Althouse: "The bridge between Donna Summer and the Human League..."

May 10, 2011

"The bridge between Donna Summer and the Human League..."

The song that got us from 1979 to 1980 was....

38 comments:

Ann Althouse said...: If you guessed before clicking, congratulations!; 5/10/11, 12:11 PM
Crunchy Frog said...: Going to guess before clicking here...

Styx - Babe

wv: opplat - what my guess landed with; 5/10/11, 12:16 PM
Almost Ali said...: Speaking of Donna Summer...; 5/10/11, 12:43 PM
reader_iam said...: I like Blondie. I therefore forgive it for leading to Human League.

(How could I possibly forget that particular time of life transition [from high school to college] and the music that went with it?); 5/10/11, 12:43 PM
bagoh20 said...: I don't think so. It might be the last thing you saw before you got to the bride, but it was just a disco song, no bridge, nothing new. Harry's makeup was a phenomenal accomplishment though.; 5/10/11, 12:46 PM
MadisonMan said...: Human League's hit was when I was a Senior in College. Parallel Lines was around when I was a freshman.

The timeline doesn't work very well, to bridge from Donna Summer -- who came out with Bad Girls at about the same time as Blondie's Parallel Lines -- to Don't You Want Me. I've danced enthusiastically to all of the songs at various points. I guess List-a-Beefy has to write something, but this one seemed off.; 5/10/11, 12:47 PM
sakredkow said...: What a doll she was.

Brigitte Bardot and Debbie Harry... Growwwl.

I guess you could say it was a good day for a libtard at the Rethuglican Althouse site.; 5/10/11, 12:51 PM
Peder said...: I was guessing 'My Sharona'.; 5/10/11, 12:52 PM
TMink said...: I was thinking of Donna's own "I Fell Love" which has those driving Teutonic drums. I was a more serious, less fluffy kind of dance music.

Trey; 5/10/11, 12:54 PM
Wince said...: Meanwhile, the bridge between Human League and Rap...? (sorry about the ad)

First Ten Rap Hits (On the Hot 100)

1. 11/10/1979 Rapper’s Delight- Sugarhill Gang
2. 9/6/1980 The Breaks - Kurtis Blow
3. 1/31/1981 - Rapture - Blondie
4. 2/7/1981 - 8th Wonder - Sugarhill Gang
5. 2/13/1982 -Apache - Sugarhill Gang
6. 7/17/1982 - Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa*
7. 10/16/1982 - The Message - Grandmaster Flash; 5/10/11, 12:56 PM
EnigmatiCore said...: Weird. I just had The Breaks come up on my mp3 player.

Break it up, break it up, break it up! Break down!; 5/10/11, 1:08 PM
Palladian said...: "I was thinking of Donna's own "I Feel Love" which has those driving Teutonic drums. I was a more serious, less fluffy kind of dance music."

That brilliant song spawned house music. I don't hold that against it.

I thought it was punk that bridged the gap between disco and New Wave. For me, it was the Talking Heads that were the bridge.; 5/10/11, 1:17 PM
dbp said...: I didn't have a clue, but my wife guessed the artist AND song.

She is way cooler than I am.; 5/10/11, 1:25 PM
Titus said...: I love Human League. Keep Feeling Fascination.; 5/10/11, 1:28 PM
BJK said...: My favorite part of that list (which I only flip through about once a month as Ann reminds me it exists) is trying to guess the next song based on my recollection of the preview lyric.; 5/10/11, 1:33 PM
Steve said...: I guessed Rapture by Blondie. It will probably appear higher on the list. It was probably the first rap song anyone outside of Philadelphia and NYC ever heard. Certainly all of the white folks.; 5/10/11, 2:06 PM
MadisonMan said...: Any college student on the East Coast heard Rapper's Delight before Rapture. Sugarhill was from Jersey.; 5/10/11, 2:12 PM
deborah said...: Youth is wasted on the young.; 5/10/11, 2:15 PM
William said...: I was a post facto Blondie fan. Styles of music are like baseball teams. You stay loyal and are antagonistic to the other teams that have their hot seasons. Disco, back then, was despised by rock fans. There's now no denying her greatness. Blondie's best music is still fresh and catchy. She really was the best looking singer of my lifetime. I don't know if her voice was a studio effect, but there was nothing dubbed or overlaid about her looks. I even liked the cool disinterest in her face as she danced so clumsily. "I don't have to move rhytmically. Hot girls don't even have to try." I suppose Madonna made more money, but Debbie Harry was the real deal. She never had to sell her sex appeal.; 5/10/11, 2:28 PM
traditionalguy said...: Deborah Harry (a/k/a Dirty Harry). I looked it up.; 5/10/11, 2:29 PM
Titus said...: When I was in High School I loved New Order and Prefab Sprout and Aztec Camera, Culture Club, YAZ, natch, Marilyn. Oh and Wham!

