VARIOUS – Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night (Brooklyn Disco 1974-5) – 2LP – Vinyl

2LP -Black Vinyl.

Before there was Saturday Night Fever there was underground disco. DJs across America went out and found the music to play; dancers went out and found the clubs. At this point, in the early seventies, the disco was the venue and not a genre of music. By the time Nik Cohns short story Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night was published by New York magazine in June 1976, disco was the biggest genre of music on the charts and was about to get bigger still, becoming an all-enveloping cultural phenomenon. Cohn sold the film rights to Robert Stigwood, and his classic club yarn became Saturday Night Fever.

Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night is the soundtrack to Cohns story, where disco began; a 1975 score for the underground clubs of Brooklyn and Queens that played R&B, soul and Latin beats to people who lived for the weekend.

Bob Stanley has put this collection together, sourcing what was actually played in Brooklyn discos in 1974 and 1975. Only a few specific records were mentioned in Cohns feature, but two of them Ben E Kings Supernatural Thing Part 1 and Harold Melvins Wake Up Everybody – were cosmically great and both are included here, alongside underground favourites like Moment Of Truths Four Tops-like Helplessly and Gloria Scotts Barry White-produced modern soul classic Just As Long As Were Together. Ivano Fossatis incredible Night Of The Wolf has fans in northern soul, disco and prog circles.

Without Cohns original story, its quite possible that disco would have remained an underground phenomenon Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night paints a scene in full flower. Saturday Night Fever would eventually, if unintentionally, wreck the underground nature of this scene, and clubs like Studio 54 would destroy the democracy of the party, but for two or three years the scene was largely undocumented and magical. This album is the sound of disco before it was captured.

Tracklist:

Side A
01. Helplessly – Moment Of Truth
02. After You’ve Had Your Fling – The Intrepids
03. Welcome To The Club – Blue Magic
04. I Can’t Move No Mountains – Margie Joseph
05. Supernatural Thing Part 1 – Ben E King

Side B
1. Mellow Me – Faith, Hope & Charity
2. Georgia’s After Hours – Richard “Popcorn” Wylie
3. Date With The Rain – Eddie Kendricks
4. Just As Long As We’re Together – Gloria Scott
5. Wendy Is Gone – Ronnie McNeir
6. Got To Get You Back – Sons Of Robin Stone

Side C
1. Night Of The Wolf (Tema Del Lupo) – Ivano Fossati
2. Good Things Don’t Last Forever – Ecstasy, Passion & Pain
3. Tell Me What You Want – Jimmy Ruffin
4. Keep It Up – Betty Everett
5. Free & Easy – Satyr
6. Each Morning I Wake Up – Major Harris

Side D
1. It’s The Same Old Story – Act I
2. You Can’t Hide Love – Creative Source
3. The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy – John Gary Williams
4. If That’s The Way You Feel – White Heat
5. Wake Up Everybody – Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes