[Mick]

... but with the emergence of Disco, all had changed, changed utterly, and this time it was a terribly ugliness which had been born........

For me, disco wasn't ugly.  Not at all.

I attended an ethnically diverse junior high school in downtown San Jose in the mid-1970s; lots of Hispanic kids, but lots of African American and Asian American, some Pacific Islanders and a lot of Caucasian kids as well.  We had a definite urban vibe, such as it was.  We listened to Al Green, Chaka Khan, Tower of Power, Earth Wind & Fire, Average White Band, van McCoy (Do the Hustle), Minnie Ripperton, Carl Douglas, War, LaBelle, Stevie Wonder, Ohio Players, and Gloria Gaynor.  The only chiefly white musicians I can recall listening to at the time were KC & the Sunshine Band*, Frankie Valli (two Top 100 songs that year) and Elton John.  And "Jive Talkin" by the Bee Gees.

We didn't listen to Paul McCartney, Alice Cooper, America, Captain & Tenille, Glen Campbell, David Bowie, Neil Sedaka, John Denver, Doobie Brothers, Eagles, BJ Thomas, Sweet, Helen Reddy, Pilot, Carpenters, Tony Orlando, Barry Manilow, Harry Chapin, 10cc, Michael Murphy, Jessi Colter, Sammy Johns, or any of the other Top 40 songs that white singers performed.

As I look back at the time (very fondly, I might add) I discovered girls in a brobdingnagian way.  All the girls in my neighborhood and at my school liked to dance.  And I learned to dance...you couldn't listen to our music without being able to dance.  And dancing helped lubricate the social ramble, and the dance music of the mid-1970s was essentially the forerunner of mainstream disco.

Within two years, the entire country was listening to, and moving to disco.  My family moved from urban San Jose to almost-redneck Santa Cruz at the time.  The kids there (all white, few exceptions) didn't listen to Barry Manilow either, but by and large they didn't listen to disco; they listened to Van Halen and Journey and Foreigner and Aerosmith and AC/DC and Kansas and the like.  Great music, but didn't have a beat you could dance to, not really.  For me, high school dances were pretty miserable given that the local bands tended to play metal with the attendant lengthy drum solos.  And everybody seemed to love "Freebird" or Journey's "Lights" as an excuse to grope each other during one of the few slow rock songs.  I spent my time at discos in San Jose or Watsonville, occasionally seeing one of my male classmates looking absolutely miserable, given their absolute inability to dance or fit in with the disco vibe.  My theory as to why so many people either have amnesia with respect to disco, or just dislike it, is because they couldn't feel the rhythm or dance to it.  For them, it was a relief when the era passed and the could return to head banging.

For me, it was a great, great time.  I loved disco, and I admit it.  And lots of stereotypically white rockers came out with disco music; Blondie, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, KISS, ELO, etc.  I never had a shortage of dates, didn't spend much time at the typical suburban Caucasian high school parties (joints, keggers, fistfights), but had wonderful, highly aerobic nights.  Yes, I knew the steps and wore Angel's Flight outfits.  Don't regret it in the slightest.  Wouldn't and couldn't go back, but every now and then, I hear the music, turn it waaaaay up and go back in time for a few minutes.

Years later (but pre-hip hop), I was watching a retrospective on disco.  It was pretty revealing.  One after the other Caucasian rockers admitted to listening to and enjoying disco music when no one else was around (I specifically remember Alice Cooper and Rod Stewart - who went on to make a disco song, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy -- admitting as much)  And one of the old disco singers (I forget his name, minor African-American disco star, might've been Jimmy Ellis of the Trammps) was asked the question "What made disco special?"  And he replied, "It was the last time that black folks listened to music made by white people."  Anyway, it stuck with me. 

[Mick]

... but with the emergence of Disco, all had changed, changed utterly, and this time it was a terribly ugliness which had been born........

For me, disco wasn't ugly.  Not at all.

I attended an ethnically diverse junior high school in downtown San Jose in the mid-1970s; lots of Hispanic kids, but lots of African American and Asian American, some Pacific Islanders and a lot of Caucasian kids as well.  We had a definite urban vibe, such as it was.  We listened to Al Green, Chaka Khan, Tower of Power, Earth Wind & Fire, Average White Band, van McCoy (Do the Hustle), Minnie Ripperton, Carl Douglas, War, LaBelle, Stevie Wonder, Ohio Players, and Gloria Gaynor.  The only chiefly white musicians I can recall listening to at the time were KC & the Sunshine Band*, Frankie Valli (two Top 100 songs that year) and Elton John.  And "Jive Talkin" by the Bee Gees.

We didn't listen to Paul McCartney, Alice Cooper, America, Captain & Tenille, Glen Campbell, David Bowie, Neil Sedaka, John Denver, Doobie Brothers, Eagles, BJ Thomas, Sweet, Helen Reddy, Pilot, Carpenters, Tony Orlando, Barry Manilow, Harry Chapin, 10cc, Michael Murphy, Jessi Colter, Sammy Johns, or any of the other Top 40 songs that white singers performed.

As I look back at the time (very fondly, I might add) I discovered girls in a brobdingnagian way.  All the girls in my neighborhood and at my school liked to dance.  And I learned to dance...you couldn't listen to our music without being able to dance.  And dancing helped lubricate the social ramble, and the dance music of the mid-1970s was essentially the forerunner of mainstream disco.

Within two years, the entire country was listening to, and moving to disco.  My family moved from urban San Jose to almost-redneck Santa Cruz at the time.  The kids there (all white, few exceptions) didn't listen to Barry Manilow either, but by and large they didn't listen to disco; they listened to Van Halen and Journey and Foreigner and Aerosmith and AC/DC and Kansas and the like.  Great music, but didn't have a beat you could dance to, not really.  For me, high school dances were pretty miserable given that the local bands tended to play metal with the attendant lengthy drum solos.  And everybody seemed to love "Freebird" or Journey's "Lights" as an excuse to grope each other during one of the few slow rock songs.  I spent my time at discos in San Jose or Watsonville, occasionally seeing one of my male classmates looking absolutely miserable, given their absolute inability to dance or fit in with the disco vibe.  My theory as to why so many people either have amnesia with respect to disco, or just dislike it, is because they couldn't feel the rhythm or dance to it.  For them, it was a relief when the era passed and the could return to head banging.

For me, it was a great, great time.  I loved disco, and I admit it.  And lots of stereotypically white rockers came out with disco music; Blondie, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, KISS, ELO, etc.  I never had a shortage of dates, didn't spend much time at the typical suburban Caucasian high school parties (joints, keggers, fistfights), but had wonderful, highly aerobic nights.  Yes, I knew the steps and wore Angel's Flight outfits.  Don't regret it in the slightest.  Wouldn't and couldn't go back, but every now and then, I hear the music, turn it waaaaay up and go back in time for a few minutes.

Years later (but pre-hip hop), I was watching a retrospective on disco.  It was pretty revealing.  One after the other Caucasian rockers admitted to listening to and enjoying disco music when no one else was around (I specifically remember Alice Cooper and Rod Stewart - who went on to make a disco song, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy -- admitting as much)  And one of the old disco singers (I forget his name, minor African-American disco star, might've been Jimmy Ellis of the Trammps) was asked the question "What made disco special?"  And he replied, "It was the last time that black folks listened to music made by white people."  Anyway, it stuck with me.