All language subtitles for disco.soundtrack.of.a.revolution.s01e02.alternative.cut.1080p.web_Subtitles01_Unnamed.ENG

The disco sound was just wonderful.

It was exciting.

Powerful.
You know, spank you.

And you just had a good time.

Disco brought together Black Pride,

women's liberation and LGBT culture.

It was the coming together
of that that made it so powerful.

Listening to the music and...

..and letting yourself go,

you become a different person.

Supernature

Supernature

Supernature

Supernature...

It was this powder keg
chain reaction that happened

that made it suddenly
totally take over the airwaves.

Supernature...

It was, of course,
Saturday Night Fever

that really tipped everything over,
that tipped the scales.

It just set the world on fire.

Disco was on everybody's lips.

Clubs were packed every night.

Studio 54.

I created it as a playground -

sex, drugs, disco,
whatever you need.

In the late '70s, the outsider
became the insider.

The black disco diva
was a breakthrough persona.

Someone like Donna Summer,

she was a disco queen.

Don't forget Gloria
in all her glory-a.

Supernature...

I think that era of music allowed
the disco diva to have this stage

to be adored and celebrated.

Disco freed me.

It saved me.

RICHARD NIXON: In all the decisions
I have made in my public life,

I have always tried to do
what was best for the nation.

Throughout the long and
difficult period of Watergate,

I felt it was my duty to persevere,

to make every possible effort
to complete the term of office

to which you elected me.

In the mid 1970s, the United States
was not a happy place.

There was the Watergate scandal,

and any faith that Americans
had in government

was shaken to its core.

What percentage of the
American people do you think

still have confidence
in President Nixon?

Well, among young people, very few.
I'd say less than 25 percent.

NIXON: Therefore, I shall resign the
presidency

effective at noon tomorrow.

OVER PA: Richard Nixon has announced
he will resign

as president of the United States at
noon tomorrow.

In my life and everybody I know,
Nixon was detested,

but it was an intense period
of time.

You knew you were living history.

You knew that this is monumental.

It was a hard time

because of the Vietnam War,

also a nuclear bomb threat.

And Russia, you know, that they
might drop a bomb any day.

Oh, my God. What we gonna do?

The flip side of this dark moment is
that...

..when life gets hard,
you party harder.

I was living in New York
in the 1970s.

All we wanted to do
was dance to disco music.

I never can say goodbye...

It was a freedom.

It was like, express yourself
was so welcomed and wanted.

And music
was the common denominator.

I mean, it was just igniting
people's dance souls.

..turn around, you fool...

Why is everybody rushing and
flooding the doors of discotheque?

Oh, I think it's because

with all of the hardships that
are going on in the world today,

people need a place to go
and relieve tension

and then release their anxieties,

and discotheques are a great place to
do just that.

Ooh-hoo, baby

I never can say goodbye

No, no, no, hey

I never can say goodbye

Oh, no, I...

Gloria Gaynor
is a rock and roll singer

whose records have really
never made it

until she decided to specialise

in a brand-new rock and roll
musical style called disco music.

But there's that same
unhappy feeling

There's that anguish,
there's the doubt...

She made you raise your hands up
and want to touch the ceiling

while you were dancing
and screaming.

When Gloria was doing her thing,

I think she was
the First Lady of Disco.

..is it so?

I don't wanna let you go...

She was one of the earliest people

to have a major presence,
in the clubs,

was, you know, the Queen of Disco

before there was such a title.

No, no, no...

Gloria, did you ever think
this would happen?

No, I really didn't.

Not like this anyway.

I always thought I would sing
eventually, but I never thought

all this would happen.

I never can say goodbye,
no, no, no...

I think disco means
to most people...

..probably it means a lot of fun.

To me...

..it meant a change.

In the early '70s,

black women were caught
between a rock and a hard place.

Statistically, they were
at the bottom of the heap.

They earned less than most
any other group, male or female.

They were victimised

by a notorious
government-sponsored report

called the Moynihan Report.

