The fifth volume in the Disco Discharge series is the twenty track Diggin' Deeper. Mr. Pinks, the man with the plan for the whole series, calls it "Classic Disco Volume 2" but said he wanted each album in the series to have a unique name and since this one has a few popular artists with their lesser known singles and deeper album cuts, he came up with Diggin' Deeper. And that's one of the cool things about disco, the album cuts were the long versions built for the clubs though any DJ will tell you that the physically deeper and wider grooves of the twelve inch singles invariably yielded better sound. And sound seems to be a sticking point among critics of this series, pointing out obvious, imagined and admitted vinyl transfers or possible audio enhancements. I have no qualms with any of the master sourcing or alleged audio enhancements (even though Mr. Pinks has admitted that some occurred at his request) in the series thus far and am happy just to have some of these songs in my collection for the first time. I did the research and if I were to purchase all the vinyl albums or corresponding twelve inch singles heard on Diggin' Deeper at their cheapest, regardless of condition, from vendors on the Discogs Marketplace, it would cost almost $90 before shipping, handling, tax and import fees.
One of those records accounts for nearly half of that cost and that is track 10, "The Voice Of Q" by Q from 1982 aka the single greatest year in music. I had the pleasure of first hearing the song when DJ Paul T posted his rip on Burning The Ground back in 2010. It quickly became one of my favorites and began appearing on playlists and mix CDs I made. I don't think I have ever heard a record quite like it. If I ever see it in decent playable condition for less than $20, Imma make that record mine.
| year | title | artist | Billboard Disco Chart | |
| 1978 | Party Song | Sticky Fingers | 10:25 | 24 |
| 1976 | Soul Searchin' Time | The Trammps | 6:04 | 1 |
| 1976 | Weekend | Mick Jackson | 7:14 | - |
| 1977 | Quiet Village | The Ritchie Family | 5:48 | 1 |
| 1979 | Never Gonna Say Goodbye | Poussez | 7:53 | 15 |
| 1978 | Dancing Angel | Constellation Orchestra | 6:23 | - |
| 1978 | There's A Way Into My Heart | USA-European Connection | 12:08 | 43 |
| 1977 | Something''s Up | Wayne St. John | 6:57 | 18 |
| 1982 | Do Your Best | Carol Hahn | 5:15 | 53 |
| 1982 | The Voice Of Q | Q | 5:14 | - |
| 1974 | I'm In Heaven | Touch Of Class | 6:26 | - |
| 1980 | Bumper To Bumper | Avenue B Boogie Band | 5:34 | - |
| 1981 | You Set Me On Fire | 2wice | 5:25 | - |
| 1979 | Getting Serious | Frantique | 7:54 | - |
| 1979 | Get Up And Boogie | Freddie James | 8:20 | 5 |
| 1978 | Countdown/This Is It | Dan Hartman | 14:09 | 1 |
| 1978 | Ain't That Enough For You | John Davis & the Monster Orchestra | 5:55 | 4 |
| 1979 | Sing, SIng, Sing | Charlie Calello Orchestra | 6:03 | 50 |
| 1979 | Love Attack | Ferrara | 5:50 | 34 |
| 1979 | Savage Lover | The Ring | 6:48 | - |
The average year of the twenty songs on Diggin' Deeper is 1978, though the range is 1974 to 1982. The average length of the songs runs 7:17 and there are three songs that run on past the ten minute checkpoint. Only fourteen of the twenty tracks managed to chart on the Disco chart as a single or as part of a charted album and their average peak position works out to be almost 21 but then again, you don't want a majority of Top 10 hits on an album titled Diggin' Deeper do ya?
As a consequence of diggin' deeper for tracks for Diggin' Deeper, 60% of the album's songs are currently unavailable through Spotify so most of you will only find an eight song playlist above. I did discover something odd while compiling the playlist - the album Diggin' Deeper is in the Spotify database but with a slightly different tracklist. See for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment