Earlier this week, BBR/Hot Shot Records released their reissue of Rinder & Lewis' landmark 1977 "Seven Deadly Sins" album, which I'm proud to have had a hand in, having interviewed W. Michael Lewis and former AVI president Ray Harris for the liner essay. A turning point in Rinder & Lewis' work together, the first to be released under their own names, not bound by any of the disco concepts they'd been doing up until that point; "Seven Deadly Sins," is easily the most ambitious and experimental record they'd done. Written and performed entirely by the both of them; influenced, yet not limited by the parameters of disco, while it may not have delivered numbers like some of their other disco productions at the time, it has gone on to become easily one of their most renowned (if not their most renowned) and enduring records.
I'll probably write at length about the liner notes on another post (like I have with some of the others I've done), however this BBR release is the first time the album has been legitimately released on CD. Despite the production delays (I had come on board with this just over two and a half years ago now), its release comes just in time for Halloween, which is perfect for an album that contains some of the most haunting disco that Rinder & Lewis ever committed to record. While most disco people know the album for the ethereal strains of "Lust," I'd have to single out "Gluttony" as yet another standout. Sounding like the apocalyptic inverse of "I Feel Love," it's perhaps the most intense, infernal track on the record. (Note: I have yet to receive my copy of the reissue, so the file below is a rip from one of my vinyl copies).
One little tidbit that Michael Lewis told me in our interview was that they were one of the first to employ the syndrum (hear a demo) when recording this album, which would become something of a common gimmick in disco records in the following years (if 'syndrums' don't ring a bell, the hook to this song probably will). Take a listen to the 3.00 and 4.30 marks of "Gluttony" to hear some of that early syndrum action.
Also, just in time for this release, the latest issue of Waxpoetics (#59 with Aaliyah and Kelela on the covers) has a great piece on Rinder & Lewis, entitled "Soul Searching" written by John M. Gómez who interviewed both Laurin Rinder & W. Michael Lewis for the story. (Note: the article is only available in the magazine, for the moment).
Picked this one up in Toronto a few weeks ago. Credited to a group calling itself Halloween, I don't think anyone could expect anything other than a throwaway disco novelty, yet this turned out to be surprisingly solid..
Written and produced by one-time Motown staff producer Jerry Marcellino, who with Mel Larson had worked on TheJacksonFive's later albums and most of Michael Jackson's earlysolorecords; aside from the name, the Halloween novelty here is actually fairly subtle. With verses littered with lines about "midnight ladies dressed in black," "partying under the full moon," and "spinning magic spells," that's about as close as it gets on here..
That being said, the solid grooves and production on here more than made up for the obvious lack of laughing vampires and screaming disco chicks. The A-side "Lady Midnight," opening with the sort of synthy disco pulses that always win me over and plenty of guitar action all over the breaks would have to be the choice track for me here. The bass-heavy, mid-tempo disco groove of "Come See What It's All About" is no less worthy though.
As stated on the single cover, both tracks here came off of the album "Come See What It's All About" (1979, Mercury/PolyGram), which at the time of this writing, has yet to be listed on Discogs. One that I'll be on the lookout for though..
Originally, I wasn't planning to post a follow-up to the last Disco Delivery today, in fact, I wasn't even planning to post anything particularly Halloween related today, until I suddenly remembered that I had this record. One of the little goodies I had gotten in Vancouver this summer, I managed to find a sealed copy there that I hadn't even opened until this morning. Somehow, I seem to have become a little bit precious about my sealed records lately, there's a kind of weariness that I seem to have developed over the last few years of buying and searching for records, of opening something that has been sealed for thirty or so years. It's like I'm disturbing some sort of artifact.. Either way, I suppose they're meant to be enjoyed, and this one didn't disappoint.
Although I haven't seen the movie, which is long out of print, there are some little clips on YouTube (see below) and reviews all over the internet, which generally seem to boil down to "awful, but fun." Released in 1979, (but filmed in '78) and directed by Harry Hurwitz under the alias 'Harry Tampa', it's been described as a campy, low budget disco vampire movie, with it's plot (without giving away too many spoilers) revolving around Nocturna, the granddaughter of Dracula (played by John Carradine). Having fallen on lean times, their Transylvanian castle has been turned into a hotel/disco where they invite a band (played by one time Salsoul group Moment of Truth) to play live. Nocturna falls for Jimmy, one of the boys in the band so to speak, played by the late Antony Hamilton (in what appears to have been his first major film role), who takes her to New York where romance, disco and vamipric ridiculousness apparently ensue..