It was a report that discussed

what were the particular problems

of blacks and Jews
and Puerto Ricans.

Black women were literally blamed
for the problems of black men.

Black women were heads
of their families,

too matriarchal, too strong.

And unfortunately,
when scholars produce a document

that is government approved,

people tend to believe it.

And so rather than fight
against this,

which was virtually impossible
for a group that oppressed to do,

they tried not to be like that.

You had to work hard to fit in,

and to fit in,
you're going to be quiet.

You're not going to bring
all your loud culture with you

or whatever it is
and make demands,

you're going to try and fit in.

When I was growing up, the only time
that people heard my voice,

I was singing.

My father had been a minister,

so we just had to kind of stick
to what we were told to do.

I just wanted to sing.

The pastor called me up on the stage
and I started singing.

And the church people started
shouting

and screaming and standing up
and waving.

"Sing, baby! Sing that song."

That was the beginning.

The gospel diva or the soul diva,

that's a really powerful,
full-bodied sound

that moved into the mainstream
in the '60s.

Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx,

Patricia Hoult -

known as Patti LaBelle
And The Bluebells.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

In the '60s,

we were a traditional girl group
and we dressed alike.

We did the kind of,

you know, lead singer
with backing singers,

waving their arms
and looking very nice.

Patti LaBelle And The Bluebells

were fulfilling a vision
of black womanhood

that was on the tail end
of the early '60s Motown era.

They embodied that
nonthreatening persona

that America wanted to place
black women in.

We were expected to carry ourselves
a certain way in the public,

you know, well-dressed,
well behaved.

That's how it was.

..really do come true...

In the music industry,
we were fighting,

trying to get out of that box that
we were put in

in the '60s.

So disco was wonderful.

Disco did offer black women
new opportunities.

Disco did give space for black women
to kind of add soul

and funk and depth
to a lot of different kinds of music

to kind of take centre stage,

like Patti LaBelle
And The Bluebells.

My next guest stars are the hottest
girl group in America.

Man, they are truly hot and they've
got the hottest single, too -

Lady Marmalade.

And here they. Nona Hendryx,
Sara Dash and Patti LaBelle.

Know throughout the music industry
as Labelle.

Hey sister, go sister,
soul sister, go sister

Hey sister, go sister,
soul sister, go sister

He met Marmalade
down in old Moulin Rouge

Struttin' her stuff
on the street...

When Patti LaBelle And The Bluebells
changed their name,

they changed their look
and they changed it dramatically.

Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, here
Uh-huh

Mocha Chocolata, ya-ya...

Patti LaBelle And The Bluebells
were a girl group.

Right?

Labelle were a girl band.

Voulez-vous danser avec moi,
ce soir?

Voulez-vous danser avec moi?

Labelle looking like they just,
like, beamed in from some

crazy, funky galaxy.

It was just so over the top
and so amazing and so out there.

That, to me, meant a certain
kind of freedom.

Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, here...

The architect of the look of Labelle
was LeGaspi.

He also designed the look for KISS.

He also designed the look
for Funkadelic.

Larry was already sort of making
things that looked

like a futuristic look.

And then with us being open
to even going further,

he began to design more.

More, more, more!

I was mesmerised and delighted
to see my people in a way

that was unlike any way anyone
had ever imagined them.

More, more, more

Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, da-da

Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya...

We were just singing songs that felt
right to us or mattered to us,

and the audience
were responding to it.

..feelin' silky smooth...

Lady Marmalade is talking about
basically sex tourism and sex work.

..cry

More, more, more...

Women don't often get centre stage
or if there is a story that's

being told, it's also a story
that's about titillation

or about fetishization.

It's like a playwright, you know,
someone describing something

as opposed to judging it.

And in a way that's not celebratory,

but in a way that was
not downtrodden and horrible

and that this is just yet another
aspect of life.

I really think that music
was really important

in terms of creating social change.

