Capricorn - I Need Love

Capricorn were an Italo Disco outfit fronted by Claudio Simonetti who scored a minor hit in US clubs in 1980 with a song also called Capricorn.  The single here, from 1982, however was a full on smash hit in Chicago.  It was originally released on Biba Records but, like so many imports from this period, it also showed up on several other labels simultaneously including Italy’s Delerium Records as well as the classic New York dance label, Emergency Records.

As is typical of the genre, I Need Love is structurally a very simple tune but it’s signature bassline makes it exceptionally funky compared to much of the more futuristic sounding tracks coming from Italy during this time.   Its distinctive shuffling hi-hat intro and incredibly aggressive snare was a favorite for early beat juggling.  The instrumental to this song remained popular with house DJ’s well into the late 80’s even after other Italo songs fell out of rotation as more music began to get produced locally.  Today, I Need Love remains one of the more sought after tracks from this era. Prior to being re-released a few years ago, this single regularly fetched up to $100 on eBay.

I’ve always thought of Claudio Simonetti as something like the Quincy Jones of Italian Disco.  His name pops up on tons of releases from the early and mid eighties either as writer, producer, or arranger.  He was responsible for a slew of singles under his own name as well as with his other projects Kasso, Crazy Gang, and Easy Going.  Many of these singles (like One More Round, Walkman, and I Love the Piano) were also big on the Chicago scene.

Much later I found out that Claudio Simonetti was also a founding member of the Italian prog-rock supergroup Goblin.  Formed in 1972, this group are most famous for their film scores including many for Italian horror auteur Dario Argento and for George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.  Small world.

Track List

Side A
I Need Love

Side B
I Need Love (Instrumental)

Side A&B

Gazuzu - Go Go Gorilla

MS 89
Another fun bit of Italo goodness today although this time the record is actually a Dutch import.  For the purposes of this blog I’m categorizing all these European records as Italo regardless of their true country of origin.  I hope this doesn’t offend any purists.

In previous posts I’ve mentioned some of the common musical traits that Italian (European) singles from the early 80’s had that wound up becoming staples of the House sound.  This song perfectly exemplifies another common trait many of these songs shared that didn’t necessarily carry over to domestic House: It is INSANELY HAPPY!!  The bright, piercing synth leads, over-the-top drum fills, and party-style background vocals combine to create the musical equivalent of a sunny day at the beach …with ice cream …and a circus.

And it's not just the music that makes this song happy.  There's actual giggling in the background at certain points in the vocal version.  Like with a lot of Italo songs, it’s hard for me to catch all of the lyrics but I can definitely pick out something about “Leo Lion and Jake the Rattlesnake keep on funkin” and "the Tiger and the Elephant, you know they have big fun”.  Even the cover playfully replaces the High Fashion Music label’s usual “Disco Benelux” tagline with “Disco Banana”.

Silly as it is, this song was a pretty big hit in Chicago especially among radio jocks like Mickey "Mixin" Oliver.  Gazuzu scored another hit about a year later with Aruba that even more explicitly brings to mind sunny days. The duo Adams & Fleisner behind this group had their hands in a lot of music coming from the Netherlands at this time.  Their names are on releases from Gazuzu, X-Ray Connection, Digital Emotion, and Blanc De Blanc (to name a few) as well as a number of early popular DJ Tools-type records like Mix Your Own Stars.  Many of their songs were also released on several different labels.

BTW - For those of you interested in tracking the early development of House music tropes, check out the series of proto- bass drops that happen around 3’30” on the vocal version.

Track List

Side A
Go Go Gorilla (vocal version)

Side B
Go Go Gorilla (instr. version)
Go Go Gorilla (bonus track)

Side 1&2

Doctor's Cat - Feel The Drive

ART 1016
I miss hearing this song on the radio.  Feel the Drive was all over Chicago when it came out and this record was the first import I ever bought. To me, in 1983, this music really sounded like the future.  Finding out that the song was from Italy only made sense to me at the time.  Americans for the most part weren’t making music like this and wouldn’t be for a few more years at least.  Italian (and Dutch) imports really set the stage for the development of House music in Chicago.

Imports like these were the some of the first examples of all-electronic music that I had ever heard.  American dance music at this time had synths and electronic drums but they still tended to include guitar and bass (Arthur Baker and Afrika Bambatta were execptions).  Italo didn’t use synthesizers to emulate real instruments; it used them on their own terms for their own reasons.   It’s interesting to note that, at least in Chicago, Italian and Dutch imports were at their height of popularity around 1983-1985.  Once local producers started making music like this, demand for European labels fell off (except for labels like Rams Horn that pressed re-releases of older American Disco).

