Donna Summer - State of Independence

[VoR]

A passing mention of this in @funky 's 90s thread has reminded me how much I love this.

Originating as a Vangelis song, it's really a testament to Donna's power as a vocalist, because the original is a right load of old toot. Apparently the lyrics were improvised on the spot, and boy can you tell. Donna's extended album version retains the rather PROBLEMATIC "Siamese, if you please" bit, which is thankfully excised from the single edit.

Her version was a ludicrously expensive Quincy Jones production featuring Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and Dionne Warwick on backing vocals, among others. (As lovely as the BVs are, you can't really tell any of them are there so I'm not sure it was really worth the effort, but whatever)

Anyway, for whatever reason Donna really manages to SELL IT, especially the second half when it goes all spiritual.

It was a chart disappointment in the US, stalling at #41, but it went to #14 in the UK, and a slightly ropey remix went one place higher in 1996.

The original (radio edit) version is best though.

TERRIBLE VIDEO ALERT

 

[Lonely Sardophony (We Will Be Free)]

I love 98% of Donna's stuff but I've never gotten on board with this one, in either original or remixed form, & I have tried. It's MAWKISH & I don't like the backing track either.

 

[funky]

I have no idea which version I’m voting for but the version in my head is really good

Still prefer the Chrissy Hynde version though

I mean objectively I can appreciate that Donna’s version is a better production and I love all the pomp and overblown production, but there’s something about that Moodswings/Chrissy version that just works for me…

 

[Joseph]

Solid 7

 

[Say Sheena-na-na]

I adore it. Overblown nonsense.

But she was at the start of the era where she couldn’t really get a hit in the US (bar She Works Hard For The Money a year or so later). The disco backlash hit her hard and she was very out of favour on US radio.

It’s a shame, as the Donna Summer album is great on the whole. Famously thrown at Quincy to save her career after her record label were disappointed with the previous album The Wanderer and rejected the Moroder/ Bellotte- helmed project that came to be known as I’m A Rainbow.

 

[Shoat]

It's wonderful incoherent SILLINESS and I adore it

Also a lot of time for the covers from Chrissie Hynde (who understood it was CRYING OUT for new age treatment) and Andrea Corr (who sounds more invested than in her own songs)

 

[Say Sheena-na-na]

And in quite coincidental timing:

 

[FetchFugly]

I enjoy it as a different mood from Donna but I definitely prefer Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger).

 

[Shirley]

ShablamaDI, shablamaDA