Saturday, December 31, 2011

You Had To Have Been There



As with every year 2011 saw the deaths of many of the great and good as well as those of people who weren't famous or 'celebs' but whose lives had more of an impact than those who basked, however briefly, in the glow of public affection.  For anybody who did lose a loved one during 2011 my sympathies are with you, I know it probably isn't much consolation at the moment but things do get easier with the passing of time and the pain will ease and you will remember the good times and be able to smile at the happy memories.

Among those who received almost as much publicity in death as she had in life was Andrea Marie Truden better known to those of a certain age as Andrea True, True died on November 7th and its a sign of how old certain radio producers/editors/listeners are that her death made the Today programme - Radio Oldgit embraced disco long enough to tell its audience that she had been a porn star who somehow had made an evangelical conversion to disco. What's interesting though was that True didn't try and rewrite her own history, there were no tales of being forced into the industry (like Traci Lords or Linda Lovelace to name two who were the victims of sexual abuse), she felt that she had simply 'burnt out' after sixty odd movies.

April 1976 saw the release of 'More, More, More' a record that would make the Top 5 in both the UK and the US and its timing couldn't have been better. Written and produced by Gregg Diamond it was a blackcurrant sorbet in music charts deprived of any outstanding flavours. The biggest hits in the UK in 1976 were by Abba, Chicago, Dr.Hook, Showaddywaddy and Demis Roussos and those of us under twenty were in need of something to prevent us slipping into a catatonic state, New Rose by The Damned was still six months away. Incidentally a sign of how stuck its ways British music was at this time can be seen by comparing the John Peel Festive 50's for 1976 with that for 1978, the '76 chart included: Hendrix, The Beatles, Free, Yes, Dylan and Led Zep - all great artists but not exactly 'new' whilst the '78 chart featured: The Clash, The Pistols, Buzzcocks, Magazine, Stiff Little Fingers and Bowie, Dylan, Van Morrison and Led Zep - hey ho! Of course people will (and do) argue that the album charts were more representative of the listening publics taste at the time, filled as they were with Led Zep, Dylan, Bowie and Van Morrison. 

We may well have had long hair and worn flares but that was about as reactionary as we were back then. I can remember quite vividly a discussion with a fellow worker during the long hot summer of '76 (I worked in a meat processing factory during the school hols) about the comparative merits of Chick Corea and Frank Zappa!

Not that I was a fan of discos, I mean they were great places for pulling but you actually had to dance and I hated that, probably because I was a skinny white boy with no rhythm. I did like disco music though, Donna Summer was my disco diva of choice and in my anally retentive system of keeping my albums (by genre, by country and by alphabetical order) she was alone in the disco section and when Donna Summer dies we will have the full six minute version of 'I Feel Love' played at full blast in her memory.

For the time being enjoy Andrea True Connection ( or not)

4 comments:

Span Ows said...

"More more more,how do you like it? How do you like it?"

This was after the porno days, right?

Re Donna Summer, wow, something else we have in common. 'Love to love you' was introduced to me by a friend of my sister that I secretly fancied (and never got anywhere near) and her version of 'Could it be magic'. Wonderful. After that 'I Fell Love', one listen and it was obvious it would get to Number 1, I'd never heard synths like it before...

I have a big grin on my face, Happy New year.

Span Ows said...

...that's Donna Summer's version of Could it be Magic, not my sisters's friend!

Paul said...

And a Happy New Year to you too. The p.s made me laugh!

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