And in this moment, you know,

music was reflecting
black women's lives

in a way that it hadn't ever been.

I was so glad disco came in.

You know, good music, good lyrics,

songs that had a meaning to them.

In the '60s,
we were known as R&B singers.

I'd rather be lonely
than to lose you...

My songs were like,

"I'm just a prison,"
and begging men not to leave me

and, "Oh, God, if you leave me,
I'm just going to die," you know?

I mean, this was the kind of songs
they would play on us women.

Women. Men could sing
anything they wanted to sing.

So to make a long story short,

disco...freed me.

It saved me.

You know, I've been married
a few times,

and I don't mind telling it

cos, you know, I was in
one of those type of marriages,

but it was dangerous.

It was really a dangerous marriage.

So I was doing Las Vegas
with Ray Charles.

I was opening for Ray Charles.

The last night, I decided
I was going to just sit

in the audience and watch
Ray do his show.

And my ex-husband, he was looking
for me, and he couldn't find me.

And I was in the audience. And he
kept walking up and down the aisle.

I saw him.

And that's the night
when he went completely nuts.

My suite was way up
on the 20th-something floor.

And he pushed me, you know,

he was pushing me all the way
through the lobby to the elevator,

and then we get to the floor.

He said, "I'm going to kill
you tonight.

"I tell you what I'm going to do.

"I'm going to throw you off
the balcony."

20-something floors.

He picked me up.

And had me, holding me
over the banister like this.

And I'm like, "This man
is going to kill me tonight.

"How in the world?

"Well, how am I going
to get out of this one?"

I said,

"You know, you are in this hotel
and it's owned by mafia.

"This is Las Vegas.
We're in Las Vegas now.

"See, you got to get out of here.

"You got to walk out of here.

"How are you going to feel with my
body splattered at the bottom

"and my name is on the marquee?"

And I said, "You won't make
it out of Vegas."

He thought, and he brought me back
in.

And he said,

"I tell you what I'm going to do.
I'm just going to shoot you."

So I laid... I just... You know, I
was so tired.

I just lay down on the bed.

I said, "OK, shoot me."

I went to sleep.

He had a gun like this.

I said, "Just shoot me.
I won't know it."

Just forget it.

That's how Young Hearts Run Free
came about.

What's the sense in sharing
this one and only life

Ending up just another
lost and lonely wife

You count up the years

And they will be filled
with tears...

That song is for women.

It's about survival.

..to start over again

You'll get the babies, but you
won't have your man

While he's busy loving every woman
that he can...

Candi Staton is singing about pain,

and yet the power in her voice
says that she's no victim.

..yourself be true...

She is telling her story

and there's a triumph
just in the telling of the story.

...run free

Never be hung up...

I used to go to the gay clubs.

And they felt the same pain.

You know, they were very abused.

You know, because of their
preferences.

Some of 'em lost their lives.

They loved your music, they loved
how you made them feel.

Isn't that amazing?

You're singing a sad song
and folks are dancing.

...is what's really going on today.

We couldn't sing those type
of songs back in the early '60s.

We started doing that in the '70s.

For the longest time,
it was very hard for black acts

to become strong pop acts,

outside of something
like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye.

The charts in the '70s
were much more segregated.

CANDI: During those days in music,
it was the Billboard charts.

They had a pop side,
they had an R&B column,

but they weren't together.

You made the R&B charts,
which was all black.

Everything was black.

It was amazing
if you could get on the pop side.

Disco made it possible
for black acts to become pop acts

more than they ever had before.

It meant that there were suddenly
a lot of black performers

on the charts
that had not been there before,

had not been...

Not had the ability
to cross over in that way.

I was on the Motown label
for five years.

At that time
we were interested in singles,

so I was in that studio recording.
It was like a job.

I was in the studio all the time
recording,

trying to get that single.

They would want you to do it

over and over and over and over
and over again.

Trying to get that hit, right.

Trying to get that single.

Suzanne de Passe.

She was running the A&R department
at Motown.

