Searching For Disco's Cro-Magnon
When, exactly, was disco born? Was it when Billboard magazine began tabulating a chart devoted specifically to dance music in 1974? Or is that the tail wagging the dog, since armies of club DJs had been playing dance-conducive rock and pop music in discotheques since the '60s? And to put a finer point on it, what was actually the first disco song? We know all the big artists and hits of the original disco era, from The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" to Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff." But where did that sound come from: those sweeping strings, the lush funkiness, the hi-hat-heavy beat?
In 1969, a forgotten Chicago soul band called The Radiants released a song titled "Choo Choo," a superbly danceable soul song with a funky, atmospheric guitar riff; a minimal, instrumental breakdown; and a funky, shuffling beat. Everything about "Choo Choo" screamed If only it were that clear-cut. In Vince Aletti's , the author points out that the first records played by disco DJs in dance clubs in the early '70s weren't what we could consider disco at all — songs such as The Temptations' 1972 hit "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Peter Shapiro, in his book , points out that Led Zeppelin was a staple in early-'70s disco venues like David Mancuso's The Loft in New York, a startling fact corroborated by Tim Lawrence in his history of American dance culture, .
