Music to go with reading Holleran's "Dancer From The Dance"

February 11, 2016 5:38 PM

I'm reading Andrew Holleran's classic gay novel "Dancer From The Dance." It's set in New York in the very early years of disco. (1972-74?) I'd like to build up a playlist of some tunes that set the mood, because most of the disco music I know is the later stuff (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, etc.)

I'm early in the book still, but in the first chapters the following songs are called out by name:

Patti Jo “Make Me Believe In You”
Temptations “Law of the Land”
Barrabas “Woman”
Zulema “Giving Up”
The Intruders “I’ll Always Love My Mama”
Deodato - (track name not mentioned)
? “Needing You”
? “You’ve Got Me Waiting for the Rain to Fall”
(Jerry Butler or The O'Jays?) “One Night Affair”

What other early disco/soul classics would build out this playlist?

Bonus points if you can aim me at collection albums I can get on iTunes or Amazon - I prefer not to use streaming subscription services like Spotify, etc. I would like to have this loaded on my iPhone for reading on the bus without using my data plan to stream music.

posted by dnash to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Google "David Mancuso." Listen to everything that comes up.
posted by neroli at 6:07 PM on February 11, 2016

Any collection with his name on it is worth getting, and just what you want.
posted by neroli at 6:10 PM on February 11, 2016

I believe it was the book Love Saves the Day that I read that talks about the growth of the disco scene from the early '70s, even including lists of recommended songs. There's another book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life that also covers dance music, but I believe it's the former that includes song lists. Sorry I can't be more specific. I got the books from the library a while back. Good luck.
posted by the sobsister at 10:43 AM on February 19, 2016