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!
I was originally thinking of putting up a more substantial disco record for this post, but given that we're in the beginning of Hockey season up here, I figure now would be a good time to put up one of the ultimate, if not the ultimate Can-Con disco novelty record. First of all though, I have to thank Disco Delivery reader Luke Barker for kindly sending me some files from this album nearly a year ago now. I couldn't get enough of them then and I just had to track the real thing down.. I'm finally getting down to doing something on it, so special thanks to Luke for getting me acquainted with this!
At the risk of having my Canadian citizenship revoked, I have to admit that I rarely, if ever follow hockey. In fact, for me, 'Hockey Night In Canada' might as well be Don Cherry bellowing in Swahili, for all I care.. Granted, the excitement that sweeps much of the country when a Canadian team ends up in the final stretch of the playoffs or in an Olympic gold medal game can be pretty infectious, even for me. Being lousy at hockey (and at most sports generally, for that matter), I've never actually sustained any interest in following it with any degree of seriousness.
With that said, a little primer for those who (like me) may not follow.. Most famous for his stint with the Montreal Canadiens from 1971-1984, during that time, particularly in the 70's, Guy Lafleur was undoubtedly one of the NHL's brightest stars.. With that status came the requisite endorsement deals and in his case, a taste for the high life. During his time in Montreal, Lafleur eventually became quite taken with Montreal's nightlife, being something of a regular at many Montreal discos, even reportedly known at one time as the "King of Crescent Street" in certain circles (at least according to Mark LePage's essay in "Remembering Guy Lafleur"). A hockey superstar in a city that quite famously loved both it's hockey and it's disco (much like the man himself, apparently), it's perhaps not surprising that this sort of project came along when and where it did..
A forgotten novelty for the most part, the legend of the "Guy Lafleur Disco Album" has had something of a resurgence lately, with the CBC dredging up some great old footage of the album's release party at Regine's (Regine Zylberberg's Montreal franchise?) discotheque ("reportedly the pinnacle of local disco society" as the reporter, Melvin McLeod quipped) out of it's archives.
It's rather hilarious looking at the footage itself, since one can't help but notice two things: the cameraman scoping out the ladies and the reporter's apparent scorn for the whole thing in his voice-over: "Guy Lafleur, the Baryshnikov of the hockey rink, doing... a disco album.." The tone of "disco album" pretty much says it all.. Although the clip shows people getting down on it at a lavish disco, judging from the clips' tone and from what I've had people tell me, there likely weren't too many clubs playing selections off of this record - the album ending up, it seems, just as much of a joke and a curiosity then as it is now.
Being that it was the late '70s and "going disco" was the thing to do (although perhaps less so, by the end of '79), the Montreal disco indie, Unison Records, which had been behind the original Canadian release of a couple of notable Gino Soccio projects among others - namely Witch Queen and Gotham Flasher, decided to gamble $100,000 on this little gimmick, apparently expecting to sell a copy for every dollar they sank into it.
Although there is no year of release on the record, judging from the CBC news clip, the record was apparently recorded in just five days and released at the end of 1979, just in time to capitalize on the Christmas market. Combining disco, a hockey superstar, the spendthrift Christmas market and having been recorded in both English (UNE-2000) and French (UN-7907) editions (the English being the rarer of the two, in my experience), it seemed a sure bet. Despite that, I'm not even sure if Unison made any money off of this, since, at least for me, copies haven't exactly been that easy to find. In fact, I wonder whatever became of the Unison label since this album's release, anyway..
Granted, as absurd as the concept may seem, the results are actually not quite as unwieldly and disastrous as one might expect, in fact the album's actually quite the hoot, if I do say so myself... Contrary to what some seem to have thought or expected at first glance, the record is actually not Lafleur's attempt at singing; in fact he, quite wisely, doesn't sing a note on here. Instead, the album is something of a discofied spin on the old instructional LP. Lavishly packaged in a gatefold sleeve, complete with instructional booklet and fold-out poster of a shirtless Lafleur, much of the album consists of Guy's own personal hockey tips set to a disco beat with Lafleur speaking over the bass-thumping grooves, backed with a chorus of cooing, catchy female vocalists, adding encouragement and emphasis on Lafleur's key points. Just to add broader disco appeal, the album was padded with a couple of hockey-themed disco songs on the beginning of each side. Rest assured, most, or at least part of the background chorus of notable Montreal session singers, among them Laurie Niedzielski (AKA Laurie Zimmerman) and Heather Gauthier (both also of the disco group Toulouse) along with Ranee Lee and Gina Watson (later of Watson Beasley) take the vocals on those two tracks, with Lafleur nowhere to be heard...
