I Will Survive
|
Please click on
|
The relationship between 'Soul' and 'Disco' has always been a difficult one to assess. Many budget 'soul' compilations often include 'disco' tracks amongst their listings because the general public does not always differentiate between the two. As long as the music is performed by a black artist and has a rhythmic beat it is all lumped together under the 'soul' banner. The soul cognoscenti however despise disco music. To them the advent of disco heralded the demise of soul. Real musicians were replaced by synthesisers and taped recordings whilst the ballad and melissma by the repetitive thudding of synthetic music. In truth however many records of the early seventies were a hybrid of the two. Philadelphia International in particular married the old and the new with records like The O'Jays 'I love Music', The Philadelphia All Stars "Lets Clean up the Ghetto" and Harold Melvin's "Don't Leave Me This Way". These records were equally at home at both the disco and the Soul club. Despite polarised opinions soulful disco did exist. Gloria Gaynor was born in 1947, so when her first big hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" was released in 1974 she was already 27. I assumed therefore that her late teens and early twenties must have been spent working in the soul arena. Gloria will always associated with disco music, but given her age at the time of her success I was convinced that she paid her dues in the soul field first. These were the years I wanted to read about. The book tells us that she sang with two groups, "The Soul Satisfiers" and "City Life" and also as a solo artist. Disappointingly in all these years she released only one single "This Love Affair". Coincidentally two soul compilations released towards the end of 2002, "Modern Soul: Living For the Weekend" and "The Spirit of Philadelphia" include this track in their listings. As a recorded soul artist however this is the sum total of her output. Gloria Gaynor missed a complete generation of music and went straight into the seventies with her disco releases. In the book she pays little acknowledgement to her soulful years, not even mentioning the songs she performed on the road. Whatever influence soul music had on her career therefore remains a total mystery, at least as far as this book is concerned. This is a great pity because this is what the music fan wants to read. Much more important in her life is the discovery of religion and this forms a central theme throughout most of the book. In the final analysis it is not wholly devoid of interest for the music lover, but the book is unquestionably of much more interest to the born again Christian. Soul commentary is negligible, disco only a little better, but of religious propaganda there is plenty. None the less it still represents the views of a successful black diva and therefore deserves to be read. I have received an E-mail from Sebastian Fonzeus regarding this review in which he adds some interesting details. To check them out visit my "Your Comments" page by clicking Here |
|
Why Not visit the Authors other Website, 'The Alternative Blackpool Website' at http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/bpool This Site Last Updated 18/05/05
|
the category you wish to choose from the options
below
