https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYkACVDFmeg
I don't entirely get disco, it seems. It's certainly not that I'm against it: there will be four disco songs on the countdown. That said, all of them were massive hits and obvious choices. (I also considered "In the Navy", although it wouldn't have been the radio version: it would have been the one from the Muppet Show sung on a coastal village raid by Viking pigs.) Chuck Eddy has argued that disco succeeded in achieving progressive rock's goals -- of bringing together unlike forms of music from across the world -- far beyond prog's own powers, and I find it plausible that he might be right. You'd have to link me favorite examples in the Comments, though, because most of the disco songs I've heard *other* than those mega-hits strike me as bland.
"I Will Survive", though, works, and it's definitely eclectic.
It starts as a lovely, contemplative jazz ballad ("At first, I was afraid, I was petrified/ thinking I couldn't live without you by my side"); but after 20 seconds, the self-assertion kicks in, and so, quite logically, does the dancing: a direct descendant of funk, but able to incorporate classical strings here and there, and a few pretty washes of synthesizer.
The lyrics aren't overtly clever, and you've probably worked out that I *like* overt cleverness, but overt cleverness most often comes from a certain peace and remove: it's a form of play. "I Will Survive" communicates well and scans well, and that's achievement enough for times of emotional stress. "Now you're back from outer space/ and I find you here with that sad look upon your face/ I should have changed that stupid lock, or made you leave your key/ if I'd known for just one second you'd be back to bother me": my self-coaching isn't that catchy. I was going to say "and it doesn't need to be", but maybe it does; who knows what achievements I'd unlock if I'd rhyme like that on all occasions?
"I Will Survive" was written by a couple dudes named Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris, and it's proven its adaptability. Cake's version is deliberately awkward: John McCrea and band had proven their sense of groove elsewhere, so his stiff slippages behind the beat imbue the song with a realistic tremor of failed conviction. My high school friend Angi led the band Profusion (later in this countdown) during a rough divorce, and sang/ played keyboards for a rocking live version in which she dressed in tight leotard and demonstrated, hopefully to her own satisfaction, that she would have no trouble attracting better alternatives. (Which indeed she soon did.)
Strength and recovery, then, come in many forms. But endorphin highs and self-help mantras apply to a lot of them. Gloria Gaynor's version is the best known, and I tend to assume because she's got one heck of a good singing voice: potent, tuneful, and in this case dripping with scorn. Her version is convincing. We all have times where we can stand to be convinced.
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