1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,480 The freak is chic... 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:06,440 The sound of disco was everywhere. 3 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:08,160 It was huge. 4 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:09,880 5 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:12,840 We made people realise that they could be themselves. 6 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:14,000 7 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:17,960 It started in the underground, and then it became mainstream. 8 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,320 about the new dance craze...? 9 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,960 Last night, 29 of the 43 Grammy Awards 10 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:27,280 went to disco artists and songs. 11 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:29,480 Just a further indication of how disco fever 12 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:31,440 has swept the country. 13 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:34,040 14 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,760 We have created a culture that's unstoppable. 15 00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:40,520 Exercise classes work out to the beat. 16 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:43,280 The fashion industry has created clothes to match the music. 17 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:47,000 National magazines do cover stories about it, and business has never 18 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,000 been better for dancing instructors. 19 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,760 Once it started happening, a lot of people wanted 20 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:54,440 to capitalise on that. 21 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:00,480 Disco got bloated. It also got rich. 22 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:02,520 You had songs out there that was powerful. 23 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:06,440 Then you come with corny songs, you kill the whole vibe 24 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,040 of what disco was. 25 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:12,440 In every successful thing, it has the seeds of its own destruction. 26 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:16,760 That was personal. 27 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:21,560 Disco started with soul, but totally lost it. 28 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:26,440 This was, "We want the money, so let's do this bullshit." 29 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:28,560 Not going to work. 30 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:30,760 31 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:45,000 The Beatles, 15 years ago, had five tracks on the chart. 32 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:46,880 They also had the number one that week - 33 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:48,120 I Want To Hold Your Hand. 34 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:49,840 Our number one this week is, 35 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:51,360 of course, Village People. 36 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:00,960 down, I said, young man... 37 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:03,600 You've brought the Australian audiences very much great pleasure. 38 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:05,480 I'd just like to walk back and I'd like you to take 39 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:07,120 a bow for us. 40 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:12,720 young man 41 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:14,600 42 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:16,400 43 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:18,440 44 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,240 45 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:22,840 ways... 46 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,320 What would you like to sing if you would decide yourself? 47 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:27,600 YMCA. 48 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:29,960 Let's hear it. OK. 49 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,440 The Village People were a studio band. 50 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:38,280 That means that they were 51 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:42,760 a group of musicians picked to record a song 52 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,160 that a producer wanted to make. 53 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:51,080 54 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:53,800 The answer with a record company is if there's money in it, 55 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:55,000 I'm interested. 56 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,840 People wanted it, they made it. 57 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:02,120 I want to present to you the record producer who is responsible 58 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:04,280 for creating the Village People. 59 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:08,560 Here from France is record producer Jacques Morali. 60 00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:15,840 I met Jacques Morali in New York in the '70s. 61 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,360 He came to me and he said, "I had a dream about you. 62 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:23,040 "I wanted to build this new group that I have an idea 63 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:24,360 "about around you. 64 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:26,880 "I'll come get you and I'll make you a star." 65 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:28,160 And Jacques had put 66 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,600 an ad into the trades asking for young men 67 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,760 with moustaches to come to see if they wanted to be a part 68 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:36,200 of this group. 69 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,360 The Village People was from Greenwich Village. 70 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,680 It's always been a place in New York for alternative lifestyle. 71 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,440 But this was a disco group put together for the mainstream. 72 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,960 They took all of the stereotypes within gay culture, 73 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:52,640 the cowboy, 74 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:53,960 the construction worker, 75 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:55,120 the leather man, 76 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:59,880 and presented it to the mainstream in a very tongue-in-cheek way. 77 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:05,200 The first album was basically about gay life. 78 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:07,000 When I wrote the second album, 79 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:08,760 I had to broaden the spectrum 80 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:10,600 of it because I wasn't gay. 81 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:12,120 When I would write lyrics, 82 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:13,720 it could be taken by any type 83 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:15,720 of lifestyle, more than just one. 84 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:20,560 I wanted to write it to where it could be comfortable for gay people 85 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:22,920 or it could be comfortable for straight. 86 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:32,960 They were a great group of guys and they were a lot of fun. 87 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,640 They brought energy to a room or to an audience and they knew 88 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:37,880 how to perform. 89 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:39,920 90 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:41,760 91 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,640 92 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:48,280 Their songs are very repeatable and singalong. 93 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:50,800 In The Navy or YMCA 94 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,280 was universally loved 95 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:57,400 and universally flew under the radar 96 00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:59,560 and still does, weirdly. 97 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:02,280 But everybody who got it 98 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:05,160 kind of couldn't believe 99 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:06,640 how popular it became. 100 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,160 101 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:12,120 102 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,000 103 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:15,920 104 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:17,720 105 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:19,680 make a stand 106 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,480 107 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,040 And what are the audiences like? 108 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,800 Is it as much fun as what we're seeing here? 109 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,000 Oh, yeah, everywhere. They just love the music and the group. 110 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:30,440 Everywhere we go, 111 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:32,320 places where they don't even speak English, 112 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:35,440 people just react to the music and to the energy. 113 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:37,040 And we have the same reaction. 114 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:46,480 The US Navy wanted to use In The Navy as a recruitment tool. 115 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,560 The agreement was they would allow us to use one of their ships 116 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:56,200 to shoot the video if we allowed them to use the song. 117 00:05:56,200 --> 00:06:00,080 They gave us the destroyer The Reasoner, and at the end of it, 118 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:02,280 they gave us jets that flew over. 119 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:07,880 And it just proved to me that the US Navy didn't get 120 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:12,880 that the group was filled with gay stereotypes and that it was kind 121 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:17,200 of a off-colour joke to a lot of people. 122 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:18,840 123 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:20,720 the seven seas... 124 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,240 So mainstream audiences didn't realise 125 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,160 that the guys behind the scene probably couldn't have gotten 126 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:29,760 into the Navy just because they were out and they were gay. 127 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:33,280 In the Navy... 128 00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:35,800 Not a lot of people understood. 129 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,280 And I say "hooray" to that. 130 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:42,800 It was quite a Trojan horse. 131 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:44,880 132 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,400 Gold represents $1,000,000 worth of sales in albums, 133 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,640 and platinum means that two of your albums have sold 134 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:54,160 a million albums! 135 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:57,240 Think what a great corporate entity 136 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,680 you particular freaks are, you know? 137 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:05,280 Now you're establishment and you're worth millions 138 00:07:05,280 --> 00:07:07,400 and zillions of dollars. 