As the disco ball turns...

Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture by Alice Echols

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alice Echols's new book, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, sifts through the dust bins of "the platforms, polyester and plastic vibe of it all" to answer her key question: "What was it about this much-maligned music that made it such hot stuff?" 

What started as an underground phenomenon reached mainstream notoriety with the film Saturday Night Fever and its ubiquitous soundtrack. As it dominated the airwaves, disco faced a vicious backlash best known for the "Disco Sucks" rantings.

Echols book easily fits within the ranks of other notable scholarly works that sift through the dust bins filled with platform shoes, polyester and glitter, to find the gems. In so doing, her book helps to resurrect the 1970s disco scene as a subject worthy of our consideration.

Historian Jon Wiener interviewed Alice Echols on his 4 O'clock radio show on KPFK.  You can click on the link to his website and download the podcast.

The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the 70s in San Francisco by Joshua Gamson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Joshua Gamson's The Fabulous Sylvester:  The Legend, The Music, The Seventies in San Francisco makes a good companion piece.  Gamson's book invites the reader to view the broader perspective of gender politics and music.  Through the eyes of one performer, the reader bears witness to someone who lived his life out loud.  Sylvester embodied "a respect for the uniting freedom of fabulousness, for the power of audacity over conformity."  (p. 270)

Just a sample of Sylvester's mighty realness:



The luscious sounds of Gamble and Huff, creators of the "Sound of Philly":


Dimitri from Paris presents "Get Down With The Philly Sound" from BBE Music on Vimeo.