Someone has left my cake out in the rain, because Donna Summer is no longer with us. She worked hard for that money! So hard for it, honey. Sorry – I’m typing these as fast as I can before everyone else gets as cheesy. Donna passed away at age 63 in Florida while battling cancer.
Summers (along with her famous producer Giorgio Moroder) crafted some of the most influential music of the 1970s. Momma was a PIONEER when it came to dance music and R&B. I am not a Rolling Stone music critic, so I can not describe her range or anything boring like that. I can tell you that I am not old enough to have been around when she was dropping “Bad Girls”, “Hot Stuff”, “I Feel Love” and the like, but I know these are mainstays for a reason. Oh shit – “Last Dance”!
Her accomplishments (via Wikipedia) include being “a five-time Grammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the US Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a thirteen-month period.” DAMN!
Obviously, dance music and gays in the 70s were strongly identified with each other, so Donna was queen. Until she took some guff in the 80s when some stories dropped that quoted her saying some negative things about gays in relation to AIDS. Which was ridic because that’s about 3/4 of her damn audience! Donna later issued an apology via ACT UP saying it was a “terrible misunderstanding”. Make of that what you will. Everybody makes mistakes. She paid, because you didn’t see her on the charts much after that. However – she did sue The New York Times successfully for slander and donated to a bunch of AIDS charities so make of it what you will!
Nevertheless, she was one of the greats and it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to her.
Check out some of Donna’s songs and videos after the break. If you were into her, let us know what your favorite Donna Summer song is!
– J. Harvey
She is in MacArthur Park now. God bless her She feels His love now
I Fell Love, for sure, was her best, though she had a huge career she could be proud of.
An amazing artist, I’m young but I still wore her music out!
“I Feel Love” is quite simply the foundation of modern day dance music.
Descanse en paz, marcó toda una época en la historia de la música disco y fue una de las artistas preferidas por la comunidad gay.
I loove “She Works Hard For The Money..”
Being young is not an excuse,im 22 and im pretty sure everyone in this world knows her..!
It is shuch a shame..Im pretty sure she loved gay ppl..I mean,as far as i know she was a supporter..”Anything bored” like her range and all that,honey,ranges,position of the voices etc are not boring..She had a huuge vocal range (about 4 octaves) and a magical register to sing her super high chest notes..!
Anywayz..
RIP our beloved Donna Summer..!
)=
Good night God bless Donna. I became a fan after Love’s Unkind and have loved you ever since. The world will never be the same without your beauty.
Now I Need You from Once Upon A Time album has to be up there as one of Donna’s finest.
Her “McArthur park Suite” is IMHO the best piece of dance music ever recorded.
Absolutely tragic, another icon is gone.
RIP Donna like Whitney a beautiful voice gone way 2 soon
This was a devestating loss to the music industry, and the world as a whole. I’ve always loved Donna, as so many have. Rest in peace. Your musical legacy will live on and you will not be forgotten.
That should have been R.I.P ….. BTW J.Harvey I do not think I can pick a favorite Donna Summer song after all there where so many . However if I had to chose LAST DANCE certainly would be one of them and THANK YOU J.Harvey for the trip down memory lane !!
She was the music of my youth and the heartbeat of my love! Her voice and lyrics will live as classics for ever! I hope she now enjoys some peace after some tough battles in her life! She was courageous, honest and inspiring!
Moroder and her together were amazing…he was the Spector of his time, what he did to dance music, Chic and Prince later did. As for her, she was a singer. The ”””””’MissUnderstanding”””” was booed and people left her pathetic show in AC when she said the ‘Adam and Steve’ ”’joke”-since I was covering the show I was forced to suffer the indignity of having to listen to ”Don’t cry for me Argentina” on a set a JR High School student must have made–then she apologized for her laryngitis after not being able to hit the notes . Her apology (in 12” discs to DJs) didn’t do squat to bring back those of us who had friends dying left and right and have someone we made into a star spit on us with her joke. I’m all forgiving, I just never played her music in my clubs ever again. Sorry you had cancer sweetie, so did a lot of my friends- and they died miserable deaths at the time…maybe you’re hanging out with Adam and Steve after all,, all I can wish you is an eternity of people not judging you the way you did in this realm. Peace out girl.
Love me some “Love To Love You Baby”; R I P Donna Summer.
Long before I knew I was gay, I loved Donna Summer… (and Judy Garland and Chaka Khan etc).
She was an amazing, unique, powerful performer.
State of Independence” would have to be my fave… I was there for the whole beginning of clubs n disco. “I Feel Love” is the standard most disco music wishes it was… AND her duet with Barbra “Enough is Enough” great music!!
Thank You Donna Summers for all the love, and allowing me to dance my ass off to your songs. You will be missed in our community greatly
Now I will never know why the cake was left out in the rain!