139 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:08,800 The Village People! 140 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:15,720 The Village People and YMCA and Macho Man and all of those 141 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:17,240 sorts of things, 142 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:20,800 you know, that was great, but that was literally for people in Kansas. 143 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,080 Queer people of colour, you know, we weren't listening 144 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:25,680 to those kinds of records in the clubs. 145 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:28,640 This was a time when New York was the clubbing capital 146 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:30,200 of the world. 147 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,200 The club culture was just wide open. 148 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,160 There were no holds barred. 149 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:42,080 You know, a lot of people lived for nights at Studio 54 150 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:44,600 or Paradise Garage. 151 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:51,520 The Paradise Garage for a lot of people was church. 152 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:56,720 Paradise Garage was an old garage that was converted into this dance 153 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,600 space, and it had the ramp that you'd walk up to. 154 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:04,120 You could hear the bass through the wall. 155 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,360 Whoomm! It's like, wow. 156 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:10,040 It was extremely loud and the quality of the sound 157 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:13,120 was really, really good. 158 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,840 My friends and I, we used to come with different outfits. 159 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:19,760 We made those outfits for the night. 160 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:21,680 They had nothing to do with fashion. 161 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:25,600 We came up with a theme and we'd dress like fantasy. 162 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,000 A lot of people who came there, that was their life. 163 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:36,920 They would become a persona that made them feel free. 164 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:39,800 There were no clocks, there were no windows. 165 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:41,760 There were no mirrors. 166 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:43,280 There was no alcohol. 167 00:08:43,280 --> 00:08:46,800 Hmmm. What could they have done to stay awake...?! 168 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,000 Could it have been drugs? Ohh! 169 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,240 There was a smell of poppers in the air. 170 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:55,240 There was the smell of marijuana. 171 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:59,680 And they say that the punch was spiked with acid. 172 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:04,440 Grace Jones, Mick Jagger, Boy George, Michael Jackson - 173 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:07,680 they would all come and hang out at the Paradise Garage. 174 00:09:07,680 --> 00:09:10,480 Gay, straight. Any colour. 175 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:12,320 It was mostly gay. 176 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:16,360 Back in the day, the best crowd WAS the gay crowd. 177 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:18,600 Never any violence. Never any arguments. 178 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:20,120 Never any drama. 179 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:21,360 It was quite a place. 180 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:25,280 Then I started to hear about Larry Levan, 181 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,120 who was the DJ at Paradise Garage. 182 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:34,720 Larry was always up front and grand entrance. 183 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:36,960 And I'm here. 184 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:39,040 I'm queer. Get used to it. 185 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:44,120 Larry and I were friends. 186 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:47,960 And one afternoon Larry said to me, 187 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:50,680 "Nicky, would you teach me how to play records?" 188 00:09:50,680 --> 00:09:53,200 From that moment on, 189 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:58,400 I would work with him on mixing techniques, 190 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:03,400 on how to beat match, how to pick the next record. 191 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:06,760 Immediately, I saw in Larry 192 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:13,080 that eye for making stuff become fabulous. 193 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:15,120 194 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:19,160 No other clubs had a DJ like Larry 195 00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:21,320 who played the kind of music Larry played, 196 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:23,240 who made the decisions that he made, 197 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:27,080 who was as much in charge of the night as Larry. 198 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:32,440 He would be messing with the sound system as people were coming 199 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:33,960 into the club. 200 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:35,880 That's how obsessed he was 201 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:38,200 with making sure that the sound 202 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:39,880 wrenched your guts out. 203 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:43,480 He could do anything. 204 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:46,960 Larry could stop a room cold and people would just start, 205 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:51,360 "Larry, Larry," just waiting for the next thing that he was going to do. 206 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:54,120 And he might just not do anything. 207 00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:58,880 He'd stop the music, get out a ladder and clean the mirror ball 208 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:02,000 at two o'clock in the morning with 1,000 people sitting on the floor. 209 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,120 And then he'd take the ladder down, shut the lights, put a record on, 210 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:07,920 and the place would go crazy. 211 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:14,520 Larry definitely controlled the crowd. 212 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:15,920 He had magic. 213 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:21,760 He would remix, he would play new things all the time. 214 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:24,600 He would tell you stories. 215 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:29,160 He got the idea of saying, "Look, I want to play stuff 216 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:31,400 "that I feel strongly about." 217 00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:36,360 You've got the trend of music that you didn't hear no place else. 218 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:37,960 It was incredible. 219 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:43,280 Larry was way ahead of his time. 220 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:45,880 The first DJ remixer, 221 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:49,720 the first DJ producer, the first DJ artist. 222 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:55,440 He is the modern template of what a DJ is now. 223 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:00,280 Larry would often go into the recording studio, 224 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:04,160 see through all the excess tracks, 225 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:08,680 and pull out the gold that would make a hit. 226 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:14,160 227 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:19,600 Ain't No Mountain High is what we call a "Garage classic". 228 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:21,840 So if you've ever heard the record, 229 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:25,360 it starts off with just ta-da-da-da... 230 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:26,480 ..yes-yes-yes-yes... 231 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:28,960 And then Jocelyn Brown sang... 232 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:35,360 233 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:37,000 What a great voice. 234 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:39,480 235 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:43,800 236 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:47,800 Ain't No Mountain High Enough had been such a huge song 237 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:51,000 back in the day, in the '60s. 238 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,520 But Larry took risks. He didn't care. 239 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:58,080 He thought this was something that he could turn into a signature 240 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:00,400 piece for her. 241 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:03,720 242 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:07,520 243 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:12,760 Larry Levan allowed me to sing it the way I sang it, and it allowed 244 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:16,440 another generation of time to come back around, 245 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:18,400 but in a different manner. 246 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:21,680 It might not have been number one, but it was number one in a lot 247 00:13:21,680 --> 00:13:22,920 of people's heart. 248 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:25,280 And that's what was major to me, you know? 249 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:30,480 mountain high enough... 250 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:34,640 Performing the song at the Garage was one of the most major situations 251 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:38,320 I've ever been involved in in my life. 252 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:41,160 Everybody was singing. 253 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:43,000 It was fantastic, 254 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:45,480 and I'm trying to stay a good girl and not cry, 255 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:49,400 because sometimes the way it musters inside your soul 256 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:52,520 about things that were touching on that level 257 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:55,120 because it's more spiritual than anything else, 258 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:57,880 it tore me up, and it still tears me up. 259 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:06,080 Fast Frankie Crocker at radio station WMCA in New York 260 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:09,320 reaches one of the biggest and youngest audiences in the country. 