The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, December 12,1990- Page 11

Disco
Continued from page 10
Teddy Pendergrass' "Get Up, Get
Down, Get Funky, Get Loose," is
perhaps Gamble and Huff's greatest
legacy. Its understated proto-disco
bass line and laid-back horn charts
are the perfect background for Lou's
mantras like "I like groovy people/ I
don't like one with no ego" or "It's
such a joy/ I'm just a big ol' coun-
try boy." --P.S.
Barry White
"Just the Way You Are" (from
B.W, The Man)
Enveloped by the greatest album
packaging of all time, B.W.'s
"you're sweetness is my weakness"
cover of Billy Joel's ballad is the
epitome of his oozing love man vo-
calizing. After a minute-long spoken
intro directed at his curvaceous toy
doll, B.W. drips post-coital sincerity
in his sub-bass libido tenor that dis-
guises the thermidorian reactionary
message of the song in a sweaty,
panting mutli-orgasmic ecstasy.-
P.S.
Barry Manilow
With the salsa cowbells and tim-
bales and Will Lee's (yes, that Will
Lee) transcendental bass fill as it
fades out, "Copacabana" is not only
the most rhythmic of Barry's tunes
and jingles, but it achieves a pathos
(with Lola the showgirl) unknown
in B.M.'s previous work. Summing
up the decadence of the '70s in one
subtle turn of phrase within the
metaphor of one individual's experi-

ence with New York's greatest night
spot, the decade's greatest auteur
(along with Neil Diamond) rises
above the era and provides us a
glimpse into his omniscient perspec-
tive.-P.S.
Patrick Hernandez
"Born to be Alive" (7")
Famous for its lack of an in-
groove, this is as fast and furious as
disco classics come. Big in the gay
disco scene, "Born to be Alive" is
powerful Nietzschean yea-saying,
with our Patrick's nasal twang
wrapping itself around the "r" in the
word "born" to magnificent effect.
The promo featured Patrick in slick
suit on an empty disco dancefloor
gazing up at a multi-mirrored disco
orb that reflected his message to
gays, latinos, Blacks and the disen-
franchised who took two steps for-
ward in the '60s and '70s only to be
pushed four steps back by Reagan.
N.Z.
Donna Summer
"Love to Love You Baby"(12")
For a time, the litany of Peter
Belotte, Giorgio Moroder and Donna
Summer was the Holy Trinity. Ev-
erything that touched their drum ma-
chine turned to gold. "Love to love
you Baby," the erotic apogee of
Donna's career, came long before she
told the people who bought and
danced to her records that AIDS was
the Lord's way of sorting them out.
This 15-minute 12" version is a
suite of megalomanic muso preten-
sion with Donna's orgasmic cooing
fading in and out every five minutes

to make way for low bass licks and
shimmering keyboard lines. All this
over the omnipresent celestial throb
of the drum machine. - N.Z.
Earth Wind and Fire
IAm
With an inner sleeve doings
things with perspective that only
Giorgio de Chirico would dream
about, I Am is the epiphanic no-
ment of 1970s disco soul. -A
"concept" album (before Peter
Townshend corrupted the word),1
Am features the Utopian rainbow
coalition anthem "Boogie Wonder=
land" and the lush ballad "After the
Love Has Gone," the latter featuring
the most memorable sax solo of the
1970s, apart from the one on Gerry
Rafferty's "Baker Street."'I Am is the
happiest record of the decade. -N.Z.
Wire
"12XU" (from Pink Flag)
Maybe the quintessental, reduo,
tive punk record, "12XU" is a two'
minute thrash loaded with jealousy,
spite and anger. With an intro spo-
ken in perfect Cockney, the song
opens with the dread line, "Saw you
in a mac kissing a man." Said rains
coated woman is an object of anger
and frustration, and the line becomes
a mantra screamed more and more
frantically. Wire would later explore
Kafkaesque alienation and self-ab-
sorption on "I Am the Fly," but tliis
was their most intense fragment.
N.Z.

goodbye to post-encephelatic Parkensonianism, but little do they

serious, is excellent. and realistic), it
falls into the trap of just showing
off the effects of the disease on those
afflicted like a catalogue of the mal-
*ormed. There's a long scene - Max
yon Sydow's cameo - where a film
is shown with all of the effects of
the disease graphically portrayed.
seeing people suffering and unable
t6 function physically, even though
thtey're mentally perfect, is not nec-
sary; von Sydow's voice-over
pmmentary during the sequence is
thore than enough to convey the
a fain and horror of the situation.

and Paula (Penelope Ann Miller), a
woman who regularly visits her
post-stroke father in the hospital,
and the -other between Sayer and
Eleanor (Julie Kavner, the voice of
Marge Simpson), a nurse. Unfortu-
nately, the first of the two relation-
ships seems rather forced and the
second is pretty much ruined by
Williams' heavy-handed under-

AWAKENINGS opens Friday.

:;.

a


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