Please listen to State of Independence. Amazing song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePwKX94NM4
I’m listening to the 18 minute version of MacArthur Park Suite with tears in my eyes. I’m old enough that I can remember going to “discos” and dancing to her music, and her passing is the end of an era. Its a damned shame they didn’t put her in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while she was still alive — she meant a hell of a lot more to music than Guns and Roses ever did….
so true its a tie between the 12 minute combo of hot stuff/badgirls or macarthur park suite which is 17 minutes of pure bliss starts with macarthur park and ends with heaven knows truly amazing
I would think On the Radio is my fave, but I always loved Down Deep Inside, the much overlooked theme to The Deep. What a great loss.
When I was 5 years old, my aunt who was only 18 herself at the time would play Donna’s signature LP “On the Radio” in its entirety as loudly as possible while we cleaned my grandparents home and belted out the hits right along with her. She called it “Donna Summer Saturdays” and it remains as my first memories of my love for music.
My grandparents had a small farm at the time and my very first pet was a black rooster that I named Donna Summer. And when my grandfather asked me what I wanted to be when i grew up, without missing a beat I replied “I want to be a disco dancer!” A fact that he jokingly never let me forget.
I never became a disco dancer, and last fall grandpa passed away. And today we’ve lost an elegant icon, the voice of a decade, THEE voice of my childhood. Many of us have a singer or a band they will always remember with such affection as the ones who first showed them the beauty of the universal language that is music. For me that one is the incomparable Donna Summer and just as she sings so beautifully in this my favorite track “After all the loves in my life, you’re still the one…”so she remains for me.
This coming Saturday if you pass by my place you will undoubtedly hear the haunting strings, the infectious beats and the soaring vocals of a classy, immensely talented and truly beautiful woman. I invite everyone to do the same in their own home in a tribute to the joy of music that she gave to us right to her very end.
Thank you Ms. Summers for taking my hand and showing me the wonders of music, we truly will never have that recipe again…
So sad to hear of her passing…
I remember buying her double ALBUM “Once Upon A Time”, and playing it many times
as a young closeted gay teenager, not knowing how her rich powerful voice actually
gave me hope that someday I would leave my hometown, for college in southern
California, that opened so many doors, as well as give me a lifetime of growth.
This year it seems we have lost many greats in the music industry-
Whitney Houston, Don Cornelius and Dick Clark, along with Donna Summer
defined an era that unfortunately can’t be replaced by anyone in this generation.
It makes me long for the innocent time of my teen age years, when a Saturday
morning on tv wasn’t complete without watching “American Bandstand” and “Soul Train”.
Heaven just got another angel.
RIP Donna Summer
She was talented and her work bear witness for her talent. “The Last Dance” and “She Works Hard For A Money” are one of my favorites songs of all times.
R.I.P
I am so sad. I have the best memories of dancing at all the discos in NYC to the hot tones of such a wonderful diva. She will rest in peace in disco heaven. I will miss her so!
Justin, I read your comment last night and I woke up this morning with it still in my thoughts, but before I go any further I do want to say that I understand the issue you took with her over that joke and I respect your opinions on this its just you made a comment that is troubling me. You state “Im all forgiving”, and yet the tone of most of your post really seems to be at odds with that. To forgive mean to cease to feel resentment of, or in laymen’s terms what many would call “letting go” By choosing to never play her music again in clubs based on your issue with that moment arent you still holding her accountable for it? That is your prerogative to do so, but it negates the “all forgiving” claim you make. One could say its semantics, but I think what I found difficult is that your post reads mostly like a cliff notes account or abridged retelling of one rare and somewhat uncharacteristically dark blemish in the life of a person whose overall contributions to society and culture, not to mention the countless number of smiles around the world she was the cause of, is overwhelmingly considered by most to be far greater the good, than not. The comment is peppered with words and phrases that all have negativity attached to them – “pathetic, never, miserable, forced to suffer the indignation, didn’t do squat, spit on us, sorry you had cancer sweetie(every gay knows exactly how that is being meant in a way that is far too brutally honest to contain any empathy). If that’s forgiveness, I would be rather terrified of what you consider appropriate conduct when you have bitterness toward someone. I’m not even trying to say its wrong not to forgive her, I personally believe she’s human and made a very bad error in judgement that day, who among us havent said something in their lives they wished they hadnt? Fortunately most of us dont have captive audiences and press and microphones recording us when we did. Its not an excuse but it does bear some relevance in the context of it all. In the end I just dont think its very respectful of someone to to the memory of someone else to bring up the subject of a rarified mistake they made especially on the day they passed away to those who are obviously grieving the loss. I;m sorry for the friends you lost and in such a tragic manner, But perhaps for the time being we can bury that joke and that moment and its insensitivity along with her and try to focus on all the gifts she gave the world instead? Wishing you peace and happiness Justin always…
theese sons remind me of my gimmick days at the disco. thank you very much Ms Donna Summer you were4 such an inspiration for all of us. We love you.May God Bless and Keep you in in kingdom up above. Good bye my Song Diva.
RIP MY QUEEN