261 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,560 Every promoter wants his song on Fast Frankie's show. 262 00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:17,880 Frankie Crocker from WBLS, number one radio in New York City, would 263 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:20,880 come to the Garage and steal things from Larry or force him 264 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:24,840 to give it to him. And then the next day, you'd hear records 265 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,600 on WBLS that were not going to come out for six months 266 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:29,240 and that suddenly everybody 267 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:31,480 was crying to get a copy of 268 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:33,920 and could not buy it because it's not out. 269 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:35,560 All these record companies were like, 270 00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:37,720 "Get Larry this record! Get Larry this record. 271 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:39,480 "It'll be on the radio next week." 272 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,560 The DJ had power in those days. 273 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,920 Like, Larry's fame made the Garage bigger, 274 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:49,520 then the Garage itself got so big, it made Larry's fame even bigger. 275 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:53,000 And when I would go overseas to work or visit other countries, 276 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,280 they'd be, "The Garage, the Garage, the Garage!" 277 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:57,840 That's when I realised to myself, I said, "Wow... 278 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:02,160 "The Garage has infiltrated Europe and in other countries. 279 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:03,800 "This is incredible." 280 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,560 I mean, it's just, really, a simple little weekend club, 281 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:08,520 but it became more than that. 282 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:14,880 At that time in the '70s, 283 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:18,760 there was this really beautiful energy...and vibe. 284 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:22,240 Corporations did come in. 285 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,360 Record companies came in. 286 00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:28,480 Clothing companies came in and capitalised on that. 287 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,840 "We are part of this movement." 288 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,000 "We are part of this dance culture." 289 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,120 "We are here to make your life beautiful." 290 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:39,440 You know, figured out ways to market it. 291 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:44,240 Fun. That's disco. That's really what it's all about. 292 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,760 It's also all about money. 293 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:48,280 It's got a lot to do with it. 294 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:49,800 Big money. 295 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:50,880 A lot of money. 296 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:55,240 Record company business was very much like the film business 297 00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:58,480 back then. The big hit paid for the losers. 298 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:02,080 And so, record companies really went for the big hit. 299 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:04,400 And the more you sold, the more money you made. 300 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:15,240 301 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:18,240 302 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,080 How innocent! My goodness. 303 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:25,160 In your eye 304 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:26,320 305 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:29,400 Was that Top Of The Pops? 306 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:31,880 That just came to me! 307 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:33,920 I was trying to... Top Of The Pops! 308 00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:37,840 That was a big show! 309 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:39,720 310 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:44,640 311 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:46,320 312 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:51,320 When I was younger, I never thought about having a hit record. 313 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:53,640 That never came to my mind at all. 314 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,440 I graduated from college in '78 315 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:02,960 with a degree in psychology because I wanted to be a counsellor. 316 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:06,240 After teaching for about four months, 317 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:09,040 Ring My Bell came out. 318 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:10,840 It was a hit overnight. 319 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:14,800 320 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:17,680 Ring my bell 321 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:19,360 322 00:17:19,360 --> 00:17:23,480 I actually would have preferred to have done more ballads 323 00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:27,440 and probably more RandB, but everybody was doing disco. 324 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:29,720 They didn't think they were going to make it... 325 00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:32,200 ..in life, if they didn't do something disco! 326 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:34,840 They really did not push that song. 327 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:37,560 It was one of those songs they didn't have to. 328 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:40,240 The song was such a huge success. 329 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:41,960 330 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:44,720 331 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:46,320 332 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:48,880 333 00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:50,480 334 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:53,520 335 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:56,080 I was called a one-hit wonder, 336 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:59,200 which, in the beginning, when I was trying, 337 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:01,120 I'm saying, "Well, that's not very nice." 338 00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:03,080 339 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,160 "You're a commodity. That's what you are. 340 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,720 "You're just the latest new car that came out." 341 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:11,080 But the song was in 14 movies. 342 00:18:12,120 --> 00:18:14,640 If that's the kind of one-hit wonder... 343 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:16,440 I don't think that's too bad. 344 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:18,320 OK! 345 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:19,680 346 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:23,600 Any time, anywhere... 347 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:28,200 They weren't seen as artists, per se. 348 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:31,280 They were seen by the record company owners 349 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:33,000 as vehicles for the producers, 350 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:35,640 which was a very, very different thing. 351 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,520 Any time, anywhere... 352 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:42,000 Most of the one-hit wonders were on independent labels. 353 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:46,320 Independent labels were always looking for the next hit. 354 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:49,480 They weren't looking to develop the artists. 355 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,960 Did you get a chance to listen to that Tuxedo Junction, 356 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:53,600 Chattanooga Choo Choo single? 357 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,640 Chances are you haven't heard about Butterfly Records. 358 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,800 Well, it was put together last summer, mostly with borrowed money. 359 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:03,040 Since then, they've put out five albums, four of them disco. 360 00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:07,840 All they wanted to know was, what songs do people want? 361 00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,360 And we did a lot of music testing as to which songs people liked, 362 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:15,800 and there was kind of a universal like for the same songs. 363 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,560 So they looked for more artists who sounded like that. 364 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,600 And that's always the route to mediocrity. 365 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:23,840 It's like making multiple copies of something - 366 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:25,480 eventually, they start to fade. 367 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:30,760 The popularity of disco can be seen right here in Billboard, 368 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:32,760 which is the Bible of the music industry. 369 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,800 In its chart of the 100 top hits across the country today, 370 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:40,720 at least 50 of them are disco recordings. 371 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:43,440 That's what the record labels do. 372 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:46,120 They didn't understand what was going on half the time. 373 00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:50,720 They oversaturated a market that was...that couldn't absorb it. 374 00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:54,240 Everything became disco, disco, disco. 375 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:58,120 So much money to be made from the business of disco. 376 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:00,680 Now the sales are going to substantially increase. 377 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:07,200 They had commercialised it so massively 378 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:11,840 that every record was sounding exactly the same. 379 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:16,680 And I no longer had interest in words that said, 380 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:21,600 "Shake your booty," or, "Get up and disco dance." 381 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:23,400 I didn't want to hear about it. 382 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:27,360 I thought, "This is turning into a shitshow." 383 00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:29,480 384 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:33,440 right... 385 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:35,200 There was novelty songs, 386 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:36,680 and I think that's what people 387 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:38,160 were starting to get upset about. 388 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,600 You took away... like, the feeling of what disco was. 389 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:46,040 390 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,360 391 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:54,680 You had garbage cash-grab music coming out of 392 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:58,400 garbage cash-grab record labels. 393 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,240 394 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:01,280 All right! 395 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:04,800 I really hated it... 396 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,040 It was just so corny to me, you know, like... 397 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:12,160 398 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:15,440 There were some goofy disco songs. 