PicoBlog

Released: 1978
LP Charts: #4 R&B, #1 pop

From 1975 through 1977, Donna Summer released five albums (including a double album, the splendid Once Upon A Time…). Each of those albums went gold. Combined, they also produced two top 10 pop singles: “Love to Love You Baby” (#2) and “I Feel Love” (#6). Furthermore, in mid-1978, “Last Dance” was also released as a single. It was never featured on a Summer studio album. Instead it was from the soundtrack to the terrible film Thank God It’s Friday.

Crappy movie or not, “Last Dance” was a beast reaching #5 R&B, #3 pop, and #1 disco AND won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

By any measure, a pretty successful career already. But the Queen of Disco surveyed her lands and wanted more. And more she would get.

Much to my surprise, Summer’s imperial conquest of the pop charts that took her career to the stratosphere pretty much begins with this double album that has three live sides and one side of new studio music.

Let me explain the weirdness.

Summer, of course, was a full-fledged disco artist at this point. Her albums were going gold because of club play not radio airplay. Although three of her singles were smashes, most were not. Six other singles charted in the US prior to Live and More’s release and just one of those managed to reach the top 40 (“I Love You” peaked at a decent #37).

So, it’s crazy that a LIVE album of a singer doing disco club smashes (not radio smashes) would land at NUMBER ONE on the Billboard LP charts. Disco is rightfully noted for being a studio genre where not every track (or even most tracks) translate to the stage. And that’s why Summer was the queen because she was not your average disco singer. She performs all of her songs on this album with a charming charisma. The band and backing vocalists are also fairly competent, but Summer is definitely carrying the show.

The album’s first side is a good listen, but it’s got a major drawback... She crams SIX songs onto one side! This means Summer and the band are just cranking through great songs like “Once Upon A Time” and “Spring Affair”. The one song they linger on is “I Love You”, which clocks in at 3:27. Every other song is between 2:10 and 2:55. Obviously not the average length of your typical disco song, which means you never get the requisite breakdowns and buildups that fueled so much of dance music in this era. It still sounds good, but it also sounds wrong and bastardized if you know the original versions.

The second side is a significant departure for the Summer that the public had come to know as she digs into her unheralded stage performance background. The side is also one big ode to past musical styles. There are a couple of club hits from her album I Remember Yesterday (“Love’s Unkind” and “I Remember Yesterday”), but they too were homages to the past in the first place. Elsewhere are nostalgic show tunes, ballads, and banter. I’m sure it was great to see this in person, but that kind of stuff doesn’t always work well for home listening. It definitely doesn’t work perfectly on this album, but there are enjoyable moments.

“Only One Man” is a bluesy tune filled with brass, but it’s a too short (2:07) to have any lasting impact.

On the “My Man Medley” Summer gives a nice nod to her gay fans. “You know, I just want to say this. This is something I think most of you ladies can identify with and maybe some of you men too.” The audience hoots, including some distinctly male voices. The vocal performance here is definitely the highlight of the live portions of this album.

There’s an almost obligatory and punishing cover of “The Way We Were” before Summer finishes Side 2 with a heartfelt performance for her daughter, “Mimi’s Song”. Can’t say it’s a good song, but it’s nice to see Summer (a single mother at the time) acknowledge how show business ain’t always good for keeping family life stable and that she wanted to spend more time with her kid.

Side 3 gets back to the disco, but at least this time Summer doesn’t race through every song reducing the number of songs from six to four. And these songs have HEFT to them. “Try Me, I Know We Can Make It” wasn’t a big hit, but it’s a damn good song. Then Summer cranks out three classics and her biggest hits yet back-to-back-to-back: “Love to Love You Baby”, “I Feel Love”, and “Last Dance”.

All of what I just mentioned thus makes it deflating to hear these songs live. They’re all inferior to the studio versions. Oh well, that’s life.

Side 4 is the “and more” part of Live and More.

Specifically, it’s a 17:47 juggernaut known as “MacArthur Park Suite”. As the title suggests, the main feature is a cover of “MacArthur Park”. This cover follows the template laid down by “Last Dance”. Start off with a slow melodramatic ballad that then takes off to disco dance land. Works for me as it’s the only version of “MacArthur Park” I can stand to listen to. And it worked enough for radio listeners to become Summer’s first #1 pop single. The song also landed at #1 disco, #8 R&B, and #5 UK.

The next part of the suite is a funkier extension of “MacArthur Park”: “One Of A Kind”. It’s fairly repetitive, but that’s the point. It’s not a full song in its own right, but only exists to be a breakdown in this suite. Still, I like it. The final piece of the suite is a truncated version of “Heaven Knows”. A collaboration with the band Brooklyn Dreams, this song was yet another big hit: #10 R&B, #4 pop, and #1 disco. It’s also one of my favorite Donna Summer songs, if not my favorite. Depends on the day.

The biggest recommendation here is being able to hear Summer’s chameleonic voice en vivo (particularly on the “My Man Medley”) and to get your hands on the dance floor titan that is “MacArthur Park Suite.” However, like a lot of live albums, it’s not one you’ll be clamoring to hear more than once or twice.

But it was Summer’s first platinum album and first #1 album. She would have more of both.

Song Scores

• MacArthur Park: 8/10

• One of A Kind: 6.5/10

• Heaven Knows: 9/10

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