Author: DjPaulT

June 28, 2023

Sylvester with Patrick Cowley – Do Ya Wanna Funk/Mind warp (Japan 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1983

Patrick Cowley was one of disco’s most mysterious figures.

His life was cut short in 1982 when he died of Aids at age 32. He was a key presence in the gay San Francisco disco scene; in the 1970s and early 1980s, when the city had one of the best disco scenes in the world.

Sylvester was San Francisco’s biggest star and Cowley’s muse – a larger-than-life presence around town, dressed to the nines and often carrying multiple shopping bags as he walked down Castro Street. Cowley most famously worked with Sylvester on the ecstatic mega-hit You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) and was a pioneer of the genre known as Hi-NRG, a relentlessly uptempo variant of disco that gained serious traction, especially in the UK and Europe.

Cowley was a good deal quieter than Sylvester, and more of a tech boffin, experimenting with music in an apartment in the Castro crammed with electronics, with cables hanging everywhere. “It was a mess of wires,” recalls John Hedges, who ran Megatone Records for many years, the now-legendary record label that Cowley originally started with Marty Blecman in the 1970s.

“It certainly didn’t look very safe,” he adds. “He was always experimenting to get the sounds. They would wire everything in and have tape machines, and the tape would go from one tape machine to another about 10 feet away to create the echo they wanted, or delay.”

Sylvester known as “The Queen Of Disco” died six years after Cowley, of Aids-related complications in 1988. Patrick Cowley and Sylvester were iconic trailblazers not just for queer and androgynous people, but for disco music as a whole, overcoming trauma, prejudice, and stigma to achieve their dreams.

“Do Ya Wanna Funk” is a 1982 dance song recorded by American recording artists Sylvester and Patrick Cowley. It was produced by Cowley, who incidentally died the same year. The song was most successful in Europe, especially in Belgium, Finland, and Norway, where it became a top-10 hit. It also reached the top 20 in the Netherlands and Switzerland and made it to the top 30 in West Germany and Australia, and the top 40 in the United Kingdom. The song was inspired by “I’m Your Jeanie”, a single by Jeanie Tracy, who was a background vocalist for Sylvester. It was also featured in the film Trading Places (1983). In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked “Do Ya Wanna Funk” number 179 in their list of 200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time.

“Mind Warp” was the title track from Patrick Cowley’s third and final album.

SIDE A:
Do Ya Wanna Funk (Long Version) 6:57
Performer – Sylvester With Patrick Cowley
Vocals – Sylvester
Written-By – Patrick Cowley, Sylvester

SIDE B:
Mind Warp (Long Version) 6:36
Performer – Patrick Cowley
Vocals – Patrick Cowley
Written-By – Patrick Cowley

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
OBI Strip: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1982	Do Ya wanna Funk	U.S. Billboard Hot Dance/Disco songs	#4

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Victor – VIL-1002
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM, Maxi-Single
Country: Japan
Released: 1983
Genre: Electronic
Style: Hi-NRG

CREDITS:

Producer – Patrick Cowley

NOTES:
Comes with an OBI strip

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus: Ortofon 2M Black PnP MkII
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro Spin Acrylic Mat
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
Tubes: Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube – Matched Pair
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

June 27, 2023

Paul Lekakis – Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room) (Champion Remix) (UK 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1987

NEW 2023 Transfer
NEW Meticulous Audio Restoration

Originally posted July 13, 2015

A pretty face won’t get you everywhere… but it got you pretty damn far in the ’80s.

And it certainly helped gay musician Paul Lekakis, who went from upstate New York waiter, to model and professional party boy in Milan, to international pop star in 1987 with a little bop called “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room.)”

The song will certainly resonate with those who survived its ’80s dance-floor domination… and anyone who’s attended a Pride party in the past five years.

Lekakis, who is HIV-positive, appeared on the cover of Poz magazine. In the article, he recalls major record labels wanting to market him as a teen idol in the 1980s, which did not interest the already out young singer.

“Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room)” is the debut single by American singer and model Paul Lekakis.

Originally released in 1987 on ZYX Records, then picked up by Polydor Records for a wider release, the song peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. and at #60 on the UK Singles Chart in England. It fared better in other parts of the world, where the song spent five weeks at #1 on the ARIA Charts in Australia, from April 13 through May 11 of 1987. It also topped music charts in Japan and South Africa and peaked at #2 in Canada. The song is noteworthy because it is a well-known 1980s dance club track that nonetheless failed to appear on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart upon its initial release. Subsequent remixes have appeared on that chart, however, as well as some of Lekakis’ other dance recordings. The song was popular in the LGBT community and helped to establish his career, both as a singer and as an actor.

Several remixes were commissioned for the track including the rare UK-only Champion Remix by mixmaster Phil Harding of PWL released on Champion Records a London-based major long-running soul, dance, and house music label.

SIDE A:
Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room) (A Phil Harding Remix) 6:40

SIDE B:
Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room) (A Phil Harding Dub Remix) 5:44

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1987	Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#43

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Champion – CHAMPX 12-43
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 1987
Genre: Electronic
Style: Hi-NRG

CREDITS:

Producer – M. Chieregato*, R. Turatti*
Remix – Mixmaster Phil Harding*
Written-By – M. Chieregato*, R. Ballerini*, R. Turatti*, S. Montini*, T. Hooker*

NOTES:
Tracks are listed incorrectly on the back cover.

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

June 26, 2023

Modern Rocketry – Homosexuality (Germany 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1985

TOTALLY OBSCURE 80S!