399 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:19,720 I returned to my seat 400 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:21,680 and his beat... 401 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:23,800 Artists could not get their music out! 402 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:28,160 You put out a record and you were just a regular ballad singer 403 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:31,760 or a regular folk singer, country singer. 404 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:33,120 You couldn't get your music out! 405 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:34,920 People wouldn't listen to your music. 406 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:37,200 They were too busy disco-ing, you know? 407 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:38,920 So... 408 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:43,800 It had a real impact on the music industry. 409 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,160 It was too much. I think people were sick of it. 410 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:48,840 I think if...if you're going to oversaturate... 411 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:52,320 ..the culture with a sound to that degree, 412 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:53,840 people are going to turn on it. 413 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:01,720 The fact that rock and roll was 414 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:03,920 overtaken, for a while, by disco 415 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:05,920 to a lot of people in the country 416 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:07,560 had a really negative effect. 417 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:14,840 People saw disco as a threat to a hegemony that white straight people 418 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:18,760 had had for the better part of a decade, decade and a half. 419 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:23,400 And so, I think there was a racial backlash because so many 420 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:26,640 of the disco stars, like Donna Summer, 421 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:28,680 Gloria Gaynor, were black 422 00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:32,360 and they were huge, huge stars. 423 00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:35,560 And I don't think that white rock-and-roll America 424 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,680 was really ready for that in the '70s. 425 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:46,160 Eventually, there became a lot of negative backlash. 426 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,280 Like, "You sold me a record with a disco banner 427 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:51,080 "that was absolute crap." 428 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:55,080 "My girlfriend went out again with those fucking gay guys 429 00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,960 "to go out dancing instead of being home with me!" 430 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:03,200 And then you had Studio 54 turning away about 1,000 people a night. 431 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,640 It's three in the morning in Manhattan and still, 432 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:12,280 at Studio 54, people crowd the doors hoping to get in. 433 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,080 But first they have to do something even harder 434 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,520 than finding a place to park here, and that's to win the approval 435 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,320 of the owner, 28-year-old Steve Rubell. 436 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:22,880 Oh, you're not shaved. There's no way 437 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,160 any of you guys are going to get in. 438 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:27,760 It doesn't matter, if you're not shaven. Listen, just go home. 439 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:32,320 So every night, almost, the news cameras were there 440 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:34,360 showing people being turned away, 441 00:23:34,360 --> 00:23:37,120 showing people being turned into losers, 442 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:40,880 showing people being turned into unworthy. 443 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,200 Now, this is a country that had just, ten years earlier, 444 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:50,600 gone through a period of massive inclusion where, you know, 445 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,440 racial walls were torn down for the first time in a century, 446 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:56,840 everyone wanted to "kumbaya", love their brother and sister 447 00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:58,200 and sing in a circle. 448 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:01,440 And then, all of a sudden, the news cameras all over the country 449 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:03,560 show people being excluded. 450 00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,040 I was really not a fan of disco. 451 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,640 I was definitely more in the rock category. 452 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:16,960 The Studio 54 image was terrible among rock listeners 453 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,640 because you couldn't get in unless you looked the right way 454 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:24,880 or acted the right way or just had that we'll-let-you-in look. 455 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:32,040 America in general saw New York City as being this very decadent, 456 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:34,440 wild, drug-taking, 457 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,480 everybody-sleeping-with-everybody- else kind of place. 458 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:48,040 There was already in America a move to turn the stations that were disco 459 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,240 back to a rock format. 460 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,400 Well, now, where're you folks going with all that disco? 461 00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,960 Uh, here, Oregon. 462 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:03,160 Here in Oregon, we like rock and roll, nice and pure, KGON style. 463 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,680 You don't want to be bringing that unnatural music up here now, do you? 464 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:17,880 So you had a lot of stations doing things like disco demolitions. 465 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:24,280 love? How deep is your love? 466 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:28,000 467 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:29,040 Gimme a kiss. 468 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:35,840 There was a radio station in Chicago in 1979, and the morning 469 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:40,160 disc jockey, a guy named Steve Dahl, came up with the idea of, well, 470 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,720 let's blow up disco records on the air. 471 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,120 So he'd play a few bars of a Bee Gees song and then, boom, 472 00:25:46,120 --> 00:25:47,400 blow it up. 473 00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:50,360 And listeners loved it because it was like somebody standing 474 00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:53,200 up for rock and roll in the face of this disco menace. 475 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,000 And that's when stations in other markets started copying 476 00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:58,880 the disco demolition idea. 477 00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:04,800 Kaboom. Kaboom. 478 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:06,040 I think we'd better do it. 479 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:10,760 Not this record! Not this record! Not this record! 480 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:13,040 Aaaah! 481 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:20,360 I think it came to a head at Comiskey Park. 482 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,920 Let's go to the videotape. Let's pick it up right here. 483 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,720 Comiskey Park, July 12th, 1979. 484 00:26:29,360 --> 00:26:32,280 It was billed as Teen Night at Comiskey Park for the twi-night 485 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:35,640 double-header between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. 486 00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,920 The feature attraction was a Disco Demolition between games. 487 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,240 Local radio morning man Steve Dahl was the catalyst. 488 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,160 He is anti disco. 489 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:49,960 Tickets were 99 cents, which is really, really cheap. 490 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:51,720 So it was packed. 491 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,240 People brought their kids. Everybody was there. 492 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:55,600 Why? 99-cent tickets. 493 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,680 Hard to beat, double-header. Two games. 494 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:00,200 It's the best bargain in the world. 495 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,360 Chicago's a very segregated city. 496 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:09,400 90% of black people prefer the White Sox. 497 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,560 The Cubs are more North Side and have a lot more white fans. 498 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:19,440 Between games, Dahl was to lead the crowd in song and chants 499 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,160 and then finish by blowing up a box full of disco records, 500 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,440 which the fans were to bring with them to the ballpark. 501 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,520 So you had all these white people coming to a White Sox game to blow 502 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,000 up disco records. 503 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:35,360 They were really pushing it, 504 00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:38,000 blowing up black people's records on the South Side. 505 00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:42,600 People were just taking an album they didn't like and throwing it in. 506 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:44,960 They weren't throwing anything they wanted in there, 507 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,400 because they just wanted to see something blow up. 508 00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:51,640 Steve Dahl goes out in Comiskey Park 509 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,720 in a Jeep and he's in full military gear. 510 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:58,760 Morning radio was theatre. 511 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:00,480 Everyone knew that. 512 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,840 They knew it wasn't real, but they all wanted to play along. 513 00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:05,160 The listeners did. 514 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,920 There was a countdown on the scoreboard, ten, nine, eight, 515 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:12,360 seven...boom... 516 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,240 ..and the records blow up. 517 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:23,640 But it didn't stop there. 