Although Yvonne DeCarlo (best known for her role in The Munsters) is listed as the 'star' in the intro, judging from her involvement as the main writer, executive producer and her role as the lead character, this movie seemed more than anything, like a vehicle for Armenian born belly dancer, sometime singer and actress (and I'd use that word loosely) Nai Bonet. Something of a vanity project of hers, she seemed to have had her hands in virtually all aspects of the film, all the way down to the soundtrack. Not only is her picture prominently splayed on the back cover and inside the gatefold sleeve, she was also given a loose, vague production (or executive production) credit, with one of her companies, Nai Bonet Music even taking part of the publishing on all the songs.
Although the film wasn't exactly meant to be scary, looking at the clips, the most glaring things would have to be either Brother Theodore's hilarious/creepy ranting, along with Nai Bonet's so-called 'acting.' Even with the simple lines she seems to have, she's barely convincing with her numb, catatonic delivery. Apparently they put in a topless bathing scene (for those of you into that) with her, which is evidently supposed to make up for some of that. Nevertheless, it's probably no wonder her IMDB credits drop off completely after 1979.
That said, despite the film's dubious credentials, the soundtrack is remarkably solid, being probably one of the best disco soundtrack albums I've come across. A double LP produced and arranged by Reid Whitelaw and Norman Bergen who together had also produced Ralph Carter (of 'Good Times' fame), Alfie Davison and pretty much all of Moment Of Truth's material, it's packed mostly (last two tracks aside) with full and hearty Philly-style meat-and-potatoes disco, much of which seems to have gone overlooked despite some of the high profile names attached to this.
The two major singles from this were the lead-off tracks by Gloria Gaynor ("Love Is Just A Heartbeat Away") and Vicki Sue Robinson ("Nighttime Fantasy"). Both were given special disco mixes on the album by Kevin Burke & Wayne Scott and Doug Riddick, respectively, with both given shorter versions on their 12" releases (which I haven't heard yet). Both singles ended up charting low to modestly on the Billboard Disco Charts in 1979 (Gloria at #81 and Vicki at #21), but despite the relatively modest success of both singles, I'd probably consider these among some of the best material that I've heard from both ladies. Exquisitely arranged with just the right amount of dancefloor intensity and high drama, both tracks are incredibly infectious and memorable. A good deal of that is likely due to the backing band full of notable Philly players like Larry Washington and his distinctive percussion, Jimmy Williams (also of Double Exposure) on bass, Bobby Eli and Dennis Harris on guitar, Keith Benson on drums, Don Renaldo's Strings & Horns, and the ubiquitous Sweethearts of Sigma (with Irene Cara also credited) providing their angelic background vocals. Given that and the time period, it's perhaps no coincidence why these tracks remind me in places of some of the tracks off Grace Jones' "Fame" (1978, Island) album.
In an interview with Jussi Kantonen for DiscoStyle.com this past February, Gloria Gaynor herself had commented on "..Heartbeat" after being asked about a recently released remixed version. As much as I personally enjoyed the track, apparently Gloria herself had a different opinion:
I never liked the old one, the new version is certainly better than that. I thought "Love Is Just A Heartbeat Away" was a corny title to begin with, and the arrangement of the the original was already badly dated when I did it. And the lyrics were dreadful, I would never in real life present words like that to anyone. In fact I only agreed to sing it out of courtesy to my then manager who also happened to be my husband..
This song has apparently been remixed several times, with severalroundsof remixes released in 1995, one of them by co-producer Reid Whitelaw as well as a more recent remix by Eric Kupper released last year (the one referred to in Gloria Gaynor's interview). A version of "Love Is Just A Heartbeat Away" was also produced by Tom Moulton for his Loose Change (1979, Casablanca) LP project released the same year.
Aside from the first two tracks, the two tracks contributed by Moment of Truth - "Love At First Sight" and "Hopelessly In Love With You" are also excellent. "Love At First Sight" is, in my opinion, the best of the two. An excellent piece of uplifting Philly disco, pounding rhythm and delicate piano flourishes complimented with a brilliant, uplifting melody and a muscular, soulful vocal, it seems too good to have remained an obscurity on here. Probably best known for their #3 Billboard disco chart hit "Helplessly" in 1975 (originally released on Roulette), Moment Of Truth were quite possibly one of the most underrated groups on Salsoul. Apparently no longer signed to Salsoul by this time, this song stands up to the great songs from their Salsoul period.. Although this evidently didn't become a single, referring back to Ms. Gaynor's comments about her own single, perhaps it was due to the fact that this sound might have been a bit dated as well by this time> However, if there ever was another contender on here, it would have to have been this one..