Feel the Drive is pretty typical of the Italo songs that got heavy rotation in Chicago.  Hypnotic bassline, conga driven drums, and female vocals singing pretty much nonsense lyrics.  In a lot of cases the instrumental versions of these tracks got more play but not in this case.  Feel the Drive’s vocal version got equal airtime.  About a year or so later, Doctor’s Cat scored another Chicago hit with Watch Out.  I have no idea if these songs or the group Doctor’s Cat were big elsewhere.  The only Americans I’ve met who know the group are from Chicago.  Same goes for a lot of the big Italo hits of the time.  I’ve often wondered how it was that some tracks became such huge hits in this city.  Did a couple of DJ’s have a good connection to Italian labels like il disc 8 and Memory Records?  Was it driven more by the buyers from the big retail players (Importes, Etc., Rose Records)?  I was too young to know but I did know that this music was the shit.

Track List

Side A
Feel The Drive (Vocal)

Side B
Feel The Drive (Instrumental)

Side A&B

Massimo Barsotti D.J. - Whole Lotta Love

ZZ 20 005
When this song began getting play in Chicago, there was always a sense of heightened anticipation as the instrumental’s intro would start slowly sliding into a mix.  By the time the arpeggio began, dancers were halfway to a true frenzy.  The piercing lead synth that picks up a third of the way through the song simply sealed the deal.  The fuzzy bass drum that hammers alone relentlessly for 16 bars was an unusual sound for the time and probably influenced a lot of harder tracks to come later.  Speed it up to about 150 bpm and you’ve got a Gabber track.

I have to confess that I had been hearing this track in mixes and on the radio long before I realized it was a Led Zeppelin cover.  Granted the instrumental version is the one that got the most play but I was also pretty clueless about rock music back then.  When I finally bought the single, I recognized the names Page/Plant on the label credits but didn’t know why.  My buddy Todd, who was much more knowledgeable about rock (and all music for that matter), finally explained the history of the song to me.  It didn’t matter; THIS song was the one that mattered.  I think it was sometime in the 90's when I finally heard the Zeppelin version. By then I was SO familiar with this track and its nuances that it felt (and still feels to me) like Zeppelin was the doing the cover (and an awkward one at that).

One online review I found says that “while Robert Plant sounds like a dude who really needs to get laid, Barsotti sounds like that dude who got laid the night before, plans to get laid again that night and every night for the foreseeable future.”   Maybe that’s true but it might just be the accent.  I’m pretty sure Mr. Barsotti didn’t speak English when he recorded this but just tried imitating what he heard.  Sure Robert Plant slides words together just like any other rock singer but here the chorus literally goes “ah wanna walla la love.”

  

Really though, all of that is beside the point.  This song (especially the instrumental) is a driving, funky, dark, weird thing that is near perfect.  Even the record is gorgeous.  The Fuzz Dance label out of Italy released a string of singles with oversized, custom labels that look just great.  Alexander Robotnick’s Problemes D’amour (another great track) also got this packaging.  Take a look at the high-stepping girl on this label.  Is she scared? Excited? Crazy?  Whatever (it’s probably all three), she is DEFINITELY dancing to this song.

Track List

Side A
Whole Lotta Love

Side B
W.L.L. (another version)

WLL 

Klein & M.B.O. - The Most Dirty Talk

RAMSH5304
Maybe more than any other song, this track reminds me of those very early days of Chicago House. The Hot Mix Five were in full effect on WBMX but local DJ’s and producers weren’t really making tracks of their own yet. The House sound was defined by some older Disco tracks and imported singles from Italy and the Benelux primarily.

A lot of these imports would fall in the category of Hi-NRG but Dirty Talk was different. More “laid back and sexy” than “I'm so excited!”, this song really presages the sound of early DJ International and Trax Records releases from Chicago producers. Listen especially to parts like the intro to the first version of More Dirty Talk and the break around 3:15 on the USA Connection Instrumental. The stripped-down 909 8th note handclaps and syncopated rimshots with a bouncing bassline combo is a classic Chicago sound. One of Klein & M.B.O.’s other hits, M.B.O. Theme was the inspiration for Chip E.’s MB Dance, which appeared on his 1984 EP Jack Trax. This classic record also featured Time to Jack and It’s House. The first official release to use the term "House" on record. Let me know if I’m mistaken.


Due to its popularity, this song was released in many different versions on several labels. I believe it originated on Zanza Records in 1982 before Rams Horn started pumping out version after version in 1983 and eventually Atlantic Records here in the States picked it up. The versions here are from the 1983 (almost album-length) EP on Rams Horn called The Most Dirty Talk that culled together almost all of the versions from Rams Horn’s other 12” releases. I’m not sure who the Klein in this band is but one of the writers/producers behind this group was Tony Carrasco who had a hand in many hit Italian imports from this time period.

A side note: I think it’s sweet that a song called “Dirty Talk” has such innocent our-love-is-so-special lyrics. I doubt that would happen today. I used to love hearing the singer mispronounce “ecstasy” as “ek-tasy” and then sing later in the song about how “You laugh the way I sound”. That said, the instrumental versions are really where it’s at.


Track List
Side 1
1. Dirty Talk (USA Connection)
2. Dirty Talk (European Connection)
3. Dirty Talk (USA Connection Instrumental)
4. Dirty Talk (European Connection Instrumental)
Side2
5. More Dirty Talk
6. More Dirty Talk
7. Dirty Talk (Canadian Connection)
8. Dirty Talk (Reprise)

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