While critics raved over rock and the kids wore greasepaint for glam, an audience that was old enough to go clubbing danced to disco. By 1974, Barry White was delivering symphonies of disco-soul for himself and Love Unlimited, and the likes of KC & The Sunshine Band and Gloria Gaynor were cutting music designed for DJs to move the crowds with the minimum of effort. African-American acts such as Hamilton Bohannon (“South Africa Man,” “Disco Stomp”), The O’Jays (“992 Arguments,” “I Love Music”) and Eddie Kendricks (“Keep On Truckin’,“Boogie Down”), to name but a few, produced credible, funky, highly-arranged music aimed at the dancefloor with a disco beat. And never the twain should meet… Except it wasn’t that simple.ĭisco had grown up on the US East Coast, stepping out of black clubs and sneaking up on pop almost unnoticed. There were events where disco records were smashed, much as hellfire preachers shattered rock’n’roll singles in the mid-50s. Thirty years later, after the ugly DISCO SUCKS trend and countless revivals both sincere and ironic, the appeal of Saturday Night Fever seems squarely nostalgic, but whatever its impact then or now, there is some amazing music on here- and even more beyond.It’s not often remembered now, but disco-tinged groups such as Bee Gees and ABBA were once the enemy: the birth of disco and the dominance of the four-to-the-floor beat was regarded by some rock fans as a plague on mid-70s music.
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But as a pop-cultural document, it is significantly flawed, not only linked to a midlevel movie but also unable to fully capture the movement with which it has been so strongly identified.
As a soundtrack, it works perfectly well, immersing listeners in the music (and therefore the spirit) of the film while selling more tickets. Ultimately, Saturday Night Fever doesn't disregard disco's underground origins so much as it simply sublimates them to the mainstream white experience. Surprisingly, there are even Latin rhythms on Saturday Night Fever, most notably on M.F.S.B.'s "K-Jee" but also consigned to the souped-up incidental music by David Shire and Ralph McDonald. And of course there's novelty: Walter Murphy's "Fifth of Beethoven" is not just the height of disco-geek cheese, but also the precursor to "serious" undertakings by contemporary artists like Mirwais and Moby. There's soul: The Trammps' 10-story "Disco Inferno"- the extended cut, no less- provides both the soundtrack's climax and its denouement. There's funk: "Open Sesame" doesn't rank among Kool & the Gang's absolute best cuts, but its silly vocals and breakneck horns are nevertheless impressive. Saturday Night Fever is by no means the definitive compilation of disco- Rhino's 4xCD Disco Box, for example, is obviously more comprehensive, and Strut's Disco (Not Disco) comps and Tommy Boy's The Perfect Beats help capture proto-, post-, and underground disco- but even beyond the contributions of the Bee Gees, it does have the potential to be a gateway comp, exposing listeners to a small range of disco subgenres. Their portion of the soundtrack forms a condensed hits package that few bands of the era can rival. With its snaking instrumental melody and sneaking beat, opener "Stayin' Alive" is all cocksure strut, even separated from Travolta's stroll through the credits, and "Night Fever" and "You Should Be Dancin'" have an urgency that makes dancin' seem like a life-or-death imperative. As such, they should be critical pariahs on par with Stone Temple Pilots or the Killers, but their six tracks on Saturday Night Fever are frequently brilliant and redemptively fun.
It makes cynical sense: The Bee Gees played their own instruments had a dubious history in sub-Beatles pop and were white and handsome- all of which made them more marketable to new audiences than their black, female, or homosexual peers. Similarly, the soundtrack, which Rhino is reissuing on its 30th anniversary, is a showcase for hetero heartthrobs the Bee Gees, who contribute a third of the tracklist, get a writing credit for Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You", and even grace the cover as some sort of mirrorball Holy Trinity. That film only existed when Travolta danced." In addition to his extraordinary dance moves, the actor's edgy, preening presence holds the camera's attention as it juxtaposes him with the lifeless neighborhood around him. The movie itself is seedy in a different way (rape, bigotry, death), but as film critic David Thompson writes, "Children ignored its.sordid suburban context.
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