As far as the production goes, the album itself was produced by a duo of Can-Con notables: Jack Lenz, and Peter Alves. While Lenz wasn't exactly a well-known disco producer, Lenz was and remains a highly profilic composer for film and television, with his compositions having appeared on a number of productions (both Canadian and otherwise), like the 1980's cartoon "The Raccoons" (one of childhood favourites), and more recently Mel Gibson's controversial "Passion of The Christ" and the CBC series Little Mosque On The Prairie among many others. Jack Lenz' own website has a partial, though pretty comprehensive list of his credits (which not surprisingly, exclude this album).
Alves, on the other hand, was much more prolific, at least, as far as the disco scene was concerned. Presumably a major player behind the Unison label, Alves seems to have prominent credits on practically all of the Unison releases I've come across so far (namely Witch Queen, Soirée and Gotham Flasher), two of them with Alves given equal production credit alongside Gino Soccio. Aside from the Unison releases, Alves had produced records for the likes of Toulouse, the late Boule Noire (AKA Georges Thurston), and for Watson Beasley (best known in the US for their club hit "Breakaway"). On a related note, with Gina Watson on the vocal chorus, interestingly enough, the other half of Watson Beasley, drummer Albert Beasley also appears on this record..
In addition to the primary producers, perhaps the most notable credited name on here is Gino Soccio himself, who along with France Smith is also credited as an associate producer on this record. Not sure if he was actually involved with the studio work, since his credit seems somewhat secondary (as if more of a production consultant as opposed to an actual producer), yet one can't help but hear traces of his own signature sound on here, namely in those horn arrangements, synth parts and even the vocals (although that may be because two of the vocalists, Niedzielski and Gauthier, also appear on many of Soccio's own records).
As far as the tracks go, truth be told, I actually find the two 'songs' off the album, "Face Off" at the beginning of Side 1 and "Power Play" at the beginning of Side 2 to be my own favourites. The fact that production-wise they're more conventional disco tracks, undoubtedly helps. With the vocalists singing an arresting chorus, taking hockey metaphors into the realm of dancefloor cruising, particularly on "Power Play": "...if it ever gets down to it, baby you know, I'll get my way with my power play..," both tracks make for instant guilty pleasures. Perhaps they would have been better remembered disco tracks on their own, had they been associated differently.. "Power Play" even got a 12'' release - extended to around 8 minutes and mixed by Alves and engineer Gabriel Boucher (both of whom also mixed the entire album).
Out of the instructional tracks, the second track, "Skating" with it's hefty bass, piano and synth intro, manages to get off on a pretty tight groove. With catchy piano lines and horn fill-ins augmenting "Uncle Guy's" charming, fatherly Quebecois accent along with the backup vocalists' encouraging emphasis: "stand straight!" "turn around!," it's perhaps the ultimate guilty pleasure on an album already full of them. I'm not sure if any kids actually genuinely used this thing to get hockey tips, but if I was a kid trying to get hockey lessons, I'd probably be too busy trying to sneak in a few dance moves to care about "Uncle Guy's" little skating lesson...
The track following this one, at the end of Side One, "Checking" actually isn't bad either. I confess to laughing a little to myself when "Uncle Guy" gets to my favourite line: "never put a stick where a body will go.. 'de stick was made to handle the puck, 'de body is built for CHECKING!" Again, I don't know why, but somehow his emphasis on 'checking' never fails to give me a cheap laugh..
Speaking of cheap laughs, the last track on the album, "Scoring," is probably the best known track from the album these days, having made the rounds on the 'net for quite some time now.. Starting from the title and the references to 'shooting it high' and 'curved sticks', etc.. made for some hilarious, if not, completely unintentional double-entendres, judging from one of the blog entries out there..
Although this didn't exactly launch "disco sports" into the stratusphere like the CBC news report had predicted/feared, the likes of Jane Fonda and Jayne Kennedy would later take a variation of this instruction-meets-disco concept and do fairly well for themselves with it, not that it makes either any less cheesy or ill-conceived either, for that matter. While aerobics might have been more conducive to this concept than hockey was, perhaps the producers weren't completely off on cocaine and disco fever when they dreamt this thing up.
Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988, officially retiring from the game in 1991, these days Lafleur himself has apparently settled into the restaurant business with his own resturant/bar Mikes Signature Guy Lafleur in the town of Berthierville, Quebec. More publicly however, Lafleur has also become a spokesman in recent years for battery recycling and perhaps more infamously for the likes of Hairfax and Viagra (despite apparently not needing the latter), which have not surprisingly rendered him the butt of a few jokes (I suppose the disco album was only the beginning).. Although his legacy remains largely intact, unfortunately, more recently, Lafleur's name has been in the press, not so much for his sports legacy or his endorsements, but for the troubling circumstances surrounding his 23 year-old son, which early last year, would also landLafleurhimselfin hot water.
