I’m terribly saddened by the all-to-soon death of Donna Summer, who died today at 63. Her song, “I Feel Love”, has become one of my all-time favorites over the years. (Yeah, I’ll admit it freely.) While one could accurately say that most of my obsession with this song has to do with Giorgio Moroder’s synthesizer work, arguably this song wouldn’t have happened in the first place if she and he weren’t collaborating, and her vocal talent puts it head and shoulders above any number of other tracks of the era (or since). She was still singing, recording, and performing until recently, and it’s very sad that her life, and her stellar career, was cut short by cancer.
This old footage from Midnight Special always amuses me because what the musicians are doing has nothing at all to do with the music. However, someone has edited in some other nice footage of her, and it’s also a high-quality copy of the audio.
I miss you, Donna. I’m doing what I’m doing today in part because of what you did back in 1977. Thank you.
From the liner notes to David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision” compilation: “One day in Berlin … Eno came running in and said, ‘I have heard the sound of the future’ … he puts on ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer … He said, ‘This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years…”
And right he was. Astute guy, that Eno.