She found the song.
She heard the song.

That song was originally recorded
by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.

She thought that the song
was great with the guy singing that.

But she says, "But if a woman sings
that, then that's really good."

Don't leave me this way

I can't survive

I can't stay alive...

It was specifically cut
as a disco song.

You know, that psss, pss, psss?

Don't leave me this way...

That was Suzanne de Passe
and Hal Davis.

They cut it to be disco.

They had a good beat, you know,

that would get you out
to the dance floor

and it just kept building and
building and building.

And that's the kind of song

that you like to dance to
in the club.

Baby, my heart is full of love

And it's all for you...

Female voices and female, you know,
female registering voices

just work better
with dance music for some reason.

And I feel like with disco

there opened up a stage
for a lot of amazing women.

It's only your good lovin'
can set me free..

Somehow I got the test pressing,

so I said,
"Ooh, I want to hear this."

So I got to work and I
go to hear this real good.

So a friend of mine was also friends
with a lady that owned the club

that we used to go to dance
at called the Catch One.

It was mostly like a gay club.

The straight girls would call
it Catch None.

And she allowed me to come
in there on an afternoon

and play it, like,
with their equipment.

That, "Owwww!" That was there.

And...

So the thing about a test pressing

is you can only play it
so many times.

So I played it so many times
it was like...

By the end it was like, "Drrrrrr!"

Come on down
and do what you've got to do...

The DJs in the clubs,

they played my song all the time

cos people liked to dance to it.

I knew that it was going
to be a good dance song.

I knew that.

But as far as a hit,

no, I had no idea.

I have here a scarf.
Tell us about it, will you?

Well, this scarf... This scarf!
..tells that my record

is number one in the nation.

How about that?

Black women became stars
with huge LGBTQ followings.

So the black disco diva
was a breakthrough persona.

And this means everything
to black women

because the minute you see yourself
in a raised position, you know,

as a world-class artist

that people would pay a fortune
to buy a ticket,

you could fill up Madison Square
Garden, this kind of thing,

it opens possibilities.

To see Labelle on the
cover of Rolling Stone magazine,

the first black female group
to ever be on the cover,

this was a really heroic moment.

At that time in the '70s,

we broke the glass ceiling
for women.

Women became
very, very, very popular.

In the 1970s, there is an idea
of a sexual revolution

that's afoot, you know,
in the culture.

Whole groups of people
were demanding personal freedom.

We also had the Vietnam War.

And the Vietnam War had been brutal.

And it didn't really end until 1975.

Do a little dance,
make a little love...

The bulletin has just come in
from Saigon.

The war is over.

South Vietnam's new president

has announced
an unconditional surrender.

Get down tonight...

And so you had this huge thing
by the mid '70s.

Everyone's back from the war now.

You're not going
to be drafted any more.

And everybody looking for fun

and everybody looking for something
that appealed to them at their age.

What appeal to the baby boomers?
Sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Do a little dance...

People were celebrating life
in the club.

The music talked about,

"We got to love each other.
We got to spread this love."

Get down tonight...

The genre of disco
during that time period

was so huge
and so successful.

And also, disco music was fun.

You sort of felt the beat
and the pulse

of what the public wanted.

And we made a commitment
that we were going to be in the
disco business.

Get down tonight

Hey
Do a little dance

Make a little love

Get down tonight

Get down tonight...

Neil heard Donna's voice
and he said, "Oh, I like this,"

and proceeded to put out
Love To Love You.

I love to love you, baby

I love to love you, baby

I love to love you, baby

# I love to love you, baby

I...

No-one had heard anything
like that before.

It was really daring.

It was really outrageous
in a lot of ways.

But it was so good.

It was so well done.

SHE VOCALISES

I love to love you, baby...

The song revolves around

Donna Summer having sex

or at least pretending to,
very effectively.

Do it to me again and again

# You put me through
such an awful spin

In a spin
In a spin, uh...

