Hey, Fellow Geezers, How Did Disco Affect Your Musical Trajectory?

[Kerbie]

Well, it didn't warp my brain for too long, but it was never very enjoyable. I thought it was fun to dance to, but lousy music.

[jpd]

Play Disco?.....ah, never!

[Dru Edwards]

I was made for Loving You was the first song I thought of when I read the thread title from a rock perspective. I always liked that song (and the band).

Originally Posted by blue

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. SF specifically. Along with what is now called "classic rock", I was already playing R&B, and early Funk. Contrary to popular belief there are a TON of GREAT disco songs. And we played them. I'll admit it. "I was made for loving you" is on my Kiss playlist to this day. We also had a lot of "local heroes" like Tower of Power, Y & T, Journey, Boz Scaggs, etc. One of them was Sylvester, whose video is linked below. That's a near perfect pop/dance song.

So how did Disco affect my trajectory. It further strengthened my Funk Rhythm playing skills.


<<snippet video>>

[raysachs]

I was into blues and blues rock before, during, and after disco. I liked a lot of funk and R&B but I never liked pure disco much. But then when the Stones incorporated it into "Miss You" and the Dead incorporated it into "Shakedown Street" I was glad it had come around and influenced people, even if I wasn't particularly a fan myself. I'd have to say it did me no harm and didn't change my playing a bit, but it expanded my listening a little bit...

-Ray

[AX17609]

I love disco. There, I said it. The production quality of some of those recordings is sensational.

[Andromeda]

I was in my early teens when Disco came around. Never knew I was supposed to hate it. Then again, I’m not really into rock music that much...more of a soft rock, mellow singer songwriter type of guy. I like some Disco music. There sure were some good songs that came out of Disco music, as well as some stinkers...and that’s true of any genre of music.

[Fogducker]

I always liked that double header Chicago WS vs Detroit Tigers baseball games where they advertised on a small radio station that they were going to blow up disco between games. Admission was a disco vinyl disc and a dollar. They expected a small gate increase-----more than 70,000 showed up and went semi-crazy and when they blew up the records between games that was the signal to really let go. They tore up the field and sailed record discs like frisbees and caused so much of a mess that they had to forfeit/cancel the second game.
I guess there are some folks that just didn't like disco!

Fog

Check it out here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1CP1751wJA

[KevWind]

Did not affect my musical trajectory at all. By 1973 I no longer played electric and was fully into acoustic guitar and solo or duo performance type music. So fortunately the move to disco did not impact my music.
Now as a 23 year old unattached bachelor , disco (as well as some other social factors at the time) arguably created a perfect storm of one of the most prolific opportunities for interaction with the ladies ever in history.

Honestly even as a child I have always appreciated numerous different kinds of music from broadway musicals, to classical , jazz to country, pop, rock et.al ,,,,,including disco.
And I had always liked dancing and even at 23 was independently minded to not feel compelled to change my jeans , cotton shirts, and cowboy boots wardrobe. So Disco was win win for me personally ..

[fitness1]

Well, I was in a band whose repertoire included the Sex Pistols and the Dead Boys at the time.

'Nuff said?

[Tico]

I've always sung and played James Taylor, John Denver, and Neil Young type music on an acoustic guitar, solo.
I fingerpick and fingerstyle, and occasionally use a pic when the song calls for it.

As a youngster in the military, I joined a band at a country overseas.
We played at officer's and the enlisted clubs.
Of course we played whatever was popular at the time in the USA, which included some disco.
After leaving that duty station, and band, I sold that Les Paul (terrible mistake) and no longer played disco.

To answer the OP's question, I don't think disco had any influence on my style.

[Denny B]

I couldn't tolerate Disco, and spent that vapid era listening to Rock & Roll with Bob Seger... he didn't like disco either...

"Don't try to take me to a Disco
You'll never even get me out on the floor
In ten minutes I'll be late for the door
I like that old time Rock and Roll"...

[AusTexMurf]

Grateful Dead Shakedown Street

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by blue

...Sylvester.

I saw Sylvester on April 14, 1973. He and the Hot Band were the first band on a bill that included Genesis (their first US tour) and It's A Beautiful Day. Sylvester was cool, mostly funk (pre-Disco), and Genesis stole the show.

This is more the kind of stuff Sylvester did at that concert:

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

...I hated disco ..... One day, ..... my piano teacher ..... asked if I’d heard Pink Floyd ..... I’d like to thank that teacher for giving me an opportunity to lighten up.

Originally Posted by AX17609

The production quality of some of those recordings is sensational.

Absolutely!
In my early years of playing, I was into Deep Purple, Zep, GFR, Black Sabbath, and similar. Then I met a keyboardist in 1971, several months after I began playing bass, who turned me onto the Nice, Atomic Rooster, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, etc. Shortly thereafter I got into progressive rock - Yes, Genesis, Renaissance, ELP, etc. In 1977, he and I put together a Top 40 band that pretty quickly added Disco to the repertoire, thankfully. We filled the dance floor at every gig and made some good money in the process. Disco (the good stuff, anyway) definitely made me a better bassist, without a doubt. In later years I got heavily into jazz fusion/latin/world beat/funk music creating original music for many years. Some of that ol' Disco line got slipped into places.

[Nymuso]

Truth be told, I never had a problem with a Disco. I just saw it as an evolutionary step in pop music. Adapt, keep doing what you’re doing on a smaller stage, or quit. Those were pretty much the choices.

But Disco was played by real musicians in studios with real singers. What I object to is what passes for music now, in which some kid with zero musical talent can produce a hit song in his bedroom using samples and a laptop, and musical “acts” can be a couple of guys behind tables filled with electronic boxes, not an instrument in sight.

[Bikewer]

I was mostly learning to play during that period, and disco did not infect the little open-mic club we used to hang out at.
However, I really, seriously disliked the genre and still do... In all it’s later iterations.
In fact, I find I dislike “dance” music generally.... Likely because I don’t dance. Too repetitive. (I think I’m a jazz guy at heart...)

I was subscribing to Guitar Player magazine at the time, and I remember readers writing in complaining that they couldn’t find work...

Fast forward to the present.. I listen to a local college station that plays a nice mix of jazz, blues, “select” pop tunes, and....”Soft jazz”.

Some of this soft jazz stuff harkens right back to the disco era.... Simple, repetitive musical figures, and equally inane repetitive vocals.... The only thing that’s missing is the pounding 4/4 beat. (“Music even white people can dance to”)