DJ

It seems this weekend is all about partying for us in our merry little home, so I’ll share a music video to keep this party moving.

Have fun!

OMG, for some reason I just remembered what I would announce at the end of the night when I was a club DJ. “Drive safely getting home, ride safely when you get home.”

Such wit.

O.k., one more.

The year was 1974. The room was numbered 104. I was in the first grade at the newly christened Lura Sharp Elementary School in Upstate New York. My teacher, Miss Kania, was a young woman that I found incredibly beautiful. She was smart and hip and pretty and had beautiful eyes. This was her first year as a first grade teacher, every year before and afterwards she taught third grade.

School officially started at 9:10. The buses started arriving around 8:45. Our bus driver, Mr. Curry, must have been a leadfoot, because bus 43 was always the first bus to arrive at school. If we had behaved during the ride, we were allowed off the bus and into the school for an informal recess before class started. If we were unruly on the bus, he’d park next to the playground and we’d just sit there, watching the other buses pass, watching our friends gather as they met each other before walking into the school, without us. He’d then let us off the bus at 9:05, leaving us just enough time to get settled before the buzzer sounded the beginning of our studies.

During the informal recess before class, Miss Kania often set up this old dinosaur of a record player. Normally used for playing records such as “Free To Be… You And Me” and instructional narration that accompanied a filmstrip, she let us bring in our favorite records to enjoy.

Scott brought in some old waltz record he’d pilfered from his parent’s collection. I don’t know why he liked those waltzes but he always did. He and Janice would try to waltz around the braided rug. He’d usually stomp on one of her feet.

Bobby (who was killed the year before we all graduated) brought in some nursery rhyme, sing-along type record. Once in a while he’d bring in something from the Mickey Mouse Club.

I always wanted to make everyone have fun dancing, so I brought in my Mom’s copy of “Rubberneckin'” by Elvis Presley. I’d get the girls to do 1st grade versions of go-go dancing and the boys would dance like monkeys all around Room 104. I cranked the music up so loud that it broke the volume knob off the old dinosaur of a record player. We ended up having to get a replacement. Miss Kania was pretty and nice, she didn’t scold me for it.

Today I stumbled upon the video for the Paul Oakenfold Remix of “Rubberneckin'” from 2003. I hope it makes you want to dance.

I love “Never Can Say Goodbye” as performed by The Communards in 1987. I *always* play this track when I’m spinning (usually the last fast song of the night). Today’s dance music doesn’t come close to the energy of songs like this. Plus, it brings back so many fond memories from my first spin at college and “Doc’s”, the classy(?) bar in Jamestown, N.Y.

Enjoy the video.

I was bopping around “YouTube” tonight and came across a track from 1990 or so that I used to go crazy over.

Here’s Lizette Melendez and “Together Forever”.

Oh, in the “let’s reveal something about our past department” I used to dance to this song (much like the dancers in this video), in nothing but Fruit of the Looms and a leather jacket, on a big speaker at a bar called “Citi” in Boston. How’s that for fun?

Tonight’s Friday Night Jam is one of my favorite tracks. It reminds me of spring and just gives me a happy feeling all over.

Enjoy The Stellar Project and “Get Up, Stand Up”. Unfortunately, it’s a shorter version that what I’m used to but what can you do. If this was around during my radio days it would have been on the station 110+ times a week (once every 90 minutes or so). Our thanks to YouTube.

It was the summer of 1989. My boyfriend (we’ll call him “Tom” to maintain anonymity) had just broken up with me because I wasn’t the same person he had met two years prior (to use his words). In the real world he was absolutely right, I wasn’t. I was growing as a 21 year old man should do when one is 21 years old.

I worked for the second largest computer company (at the time) in the world. I was a proud DECcie (the DEC was more properly called “Digital” within the company) and was a member of BGLAD (Bisexual Gays and Lesbians at Digital) and DEC-Plus (DEC People Like Us). At our monthly luncheons my brothers and sisters would often talk about a club that was basically in the middle of the woods near the New Hampshire border. You’d think living near Boston everyone would migrate to Beantown for their Friday and Saturday night fun, but no, some went to a club called “DiRocco’s” between Lowell, Mass. and Nashua, N.H.