Love To Love You, Baby

was an expression
of sexual equality.

That song was a way
of giving women permission

to have the same sexual feelings
as a man.

I love to love you, baby...

Donna Summer described herself
as someone who kind of

fell into the role of sex diva.

She didn't really expect
that Love To Love You, Baby

would be picked up and seen as like
this game-changing song.

The interesting thing is

the record was not a success...

..until Neil made it
16-plus minutes.

It was the first LP like that.

Now it didn't exist
before Neil did that.

Love to love you, baby

Oh, love to love you, baby...

It was a trip.
It was almost 17 minutes long.

And even though there weren't a lot
of lyrics to the song,

it was emotional.

The production was so important
in it,

and no-one had ever done
anything like that before.

I mean, it was, you know,
it was Donna.

She was special.

When I played,
like in a really big club,

it was like watch...
It was like ecstasy.

and it was really a sensual,
sexual record.

And so people got
into a different groove.

The song, you know, had been banned
by the BBC

and banned
by some US radio stations as well.

It had kind of a tough life.

I mean, I have been put down for it.
You know, I have been scorned.

INTERVIEWER: Hmm. Why?

Well, you know, there are certain
people I mean, reverends and things

who have not taken it very lightly.

Oh, the uptight folks.
The Puritans among us.

Well, you know,
the funny part of it is,

I'm kind of a puritan myself

and that the song
was just the song as such.

And, all of a sudden,
it became kind of a revolution.

Did sexuality drive disco?

Um, you know, I mean, that's kind
of always been there in music.

There were a lot of really, you
know, kind of outrageous covers,

lots of nudity,
lots of female nudity,

and little by little,
some male nudity as well.

The jacket for Theo Vaness -
Bad, Bad Boy

has a guy in the foreground
and a guy in the background,

and he's clearly looking at him
with sexual interest.

A straight person would not...
You know, they would flip through it

and it wouldn't faze them.

A gay person would see it and go,
"Whoa, this is about us!"

In the '70s, we were desperate
to see signs of our own existence

in popular culture.

And so we would look at records
like these as affirmations

of who we are, of our existence.

Gay is obviously a lot more visible
now than it used to be

what with gay candidates, magazines,
social and political organisations.

The rest of the world is having
to notice

what it used to try to ignore,

is finding out that homosexuals no
longer meekly melt away

under the blast of scorn,
ridicule or hatred.

Disco will always be entwined
with the Gay Pride movement.

This is what being gay is all about,

is being free, free from the chains
that have bound us forever.

NEWSREADER: If there is one American
city in which the gay rights issue,

if not embraced, is at least
tolerated, it is San Francisco.

Gays reportedly make up 12 percent
of the population

and possibly 30 percent of the
voters who go to the polls.

Last January, the city elected

its first open homosexual
to public office -

a fellow named Harvey Milk -

to the Board of Supervisors.

Harvey Milk was the first
out politician

that came from
the gay movement itself.

He represented gay people in a way
that hadn't been done before.

Just like Harvey Milk mirrored
an element of San Francisco,

so did Sylvester.

Sylvester first presented himself

as sort of really traditional blues
and jazz,

glam rock and soul all at once.

And there was no place for it.

But when disco came around,
there was an audience

for all these things

that could come together
in no other genre.

Disco allowed Sylvester
to be churchy and queer

at the same time.

The man you're about to hear
is one of the most theatrical

and flamboyant performers
on the disco scene.

Here is that bizarre star,
the sensational Sylvester.

You mean I've been dancin'
on the floor, darlin'

And I feel like I need
some more and I...

Sylvester was out and proud
and put it in your face.

There was a lot of things
that were gay and you didn't know.

Sylvester was almost drag.

He was like, "This is who I am.

"You like me, you don't like me,
I don't care.

"You accept me or you
don't accept me, I don't care."

He was unapologetic for being
who he was,

which is wonderful.

You make me feel mighty real...

Sylvester is the definition
of fearlessness.

