A Certified Freak
As many of you know, I am a disco diva. I was raised by a mom who loved to jitterbug and taught me how to shimmy my way across a dance floor. Consequently, I was well-prepared when the disco craze of the ’70s hit the social scene.
I frequented a club in the San Fernando Valley called The Sugar Shack, which catered to the under 21 crowd. The music was wonderful and nearly every Friday and Saturday night I could be found there dancing the night away to the likes of Donna Summer and the Bee Gees.
As I grew older disco nights faded away but my love for music didn’t decline and instead expanded. A few years ago my second son, Matt, introduced me to what has become one of my all-time favorite bands, the Foo Fighters.
The Foo Fighters have a storied history; its leader Dave Grohl (who has been referred to as one of the nicest guys in the music world) was drummer for the rock band Nirvana, which hit the music scene hard in the early ’90s. The future of the band members was in question following the 1994 suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Drummer Grohl locked himself away, emerging some time later with the tracks to his new band’s debut album, Foo Fighters. (As an aside, the songs still hold up some 26 years after being released.)
Matt played some of the music and videos of the Foo Fighters and I was hooked. The playful videos that were paired with the rock music were very entertaining and even now I will look them up on YouTube to lighten my mood.
I’ve followed the Foo Fighters to some obscure places including the parking lot of the Hollywood Palladium where they played and in 2015 to the Castaic Lake State Recreation Area where they performed in support of the Wounded Warrior Project. I now look forward to seeing them in a “real” concert venue; Steve bought me tickets to the Forum for their rescheduled concert being held on Aug. 26.
But my love for disco never completely waned. I’m happy to report that it is once again alive courtesy of my beloved Foo Fighters. “Hail Satin,” recently released by the Foo Fighters under the name of Dee Gees (a play on the name of disco favorite Bee Gees), features covers of five disco songs on its A-side (four by the Bee Gees and one from their Bee Gees brother Andy Gibb). The flip side features live performances of five songs from the most recently released Foo Fighters album “Medicine at Midnight.”
I watched the video while listening to “You Should Be Dancing” by the Foo Fighters with Grohl on the mic. Along with being oh-so-much fun, I was amazed he could hit those high notes that Bee Gees lead singer Barry Gibb is known for. Congrats, Dave Grohl.
I think I am now a certified Foo Freak – with definite disco undertones.