As a farm boy from Upstate New York I was hesitant to go out in Boston by myself. The anonymous one, Tom (just a pseudonym, I assure you) wouldn’t dream of going to any bar, let alone a club in Boston, lest anyone actually look at me.* But I knew I could handle DiRocco’s alone. It sounded like a wicked good time and the DJ got rave reviews from those that went there. And besides, the chances were very good that I would run into someone I knew.

The reason I wanted to go out was because I was mostly interested in the music. Having grown up via high school dances with “Working For The Weekend” and that dreck by Benny Mardones played over and over, I longed for some “real” club music in a club setting.

The time was right. It was the middle of August and it was hot. I had no plans and Anonymous Tom was off with his new boyfriend (so soon! Shocking!) So I gathered up my nerve and drove the 30 minutes to DiRocco’s. My fellow DECcies were right, it was in the middle of nowhere. My stomach was flip flopping. I hadn’t been in a bar in over two years and I had never been to one near a big city. As I parked the car I could hear the thump of the bass in the parking lot. The butterflies in my stomach increased in their churning intensity but I was also flushed with a rush of excitement.

It walked in and felt like I hit a wall of energy. The dance floor was packed with shirtless men and women. They were bumping and grinding at a frenetic pace. The music was loud! I could just feel the excitement of the crowd, almost as if they were consumed by a wild, sexually charged, power as they mingled and mangled and hooked up and broke up. All to the beat of the music from two turntables and a kiss-ass sound system.

I’ll never forget that first moment I walked into DiRocco’s. It was like the DJ controlled the party. If the music is too slow, they get bored and leave. If the music is too fast, they get tired too quickly and go home. You have to build it up slowly, beginning with a tease of what’s to come, then engage in foreplay before building it all up to a climax where everyone is sweaty and doing all they can do and more on the dance floor before you ramp it back a bit so everyone can come back to reality before heading home after last call.

When I made that first step into DiRocco’s, this was the song playing: “Touch Me” by the 49ers.** It’s derived of two different samples, “Touch Me” by Alicia Warren and “Rock-A-Lott” by Aretha Franklin. As the case with most Italian House songs, the person singing in the video is just a model lipsynching. At least this one is honest about it and doesn’t claim to be singing.

* That boyfriend would get so wildly jealous that I might exchange glances with another man that he forbad me from wearing mirrored sunglasses. I have no regrets, only learning experiences and that relationship taught me A LOT.

** I used to think the lyric was “Peter Pan was a man” but it’s “People can’t understand it”

When I DJ (which is very infrequently these days), I almost always include “Baby Love” by Regina in my “retro” set. Co-written by Regina and Stephen Bray, this song was originally written for Madonna. She turned it down, leaving Regina to record it for herself.

It reached #10 on the Top 100 in 1986, topping the dance charts in June and July of the same year. I still love this song to this day.

Here’s a very rare video from 1985. This was a big gay club record and one of my favorites.

Enjoy!

Taffy, “I Love My Radio”

Earl and I are going out with friends in Albany tonight, so I’m in the mood for dance music. Here’s a couple of music videos from my “Hot 107 Era”. Back in 1993 and ’94, when I was just a baby radio DJ, I worked for a radio station called Rock 107 which became Hot 107 (then it was sold). Here’s a couple of tracks that we spun to death:

Cathy Dennis, “Just Another Dream”

The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette, “Justified and Ancient”

Juliet Roberts, “I Want You”

Cause And Effect, “Another Minute”

Captain Hollywood Project, “More and More”

Even though it’s the holiday weekend, there are those that may have had it up to their eggnog in Christmas music on the radio. Regardless of the season, there’s always time to get up and boogie.

Here, enjoy one of my favorite dance tracks of all time, Loveland featuring Rachel MacFarlane with “Don’t Make Me Wait”. A big hit in Europe back in 1995, I tried really hard to get this going in the states by playing it to death on the radio and encouraging my fellow program directors to do the same. It did best in the clubs.

Those with really good ears will notice that it’s a “Stock, Aiken & Waterman-like” production in that it was mixed by Dave Ford and has the same back up singers as earlier SAW hits. Also, Paul Waterman (son of Pete Waterman) is a member of Loveland. I find the video rather bland, but I still love this song. If you hear me spinning at a club, you know you’re going to hear this track sometime during the night.