I don't know if you've ever met
someone that when you meet them,

they make you feel
your most authentic.

And so I think that's what
that...that feels like for me.

You make me feel

Mighty real...

I remember when Mighty Real
was released,

and it was major!

Major, major, major.

..feel mighty real...

It's a song that never gets old.
It's never going to get old.

It's one of the best songs
ever recorded.

You could always put it on
at any party.

You could be in a heavy room
and, like, that song can come on

and...and just change everything.

You make me feel

Mighty real...

It's that voice!

That kind of like androgyny
with vocals is really fun.

And I think that Sylvester
was one of the pioneers of that.

You had a memorable event
in San Francisco. Yes.

What happened?

We were the first disco act
or popular music act

to ever perform in
the San Francisco Opera House

with the San Francisco Symphony.

With the symphony?! Yes.

The first time... Right!

The Living Proof album by Sylvester,

it's a live recording
at the San Francisco Opera House.

And from what I understand
about this night, I feel like

this could have been
the peak moment of disco.

They blew the roof off of the joint.

Come on in here, everybody.

VOCALISING

The symphony players
are really straight.

Straight? Oh. I see.

Well, I mean, you know...

You know how
classical musicians are.

So what I did to make them
loosen up a little bit

just before the curtain,

I said this just before
the curtain went up.

And I ran around backstage

and I threw pounds of glitter
all on their hair,

all on their instruments,
all over everything.

They must've loved that.
They did love it.

They played great. Really?
Yeah.

Sylvester was not...

..you know, seeking to be political.

The more success he had,

the more he was able to express
himself as to who he was.

And that might be seen
as being political.

There's a really great photo

of Harvey Milk
and Sylvester together.

It was for Harvey Milk's
birthday party.

I was with Sylvester.

It was a grand party, too.

Harvey Milk knew how to party.
And Sylvester sang.

It's fascinating that there
were these two people

that happened at the same time

to really make a difference

and politicise the ordinary stuff.

Both Harvey Milk and Sylvester
were doing that.

In the late '70s,
the outsider became the insider.

The trans women would show up
at the Manhattan discos.

They weren't just welcomed,
they were encouraged.

You know, it was like
it was their home.

People wanted to mix
with that culture,

that marginalised,
very marginalised culture,

especially at that time.

I was there with my camera.

I stumbled into this world.

Oooh

It's so good, it's so good,
it's so good, it's so good

It's so good

Ohh...

NEWSREADER: This is the scene
outside a New York disco

called Studio 54.

This is the place that's in
with the disco crowd.

One of the owners, Steve Rubell,
works the door.

He is choosy about who gets in

and that adds to the mystique.

I feel love, I feel love,
I feel love, I feel love

I feel...

Steve Rubell became
a really close friend of mine.

He wanted to open a club
that was beyond any other club

that was open till that time.

And that was his inspiration.

STEVE RUBELL: We try and make this
like a play.

And we want to get the right cast
of characters

so that everybody has a good time,

so that not one group is dominant.

There's nothing more boring
than a room full of celebrities

or a room full of anything.

They would look
and they would say, "You."

Two out there, please,

And they would say, "Me?"

"Yeah. Come on in. Come on in."

They would pick
who they wanted to come in.

It would be so crowded outside.

Two out there, please.
On the left.

People went to Studio 54 to be seen,

and there were people
who went to Studio 54 to party.

I went there to party.

I created it as a playground

so people would go.

Sex, drugs, disco,
whatever you need.

A one-night stand
is better than nothing.

But you know something to enjoy life
and to make it more creative.

I feel love...

Glamour up your ass.

It just was so ostentatious.

Beyond...
Ostentatious beyond belief.

I feel love...

There was never anything like it.

And there will never be
anything again like it.

Oooooh

I'm in love, I'm in love...

Andy Warhol was a...
SHE CHUCKLES

..fixture.

He didn't want to miss out
on anything.

He would go to the opening
of an envelope

because he was scared
of missing out.

