Disco 84 - Laura Branigan
No. 2 in my series of musical memberberries from my childhood. I just realised that the subject of my previous post had died some time ago and so it is for this post. My third post will once again feature a dead celebrity. I'd say coincidence, but at my age it shouldn't come as a surprise that people who were already 30 when I was 9 or 10, may have passed on, albeit prematurely.
Laura Branigan had her breakout hit in 1982 with "Gloria". Before I continue, I have to admit that (a) she was my boyhood crush and (b) I only like a handful of her songs. She rose quickly and within a year, for better or worse, helped to create the stereotypical Flashdance 80s sound.
She even heavily influenced a song from a later era and of a completely different genre. This was done with intent. Disco 2000, based on a song that helped signal the end of disco. Both protagonists are women with three syllable names ending in the letter a. I can't see any way how royalties were not paid.
And now for that 80s sound. I dare any soul to play me anything more 80s sounding.
I was about 12 when Spanish Eddie was released. Up until then music videos were generally dark and dramatic. Serious stuff. I also lacked pubes.
When I saw this new smiling, casual and relaxed Laura, something in me stirred for the first time.
The uploader compressed the hell out of the audio which kills the top-end sparkle of the FM synths and some other dynamics, but dear god, the bass sounds great. And every time she smiles, a part of me still goes weak.
She sadly passed away in 2004 at age 47 from a brain aneurysm.
In my subjective opinion, Self Control was her best song. It had a particularly strong power riff which would fall silent as the verse kicked in against a sonically sparse backdrop of a slow High-Energy bass-line and some minimal bell synths.
And then the chorus kicked in: "You take, you take my self-control..." Nope, not the chorus, even though I'd still love the song if that was indeed all there was to the chorus. Nope, just Verse 2.0 that's building up to the real chorus.
The real chorus kicks in with "I, I live among the creatures of the night...", a funk guitar riff and some very good synth layering. As the song prepares for it's inevitable fade-out as all radio hits used to do, the second verse is layered over the main chorus and they bring together as many elements of the song as possible.
The bridge is a gated reverb snare, taking turns with male voices chanting ohoho, ohoho. I think it was a bit of a thing around '83 and '84. Tarzan Boy comes to mind.