Of the other tracks on the album, there are two tracks anonymously credited to the Heaven 'N' Hell Orchestra, both a vocal ("Whatcha Gonna Do") and an instrumental ("Bitten By The Love Bug"). Of those two, my favourite is perhaps the latter, which features some energetic, yet sublime arrangements and some great galloping breaks in the middle. Although I do with they had kept the sax that they had used on the movie version of the song (see the third video clip below)..
Aside from that, there's the lone ballad on the album, "Why Do Lovers Come Together" performed by Jay Siegel (misspelled on the front cover as 'Jay Siegal'). A bit of a buzz-kill, but admittedly, a track that gets better with more listens. Siegel is probably best known as a member of the 1960's vocal group The Tokens, who had a huge hit with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1967. Also, not sure if Discogs is wrong on this one, but according to them, Siegel (credited as J. Siegel) was also one of the producers credited behind Sarah Dash big disco hit "Sinner Man."
Overall, I suppose it's not unusual for films of this calibre to have soundtracks exceeding the quality of the film itself, and while I haven't seen the movie to say so for myself, the reviews certainly suggest as much. On it's own terms, it's a solid and enjoyable record that's definitely worth seeking out for some unexpected treasures, especially for those who enjoy the Philly/Salsoul side of disco..
As far as the movie goes, there was some apparently some shadowy intrigue surrounding the film, with rumoursaboutthe film having been financed by laundered mob money. It likely persists due to the murder of one of the film's financiers, former actor/embezzler William H. Callahan in 1981, which remains unsolved to this day. Apparently the movie was only briefly released on video for in the early 80's and apparently, even then, only for rental. There's an original copy on eBay currently going for nearly $200 US, but there are also more reasonably priced bootleg DVDs out there, which are easy to find.. On that note, there's always YouTube, where there are some great, fun clips of the intro and some of the movies' disco scenes that I had to include here. Let me just say, Antony Hamilton was really something in his day..
Some Trivia: The year following the making of Nocturna, one of the stars of the soundtrack, Vicki Sue Robinson would get one of her first movie roles in a film called "Gangsters", which also featured Nai Bonet in a prominent role. As well, one of the producers of the soundtrack - Reid Whitelaw seems to be still active in the music industry, albeit in the business side of things these days with his company Reid Whitelaw Productions/Brookside Music Corp.. Whitelaw and Brookside Music seem to be quite prominent in the area of disco reissues and remixes (see the various remixes of Gloria's "Love Is Just A Heartbeat Away" linked above), currently owning and controlling the catalogues of the Philly Groove and Private Stock labels to name a couple.
Hot Blood - Soul Dracula Hot Blood - Sex Me Hot Blood - Terror On The Dancefloor
Okay, so it's Halloween, and aside from Christmas, no other occasion has inspired more strange disco novelties.. Needless to say, I thought I'd be putting the novelties away with the last post, but with this thing arriving at my door yesterday (perfect timing!), it appears I've got one more to put up..
Perhaps best known for "Soul Dracula" (included here, naturally), Hot Blood was a rather anonymous German disco production, featuring a number of notable Munich session players, like Keith Forsey, Gary Unwin and Pepe Solera, to name a few.. The record is so anonymous in fact, that the production credit is given as 'Produced by Hot Blood,' which doesn't exactly illuminate things, although looking at the credits, one could speculate that the major player behind this was arranger Stefan Klinkhammer. Klinkhammer is perhaps best known for his work as both arranger (and sometime songwriter) on the majority of Boney M's albums along with a few other Frank Farian productions.. There doesn't seem to be much information on Klinkhammer available in English, but former Boney M member, Marcia Barrett has a couple of pictures with him on her official website. Unfortunately, I can only speculate from her captions that Klinkhammer has since passed away..
As far as the record itself goes, don't be fooled by the lipstick lesbian vampiress action on the cover (the vampire is apparently Calvin Klein model Lisa Taylor, thanks to Enrique for this tidbit.). This thing is a far cry from any Saint Tropez disco sapphic soap-opera.. The major track on the record, "Soul Dracula" has every cliché one would expect from a novelty 'dracula' track: maniacal laughing drrrracu-la with exaggerated Bela Lugosi-esque accent, catchy/annoying background gimmicks that drill themselves into your head, cheesy sexual overtones, not to mention a bit of pointless appropriation in the song title. I mean, somebody tell me what's so soulful about the 'Soul Dracula," anyway..
