Donna Summer’s passing leaves me with a bit of nostalgia, because I used to hear her voice on the hi-fi stereo when I was a very little boy. I can’t help but recall my dad when I hear disco, so it brings back the misty old memories of the 70s, which were his glory days.
Of course, it doesn’t surprise me that Donna died relatively young, at the same age as my father (63), although a couple years later. When I look back on the lives those folks lived, I’m surprised so many of them made it that long.
Whatever the case, Donna Summer was a real pioneer. Disco may have been derided for some time, but techno and house hardly added to it, as the following 1977 video, “I Feel Love,” clearly demonstrates (not a remix, believe it or not):
Additionally, the erotic element far surpassed anything on the air today. I feel sorry for today’s youth, stuck as they are with the rather repulsive facsimile of a sex symbol known as Lady Gaga, among other unmentionables. Donna Summer may have been a bit over the top, but at least when you hear her getting into it there’s something a bit compelling about the performance:
