Let's go back in time to the disco era of the 1970's. How many of you remember a group called Boney M? They were very popular in Europe, less so in the USA. They had a number of hit singles - but they were basically a musical fraud, the creation of a German music producer named Frank Farian. He died late in January.
German music producer Frank Farian - founder of the disco band Boney M - has died at the age of 82, according to his family.
. . .
Boney M, which formed in 1976, had a string of hit singles including Daddy Cool, Rasputin and Rivers of Babylon.
Farian also went on to found the duo Milli Vanilli, who were involved in a lip-synching controversy ... In 1990, Farian was embroiled in a scandal surrounding Milli Vanilli when he confessed they had not sung on their records.
There's more at the link.
Here's the background to Farian, Boney M and one of the biggest fakes of the disco music era.
Despite all the shenanigans, Boney M could certainly pound out disco with the best of them. They went from a small-time band to major star status. Here's a short progression, from their initial hit "Daddy Cool" to "Ma Baker" to "Rasputin", the latter performed in a gigantic Moscow theater with full supporting cast.
I was never into disco, but I remember all those songs. We went a-boppin' down the road to them on many occasions. The only excuse I can offer is that we were younger then . . .
Peter
Yup, younger then. And in uniform. And stationed in West Germany. Couldn't stand disco then, still can't today.
ReplyDeletePopped a memory for me. I remember when the cool kids would spray paint the word "Disco" on stop signs:
ReplyDelete"STOP disco"
It was mandatory to hate disco. Even so, if no one else was in the car you'd crank up the volume on "Stayin' Alive" and roll it up ten or fifteen over the speed limit.
JWM
In the docudrama "Touching the Void," a mountain climber talks about having a Boney M song (that he didn't like) going through his mind when he was close to death after a climbing accident, and his thought was "Bloody hell - I'm going to die to Boney M."
ReplyDeleteNever heard of them or their songs. ANd it doesn't sound like I missed a thing.
ReplyDeleteIn South Africa, they were pretty huge. Their Christmas song based on a Caribbean song is still archetypically summer-Christmas.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, as a teen in the 80s, we absolutely despised disco. And as British Alternative music gained steam, with Barney Simon on Radio 5, synthpop got hate as well.