Still though, cliché's aside, this track is probably one of the better, more enjoyable Halloween disco records I've come across.. Unusually (although some might say mercifully) short at just around two and a half minutes, ironically enough, it's the shortest song on the album. Apparently there's a slightly longer version out there running at least 3.57 (thanks Kenneth!) which they didn't put on the album, for some reason...
Although this was released on a rather obscure indie label in the US two years following "Soul Dracula's" original single release, apparently, judging from what I've come across, "Soul Dracula" was a pretty sizeable hit in parts of Europe. I suppose it had to be, to have been 'performed' on TV. And as intriguing as the song is on it's own, I personally think it's best enjoyed with a little visual aid. Check out one of the performances archived on good ol' YouTube, complete with masked dracula and hilarious choreography:
Okay so the quality is shit, but you get the idea.. I could say more about that craziness, but I think one of the commenters on YouTube, brightonbits, summed it up best: "If Vampires sucked blood exclusively to get the cocaine in your system, I suppose this would be the logical theatrical interpretation.." That's right, move over, Thriller!..
Anyway, the rest of album is not all cheesy dracula tracks, there are actually a couple of half-way pleasant instrumentals, like "Even Vampires Fall In Love" and "Dracula Does Dreamy." Aside from those, the one track here that somewhat rises above the kitsch would have to be "Sex Me," the final track on Side 1. Instrumentally speaking, it's a nice sleazy, sexy slow-burner complete with a moaning female, sly guitar and string arrangements. If weren't for the ol' "Soul Dracula" getting in on the action, repeatedly whispering: "sex me.. sex me.. give me satisfaction" and my personal favourite: "do it..right there.. I like it.. I need it fresh!", it would probably make for a seriously substantial track on it's own. I suppose if Vampires can fall in love, they can get horny too, I guess..
Another bit of craziness that I also had to include here was the last track on the album, "Terror On The Dancefloor" (evidently released as a 12" in the US) which basically consists of our "Soul Dracula" mentioning a few of the other song titles over a litany of screams and a template Munich disco backing. With those catchy basslines and those strings (courtesy of the Munich Philharmonic) chased by some killer horn arrangements, it's quite possibly the best damn thing on the album..
Overall though, "Disco Dracula" is your typically harmless, fun novelty record, firmly entrenched in the realm of kitsch and camp, yet not without it's moments of inspired musicianship. Not something to break the bank for, yet nothing to pass on either..
Anyway, that's my Halloween post for this year. Happy Halloween!
And just a final note: by popular demand, I've also re-uploaded (for a limited time) last year's Halloween Post as well.. Enjoy!
So it's Halloween.. As luck would have it, I came across this single during my little (well.. my bank card may beg to differ) shopping spree at the beginning of the month, I figured now would be a good time to put it up.
Andy Forray was a British singer/actor who had been in a couple of movies, had a few singles to his name but was most notably part of both the original Broadway Cast and London Cast of Hair.. Aside from that I have no idea what else he's done, but in any case, he wrote and performed this little ditty and he does play a great disco dracula, if I do say so myself.. With cheeky lyrics and a playful deadpan along with that pic sleeve, it's a rather clever and amusing piece of disco kitsch.. The single was produced by Jack Lancaster, a multi-instrumentalist who, from what I gather didn't really have any other disco credits to his name. It seems he was mostly involved with various rock/jazz fusion projects like Brand X and Blodwyn Pig to name a couple.. Anyway, just cause I like 'em, check out some of the lyrics:
They're easy pickin's at the discotheque
I leave them feeling like they've been in a wreck
You know they wake up all wasted
And they never ever check
Those two small holes that I leave in their neck
Well if they were wise
They would soon realize
They're not hung over
They're just vampir-ized
'Cause Drac's Back
I wanna suck your..(oooh.. Dracula!)
Drac's back...
Love how they cut off our disco dracula after "I wanna suck your.." After all, what's a kitschy piece of disco without a little sexual innuendo? He just couldn't help it I guess...
Some more choice verses...
I went to New York City once to make my mark
I checked in at the Waldorf in the name of Count Choc.
I used to prowl that city when it was dark
'Til one night someone mugged me out in Central Park
So I had to go away, for many a day
But I'm such a nifty healer that I'm still here to say
Drac's back..
Ahh, New York in the '70s..
Just a few days ago, I found out about a 1982 remake of this by an anonymous outfit called Red Lipstique. You can hear their version over at Music Is My Boyfriend (sorry, dead link) along with, if you'd believe, some of your favourite cereal characters getting a little disco action for themselves..
.JPG)