VA - Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night (Brooklyn Disco 1974-5) [2023]

DISCO / SOUL

VA - Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night (Brooklyn Disco 1974-5) [2023]

Before there was Saturday Night Fever there was underground disco. DJs across America went out and found the music to play; dancers went out and found the clubs. At this point, in the early seventies, the disco was the venue and not a genre of music.

By the time Nik Cohn’s short story Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night was published by New York magazine in June 1976, disco was the biggest genre of music on the charts and was about to get bigger yet, becoming an all-enveloping cultural phenomenon. Cohn sold the film rights to Robert Stigwood, and his classic club yarn became Saturday Night Fever.

"Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night" is the soundtrack to Cohn’s story, where disco began, a 1975 score for the underground clubs of Brooklyn and Queens that played R&B, soul and Latin beats to people who lived for the weekend.

Bob Stanley has put this collection together from sourcing what was actually played in Brooklyn discos in 1974 and 1975. Only a few specific records were mentioned in Cohn’s feature, but two of them – Ben E. King’s "Supernatural Thing" and Harold Melvin’s "Wake Up Everybody" were cosmically great, and both are included here alongside underground favourites like Moment of Truth's, Four Tops-like "Helplessly" and Gloria Scott’s Barry White-produced modern soul classic "Just As Long As Were Together". The Al Foster Band’s incredible "Night of The Wolf" has fans in northern soul, disco and prog circles.

Without Cohn’s original story, it’s quite possible that disco would have remained an underground phenomenon "Tribal Rites of The New Saturday Night" paints a scene in full flower. Saturday Night Fever would eventually, if unintentionally, wreck the underground nature of this scene, and clubs like Studio 54 would destroy the democracy of the party, but for two or three years the scene was largely undocumented, and magical. This album is the sound of disco before it was captured. (Ace)

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Track lists

01 Moment Of Truth - Helplessly (Album Version) 3:44

02 Intrepids - After You've Had Your Fling (Get Down To The Real Thing) 2:49

03 Blue Magic - Welcome To The Club 5:10

04 Margie Joseph - I Can't Move No Mountains 2:47

05 Ben E King - Supernatural Thing (Part 1) 4:10

06 Faith, Hope & Charity - Mellow Me 3:49

07 Richard ‘popcorn’ Wylie - Georgia's After Hours (Album Version) 4:58

08 Eddie Kendricks - Date With The Rain (Album Version) 2:42

09 Gloria Scott - Just As Long As We're Together (In My Life There Will Never Be Another) (Single Version) 2:44

10 Ronnie Mcneir - Wendy Is Gone 2:49

11 Sons Of Robin Stone - Got To Get You Back 3:12

12 Ivano Fossati - Night Of The Wolf (Tema Del Lupo) 4:02

13 Ecstasy, Passion & Pain - Good Things Don't Last Forever 3:40

14 Jimmy Ruffin - Tell Me What You Want 3:14

15 Betty Everett - Keep It Up 3:25

16 Satyr - Free & Easy 3:00

17 Major Harris Boogie Blues Band - Each Morning I Wake Up 3:53

18 Act 1 - It's The Same Old Story 3:09

19 Creative Source - You Can't Hide Love 3:21

20 John Gary Williams - The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy 3:09

21 White Heat - If That's The Way You Feel (Then Let's Fall In Love) 3:15

22 Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes - Wake Up Everybody 3:40

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