518 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,680 Dahl departed the field, but some 7,000 to 10,000 fans poured onto 519 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:32,080 the field, ripping up bases, setting bonfires in centrefield and burning 520 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:35,480 more disco records, and ultimately delaying game two for over 521 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,720 an hour-and-a-half. 522 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:42,240 The crowd was too big, the crowd got too crazy, and they had to cancel 523 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:44,520 the game, which, by the way, to this day in Chicago 524 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:46,080 was the great crime there - 525 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,720 was cancelling the second game of the double-header. 526 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:50,880 You know, the people might have got hurt or whatever. 527 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,240 "Oh, yeah. But they cancelled the game." 528 00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:56,800 I remember seeing it on television. 529 00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,880 There was rioting involved and that kind of thing. 530 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:04,680 I didn't see any rioting on the South Side, but it was a lot 531 00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:06,680 of outrage about it. 532 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,320 It was an amazing promotion, one of the greatest promotions probably 533 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,080 in the history of radio. 534 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,960 It's kind of like Woodstock. Everybody was there. 535 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:20,000 Of course they weren't. They say they were. 536 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,960 And it was either the greatest moment in rock and roll 537 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,840 or just evil, like burning books. 538 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:28,040 It depends who you talk to. 539 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:31,600 But at the time, it was sort of the perfect storm. 540 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,240 The Christian right, or the Bible-thumping people, were like, 541 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:42,040 "Nnnng," trying to press it down as it was coming up 542 00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:44,080 and the record companies were pushing it. 543 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,840 And the crushing and the destruction of disco, I think, was not aimed 544 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,160 at the singers and everything. 545 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:50,920 I think it was aimed at the record companies. 546 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:54,280 But, of course, the singers are the ones that get hurt. 547 00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:59,160 No-one was ringing my bell any more to check to see could I come 548 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:01,520 to a show. That wasn't happening. 549 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:03,920 And so I did go back to teaching. 550 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:08,560 I hate disco because I can't find a white three-piece suit that fits me 551 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:12,120 off the rack that hangs well, and I'm allergic to gold jewellery 552 00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:14,760 and I don't like pina coladas. I'm allergic to coconut. 553 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,520 So what does it hold for me? 554 00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:19,120 Probably nothing. 555 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:21,040 Nothing. 556 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,240 I was so mad at him. 557 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:27,120 What is wrong with you? Come burning all our disco records? 558 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:28,960 Shame on you, Steve. 559 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:34,840 What are you burning? 560 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:36,120 What the hell are you burning? 561 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:41,120 A song that you gave the label to as disco. The singer didn't. 562 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,480 You put the name on it and now you want to crush it? 563 00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:48,560 Black, anti-gay was never a factor in the creation 564 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:49,880 of the anti-disco movement. 565 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:51,800 It just never crossed our minds. 566 00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,360 If anything, it was a musical thing. 567 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:56,040 Rock and roll was about guitars. 568 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:57,680 Disco wasn't. 569 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:01,440 Rock and roll was about, you know, drummers. Disco had electronics. 570 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:06,160 Rock and roll, long hair, T-shirts, grabbing a beer 571 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,560 and disco was about champagne. 572 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,800 And so just so many cultural and musical factors 573 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:16,000 that really drove the whole thing rather than racial 574 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:17,400 or sexual matters. 575 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:21,640 They just bought a black person's record to blow up. 576 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:23,840 They didn't know whether it was disco or not. 577 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:26,280 They just said, "Disco sucks, disco sucks." 578 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:28,560 They didn't know what they were blowing up. 579 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,960 So that's the racial edge of it. 580 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,520 Disco stations all ran for their lives. 581 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,840 The musicians who were making that music were shifting 582 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:41,080 to something else. 583 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,000 You didn't have another hit disco movie. 584 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,280 It was kind of end of an era. 585 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:55,200 Someone came up to me in '79 at the DJ booth and said, "Nicky, 586 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:57,080 "they're saying disco is dead. 587 00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:58,240 "What do you think?" 588 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,600 I said, "It's pretty much dead." 589 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:22,320 Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today 590 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:25,880 released the results of a study which shows that the lifestyle 591 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:30,200 of some male homosexuals has triggered an epidemic of a rare 592 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:31,560 form of cancer. 593 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,760 Robert Bazell now in Atlanta. 594 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:41,680 It was happening in San Francisco and California, 595 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,280 and then it started to hit New York. 596 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,800 They were talking about this gay cancer and how friends 597 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,760 of theirs had it and how friends of theirs were dying. 598 00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:57,040 This suggested to Dr Dritz and her colleagues at the Centers 599 00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:01,200 for Disease Control that their worst-case scenario was the answer - 600 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,560 a new and lethal infectious agent. 601 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,360 A virus was loose in the gay community. 602 00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:09,400 I was scared to death. 603 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,000 We didn't know how it was spread or... 604 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:18,880 ..whether it was really going 605 00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,200 to be fatal for everybody. 606 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,000 It was a horrific time. 607 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,800 There is a one-in-five chance a victim will die 608 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,760 within the first year of the illness. 609 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:34,560 We quickly learned that having a diagnosis of Aids meant 610 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:36,480 you had two years to live. 611 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,560 In the past six months, the number of people who have come 612 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:43,840 down with Aids has nearly doubled. 613 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:47,440 The vast majority of those people will eventually die. 614 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:51,200 So as the numbers increase, so does something else - 615 00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:52,720 and that is fear. 616 00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:59,000 Gays became stigmatised because of it. 617 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,800 People who would go out to clubs at night didn't necessarily 618 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:05,200 want to go out to clubs because at that point in time, 619 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:08,080 you didn't know how you contracted Aids. 620 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:15,600 It was scary shit because people who you've known for decades 621 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:17,760 all of a sudden, you know, were gone. 622 00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,640 I lost two partners from Aids. 623 00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:23,000 So... 624 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:26,560 So many people disappeared. 625 00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,400 It's like coming back from a war. 626 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,520 Seeing people like, "Oh, you made it out." 627 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:35,520 And I'm serious, you made it out of a war. 628 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:40,000 During that period, I lost friends. 629 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,360 I lost my business partner to that. 630 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:44,680 You know, my business partner, he was my partner from 631 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:46,080 New York with me. 632 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:50,480 And I was scared to even go over to his house or touch him, 633 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,320 you know, and he was like, "Why are you acting funny?" You know? 634 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:59,480 But that was because of my ignorance to the disease, you know, 635 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,080 I didn't exactly know what was going on and where it came from. 636 00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:04,760 It was, like, overwhelming. 637 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:08,760 Three years ago, I was just one of the guys. 638 00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,840 I was one of the people in the crowds. 639 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,960 And then this diagnosis came along and all of a sudden 640 00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:21,880 I was stereotyped as a fast-lane liver, as the sick person 641 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:25,840 that was going to bring contagion to the rest of the world. 