The other week, I was talking about how there was music you weren't allowed to like at school, particularly if you had already pinned your colours to rock’s mast. For me this had already included liking jazz-rock for which I was mercilessly teased. I still don’t know why this was deemed unacceptable; there were guitar solos and everything. I think it was thought to be intellectual or elitist. Even at college, where you might think broader perceptions might prevail, it was the same. Long hair, patched jeans, cheesecloth shirts, baseball boots and ex-army jackets meant you couldn’t like disco or soul music. Thems were the rules.
But I did. It seemed to confuse everyone on all sides, but to me, there was no contradiction between liking Uriah Heep and The Love Unlimited Orchestra. But I wasn’t daft, I knew this created cultural confusion and my cultural bread was always buttered on the rock side, so I usually kept it under wraps.
It wasn’t as if I could dance to it, well, I could make a decent impression of someone having a fit, but that’s not quite the same thing. College discos were more eclectic than school, allowing rock stuff alongside seemingly endless Police records. The most embarrassing of which was when they played my old favourite Don’t Fear The Reaper because you had to stand around at a loose end during the quiet bit before the solo which in itself didn’t lend itself to boogieing.
It was the era of the extended 12” mix, which was traditionally disparaged by the rock world largely because a longer version of some rock song wasn’t needed. However, it was ideal for dance music, though not for listening to in your room obviously. In 1979, one of my favourites was Earth Wind and Fire's album, I Am. And the Boogie Wonderland single, which was available as a 9-minute version on a 12” which you could seriously frug to, which is what I did, much to the disparagement of my rock mates whose designated position at a disco was standing at the bar, drinking.
After a while they got used to it and of course took the pish mercilessly and I probably lost credibility points that no amount of ownership of Gentle Giant albums could recover.
It was a repeat of my jazz-rock leanings four years earlier and I think it was that both types of music were rooted in jazz that I enjoyed, much disco being produced by Quincy Jones, of course. Charting pop music by the likes of Boney M and the Bellamy Brothers held no interest to me but KC and the Sunshine Band, Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang , Chic and The Crusaders definitely did. Even now I feel I’m admitting to a crime or something.
The thing was, looking like I did, I couldn’t go to a club that played such music. They wouldn’t even let me in with baseball boots and you can’t wear shoes with jeans, it’s wrong and always looks like your mother dressed you. They were all I had.
I must say, while I got pilloried by other rock lads, I found solace in the company of women who didn’t seem to see it in such a polarised way and this just encouraged me, but you couldn't always find good albums. Outside of Earth Wind and Fire and Funkadelic/Parliament whose records were excellent, it was largely a singles culture.
It was a golden era for disco with jazz strings and the like, by the early 80s it had been supplanted by jazz funk which I liked but was more hit and miss. The best stuff was played by superb, though often anonymous, musicians, whether in Rose Royce or with Van McCoy.
And it was so good it continues to be celebrated to this day. It often seems half of all modern music wouldn’t exist without Chic and I no longer have to apologise for liking it as well as liking the Allman Brothers.
Liking Uriah Heep and The Love Unlimited Orchestra...