Modern Rocketry was a hi-NRG disco band featuring Ken Kessie, active from 1983 to 1988. They’re not very well known – in fact, they’re downright obscure – but what little fame they enjoyed was probably due to their 1985 release, best described as the gayest disco song ever. Homosexuality, with its b-side of ‘Thank God For Men’, followed in the well-trodden footsteps of Patrick Cowley’s Menergy and Boystown Gang’s ‘Cruising In The Streets’ with massive gay audience appeal. A hit in gay clubland.

Other notable songs include ‘(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone’ and ‘Deeper N Deeper’, none of which, it has to be said, has quite the show-stopping charm of a song whose main chorus is ‘Homosexuality… Yes sir! Do you wanna get next to me?’. Oh, and the Pet Shop Boys did a live cover of it at a pride event in 1992.

Check out the music video here

SIDE A:
Homosexuality 5:59

SIDE B:
Thank God For Men 5:37

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label:ZYX Records – ZYX 5311, ZYX Records – ZYX REC 5311
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: Germany
Released: 1985
Genre: Electronic
Style: Hi NRG

CREDITS:

Lacquer Cut By – SST (8)
Producer, Written-By – Ken Kessie, Morey Goldstein

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

June 23, 2023

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – In The Pleasuredome (UK Cassette)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1985

Pride month would not be complete without including Frankie Goes To Hollywood known for their leather-clad homoerotic videos and suggestive lyrics. Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ambitious work sought to challenge the status quo of pop, and politics. they were true trailblazers.

“Welcome to the Pleasuredome” is the title track to the 1984 debut album by British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The lyrics of the song were inspired by the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In March 1985, the album track was abridged and remixed for release as the group’s fourth UK single.

While criticized at the time of release and afterward for being a song that glorifies debauchery, the lyrics (and video), just as Coleridge’s poem, were about the dangers of mindless indulgence. This song, along with “Relax”, made Frankie Goes to Hollywood even more controversial than they already were.

Billboard compared it to “Relax,” saying that “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” had “less hook, less controversy, more drama.”

Despite the group’s record label (ZTT) pre-emptively promoting the single as “their fourth number one”, an achievement that would have set a new UK record for consecutive number one singles by a debuting artist, “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, being kept off the top spot by the Phil Collins/Philip Bailey duet “Easy Lover”. The single spent a total of eleven weeks on the UK chart.

It was the first release by the group not to reach number one and, despite representing a creditable success in its own right, it symbolically confirmed the end of the chart invincibility that the group had enjoyed during 1984. Frankie Goes to Hollywood would not release another record for seventeen months, and they would fail to emulate their past chart success upon their return.

The spoken-word introductions to both 12-inch mixes are adapted from Walter Kaufmann’s 1967 translation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. The recitation on the first 12-inch (“Real Altered”) is by Gary Taylor, whilst that on the second 12-inch (“Fruitness”) and the cassette is by actor Geoffrey Palmer. It is unknown whether Palmer’s conclusion “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” was a genuine mistake or a deliberately scripted one.

All releases featured an edited version of “Get It On”, originally recorded for a BBC Radio 1 session in 1983 (a full-length version was included on the cassette release), plus a faded or full-length version of “Happy Hi!”, a non-album track.

The video, by Bernard Rose, features the group stealing a car, going to a carnival, and encountering all manner of deceptively “pleasurable” activities. The audio soundtrack of the video was included as part of the cassette single.

ABOUT THE TRANSFER

On the cassette “Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (The Soundtrack From Bernard Rose’s Video)”, and “Get It On” are sequenced into one track to preserve the integrity of the original cassette release I chose not to split the tracks. DOLBY NR was used for this transfer.

All In The Body
Happy Hi! 1:22
Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (The Soundtrack From Bernard Rose’s Video)/Get It On 9:48

All In The Mind
Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (How To Remake The World) 9:32
Happy Hi 1:12

CASSETTE GRADE:
Cassette: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1985	Welcome To The Pleasuredome	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#48
1985	Welcome To The Pleasuredome	U.S. Billboard Dance Club Songs	#31

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: ZTT – CTIS 107
Series: Action Series – 7, Incidental Series – 95
Format: Cassette, Single
Country: UK
Released: Mar 18, 1985
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:

Compiled By – Sunday Morning Broken Spirits*
Composed By – Nash* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5), Johnson* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5), Bolan* (tracks: A3, B3), O’Toole* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5), Gill* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5)
Design [Cassette Packaged By] – XLZTT
Performer – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Photography By – Anton Corbijn
Producer – Dale Griffin (tracks: A3, B3), T. C. Horn* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5)
Producer [Assisted By] – S. J. Lipson* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5)
Voice Actor [Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Played By…] – Geoffrey Palmer

NOTES:
Plays the same tracks on both sides. Issued as a grey cassette with white text on black paper labels. On some copies, it is apparent that there is red/pink print directly on the cassette under the paper labels.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood in the Pleasure Dome, a two-part cassette celebration of their fourth number one. There is, unquestionably, a stringent honesty in all this – but can it be carried too far? Ask your friends.

This singlette is number ninety-five in the imperfect Incidental Series. It is also part of number seven in Zang Tuum Tum’s professional Action Series. Fans of Frankie Goes To Hollywood must also know it is all part of Number One in Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s 1985 Escape Act… ‘from the wasteland to the artificial paradise.’

Friedrich Nietzsche appears as “Friedich Wilhelm Nietzsche” on release

Dolby System

Buy the Cassette at DISCOGS

CASSETTE TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
Cassette Deck: Nakamichi BX-300 Discrete 3-Head Cassette Deck
DAC/Phono Pre-amp Line In Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
Cassette transfer was recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.