The Day Disco Music Died

From Rolling Stone:  Disco legend Donna Summer died this morning in Florida at the age of 63, family sources have told the Associated Press. The singer had been battling cancer for some time.

"Early this morning, we lost Donna Summer Sudano, a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith," reads a statement from the singer's family. "While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy. Words truly can't express how much we appreciate your prayers and love for our family at this sensitive time."

Summer was a five-time Grammy winner best known for smash hits including "I Feel Love," "Love to Love You Baby" and "She Works Hard for the Money." Her collaborations with producer Giorgio Moroder in the the Seventies broke ground for dance music and have been hugely influential on electronic music in the decades since.
/br> Born and raised in Boston, Summer grew up singing in church before joining a short-lived psychedelic rock band. After winning a role in a touring production of Hair, she moved to Germany, where she would meet Moroder. Their collaboration on the suggestive "Love to Love You Baby," which Summer sang with Marilyn Monroe's breathy singing style in mind, became a huge dancefloor hit after Casablanca Records' Neil Bogart requested a long version of the song – 17 minutes.

Summer went on to major success during the disco era, scoring Number One pop singles with "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls" and an unlikely version of Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park." In 2004 Summer was elected to the Dance Music Hall of Fame, and in 2009 she performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in honor of President Obama.

Asked upon the release of her 2008 album Crayons whether she felt vindicated by her longevity, Summer replied, "I don't think they made fun of my music as much as they made fun of some of the music that maybe came as a result of that whole genre. But I do think in the course of time it is nice to reestablish something and to say, 'Okay, this stood the test of time. . . ' I have nothing to prove to anyone. I just get out there and do my best, and those who love it, great. And those who don't, they'll move on to something else."


Additional reporting by Steve Balt

Goodbye Davy Jones

WTIT would like to bid farewell to Davy Jones of The Monkees. Davy was born David Thomas Jones in Manchester, England, on December 30, 1945. Ironically, he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with the cast of the musical “Oliver” the night The Beatles debuted. The Monkees were formed to cash in from the idea of turning The Beatles “A Hard Day's Night” film into a weekly TV comedy. WTIT attended the mid 80's reunion of The Monkees, (without Michael Nesmith) in Connecticut. Davy suffered a fatal heart attack while tending his horses in Florida. Davy was 66.

R.I.P. Dobey Gray

 

 WTIT wants to acknowledge the death of Dobie Gray (July 26, 1940 – December 6, 2011). Dobie will always be remembered for on the biggest hits of 1973, "Drift Away" which sold over one million copies. It's still played daily on radio broadcasts and has been covered by many including Ringo Starr.

We Become The Dirty Half Dozen!

Recently we uncovered original copies of what we called WTIT Newsletters. We only did them for a short while in 1967-1968. We thought we’d share them. It might shed insight on how we really thought everyone listened to WTIT. Though you’d have to be in our studio (to this day) to hear it. But back then, we were in high school and we played a lot of tapes at parties.  Here’s a piece of trivia: We always note that our original DJ staff was Bud Weiser, Galloping Gary, Bouncing Billy, Johnnie Walker and Killer Joe. And that was the first true staff that carried the ball from 1968 to 1973. But in our first year in 1967, Bud, Gary and Billy tried out a ton of guys who were given a shot before we settled on Joe and Johnnie. (In today's re-post of this WTIT Newsletter Tiny Tim is introduced. He lasted just one show.) Johnnie and Joe literal joined WTIT on the same night in June of 1968. Johnnie and Bud are the only two original DJs that are still with the world's first and longest running Tape Radio Station.

FROM THE FUN TOWER: November 8, 1967

“What’s Terrific in T-I-T-Land”

Volume 1 Number 3

In Downtown West Hartford things are looking up. Bud Weiser just turned sixteen. It was “standing room only” at the WTIT party for Bud.

Warped Movies! WTIT has begun our parodies of film classics. We take no prisoners when we spoof Cleopatra on Tape 14 on Bud's show.

Ticker-Ticker-Ding-Ding-Ding! That's the sound our WTIT Time Machine makes while we become Travelers In Time. On Tape 1 check out our visit to see the Lone Ranger first put on the mask. Bud Weiser, Galloping Gary, Bouncing Bill and Dynamic Dick star in the bit.

WTIT DJs become The Dirty Half Dozen with the addition of Tiny Tim. The Travelers in Time hit again as we find King Author. Sid Schaefer brings his nasty Adam and Eve poem. He didn't write it, but it's a riot! It's all part of Tape 14.

To Dick With Love! Anyone have an extra girlfriend? Dynamic Dick has juggled two since he joined WTIT. Who could guess that if they found out about each other that they would both break up with him? Anyway, Dick begged so much, we felt compelled to tell our fans about his lonely dilemma.

Next issue? Galloping Gary is busy working on our next newsletter. That's it for this week. Come by the WTIT to hear our latest bits. As you know our tapes numbers are random. Gary speculates that WTIT might go from mono to stereo! We can only hope. We do take donations. That's the way it isn't on November 8, 1967. See you next time!

Please check out our comedy blog at WTIT.net!

Gone Too Soon: Amy Winehouse Dies at 27

Amy Winehouse dies at 27
RIP...