642 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:32,240 What was awful about it was the ostracism, the incomprehension 643 00:35:32,240 --> 00:35:35,800 and the total lack of any empathy whatsoever 644 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:37,800 from the general US population. 645 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:42,000 "Yeah, you're gay, you deserve it," or whatever. 646 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:43,480 You know, "Good riddance." 647 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:45,440 It was just bad in every way. 648 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:53,320 There was never a moment the Garage looked emptier, but you'd notice one 649 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,680 person not in that group, and you would say, "Where is he?" 650 00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:01,480 And they would look at you sad, and you knew he's either very sick 651 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:02,720 or he died. 652 00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:09,440 And that would start to happen once a month, twice a month, three times 653 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:12,840 a month, two different groups in a month. 654 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,400 It was happening more and more. 655 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,600 Most of my friends have died of Aids. 656 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:27,200 David Rodriguez, one of the greatest people - funny, DJ - 657 00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:30,960 was the first person I knew close to me died of Aids. 658 00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:36,920 Walter Gibbons, fabulous DJ, died of Aids. 659 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:42,360 Michael Brody, the owner of the Paradise Garage. 660 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:48,320 Steve Rubell, the builder and owner of Studio 54. 661 00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:52,640 The list goes on and on of talented, artistic people 662 00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:55,280 who were lost to Aids. 663 00:36:55,280 --> 00:37:01,080 It got so bad that I started, like, a notebook and I would write 664 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:04,600 somebody's name on it and then put down my personal thoughts 665 00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,120 about that person so I wouldn't forget them. 666 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:08,880 It got really overwhelming. 667 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,360 That was a huge part of what changed 668 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:17,040 the club culture during that time, 669 00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,760 and that's about the time that Ronald Reagan came into power. 670 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:26,200 I consider the trust that you have placed in me sacred. 671 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:30,600 And I give you my sacred oath that I will do my utmost 672 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:32,240 to justify your faith. 673 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,280 It was like we needed somebody strong. It was right after Carter. 674 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,640 I mean, he was the cowboy that fought the Indians. 675 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:42,360 He was strong in his image. 676 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:48,720 One of the worst days of my life was watching Ronald Reagan get elected. 677 00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:50,480 I knew how bad it was going to be. 678 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:55,360 Angry demonstrators managed to close down 679 00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:57,040 the Food and Drug Administration today. 680 00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:00,040 They accused the agency under President Reagan of wasting 681 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:02,320 time in the war against Aids. 682 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,760 For some of the protesters, time is a precious commodity. 683 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,720 Storm the NIH! Storm the NIH! 684 00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:11,640 The Government was not very concerned about Aids 685 00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,800 because it was affecting a population that they didn't want 686 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:15,840 to talk about. 687 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:20,400 Seize control of the FDA! 52 will die today! 688 00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:24,040 Ronald Reagan was hoisted in effigy this morning as hundreds of Aids 689 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,840 activists descended on the Food and Drug Administration. 690 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,680 The demand - that the FDA speed up approval of drugs that show 691 00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:32,520 any promise against Aids. 692 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:35,120 Seize control of the FDA! 693 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:37,880 Ronald Reagan wouldn't close the blood banks, and blood 694 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:43,360 was being transfused, and straights then started getting HIV and Aids, 695 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,840 and it all fell on Reagan as being anti-gay and everything. 696 00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:50,560 What do we want? Money for Aids. When do we want it? Now. 697 00:38:55,720 --> 00:39:00,080 I remember where I was when Ronald Reagan first said the word Aids. 698 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,080 That was a very historic moment. 699 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:08,400 We'll not stop, we'll not rest, until we've sent Aids the way of 700 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:10,000 smallpox and polio. 701 00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:20,560 I'm not sure how much the disco world came back after the Aids 702 00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,040 crisis began to dissipate. 703 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:24,560 I don't think it did. 704 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:29,960 Sex is the other major way to transmit Aids. 705 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,440 Bathhouses and nightclubs that cater to casual sex 706 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:33,840 are going out of business. 707 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,600 Casual sex has become a fearful thing. 708 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:42,560 The hardcore disco life in Manhattan changed. 709 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:47,200 Kind of felt a little frivolous going out to dance 710 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:51,520 when, you know, so many people who used to be there with you 711 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:52,880 are no longer there. 712 00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:59,280 But unless you want to sit home and dwell on yourself 713 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:04,160 and be miserable, people had to live, you know, 714 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:05,920 you just keep it moving. 715 00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:14,200 As we all know, the music industry is always on the lookout 716 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:15,880 for new million-sellers. 717 00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,000 I went to America to look at the latest sound to make an impact 718 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:22,440 on the charts, which has its origins in Chicago's black gay scene. 719 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:33,440 You can't stop creativity. 720 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:40,880 Yeah, you got rid of the disco. 721 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,160 Now, wait till you see what's coming next! 722 00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:58,680 We, as poor and moderate-income people, cannot afford condominiums. 723 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:00,360 But we need some place to live. 724 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:04,120 We want to stay in the city, where transportation is. 725 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:12,240 Chicago was an interesting place because you had the migration 726 00:41:12,240 --> 00:41:15,560 of the South, you know, people that came up from Mississippi 727 00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:19,160 and that kind of thing or, you know, came from west, you know, Kansas. 728 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,480 Like, my folks are from Kansas. 729 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:23,040 But the city is more industrialised. 730 00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:25,560 There's more opportunities, you know, to not be busting 731 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,840 your hands out with cotton and breaking your back in the sun 732 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:30,640 and this kind of thing, you know. 733 00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:36,160 So, a combination of factory work, bartending, you know, whatever. 734 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:41,640 Also, let's be clear, there was just a big budding scene, if you will, 735 00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:44,600 that was happening on the underground outside of the factory. 736 00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:46,800 You know, you could be a musician. 737 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:50,280 What happened in Chicago is what African-Americans do. 738 00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:55,120 We take the scraps off the table and we turn them into something 739 00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:56,920 high cuisine, if you will. 740 00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:59,760 And that's exactly what house music is. 741 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:03,920 Oh, that's a nice tight kick. 742 00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:09,200 A house record is the coolest 743 00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:12,200 underground dance music. 744 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:18,120 So I have the four on the floor right now. 745 00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:20,440 Next, I select another instrument. 746 00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:23,440 I'm going to select the snare drum now. 747 00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:24,480 OK. 748 00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:33,640 A house record is anything that Ron Hardy, David Mancuso, Larry Levan 749 00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:36,800 or Frankie Knuckles would have played at their clubs. 750 00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:42,120 Next, I'll bring in a closed hi-hat. 751 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:49,440 Frankie Knuckles is considered the godfather of house. 752 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:51,720 And so if you know anything about early house music, 753 00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:55,680 it was basically disco breaks in RandB songs, and Frankie Knuckles 754 00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:57,640 used to play a lot of things on reel-to-reel, 755 00:42:57,640 --> 00:42:59,320 and he had early drum machines. 756 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:02,040 And so he was using these drum machines and these disco break 757 00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:04,880 loops, and he was creating this new genre of music 758 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:06,360 without anyone really knowing it. 759 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:12,600 Frankie worked at the Warehouse, and house music, 760 00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:15,520 the term house music, came from the Warehouse. 