The actual story of disco, however, is more complex, beginning with the fascinating micro-diversity of its regional sounds and scenes. But it’s still a sonic monolith, a brief streak of mirrorball joy before they put everyone in neckties or on the dole. Shorthand for naughty dancefloor decadence pleasantly repackaged as nostalgia, disco has managed to shed much of its corny reputation. To many other listeners, disco has become a shimmering algorithm of sleek production and instantly recognisable hooks - endlessly sampled, retouched, remixed and edited to cast a beam of golden warmth on any party, wedding or household chore. In recent years, as DJs and dancers are more visibly celebrating the Black, queer roots of dance music, the outspoken, unabashedly gay Sylvester has risen to deity level - the falsetto-voiced Queen of Disco whose hits ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’, ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’, and ‘Do You Wanna Funk?’ have powered the LGBTQ community through triumph and heartbreak, and testified to the connection between disco’s rapturous hedonism and the Black gospel music of Sylvester’s youth. To save San Francisco disco, it takes a village, people.
It changed the course of electronic dance music - then was wiped out by a deluge of death.Ĭan the sounds and spirit of this essential scene be captured, before they fade away forever? Joining the archives in the effort is a new book documenting the history of San Francisco disco called Menergy, an online archive of DJ sets from the San Francisco Disco Preservation Society, a steady stream of previously unavailable music released by the Dark Entries label and a host of faithfully retro parties. Sylvester’s musical story frames a wild, liberating, eventually tragic but ultimately inspiring period in gay history one which unfolded on San Francisco’s dancefloors, amid the ecstatic jangle of tambourines and the whoosh and clack of hand- painted fans. Dedicated preservationists have catalogued and stored LGBTQ community artefacts since 1985, when the Historical Society was formed to save the belongings of people killed by AIDS from the trash heap. Sylvester’s effects are part of a growing disco collection at the archives. Also secured for future generations of disco pilgrims are his hair-pins, brooches, earrings, sequinned stage costumes and, touchingly, a mounted collection of exquisite satin gloves, which of course the diva framed himself.
Items inside the crate, recently transferred from his estate into the archives’ professional hands, include his gold records, industry awards, concert flyers, photographs and newspaper clippings. It contains the personal effects of Sylvester, the Black, gender-defying performer who started out as a countercultural star in the early 1970s and rose to become a global disco icon, before passing away from AIDS in 1988. Since 1981, 243 people in San Francisco have died from AIDS.Deep in the vaults of the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society and Museum Archives, a modest wooden crate glows with the importance of a sacred reliquary.
If the order is not appealed, the case will proceed to a trial in the city's attempt to win permanent closure of the clubs until the AIDS spread is stopped. It is believed AIDS is transmitted by the exchange of body fluids such as blood or semen and that homosexual males with a high number of sexual partners run a much greater risk of contracting AIDS than the general population. Silverman ordered the bathhouses, sex clubs, homosexual theaters and bookstores closed in an effort to stop what the city termed the 'rampant epidemic' of AIDS among San Francisco's homosexual men.Ī city investigation reported in graphic detail the extensive and anonymous sexual contacts between men with numerous partners at the clubs. They argue the closure violated constitutional privacy and property rights. The businesses have been fighting the temporary closure ordered Oct.
The businesses also have to remove doors to video cubicles and private booths and club operators will have to educate patrons about the dangers of AIDS by posting the judge's order.