Reading what I've just written though, I can't believe that I'm about to praise something this desperate and ill-concieved, but have to admit that overall, being something of a disco die-hard (if that wasn`t obvious already), I actually found this record to be much more enjoyable than it probably could or should have been. True, it was easy ammunition for the 'disco sucks' crusade and was as crass as crass disco cash-ins representing, ultimately, the nadir of the disco genre - the 'bandwagon effect' that gave rise to absurdities like the "Ethel Merman Disco Album," for example.. Taking it out of it's late 70's commercial context for a minute, the album is actually a fun listen, charming, even; as well-produced musically as such a thing could be and not to mention good for a few cheap laughs as well.. Although perhaps something of a miscalculation (too bad there was never an instrumental version of the album to go with the English and French editions), one has to give props to Guy Lafleur for not taking himself too seriously and providing the unsuspecting masses with a one of a kind piece of kitschy nostalgia in the process..
All things considered, the "Guy Lafleur Disco Album" at the very least is not only an intriguing piece of Canadiana but perhaps one of the ultimate guilty pleasures in the Can-Con constellation. If Gary Genosko's piece on this album, "Hockey And Disco" is any indication, I suppose I'm not the only one to plead.. Anyone up for a reissue?
Although I originally planned to this post this a couple of weeks ago, I had put it aside for a while after hearing some of Bobby Viteritti's stunning DJ sets. However, given the connection between this song and Bobby Viteritti, I figured I might as well do a little something on it now.
Although a much bigger star in continental Europe than in North America, "Follow Me" has got to be one of the enigmatic Amanda Lear's best remembered singles on both sides of the Atlantic. Although a largely underground disco classic in the US, "Follow Me" was apparently her biggest pop hit in much of Europe. If anything, the fact that "Follow Me" has been both remixed and re-recorded by Amanda herself a number of times since it's release seems proof of that... Originally the first single off her excellent "Sweet Revenge" (1978, Inter Global Music/Epic) album, that album was in itself nothing less than a Euro-disco classic. Moulded by Anthony Monn's pulsing, synth driven euro-disco production (also see Orlando Riva Sound and Magnifique), and Amanda's distinctively deep, smoky (albeit somewhat limited) voice; the resulting sound and concept - the combination of her voice, those lyrics, the string-laden, elegantly synthesized backing make the whole thing a kind of Dietrich-meets-Donna piece of disco brilliance. A combination of storytelling and sonic disco trance tinged with an enduring, enigmatic glamour.
The album version originally appeared in two parts, at the beginning and end of the A-side, both introducing and concluding a discofied Faustian fairy tale of a girl who sold her soul to the devil for fame and fortune and her eventual "revenge" over the devil's offer.. The first part has Lear playing the devil-as-temptress: "...Faust was right, have no regret.. Gimme your soul, I'll give you life.. and all the things you want to get.. so follow me..," while the second part has Lear playing a proverbial angelic character: "...I'll give you love, I'll give you strength, I'll give you wings, I'll be you're friend..if you agree to follow me..". Lyrically and conceptually excellent, perhaps the most striking lyric in the reprise would be: "there must be better things to do than sitting around sniffing glue.." A somewhat desperate rhyme if there ever was one, it's quite possibly one of the strangest verses I've ever heard in a disco song. It would be laughable if delivered by anyone else, but with her unique, inimitable delivery, it somehow manages to work, both evoking and complimenting the sort of solemn euro-disco decadence that typfied much of the record...
Although her primary label at this time was Ariola in Germany, the 12'' Mix was evidently comissioned by Canadian licensee Inter Global Music, a little regarded (at least these days) CBS-associated label whose catalogue seemed largely to consist of licensed European disco productions (David Christie, Penny McLean, Dee D. Jackson, Sticky Jones Gang etc..) for the Canadian market. Remixed by the late Toronto DJ, Wally MacDonald (who had done a few other disco remixes for Inter Global, among others), his mix is perhaps the definitive version of this record. The remix takes the original from the book-ends of the album's conceptual A-side, merges the two parts from the album, turning it into a sweeping, albeit slightly stripped-down, ten minute Faustian epic all on it's own..