Oooh...

I feel love, I feel love, I feel
love, I feel love, I feel love...

You know, they only invested
300,000 dollars to do the Studio

and the first year they were making
3 million dollars.

OK? In those years.

Steve liked to talk a lot
to the press every day.

He's saying, "We are making
more money than the mafia."

People all over the country
were opening up discos.

It was a phenomenon, clearly.

There was a real focus
on opening bigger clubs,

looking for a larger audience
that was clearly out there.

There was this powder keg
chain reaction that happened

that made it suddenly totally
take over the airwaves

and mass media

and everything else all at once.

And then late in 1977

was when Saturday Night Fever
literally exploded.

Just like crazy what happened
with that record.

And with... I mean, it just set
the world on fire.

..by the way I use my walk

I'm a woman's man,
no time to talk

Music loud and women warm,
I've been kicked around

Since I was born

And now it's all right, it's OK

And you may look the other way

We can try to understand

The New York Times'
effect on man...

Saturday Night Fever was this
amazing game-changing film.

I don't think the film producers
even realised the kind of impact

that it was going to have.

And its soundtrack

is one of the best selling
soundtracks of all time,

and I think it wouldn't have made
the kind of impact

that it would have
without the soundtrack itself.

..alive

Oh when you walk...

The Bee Gees weren't a disco band.

Along with their producers and some
of their writers,

they found a formula,
that was brilliant,

to do as a soundtrack for a movie

that was basically
exploitation of disco.

The Bee Gees album made hundreds
of millions of dollars.

Whether you're a brother
or whether you're a mother

You're stayin' alive,
stayin' alive

Feel the city breakin'
and everybody shakin'...

Saturday Night Fever made me feel
like all our work was being noticed.

I loved it. I loved the music.
I loved everything about it.

Stayin' alive...

Bee Gees were... They were one
of my favourite groups.

..alive...

Yeah. It changed a lot.
It changed a lot.

It broadened the spectrum of music.

A lot of people that weren't
into the disco-type thing

kind of embraced that.

Saturday Night Fever gave disco
a story

where the white straight guy
is at the centre of it.

It put a face on it.

Tony is a very everyman kind of guy

that the average white guy
could relate to.

You know, it was like Rocky, right?

It's the everyman
who's kind of thuggish but debonair.

He's polished, he's graceful

and he's not completely masculine.

He embraces his femininity, too.

If he didn't, then, you know,

he'd be laughed off the dance
floor.

All right!

I remember him being
just like a real asshole

and just super macho and, you know,
not very nice to women.

It was upsetting that Saturday Night
Fever

didn't represent the disco
that I knew and loved,

but it represented
something very particular.

You should be dancin'...

It made dance culture
and the involvement in dance

really understandable to a lot
of people who probably didn't quite

understand why their kids
were going out dancing all the time.

It's interesting after this,
the ways that the lit up floor

and his dance moves,

his white suits
that Tony was wearing

with a little mirrored ball,

the slicked back hair,

and then the lady on your arm
who is kind of wearing

some kind of flouncy,
fluttery skirt.

It's what became disco.

A lot of people
had to take dance lessons.

Three, four, five.

They couldn't just get on the floor
and master it like, you know,

John Travolta. You don't just show
up on the floor and do that.

You've got to practise.

..two, three, four.
Repeat, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.
Repeat, two, three, four.

Repeat, two, three, four.

When you look at the gross
it took in the film theatres,

it was in the
hundreds of millions of dollars.

And that got the
bandwagon really going.

Everyone said,
"Wow, that's a gold mine there."

Saturday Night Fever
just like metastasized

into this cultural thing.

Disco had become what felt to us
like a global craze.

Disco was on everybody's lips.

Everybody wanted to know
about disco,

and they wanted to be part of it.

Every other artist
wanted to be a disco artist.

Anybody who wanted to revive
their career

or to have a hit - disco.