So Long Davey Come to CT

My son James was living with me in 2006 when he announced that he was moving to San Diego to find himself a rock 'n roll band that needed a songwriter and guitar man. Hewas 24. On Craig's List he found a singer and front man named David Vaughn. The dude has pipes. James basically signed up to be the guitarist in his back-up band. The move surprised me a bit because David's music on my space seemed too pop for James. James is an alternative guy. But, then something happened. David and James started writing music together. It gave the band a unique sound because of the blend of pop into the alternative. Instead of being "David Vaughn" the band became So Long Davey. They are still unsigned, but have played to open for bands like The Plain White T's. They regularly play at The House of Blues in both San Diego and LA. In these past five years they've recorded incredible music. I've never seen the band live. I keep meaning to go to San Diego, but $$$ has held me back. To surprise James, David booked them two gigs on the east coast. Wednesday the 27th they are in NYC and Friday an hour down the road inn New Haven. I am stoked. Here's a video of what could be their best song, Six Feet Down.

Midnight Confessions: RIP Rob Grill

Left: Dennis Provisor, Warren Entner, Rob Grill and Rick Coonce

We were very hip as DJs of WTIT. Ask us what groups were great in the 60s at that time and we'd say The Beatles, The Byrds, The Stones or Creedence. But, we'd wouldn't come forth with the fact that we all LOVED The Grass Roots. Killer Joe, Galloping Gary, Johnnie Walker and I once saw them do two shows on the same day at what is now known as Six Flags New England And we were in the front row at both shows. (the old Riverside Park). Rob Grill the lead singer, died this week. He was 67. Here is the story from The New York Times:

Rob Grill, the longtime lead singer and a very nearly original member of the Grass Roots, the immensely popular rock group of the 1960s and afterward, died on Monday in Tavares, Fla. He was 67.

The cause was complications of a head injury he sustained in a fall last month, his wife, Nancy, said. Mr. Grill was a longtime resident of Mount Dora, Fla.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-’70s, the Grass Roots were a fixture on the airwaves and a regular presence on “American Bandstand.” They sold tens of millions of records and had more than a dozen Top 40 hits. Among their best known are “Let’s Live for Today,” “Midnight Confessions,” “Temptation Eyes” and “Two Divided by Love.”

The band’s style married elements of folk-rock, soul, blues and R&B. Its songs, whose close-knit harmonies evoked the British pop groups of the period, were bouncy, accessible and eminently danceable, often backed by an upbeat brass section.

“The Grass Roots weren’t the hippest band on the block,” The Boston Globe wrote in 1989. “But they were — and remain — a sure-fire guilty pleasure, a blissful package of pure pop.”

The group’s longest-serving member, Mr. Grill appeared with the Grass Roots for more than four decades: first in the group’s heyday and again as the band has enjoyed a renaissance on the oldies circuit. His voice — high, sweet and supple — was memorably urgent and beseeching in the group’s many songs of love.

He also played bass and wrote some of the group’s songs, though the Grass Roots’ best-known material was written primarily by nonmembers.

The Grass Roots began life as a phantom. In the mid-1960s, two Los Angeles songwriters, Steve Barri and P. F. Sloan, were asked by their label, Dunhill Records, for songs that would capitalize on the growing appetite for folk-rock.

They wrote “Where Were You When I Needed You” and, as the Grass Roots, recorded a demo. When the song had some success on the radio, they cast about for an existing band to become the Grass Roots.

They enlisted a San Francisco group named the Bedouins, who recorded the first Grass Roots album, also titled “Where Were You When I Needed You.”

In 1967, after the Bedouins decamped, Mr. Barri and Mr. Sloan recruited the 13th Floor, a Los Angeles band comprising Creed Bratton, Rick Coonce, Warren Entner and Kenny Fukomoto. (Mr. Bratton, the lead guitarist, later worked as an actor; he is known for playing the eccentric quality assurance director — also named Creed Bratton — on the American sitcom “The Office.”)

Just as the 13th Floor was about to sign on as the Grass Roots, Mr. Fukomoto was drafted, and Mr. Grill was brought in as a replacement. He remained with the group through the late ’70s, when it faded from view, a casualty of changing popular taste.

Mr. Grill managed new incarnations of the band in 1978 and ’79, rejoining it in the early 1980s. He performed with the Grass Roots throughout much of the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s.

Mr. Grill appeared on many of the band’s albums and also recorded a solo album, “Uprooted,” released in 1979.
Robert Frank Grill was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 30, 1943. Intending to become a lawyer, he studied at California State University, Los Angeles, before pursuing a career in music.

Mr. Grill’s first marriage ended in divorce. Besides his wife, the former Nancy Pilski, whom he married in 1986, he is survived by a brother, James. A son from his first marriage, Christian, died of cancer last year.

Mr. Grill lived for years with chronic pain as a result of a degenerative bone disorder known as avascular necrosis and the multiple hip-replacement operations it entailed. In 2007, he was arrested on charges of having obtained the prescription painkiller oxycodone from multiple doctors, in violation of Florida law.

He entered a guilty plea, which was later vacated after he completed a pretrial intervention program, his wife said.

On the whole, however, Mr. Grill’s life — and the lives of his band mates — was so tame that it became, in some quarters, a professional sticking point.

“I asked one of the guys at VH1’s ‘Behind the Music’ why we weren’t on,” Mr. Grill told The Huntsville (Ala.) Times in 2005. “And he said, ‘Were you guys ever into heroin?’ and I said, ‘No.’ He said we just weren’t compelling enough.”

The New York Times gave this report.