Peter Shapiro: Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco

Peter Shapiro is a regular Wire magazine contributor, particularly on US House and Techno and this book had long appealed, but I borrowed it from the library on a whim after enjoying Simon Reynold's Retromania so much and wanting to return to music writing. Turn the Beat Around doesn't disappoint either, offering a fascinating 'secret' history of what the publishers describe as a much maligned genre, but from where I sit nowadays that's hardly the current perception.

Interesting was Shapiro's analyses of disco's early beginnings in German youth rebelling against the conformity of Nazi Youth, then through Parisian post-war underground clubs then onto gay New York. The image of Bette Midler singing while a semi-clad Barry Manilow tickled the ivories in an underground spa was wonderful, and hedonistic anecdotes of crazed activities in clubs, discos and makeshift venues of all stripes abound. Shapiro too is great on the music, and I'll xerox the extensive discography before I return it to the library, falling apart and missing pages.

I've started listening to the Disco Discharge series of compilations through Strut and they're wonderful. There's around 25 hours of material on the three sets of series so a lot to wade through.