761 00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:21,000 Then later it became synonymous with a style or genre 762 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,000 that was being created out of Chicago producers 763 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:26,000 that were influenced by the music that Frankie was playing. 764 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:32,040 House music was disco's revenge. 765 00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:35,800 The very parts of disco that were lost, the parts of black 766 00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:38,680 and brown creativity, its queerness, 767 00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:42,760 its ways that disco was part of a soundtrack of exploration 768 00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:44,560 before its whitewashing, 769 00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:47,400 house music kind of picked that up and ran off with it. 770 00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:51,840 And there you have your basic house beat. 771 00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:54,360 Now you can bring in different stuff after that. 772 00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:58,360 Bring in claps 773 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:00,200 and other instruments. 774 00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:03,400 That's house music. 775 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:06,240 Underground, cool dance. 776 00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:11,280 Oh, man, I might put this track out. 777 00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:15,400 Listen to the crescendo. 778 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,320 When the disco sucks movement came, all the budgets got cut. 779 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:28,200 You know, strings were such a big part of disco music 780 00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:31,720 in the '70s, and suddenly there was no money for them any more. 781 00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:37,560 But I think those cut budgets made people have to become 782 00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:39,840 more innovative with the sound. 783 00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:45,080 Back in the day, obviously, the, you know, the four on the floor, 784 00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:47,800 you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, 785 00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:50,520 it might have been a drum machine and one keyboard or, you know, 786 00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:52,280 one turntable. 787 00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:54,880 Whatever you could kind of get your hands on. 788 00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:56,280 We're talking about teenagers. 789 00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:58,600 We're talking about people that don't have money trying 790 00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,520 to figure out how to express themselves with this equipment. 791 00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:05,240 It was unique. It was different. 792 00:45:05,240 --> 00:45:07,200 It was fresh off the block. 793 00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:14,040 Sort of in the same way that hip-hop grew out of the physical 794 00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:18,640 disinvestment in the black and brown communities in New York, 795 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:23,920 house music also grew out of these neglected spaces and became 796 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:28,680 spaces of community and creativity, and also entrepreneurship. 797 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:35,240 I didn't go to Chicago to open a club, but when we saw this 798 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:39,520 little Art Deco building, which was 206 South Jefferson, 799 00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:40,680 and I was like, 800 00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:42,720 "Oh, that's a cute building. It's for rent." 801 00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:44,400 We ended up getting it. 802 00:45:46,720 --> 00:45:49,360 The Warehouse was primarily a gay 803 00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:51,200 club with African-American members, 804 00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:56,760 though other folks came as well, and it was a place where you could 805 00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:59,040 go and dance, and feel safe. 806 00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:04,320 I asked Larry Levan, "Would you come out and look at the club 807 00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:08,120 "and possibly think about playing for me?" 808 00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:10,360 And he replied with, "No, Robert. 809 00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:14,280 "The way you talked about Chicago the last time you were there." 810 00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:16,680 I was like, "Oh, darn." 811 00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:18,840 The only person I thought was Frankie. 812 00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:26,520 That was Frankie's entree to Chicago, was when Larry said no. 813 00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:30,160 Your Love by Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles 814 00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:43,080 I didn't get drawn into the whole culture until I met Frankie. 815 00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:47,400 I wanted to do something a little bit different. 816 00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:50,920 I didn't want to be, like, the norm. 817 00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:54,880 818 00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:56,880 819 00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:58,840 820 00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:00,840 821 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:04,960 How do I feel about being the first house vocalist? 822 00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:07,560 I didn't know I was going to be the figurehead 823 00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:10,840 of that, because I look at myself, I sing all right, but I've heard 824 00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:12,600 other singers and they do great. 825 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,120 Maybe I was the first person that people gravitated 826 00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:18,800 towards that they could actually see and feel connected with. 827 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:20,680 828 00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:23,000 829 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:24,720 830 00:47:24,720 --> 00:47:26,040 831 00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:28,800 His sound was ethereal. 832 00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:31,400 It's got, like, somewhat of a rock drum line. 833 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:33,440 I mean, it's real basic, you know what I'm saying? 834 00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:37,600 But the strings and the bass line and then his vocals - 835 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,680 it was something else. 836 00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:43,400 837 00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:45,240 838 00:47:45,240 --> 00:47:48,440 It's a formula that Jamie put together that I don't think 839 00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:49,920 people really understand. 840 00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:53,760 It's very simple, but very powerful. 841 00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:56,480 842 00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:00,600 Your Love was actually a three-minute song, 843 00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:05,840 but Frankie wanted it to have a certain feel in his club, so he said 844 00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:08,920 he was going to strip certain parts down and bring in certain things. 845 00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:10,600 He wanted it to build. 846 00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:13,680 So it was mostly an arrangement thing, but all of the writing 847 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:16,280 and playing is me. 848 00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:28,920 Frankie Knuckles would do a mix tape and give one copy to someone. 849 00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:32,960 And from that copy there would be, like, 10,000 other copies! 850 00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:37,200 That was our version of going viral. 851 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:41,760 That's what the DJ is doing, is actually taking the music 852 00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:45,040 and presenting it to the people, and that's how a lot of records got 853 00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:46,640 introduced to the public. 854 00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:52,080 I didn't know how, like, popular the song was. 855 00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:55,080 But there was a traffic jam on a Saturday. 856 00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:58,280 Me and my boy was in the car, and he was like, 857 00:48:58,280 --> 00:48:59,520 "That's your song playing." 858 00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:03,840 And it was jumping from one car to another car to another car, 859 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:07,440 and we were, like, stuck in traffic. He was like, "You should tell them that's your song." 860 00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:10,480 I was like, "Really? You think they're going to believe that that's me?" 861 00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:12,600 But I was hearing Your Love and all of the songs, 862 00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:14,280 like, being played at the same time. 863 00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:17,920 That's when I kind of, like, figured how widespread it was becoming. 864 00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:22,120 Crocodile Rock by Elton John 865 00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:35,400 866 00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:38,280 867 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:40,000 868 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:43,320 I just love piano because of Elton John. 869 00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,120 It sounded like he came straight out of the church, right? 870 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:50,440 Elton John had so much soul in the '70s, 871 00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:52,880 they had to put him on Soul Train. 872 00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:57,200 It really affected my music-making. 873 00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:01,800 That's where the house piano came from. 874 00:50:04,720 --> 00:50:08,200 Marshall's a smart man and he came up with something, you know, 875 00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:11,720 that changed the pulse. 876 00:50:11,720 --> 00:50:15,560 At that time, there was nothing even remotely resembling 877 00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:17,160 piano in house music. 878 00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:23,680 I was at work on a letter-sorting machine, and a song came to me. 879 00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:28,960 You would type in the postcodes on the keys 880 00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:31,600 midnight to 8:30am every night. 881 00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:33,400 The graveyard shift. 882 00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:35,920 It was as boring as it sounds. 