Full Description
Opening with David Mancuso's seminal "Love Saves the Day" Valentine's party, Tim Lawrence tells the definitive story of American dance music culture in the 1970s—from its subterranean roots in NoHo and Hell's Kitchen to its gaudy blossoming in midtown Manhattan to its wildfire transmission through America's suburbs and urban hotspots such as Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Newark, and Miami. Tales of nocturnal journeys, radical music making, and polymorphous sexuality flow through the arteries of Love Saves the Day like hot liquid vinyl. They are interspersed with a detailed examination of the era's most powerful djs, the venues in which they played, and the records they loved to spin—as well as the labels, musicians, vocalists, producers, remixers, party promoters, journalists, and dance crowds that fueled dance music's tireless engine.
Love Saves the Day includes material from over three hundred original interviews with the scene's most influential players, including David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Tom Moulton, Loleatta Holloway, Giorgio Moroder, Francis Grasso, Frankie Knuckles, and Earl Young. It incorporates more than twenty special dj discographies—listing the favorite records of the most important spinners of the disco decade—and a more general discography cataloging some six hundred releases. Love Saves the Day also contains a unique collection of more than seventy rare photos.
Contents
Figures vii
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
1. beginnings House Parties and Discotheques 5
2. consolidation Party Pariahs and the Path to Permanent Revolution 33
3. pollination The Rise of the Downtown Party Network 55
4. recognition The Crystallization of a Sound 83
5. visibility The Message of Love and the Disco Mix 117
6. expansion Record Pools, Music Labels, New Clubs 155
7. prominence Forums, Formats, Franchises 205
8. ascendancy Eurodisco, Midtown, Downtown, Out-of-Town 251
9. dominance Disco Takes Over 303
10. turbulence Backlash and Survival 363
Epilogue 433
Notes 443
Selected Discography 457
Selected Bibliography 473
Index 477
