KC And The Sunshine Band* – The Best Of KC And The Sunshine Band

Drop your pretenses children, the night’s young, the city lights are bright, and if you wanna feel the beat of the street, just slide into a silk shirt, your platform skywalkers, drop a Quaalude, and toss all of your cares to the wind.

Yes, you can certainly say that the disco genre sucks, and most of it did, the lyrics were certainly shallow and self indulgent, but the history of the beat is rich, reaching back into the past, splintering the stage at Woodstock with Sly & The Family Stone, and another ten years into the future, where the likes of Shriekback covered “Get Down Tonight,” and created a host of others on Go Bang.

There was a huge backlash to disco, music that was both dangerous and liberating, you may have even been at a record burning back in the day, but there’s no way you can tell me that when a track like “That’s The Way I Like It” flows from your car stereo, you don’t sit a bit lower in the seat, your fingers itching to change the station, but you don’t, it’s just one song, and as your head bobs to the beat at a stoplight, windows rolled down, and the girl in the car opposite you smiles, you know you’ve made the right choice.

KC & The Sunshine Band created some infectious grooves, proving that there’s a world of difference between funky soul, and the so called commercial nonsense that was all too front and center during those days. Listen, people burned themselves out in the 60’s, both with heavy drugs and protests, actions that didn’t save the world. Then there was the overly laid back wasted early 70’s, where artists could care less if you were in the audience, full of themselves, playing with their backs to the crowd, and so ragged looking that many artists appeared to be little more than street people. And those public radio darlings such as Jackson Brown, who actually said, ”There’s no rule that I have to end the show on an up-note is there?” Of course not Jackson, your whole show was a bummer, your whole life’s been a bummer, so there’s no need to give us something to delight the evening and leave us smiling. But KC & The Sunshine Band delighted in presenting a flashing show of colour and light, filled with songs that put a bounce in your step, and opened the doors for the Manchester scene ... because, with all things being equal, people wanna have a good time, feel connected, and embrace the sky.

And that leaves me here, holding KC’s Best Of, agreeing with you that all of their songs are not first rate, but on this disc ... they are. If you don’t agree with me, that's fine, but there’s not only a passion for disco, but in disco ... especially this funky, soulful, driving, rhythmic music ... that for an all too brief moment, held sway over the world.

Review by Jenell Kesler