Having been around since the early 70s, Boogie Oogie Oogie was the band's first - and biggest - hit, with their only subsequent major success being the US top 10 hit Sukiyaki in 1982.
While it's a good tune, I wouldn't rank it as a classic of the era, personally - the overall sound is a bit weak with the drums a bit lost in the mix. However, the song and the band stand as a fantastic symbol of the sexual politics of disco - that's some seriously funky bass being laid down by singer Janice-Marie Johnson.
I think I may seem a bit dismissive of this song, but I'm glad that my alphabetical journey has given me cause to listen to it. It's definitely one for those disco compilation moments I'm sure we all have and it would otherwise have lain forever unlistened on a hard drive, with me assuming (as I did before listening to it) that it was a terrible novelty song. Here's to discovering many more gems along the way.
I reckon the music of one's very early childhood is seldom remembered from the time - certainly any knowledge I have of the early 80s has been learnt in adulthood - so I don't think it's that much of a surprise this track passed you by.
ReplyDeletePlus, disco's a funny one to get into, too, I've always though - unless you were there at the time, you either know it from commercial radio and TV (in which case it's little more than the accepted cannon, which includes Boogie Oogie Oogie I reckon), or you've found it by going back from the house music it inspired (in which case you probably know a million licks and samples, but no songs).
Weirdly - or perhaps not - I managed to take both routes during my teens, listening to Heart FM during the day and Pete Tong/pirate radio in the evening, which makes me quite a sample-spotting nerd - and to that end, here's the house track that samples BOO, which I absolutely loved at the time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzgXzItL2UI&feature=player_embedded
If you think the sound is weak and the drums a bit lost in the original, Bob Sinclair will sort that for you and no mistake. The only problem is he also strips lots of the personality out of the track too for his edit, but hey, you can't have everything.
Yeah, the Bob Sinclair remix goes way too far in the other direction - I'd just like the drums a bit louder, please. Is that really too much to ask?
ReplyDeleteAnd you're probably right about the remembering of childhood music. It seems like I clearly remember the last days of disco (and I do remember dancing around frantically to my cousin's disco compilation tapes at my grandparents' house), but I was young and it's probably not till 81, or so, that I really do remember music without having had it culturally reinforced in the interim.