Read Online Love the One You're With by James Earl Hardy - Free Book Online

folk) were doing that white-boy shuffle: moving and clapping off beat, some so erratically you’d think they were on drugs (they probably were; the only way some folks can listen to disco is if they are fucked up).
    We got our complimentary drinks and stood directly below the deejay booth. We were hoping our distaste for the selections would be felt by her and the music would get better. It didn’t. The Bee Gees were followed by Leo Sayer (“You Make Me Feel Like Dancin’”), Leif Garrett (“I Was Made for Dancin’”), Rod Stewart (“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”), and, the ultimate horror of horrors, Rick Dees (“Disco Duck”). If this is the music that people define disco by, it’s no wonder there were well-publicized and well-attended events where stacks of disco records were demolished and/or torched (hell, I would’ve volunteered to drive the bulldozer or start the fire). It was odd that we hadn’t heard any Black female artists; Diana’s “Love Hangover,” Thelma’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” Gloria’s “I Will Survive,” and almost anything by Donna are staples at white gay clubs. Whether these ladies were already played or coming up next, we didn’t plan on sticking around to find out: as Cher began pleading “Take Me Home,” we made our exit.
    The best things in life aren’t always free.
    Three dollars is all the folks who put on Body & Soul charge and it’s a criminally low sum to pay for the very jood time you know you’ll have. Frankie Knuckles, undoubtedly the greatest deejay and mix master ever, was on the turntables this eve, so we knew he’d be crankin’ out those classics nonstop (jood thing I wore my dancin’ shoes: a pair of black Rockports that are also great for walking). We arrived just as the horn-howling intro to the “let’s get this party started right ” tune blared: Cheryl Lynn’s “Got to Be Real.” Frankie continued on a Disco Diva run: Evelyn “Champagne” King (“Shame”), Aimee Stewart (“Knock on Wood”), Anita Ward (“Ring My Bell”), Miss Ross (“The Boss”), Karen Young (“Hot Shot”), Candi Staton (“When You Wake Up Tomorrow”), and Taana Gardner (“Heartbeat”). And, as it always does, Patti’s “Music …” caused Gene to go into a trance, his body jerking as if he were having a seizure. By the end of the song I was rocking him like a baby, as he sobbed. But he did a three-sixty on Loleatta Holloway’s “Hit & Run” (unlike Loleatta, Gene believes in stickin’ but not stayin’).
    Then Frankie proved the beat did go on when the eighties rolled in, serving us treats like Atlantic Starr’s “Circles,” Two Tons O’ Fun’s “Just Us,” Womack & Womack’s “Baby I’m Scared of You,” Denroy Morgan’s “I’ll Do Anything for You,” Teena Marie’s “Square Biz,” Fonda Rae’s “Over Like a Fat Rat,” Gwen Guthrie’s “Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On but the Rent,” Imagination’s “Just an Illusion,” Young & Company’s “I Like What You’re Doing to Me,” Indeep’s “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life,” Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots,” D-Train’s remake of “Walk On By,” and back-to-back jams from Alicia Myers: “You Get the Best from Me (Say, Say, Say)” and “I Want to Thank You,” which everyone sang—including Gene, who is an atheist (that dance floor can take you places you wouldn’t normally go, but the conviction with which he recites those lyrics makes me wonder if he’s a closet Christian). When Alicia repeated the song’s verse a second time, Frankie cut the music as we swayed to our own voices and drummed the beat with our feet.