Anything British really. People in my high school were listening to The Scorpions and Journey.; 5/10/11, 2:37 PM
Titus said...: I saw Blondie years ago by Fenway playing. She was fat but I still love her.; 5/10/11, 2:38 PM
Saint Croix said...: I knew it was Blondie! Wrong song though.

Blondie is awesome.; 5/10/11, 3:13 PM
Irene said...: Such a genuine feel, a more real time. The video helps me understand how my parents must have felt when they talked about Jeanette McDonald.

Today, the PR types would make Debbie Harry whiten her teeth, and they would put in her a Spanx bodysuit.; 5/10/11, 3:14 PM
Saint Croix said...: Who else could take you from Donna Summer to Human League? She's a bridge. She's way more a bridge than Obama or Gore or whoever the hell was supposed to be a bridge.; 5/10/11, 3:15 PM
TMink said...: Palladian, excellent point about Talking Heads. Their stuff was typically danceable, and some of it extremely so. Then there was the Tom Tom Club which took the dance part to a new level.

They were such a killer band.

And I stand corrected about your house music point. I don't hold that against Donna either.

Trey; 5/10/11, 3:16 PM
AST said...: Few realize that her real talent was dancing.; 5/10/11, 3:18 PM
Saint Croix said...: The Knack was a bridge backwards. In a good way.; 5/10/11, 3:25 PM
Triangle Man said...: Also fascinating to me:

Replaced: Knock on Wood - Amii Stewart
Replaced by: Reunited - Peaches & Herb; 5/10/11, 3:51 PM
Phil 314 said...: When "Call me" came out it, for better or worse, it cinched Blondie's as a disco/synth/techno group. I believe they wanted to be much more and it took them awhile to get past that; 5/10/11, 3:58 PM
ken in tx said...: Heart of Glass is on my Ipod. So is Andrea True's More, More, More.; 5/10/11, 5:59 PM
ken in tx said...: So is 'Call Me'.; 5/10/11, 6:00 PM
el polacko said...: it tickled me no end when my disco friends hated the song because it was too punk and my punk friends hated it because it was a 'sell-out' to disco. if that didn't make it a "bridge", then i don't know what.
btw, the credit for donna summer's success goes to georgio moroder (who,later, produced blondie's 'call me')..after he went away, donna quickly faded.; 5/10/11, 10:54 PM
AlanKH said...: Debbie Harry did a great cover of "Liar Liar."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR6AAXVocLw

As for the Human League...if I get them stuck in my head, someone send me an exorcist. And Pete Townsend.; 5/11/11, 2:00 AM
Toad Trend said...: Donna Summer's 'Macarthur Park' never came close to the original and 'Tainted Love' never resulted from leaving a cake out in the rain. I skipped crossing this bridge altogether.

In 1979 the 'Sultans of Swing' swung me away from the flaccidity of the late 70's... I grabbed the wave of 'London Calling' and rode that into the post-album rock of the 80's...; 5/11/11, 6:01 AM
Issob Morocco said...: I didn't guess, but a wonderful assessment of the music and very much the bridge as described.; 5/11/11, 11:24 AM
Issob Morocco said...: I didn't guess, but a wonderful assessment of the music and very much the bridge as described.; 5/11/11, 11:24 AM
Issob Morocco said...: Ken in SC,

"How do you like it?, how do you like it?"; 5/11/11, 11:25 AM