NEWSREADER: Rock stars don't have
to be wild about disco

to take advantage of its popularity.

Rod Stewart's biggest-selling record
ever is the disco-flavoured

Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?

..need me

Just reach out and touch me

Come on, sugar, tell me so
Tell me so...

A lot of other artists,
from Frank Sinatra to Dolly Parton

to the Rolling Stones,

have also swung into the disco beat.

They all dabbled.

But one song here and there
didn't change who they really were.

It was like,
"You have to make this now."

Record companies
dictated what you really did.

I think with any social movements,

you're going to have
two things coexisting.

There was not one or the other.
There were both.

Music with integrity was still
being played at the same time

as you had the commercial things
that were being played on the radio.

Sending love vibrations
straight to you

Sending love vibrations...

Polydor announced
that they were releasing

a new single called Substitute.

All the DJs, we all got
a 12-inch saying Substitute

backed with, on the B-side,
I Will Survive.

I don't even think that most
DJs realised that that song

was on the B-side of Substitute.

Gloria knew that Substitute

was not going to be played
in discos.

It was the B-side
that was important.

So Gloria took the record herself
to the hottest DJ in New York -

Studio 54's Richie Kaczor -

and made sure he played the B-side.

I heard Richie play this
song and, you know,

at first I was afraid
and I was petrified.

At first I was afraid,
I was petrified

Kept thinking I could never live
without you by my side...

And every time that song
would come on,

the whole crowd would just go nuts.

I grew strong

And I learned how to get along

And so you're back
from outer space

I just walked in to find you here

With that look upon your face

I should have changed
that stupid lock

I should have made you
leave your key

If I'd have know
for just one second

You'd be back to bother me

Oh, now go...

Everyone fell in love,

because regardless if you were
gay, heterosexual, whatever,

male, female,

that song provided
some...some hope.

Think I'd lay down and die?
Oh, no, not I...

It speaks to every living being,
to their soul.

It gives them a feeling
of strength in dark times.

I will survive
Hey, hey

That happened at the exact point

when disco was starting to become
overexposed

as a cultural phenomenon.

I never can say goodbye, boy

Oh, no, no...

NEWSREADER: Since 1975,
when Gloria Gaynor recorded

Never Can Say Goodbye,

the first record specifically
mixed for discotheques,

millions of people
have been dancing to the sound.

The movie Saturday Night Fever
helped boost disco's popularity,

and now radio stations across
the country

have started programming
all-disco formats.

It was wonderful
because it kept me busy.

Did a 30-minute show
and got paid big money.

And I could do three in one night.

I would leave there, get in a limo,
go to another club,

do another 30 minutes,
get in a limo, go to another club,

do another 30 minutes,

then go home and go to bed
and make myself 30,000 dollars.

So it was like a blessing.

I said, "Man, I love this."

Donna Summer, she made a fortune.

I think one year she made 26
million dollars.

She made a lot of money
from touring, from Vegas,

from publishing of what she wrote.

Everything started changing
so quickly

because obviously people
don't want to miss the chance

to make a buck on, you know,

riding on the coat-tails
of a winning trend.

If we have what the discos take in

and what they generate
with the records,

we are talking about an estimated
four billion, that's with a B,

4 billion dollars a year.

When disco really exploded,

it becomes less about what the
movement originally was,

which was people who loved music
getting together

to dance to it and have a sort
of ecstatic experience.

And then it became a little less
about the music

and more about the money.

It was too much, and you knew that
eventually

the bubble was going to burst
on this.

So let's dance, let's...

Disco, in part, was a victim
of its own success.

Disco got bloated.
It also got rich.

Let's dance...

The racism, the homophobia
had been brewing for some time.

That was personal,
but you can't stop creativity.

Let's dance for...

Yeah, you got rid of the disco.

Now wait till you see
what's coming next.

..romance tonight

Oh, how I need you

Right here beside me

To guide me

Hold me, scold me

Cos when I'm bad I'm so, so bad

So let's dance
the last dance...