The Future of Music

Donna Summer : I Feel Love

[Purchase]

On May 13, 1977 Donna Summer released the strangely uneven concept album I Remember Yesterday. Side One featured a collection of disco songs done in the styles of popular songs from the 1940s -50s and 60s. Never mind all that! The album also included, on its futuristic Side Two, the UK#1/US#6 smash "I Feel Love", a nearly six minute floor filler so out of sight Brian Eno called it "The Future of Music".

David Bowie tells the story:

One day in Berlin ... Eno came running in and said, "I have heard the sound of the future." ... he puts on "I Feel Love," by Donna Summer ... He said, "This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years." Which was more or less right.

Forty years later it still sounds like something from the future, an almost alien take on electronic dance music. Incredibly monotonous and incredibly sophisticated all at the same time, with Summer breathing life into this artificial ear worm.

  Loyal readers know I've only recently rediscovered the joy of the terrific trio Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. back in '77 I wouldn't be caught dead listening to disco. Today I'm a huge fan of the good stuff. There really is good disco out there. And "I Feel Love" is the best of them all.