re-mix.

http://www.mediafire.com/?tfmvmddu3oq


http://www.mediafire.com/?wm3j4l5udkm

This zip includes three version of Love Pains. Enjoy it and patronize my Ebay vinyl store if you can. All you need to do is click on the title of this blog and it will deliver you to my shop. I've got over 1,000 items on offer at the moment and a new category called BARGAINS! where you can find hundreds of records priced at below $5.00. How's that for catering to the crappy world economy at the moment!

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