Perhaps the greatest achievement of this disco remix has got to be in it's treatment of the orchestration. Somewhat submerged on the album version, the way those swelling strings, with their swirling crescendos coloured with those heavenly harp sounds (along with the much more prominent beat), were brought right up to the forefront, really bring out the beauty in the track, their presence taking the original to new heights altogether.. The heightened orchestration adorning those extended passages, in a way, seem to fill in for a lyrical narrative, painting pictures and evoking drama like no words or vocal could.. Towards the end, the effect of Lear's smoky whisper fading out amidst the swirling strings, in it's blissful beckoning seem to provide the perfect summation for the thing of beauty that this record is..
In a related note, with it's dramatic elegance, it's perhaps no wonder that this particular song ended up becoming Bobby Viteritti's signature anthem at San Francisco's Trocadero Transfer during his tenure. It became such a Trocadero staple, that Viteritti had evidently done four different edits/mixes of it, in order to keep it fresh for his audience. As Viteritti relates in his interviews with disco-disco.com and discomusic.com, it's emergence as his signature anthem was something of a happy accident. A record that practically everyone in his record pool had slept on, it was only when Viteritti was close to running out of records one night that he decided to play it. The overwhelming response that followed ended up solidifying it as a veritable Trocadero anthem..
As far as the different releases of the remix go, Inter Global had evidently released the disco mix on both regular vinyl and red coloured vinyl. Although it was later reissued on the small Canadian label Siamese Records, and later on CD on a now out-of-print Canadian compilation, "Hi-NRG Classics" (1997, SPG), according to the discomusic.com interview with Vincent DeGiorgio (a prominent figure in the Canadian disco scene and friend of remixer Wally MacDonald), apparently the initial Inter Global releases were the only ones to be taken from the master tapes. All subsequent copies/pressings (including the Siamese pressing) were apparently mastered from vinyl copies, as the original tapes of MacDonald's remix were unfortunately lost after Inter Global Music's demise.
Sadly, Wally MacDonald, the Toronto-based DJ behind this remix had apparently died of AIDS in the early 90s. Although little seems to be known about MacDonald, who has been cited as an influence by the likes of Barry Harris (formerly of Thunderpuss) and referred to as a "Picasso on two turntables" by friend Vincent DeGiorgio, he was evidently quite a highly regarded DJ in the Toronto scene. A user on the discomusic.com forums had, at least several years back, embarked on a kind of memorial project for MacDonald, so hopefully more information about him will surface in the near future..
As for the B-side, "Enigma..," the version on the 12'' is exactly identical to the one on the album, yet being another one of the best tracks off "Sweet Revenge" (I don't there are any bad ones,acome to think of it) I also had to include it here. With it's stunning intro, punctuated by those shooting disco laser sound effects, Amanda's deep, icy vocals, not to mention the lyrics, practically (and purposely, I'm sure) epitomizing the aura of perpetual mystery surrounding her, it's perhaps one of her most iconic tracks.. Recently, "Enigma.." has had a mini-resurgence of sorts as a result of being used in a popular European ad for Kinder Bueno (see the Czech version on YouTube)..
All that aside, I couldn't possibly do a post on Amanda Lear without including some of her many stunning archived TV appearances from this time. All lip-synced of course, but the woman looks so absolutely fabulous on camera, it's no wonder YouTube is full of her TV performances. The first one included here is a stunning lip-sync of "Follow Me" off what looks to be Musikladen - with her fabulous outfit, her feline grace all complete with audience clapping along (on the one and the two, naturally), it's a total gem... The others - for "Gold (one of the best tracks off "Sweet Revenge," in my opinion) and "Enigma..", are nothing less than a couple of campy, crazy, and in the case of "Gold" totally fucked up performances from Italian TV (which I probably would have been better off saving for Halloween, but I couldn't help myself). Apparently, these were from a TV program called Stryx on the RAI network, which from what I can see, was likely campy, over the top Euro-variety TV at it's absolute best. I'm sure there's also a performance of "Follow Me" from that very same program, which I'd die to see, but which so far, no one has uploaded yet..
Although at times her music seems to take a back-seat to the mystery surrounding her, her origins and that perpetual question of whether or not she is a post-op transsexual (which she has repeatedly denied), the resulting intrigue seems to have proved rather lucrative for her career. Still appearing on TV and releasing records, the rumours only seemed to add another dimension of intrigue to her already distinctive style, and her already rather storied place in rock history (Salvador Dali muse, Roxy Music cover girl, David Bowie paramour etc..). Speculation aside however, with Anthony Monn's stunning production and Amanda's own unique vocal and lyrical contributions, "Follow Me" remains not only a touchstone in Lear's musical career, but perhaps one of the more beautifully distinctive, enduring disco classics out there..
Although Amanda's "Sweet Revenge" album has been available on CD for some time now, SPG's "Hi-NRG Classics" (1997, SPG) compilation (now out-of-print) is so far the only place where it's ever officially appeared on CD.
