Tommy Mottola lives on the road
If you have a passing interest in what made the 1970s great, and especially if you are into freaky disco/deep house*, or your name is afrofuturist, you have to read this:
Savannah Band Is Waiting for You, American by Kevin McMahon
1976 was the first year in history there were no cases of smallpox recorded anywhere in the world; the disease was apparently eradicated, and experts announced “The end of contagious diseases.” It was the Bicentennial. It was the year Mao died and the Gang of Four fell. That March my mother and I went to New York City for my cousin’s ordination at St. Patrick’s, where, during my next visit, a decade later, ACT-UP would stage a “Stop the Church” protest. I was a teenager gaga over art and I spent every moment I could in museums, staring at Barnett Newmans and scribbling unintelligible memoranda in a notebook. On the radio were Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music, White Boy,” Abba’s “Dancing Queen” and Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.” It was also the year of David Bowie’s Station to Station, Patti Smith’s Radio Ethiopia, Jonathan Richman’s “Roadrunner,” and Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach. That year also saw the release of the first albums of Blondie, The Ramones and one other Manhattanite act, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
Many, many thanks to ladyjax for that post and link.
For me, falling in love with this band is all about being seventeen and going to visit friends at U of I and staying out dancing til 6, sleeping til 2 and then going to IHOP. Likewise the non-Gil Scott-Heron version of "In the Bottle" (C.O.D.?), "Touch and Go" by Loleatta Holloway, and "There But for the Grace of God Go I" by Machine (psst, ladyjax, they've got it here), which I have on mixtapes but never knew the artist nor until now the connection to Dr. Buzzard. They have in common brilliant, sometimes scathing lyrics--throwing a phrase like Ballots and boxes, bullets and guns unannounced and glancingly into the middle of a love song (Dr. Buzzard's "Hard Times") or "There But for the Grace"'s Let's find a place they say somewhere far away with no blacks no Jews and no gays. Those lines blew my teenage mind.
Anyway, Kevin McMahon says it better so read it.
Edit: Also priceless, McMahon's collection of inappropriate Nabokov covers. I just e-mailed him to say I enjoyed the piece, how long should I wait before informing him we're getting gay-married?
*"Cherchez La Femme" still gets club play in Chicago. I don't know that that's true anywhere else except within certain connoisseurs' scenes. Tell me and I'll be there.
Savannah Band Is Waiting for You, American by Kevin McMahon
1976 was the first year in history there were no cases of smallpox recorded anywhere in the world; the disease was apparently eradicated, and experts announced “The end of contagious diseases.” It was the Bicentennial. It was the year Mao died and the Gang of Four fell. That March my mother and I went to New York City for my cousin’s ordination at St. Patrick’s, where, during my next visit, a decade later, ACT-UP would stage a “Stop the Church” protest. I was a teenager gaga over art and I spent every moment I could in museums, staring at Barnett Newmans and scribbling unintelligible memoranda in a notebook. On the radio were Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music, White Boy,” Abba’s “Dancing Queen” and Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.” It was also the year of David Bowie’s Station to Station, Patti Smith’s Radio Ethiopia, Jonathan Richman’s “Roadrunner,” and Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach. That year also saw the release of the first albums of Blondie, The Ramones and one other Manhattanite act, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
Many, many thanks to ladyjax for that post and link.
For me, falling in love with this band is all about being seventeen and going to visit friends at U of I and staying out dancing til 6, sleeping til 2 and then going to IHOP. Likewise the non-Gil Scott-Heron version of "In the Bottle" (C.O.D.?), "Touch and Go" by Loleatta Holloway, and "There But for the Grace of God Go I" by Machine (psst, ladyjax, they've got it here), which I have on mixtapes but never knew the artist nor until now the connection to Dr. Buzzard. They have in common brilliant, sometimes scathing lyrics--throwing a phrase like Ballots and boxes, bullets and guns unannounced and glancingly into the middle of a love song (Dr. Buzzard's "Hard Times") or "There But for the Grace"'s Let's find a place they say somewhere far away with no blacks no Jews and no gays. Those lines blew my teenage mind.
Anyway, Kevin McMahon says it better so read it.
Edit: Also priceless, McMahon's collection of inappropriate Nabokov covers. I just e-mailed him to say I enjoyed the piece, how long should I wait before informing him we're getting gay-married?
*"Cherchez La Femme" still gets club play in Chicago. I don't know that that's true anywhere else except within certain connoisseurs' scenes. Tell me and I'll be there.