Sad but exciting times in music

There is so much going on in the local music scene that I have began asking myself, how will I feel today, while checking the news. Take your pick. Sad, silly, excited or irritated? I felt sad about the deaths. 

Donna Summer, the undisputed queen of the disco era died last Thursday, May 17 after a long battle with cancer. She was 63 years old. Donna won five Grammys and many other awards. She will, of course, be always remembered for her memorable music. Among her biggest hits were MacArthur Park, Heaven Knows, She Works Hard For The Money, Bad Girls, (No More Tears) Enough Is Enough, a duet with Barbra Streisand, Last Dance, Could It Be Magic and Hot Stuff.

Donna, though, did more than create hits, she along with producer and co-writer, Giorgio Moroder actually changed dance music. They were responsible for many changes in the sounds that people have been dancing to these past 30 years. Way back in 1975, Donna who was then working in Germany recorded the song Love To Love You Baby which featured her orgasmic moanings. 

The single was picked up for release by Casablanca Records in the US. Label owner Neil Bogart suggested a little change. Make it long. Keep it repetitive. So instead of the original four minutes, Love To Love You Baby became 17 minutes of Donna moaning sexily through the song. Some radio stations refused to play it but nobody cared, the record was a worldwide sensation and Donna became a star.

The extended single released on 12” vinyl was not the only innovation to come from Summer and Moroder. Two years later, they came up with I Feel Love. This was the first dance song in history to feature an all-electronic accompaniment. Although synthesizers were already in common use then, the recordings were only instrumental. Also before I Feel Love, dance tunes were recorded with an orchestra. Remember The Ritchie Family? 

After Moroder went experimenting with electronics, nothing was ever the same again. Electronica and its off-shoots, trance, club and others were born and took over the dance floor. They brought along mechanised beats, repetitive loops, booming bass lines, sequenced strings and other devices we now take for granted in recording. 

Robin Gibb: As part of the Bee Gees, made good music

In a way too, Summer and Moroder introduced us to the hip, romantic charms of Eurodisco music. Later, it was quite a bonus to find out that she did not only moan, the beautiful Donna who started singing gospel in church and later worked in musical theater, also had a great voice and could really sing.  

A few days later, on Sunday, May 20, Robin Gibb, one of the last two remaining Bee Gees followed suit. He died of cancer and was 62 years old. His twin Bee Gee Maurice died of a twisted intestine in 2003 at the age of 53. Their younger brother Andy who had a successful though brief solo career, remember Shadow Dancing? died in 1988 of heart failure at the age of 30. 

Older brother Barry is now left alone to continue the music. Like Summer, the falsettoed Bee Gees were at their biggest during the disco era. Among their hit songs were How Deep Is Your Love, First Of May, Staying Alive, Words, Melody Fair, Tragedy and Massachusetts.

At dawn also last Sunday, broadcaster Lito Balquiedra Jr. succumbed to a heart attack at Medical City in Pasig. A star on radio and TV, LBJ, as he was fondly known, helped shape the music tastes of two generations. He was the big boss at the influential radio stations Tambayan and DZMM but the LBJ I like to remember best was the disc jockey of 30 years ago. Back then he was like a pied piper of pop music. We thought that any song, a lot of them early OPM, that he played on the air was good. The ensuing years proved that they were.

Will Jessica be the next American Idol?

There is also excitement in the air. Will Jessica Sanchez be the next American Idol? If she wins, she will make history. She will become the first girl to bag the title in five years and the first Asian-American to win the competition. Now, take note, this is not meant to dampen your enthusiasm. This is just a reminder that while it is nice that she has Filipino roots, it is still a fact that Jessica is an American in an American contest. She is no Lea Salonga or Arnel Pineda or Charice who were all born and started their careers in this country.

Besides I know of girls here of seven or eight years old who are already singing And I Am Telling You in amateur contests and doing better versions of I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing a la Regine Velasquez. Ask Sarah Geronimo or Rachelle Ann Go. Nothing really new there. But what I like about Jessica winning in Idol is that it will solidify the Filipinos’ reputation as good singers. It is about time that the world finds out that singers like Jessica grow in trees out here in the Philippines.