Top Gun

Something great! I just watched an awesome video interview of Giovanni Giorgio Moroder, the legend of disco that we all should know more about if we are going to be up all night at the club trying to ‘get lucky’. He is apparently THE legend of disco (and also touted in the video I saw as ‘one of the creators of electronic music’), but my generation probably would know him best by his contribution to the film, TOP GUN, as he composed the hit song by Berlin, “Take My Breath Away”. But…he also composed the classic song by Irene Cara, “Flashdance (What a Feeling)”, to give you an idea of the caliber of Moroder’s clout in the disco world. The newest auditory contribution Moroder has made is another interview he did with Daft Punk, which they have integrated into their song titled, “Giorgio by Moroder”. This track is a true gem, and can be found on Daft Punk’s recently released album titled, “Random Access Memories”.

Moroder

This song, “Giorgio by Moroder”, an impressive blend of Moroder talking about his life and his beginning in music, is intermingled with incredible disco, which progresses into some of the best beats I’ve heard all year, and then culminates into amazing futuristic rock. The song is also extremely excellent as far as it’s story-telling capabilities (there are many levels here, we have Moroder telling his story, whilst Daft Punk tells their story through music in response to his comments). And the whole time Daft Punk manages to keep the entire piece very engaging, it is almost like an ‘audio documentary’ of sorts mixed in with some of the best modern beats, which is why these guys remain one of the greatest modern DJ groups! I think this is my favorite song now. If you haven’t heard it yet you should definitely check it out! Here is a link if you want to listen to it on YouTube:

The thing I love about “Giorgio by Moroder” is how it reveals that what Moroder was composing early on was so ground breaking for his time. He wanted to put the sound of the future into his music while still preserving sounds of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Then he brought synthesizer and clicking noises to the music as well to give us the beginning of the modern club music that we have today. There is an AWESOME quote embedded in the song: “Once you free your mind about a concept of harmony and of music being correct, you can do whatever you want. So no one told me what to do, and there was no preconception of what to do…” This song is an inspiration to me because it says: Once you free your mind about a concept…of being correct, you can do whatever you want!