*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*
Two weeks ago, I said “God, I love disco.” God was evidently listening, and suspected that I was full of bullshit, which is why he sent this playlist to test me. Turns out God knows me better than I know myself. Apparently I don’t love disco.
After the first or second run through this playlist, I was aware that I wasn’t enjoying it as much as the week 9 playlist. Nothing that I could put my finger on, I just wasn’t getting the same buzz from it. In the interests of giving it a fair crack of the whip, I listened to the playlist again. But the more I listened to it, the worse it got.
There are lots of incredibly funky basslines on this playlist, but that’s not enough to justify listening for half an hour. I’ve always been a little critical of the “Let’s See How Long We Can Stretch This Out For” school of songwriting, and that seems to be what’s going on here. I can look down the playlist and say “ooh, *Good Times* is a good song, as is *Lost In Music* and *I’m Coming Out* by Diana Ross and *Why* by Carly Simon” but when it comes to actually listening to the song all the way through, I find myself reaching for the skip button after a minute, because I know that there’s just going to be more of the same for another four minutes.
This isn’t the first time that I have felt like God’s chewtoy.
The next week’s playlist
Random number: 139
Two playlists on this page, a coin toss selected – Dodgy French. The book says:
> Somehow, putting a few French *mots* in an otherwise *anglais* song pretty much guarantees *sérieux* kitsch. Blondie managed to get away with it; way down at the other end of the scale, there’s Bill Wyman.
\#2 in the playlist is *Le Freak* by Chic, but we’ll ignore that one.
Spotify playlist, once again woefully incomplete, don’t know why I bother
3 replies on “Stunt 2009: Week 11 – Chic Productions”
[…] is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Pete’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same […]
well it’s different when you’re dancing, you want it to go on a bit. A lot of languages have no separate words for music and dance, and their music tends to be of the tribal poly-rhythmic extended freak-out sort. Like you I generally require a bit of economy and song-craft which is why I prefer motown to disco, but by the same token I could listen to some drummers all day (a current obsession is steve gadd)
I totally appreciate this, Jez, but it doesn’t really work in the context of a Playlists book. You’ve got to expect people to actually listen to the songs. I think it wouldn’t have been an issue were it not for the fact that I got two disco-ey playlists two weeks apart.