Yer - I can totally see the link - we've already touched on this in other posts.
One clue from the artists angle is artists like Archie Bell & the Drells "Tighten Up" - with this group becoming a mainstay in the Disco sound.
Alot of Northern, Disco & now House share the same 'sto,mmp' effect & mid tempo which allows for dancing for alot of hours.
I've found alot of the original Northern Soul ppl recongnised Disco & hooked onto it straight away.
some even consider some of Tavarress's musi9c as Northern - contentious to some I know.
Take Gwen McCrae's "Keep The Fire Burning" the beat / rpesentation is Funk / Disco - but the sentiment & feel of the music could have been in 60's soul.
"I never knew what disco was" - Gwen McCrae.
Gwen's label TK records in miami became attached to this 'disco' label - but as someone rightly said the term 'disco' refers to the popularity of these venues & their discotech events.
'Allniter' is attached to the northern scene - but if we started talking of 'allniter' music the music would be a wide spectrum as disco is.
Disco can emcompass soul, reggae, funk, blues, latin, soca, gay elements - all of these areas - but it is not owned by one....
Can you deny the soulpower of tracks linked to disco like:
"Funky Nassau" - The Begining Of The end"
"Soul City Walk", "Don't Let Love Get You Down" -Archie Bells & the drells
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Diana Ross - or Jocelyn Brown's version.
"Backstabbers" - The Ojays
"Standing In Line" - ESG
"Over & Over" - Sylvester
"Spreadlove" - Al Hudson & the Partners - (Check the wkd Soulful House cover of this by Lenny Fontanna of this with Kenny Bobien on vocals & Grant Green on guitar).
"Valdez In The Country" / "Nature Boy" / "The World Is A Ghetto" - George Benson.
"Message In Our Music" - The O'jays - (& the emotio in that record is up there with any 60's / northern track - it screaches out!

).
"People & The World" - Roy Ayres
"Rejoice" / "Best Of my Love" - The Emotions
"I'm Every Woman" - Chaka Khan
& from the Saturday Nite Fever film I really dig:
"Disco Inferno" & "Salsation"
Note - the break from Salsation has been sampled many times & trevor Nelson was using it as the theme music to his radio show.
Yer - disco was popular & universal -as House (son of Disco) is now.
& Many of the above i list didn'tgo anywhere near the top 20 on release.
Here's another of my faves:
"Free Love" - Jean Carn - that album only sold 1000 copies & was then deleted when it was first released.
I still DJ many of these & the wider soul music spectrum love these as classics.
for me it's whether I like the music - not the side psychology of thinking I'm the only one in the world to know or own a record - if you've got something good - why not share it? - each to their own.
many or few records sold on it's own does not make a record good or bad for me - it's all about the music(IMO)
Each to their own - luv the music & soul not the labels we attach (IMO).
This post has been edited by funky4u: 14 July 2005 - 02:59 AM