883 00:50:37,240 --> 00:50:39,640 I'm hearing music cos I'm making music now. 884 00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:40,960 "Oh, this is a cut." 885 00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:44,600 886 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:46,240 887 00:50:47,720 --> 00:50:50,040 to set me free 888 00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:52,480 is where I wanna be. 889 00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:54,360 And that's it. Four lines. 890 00:50:56,320 --> 00:51:00,080 Trick was getting home and recording it before I forgot it. 891 00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:05,320 I have this thing called a Yamaha QX1, 892 00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:06,880 two keyboards, 893 00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:09,880 a Prophet 2000, a Roland JX-8P, 894 00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:12,840 a drum machine, 707. That's it. 895 00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:18,720 The entire session, recording and mixing, took about two hours 896 00:51:18,720 --> 00:51:20,840 and we were gone for the day. 897 00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:23,480 Rock your body 898 00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:25,120 899 00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:26,600 I still hadn't been asleep yet. 900 00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:29,360 I said, "I've got to give it to Ron Hardy at the Music Box." 901 00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:31,840 Ron Hardy listens to it. 902 00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:36,200 Plays it six times in a row. 903 00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:40,400 Everybody, "Aaaaah!" 904 00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:43,560 And that's been the default response ever 905 00:51:43,560 --> 00:51:47,160 since for the following 30-plus years. 906 00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:52,240 907 00:51:52,240 --> 00:51:53,720 908 00:51:53,720 --> 00:51:57,400 Very underground. It was different. 909 00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:58,800 There was nothing like it. 910 00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:07,080 This freedom of expression certainly seems to be selling house records. 911 00:52:07,080 --> 00:52:09,200 But is it a passing fad? 912 00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:10,480 No. 913 00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:13,640 It's like... It's reminiscent of the old disco. 914 00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:17,040 It's the kind of music that is just simple music that's exciting 915 00:52:17,040 --> 00:52:18,120 and gets people moving. 916 00:52:18,120 --> 00:52:20,160 And that's why it's going to be around for a while. 917 00:52:20,160 --> 00:52:23,120 And it will become classic music, classic disco music, 918 00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:26,080 because it has an energy of its own. 919 00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:35,200 Probably April or May of 1986 is when it started really blowing 920 00:52:35,200 --> 00:52:37,800 up and leaving the city. 921 00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:41,480 And that's because all these magazines flew to Chicago 922 00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:43,760 and started interviewing me. 923 00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:45,800 They started interviewing everybody else 924 00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:48,320 that had something to do with house music. 925 00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:53,960 All of us just got record deals and with major labels. 926 00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:58,040 And that's when it really started blowing up. 927 00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:02,160 House music started becoming the big thing. 928 00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:06,160 But Larry hated the word house because we played house music 929 00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:08,800 that came out of Chicago, that came out of the Warehouse, 930 00:53:08,800 --> 00:53:13,040 and then suddenly all kind of dance music, because the word house 931 00:53:13,040 --> 00:53:17,120 was cute, was put under the umbrella of house. 932 00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:22,600 So if that means EDM, that means Afro house, that means tech house... 933 00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:24,800 There was Latin house, there was soul house... 934 00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:27,000 ..Nu-disco. That means hip house. 935 00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:30,480 ..my house, there was your house, there was Aunt Ethel's house. 936 00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:33,200 You have this whole alternative 937 00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:35,320 expression where people 938 00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:37,760 were marrying punk and disco 939 00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:39,760 and new wave. 940 00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:42,200 It was just a wildly, wildly creative time. 941 00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:46,360 Disco didn't go away. Just the name went away. 942 00:53:46,360 --> 00:53:50,360 The beat, the rhythm, the sounds of disco carried on. 943 00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:53,720 Everybody stands on somebody's shoulders. 944 00:53:53,720 --> 00:53:55,360 Let's be very clear. 945 00:53:55,360 --> 00:53:57,240 Hell, talk about hip-hop. 946 00:53:57,240 --> 00:53:59,360 I used to be into disco rap. 947 00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:00,960 That's how I got started. 948 00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:05,240 Later '80s, early '90s, 949 00:54:05,240 --> 00:54:07,320 here comes rave culture. 950 00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:12,560 The scene is now being taken over by this new crop of people. 951 00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:15,080 It turned into another whole thing. 952 00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:17,280 Now the story is being rewritten a bit. 953 00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:26,160 But if you take all the music today, every genre of electronic music owes 954 00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:27,840 everything to disco. 955 00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:32,640 If it wasn't for Mancuso, or if it wasn't for Siano, 956 00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:36,520 if it wasn't for Levan and Francois, and those DJs 957 00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:40,720 that first went in the studio and mixed records and made hits, 958 00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:45,160 all these big DJs nowadays that really produce music and travel 959 00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:47,640 the world and make millions of dollars wouldn't happen. 960 00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:53,560 Never in a million years would have thought that my world 961 00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:57,040 would have the impact of how it is now. 962 00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:06,200 Today, disco has a real resurgence. 963 00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:09,520 People love to dance. 964 00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:16,040 You know, we're all going out and we're all dancing to a variation 965 00:55:16,040 --> 00:55:17,360 of what disco was. 966 00:55:18,640 --> 00:55:21,640 It just always evokes something in you somehow. 967 00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:25,440 There's a lot of new artists that are coming 968 00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:28,760 through that are still carrying that torch. 969 00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:30,880 Like Bruno Mars. 970 00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:34,760 And Madonna continues to do it in different ways as well. 971 00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:40,240 Rihanna and Beyonce, they are making this same type of music 972 00:55:40,240 --> 00:55:42,240 we were making back in the '70s. 973 00:55:42,240 --> 00:55:45,000 Different lyrics, same beat. 974 00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:49,200 Beyonce is doing a great job at saying 975 00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:51,760 remember the Loleatta Holloways, 976 00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:53,760 remember the Anita Wards, 977 00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:57,280 remember the Sisters Sledges. 978 00:55:57,280 --> 00:55:59,880 It's their voices that you dance to. 979 00:56:04,480 --> 00:56:08,400 Dance floors do what religions and governments do not. 980 00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:11,680 They bring people together from all walks of life. 981 00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:17,000 As a trans woman of colour this is where I found home. 982 00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:18,800 This is where I found my community. 983 00:56:20,520 --> 00:56:23,960 And I was celebrated for who I was. 984 00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:27,600 to be choosy... 985 00:56:27,600 --> 00:56:31,360 Everything that we do now as queer people living freely, being able 986 00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:33,120 to live our truth, 987 00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:36,120 has come from the people at Stonewall, 988 00:56:36,120 --> 00:56:38,080 fighting for their right to just be. 989 00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:43,920 Today, the mainstream culture has sort of caught 990 00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:48,720 up to what happened back in the '70s in New York. 991 00:56:48,720 --> 00:56:51,480 The consciousness that, like, OK, we're all here together 992 00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:54,560 and we're all having fun. It's all OK. 993 00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:58,840 That person is definitely different than me, but that's OK. 994 00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:00,560 They're cool, you know? 995 00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:02,800 That's what's so nice about it. 996 00:57:04,720 --> 00:57:10,480 Disco's legacy is there to teach, educate, inspire, elevate. 997 00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:14,080 And I think a dance floor that's playing disco is always 998 00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:18,040 going to be a generous, joyful and liberating space, 999 00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:21,480 a safe space, a fun space. 1000 00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:23,600 It must be protected at all costs. 1001 00:57:27,480 --> 00:57:29,960 The future of disco is more disco. 1002 00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:34,360 Don't Leave Me This Way by Thelma Houston 1003 00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:37,880 I'm very thankful for the forefathers. 1004 00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:42,760 I'm very thankful for the kings and queens and everything in between. 1005 00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:45,880 Let's continue the legacy of great dance music made 1006 00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:47,680 by queer people - 1007 00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:51,280 for, by, with, all of those things. 1008 00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:58,720 Thank you to everyone for having me, for doing this, for making a record 1009 00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:03,520 of times gone by, because it's so important that people know this. 1010 00:58:03,520 --> 00:58:05,720 This is history. I thank you. 1011 00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:08,400 1012 00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:10,920 Bye. 1013 00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:13,240 1014 00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:19,080 without your love 1015 00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:20,680 1016 00:58:20,680 --> 00:58:23,680 1017 00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:27,240 1018 00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:33,360 1019 00:58:33,360 --> 00:58:36,600 1020 00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:40,120 1021 00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,320 and desire for you...