After a dark and somber time
soaking in Leonard Cohen’s latest album and contemplating his passing, this
next record was exactly the infusion of fun I needed to right myself.
Disc 938 is….Dance Dance Dance
Artist: Chic
Year of Release: 1991 but featuring
music from 1977 to 1982
What’s up with the Cover? Five cool cats pose at a
photographer’s studio that needs a slightly bigger backdrop.
How I Came To Know It: I knew Chic because I grew up in
the seventies, but as a rocker I was taught at an early age to hate the devil
disco. Years later my friend Spence played a few choice cuts from this album and
showed me how wrong it was to hate. I bought it a week later.
How It Stacks Up: I only have this one album and it is a
compilation anyway, so it doesn’t stack up.
Ratings: ‘best ofs’ don’t get rated. It is
an Odyssey rule!
Some
music is for sitting quietly and thinking, some music is for a gentle toe tap
or two and some music is for singing along. Chic is music for dancing, and as dance
music goes you can’t do much better. This is dance music about dancing, for use
while dancing.
Hell,
the first song is called “Dance, Dance, Dance
(Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) and it is over eight minutes of funky guitar
hooks, bass lines and singers exhorting us to…well you get the idea. I would
kill to have been hanging out at a New York disco when this song came on. So
gloriously self-absorbed, like so much of the disco era, and yet so damned good
at it that you forgive every ounce of ego stuffed into it.
Most of
the 11 songs on the album are entirely unsuited to radio play, or would have
been cut down to a radio edit to fit it conveniently into three or four minutes
back in the day. That is a damned shame, and I’m glad that this compilation
album sticks with extended versions. These aren’t for radio play, these are for
nightclubbing or private parties where the carpet was white shag and the entrance
hall had a fishbowl full of keys.
And for
all this excess and aimless celebration, the musicianship of Chic is amazing.
The bass line in “Everybody Dance” is
incredible, and because the song is eight minutes long you get plenty of time
to let it sink into your spine where it belongs. This is the land where the
only lyrics you need are a bunch of people sexily whispering “everybody dance”.
And then you do, and all is right in the world again.
The
production is also a welcome departure from a lot of modern dance music.
Nowadays the bass line is often a boring thump-thump-thump and almost always way
too overpowering in the mix. Chic knows how to balance out the mix so that
every instrument gets its moment. Care to follow the bass line a while? You can
do that. Maybe you prefer to synch up with the guitar’s groove and shift your
dancing to something more melodic – you can do that too.
The two
people responsible for this tasteful mix are guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist
Bernard Edward, who in addition to being key contributors as players also produce
most of the songs on the record. Rodgers would go on to produce a bunch of
famous records, including David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Madonna’s “Like A
Virgin.”
If you
want your music to go somewhere or do something, this is not for you. Chic
establish a groove and explore every corner of it, but they aren’t looking to
travel any great distance away from that initial groove. As for lyrics, you
better like to hear about dancing, because that’s what they’re going to sing
about. About one in four songs shake it up with a song about makin’ love. These
songs are also very predictable in what they inspire. Dancing again, only in
this case of the horizontal variety.
If for
some reason you can’t fully cut loose (for example you are on a bus going to
work, or walking somewhere) the music can be a bit frustrating, and in those
moments I appreciated the tighter timelines of classics like “Chic Cheer” and the classic “Le Freak”. “Le Freak” is the more famous song, and I have always appreciated
its active encouragement for everyone to get their freak on:
“Have you heard about the new
dance craze?
Listen to us, I'm sure you'll be
amazed
Big fun to be had by everyone
It's up to you, It surely can be
done.”
Did I
mention this music is not about the lyrics? That’s OK, though because ‘big fun’
will indeed be had by ‘everyone’ as advertised. Just think less, and keep those
feet moving.
I know ‘best
of’ albums don’t get rated, but if they did I would give this album three dances, three yowsahs and a chic
cheer.
Best
tracks: Dance
Dance Dance (Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah), Everybody Dance, Chic Cheer, Le Freak
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