FROM HERE TO ETERNITY GIORGIO MORODER

Hansjörg Moroder (Giorgio) was born in Ortisei, Italy a beautiful mountain village in South Tyrol, The Dolomites.  A place I love and have skied in.  It is the part of Italy where most people still speak German as it used to be the southern part of Austria years ago.

What can I even say about this man and not sound banal?  I mean he is the king, the God of electronic disco.  Those of us who adore disco owe so much to him.  His innovative style and his perseverance in pioneering with the synthesizer just means EVERYTHING.

And just to think that he really got his peak of fame over the age of 70 with his work with Daft Punk that brought him to such an audience that had never even been born when he was cranking them out during the disco era.  He actually claims to have been a fan of one of their earlier hits One More Time.

I thought it would be only right to spotlight one of his most important solo masterpieces.  The seminal 1977 electronic romp FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.  A record which was from the album of the same name and strangely enough was not even released on a 12 inch maxi single. Here I bring you 250 mb.'s of versions.  From more recent edits to the original versions.  SO MANY VERSIONS OF IT

Who else out of the disco era has three Oscars and three Grammys?  No one else that's who!

Giorgio's first output on vinyl was in 1965.  He often collaborated with lyricist Pete Bellotte.  They worked together on his biggest projects including of course Donna Summer.  I Feel Love is of course the definitive masterpiece of electronic disco as well as the incredible theme from Midnight Express "The Chase" released in 1978.  Not many know that Munich Machine was actually Giorgio Moroder under another name.  Their track Get on the Funk Train was a definitive Paradise Garage classic.  Under this moniker he also used a variety of great vocalists.  

Blondie's biggest hit, #1 of the year when it came out, was from the film American Gigolo, Call Me was of course a Giorgio Moroder collaboration.

He recently worked with Kelis and is in the process of working with Lana Del Rey who is just about my favorite current female vocalist.  So I'm pretty well chuffed about that.

Most recently he's been touring as a DJ and doing gigs.  Considering the popularity of EDM not a bad move.

A Morning Music/Sleaze Mix, Various Artists DJ Mark Vallese

I find these two mixes particularly pleasing.  They were recorded at a party called The Sleazeball.  There's something for everyone including the fantastic Bob James Sign of the Times, Donna Summer's Love to Love you Baby, Soup Dragons even Amy Grant and a lot of other stuff that's not so obvious or played out.

The mix was done by DJ MARK VALLESE of the gay resort in Michigan called The Dunes.  I give my props to anyone that keeps the concept of morning music alive!  SLEAZEBALL

VINCE ALETTI's DISCO FILES FOREVER CAME TODAY

I finally got my hands on Vince Aletti's amazing book The Disco Files. It was originally only available via djhistory.com but now can be found in better bookstores. I got mine at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. Kinda pricey for a paperback at almost $40.00 but it's chock full of information. A veritable disco bible.

Disco Files was edited by Frank Broughton & Bill Brewster who brought us their own phenomenal disco history book Last Night a DJ Saved my Life which I reviewed in a blog quite a while back. Vince Aletti is currently the Photography editor of New Yorker magazine but back in the day he wrote a column for Record World magazine entitled Disco File. In this column he wrote about new releases not unlike the dance column in Billboard magazine later written by Brian Chin, Bill Coleman, Larry Flick and others. He also was in regular contact with many of the most important d.j.'s of the period and printed their Top 10 lists and a national Top 20 compiled from these lists.

Some of the early contributors include John Luongo reporting from various clubs in Boston, Larry Levan from when he was spinning at Reade Street, Walter Gibbons from Galaxy 21, Bobby Guttardo from Infinity, Tom Savarese from 12 West, Jay Negron and Paul Salari from The Playhouse in the Bronx and many other important early Disco pioneers.

The early part of the book is particularly interesting because it documents how the 45 rpm 7" single was first used by DJ's. Some had the vocal versions on side A and the instrumental on side B or Part I on one side and Part II on the other. So DJ's had to be creative with two copies to extend the dancing experience. Album tracks started to be replaced by the first PROMO 12" singles in 1975. As these wider grooves provided for better and louder sound. There were even a few, now rare 45 rpm singles without the large hole in the middle like in this otherwise unavailable extended mix of Tavares classic from 1975 It Only Takes a Minute which I have in my Ebay store. Click the title of this blog to have a look.

Use of imports were also quite prevalent by DJ's always prepared to wow an audience with something fresh. Now it's simply become the standard for all successful DJ's to spin a great deal of imports. Also the first dj record pool in New York started by the Loft's David Mancuso began in June 1975 and featured Vince Aletti on it's board of directors. Many artists actually performed for these DJ's or did a meet and greet in the office. Some included Faith, Hope and Charity, The Ritchie Family and the then new artist Donna Summer.

One of the crucial disco records of 1975 was The Jacksons Forever Came Today which has remained virtually unknown to their pop audience. Between their 1974 smash Dancing Machine and their first singles on Epic in 1976 the Jacksons had a dry period on the U.S. pop charts.

FOREVER CAME TODAY JOHN MORALES M & M FOREVER MIX