Wanna hear a disco Diamond Head song?

I swear to you this is Diamond Head. Yes, the same band that brought you "Am I Evil!" and "Lightning To The Nations." This is from their 1984 Flight East Demo which followed their disastrous Canterbury album. Did you think they would go back to their heavier material following that flop? No sir! They doubled down on their decision to go pop with tunes such as this:



No wonder MCA dropped them like a rock and no other label would sign them.

Ya know, I was in college during the heyday of the disco period (late 70s/early 80s) and got dragged to a few disco clubs during that time. Since I was a confirmed "metalhead" back then, I couldn't admit that as much as I ragged on disco and how all the songs sounded the same, there were some damn catchy tunes in that mess.

This ain't one of them. Good Lord is that terrible! If you're going to produce pop music the least you could do is have a hook somewhere. I don't hear a hook anywhere in that crap.

tohostudios wrote:

Ya know, I was in college during the heyday of the disco period (late 70s/early 80s) and got dragged to a few disco clubs during that time.  Since I was a confirmed "metalhead" back then, I couldn't admit that as much as I ragged on disco and how all the songs sounded the same, there were some damn catchy tunes in that mess.

This ain't one of them.  Good Lord is that terrible!  If you're going to produce pop music the least you could do is have a hook somewhere.  I don't hear a hook anywhere in that crap.

Such a bad song. The rest of the demo is as equally horrifying.

You know a rock band who produced a good disco song?



At the time I absolutely HATED this song. But it sure got into the disco clubs back then and got the band more exposure. In retrospect, I can appreciate what they did with this song and damned if it's not also catchy as hell.

tohostudios wrote:

You know a rock band who produced a good disco song?

Yeah!

"Back In The Powerage" - now that title makes me think that this song will be heavy. Uh, no. This makes Autograph sounds like Napalm Death:

Well at least the vocal harmonies are decent. But again where is the hook?

And the way it starts reminds me of Ace Frehley's "Back In The New York Groove" (a FAR superior song).

This thread title ... it's almost like you read my mind ....

Temple of Blood wrote:

This thread title ... it's almost like you read my mind ....

Yeah, I was going to download this at the old Hearrockcityblog about a year ago, but I thought I would listen to it first, since people were talking about how terrible it was. It truly is the biggest four year fall I've ever heard in music. It was hard to believe that this was the same band!

Just horrible. I can't think of a band that made worse decisions than these guys. (Okay maybe Metallica at times but somehow their terrible decisions paid off)

metalinmyveins wrote:

Yeah, I was going to download this at the old Hearrockcityblog about a year ago, but I thought I would listen to it first, since people were talking about how terrible it was. It truly is the biggest four year fall I've ever heard in music. It was hard to believe that this was the same band!

It really is hard to believe. I know Harris and Tatler expressed their desire to move on from heavy metal and they weren't kidding. At least Canterbury still had some of their older material on it which was somewhat enjoyable, but Flight East is horrible.

Who the hell was making disco records in 1984? Disco was already long dead by that point.

S.D. wrote:

Who the hell was making disco records in 1984?  Disco was already long dead by that point.

Diamond Head? This whole demo is baffling.

S.D. wrote:

Who the hell was making disco records in 1984?  Disco was already long dead by that point.

Yeah, by then I was all about hair metal bands. It would have made more sense if the band had come out with some Poison/Motley Crue/Warrant kind of thing.

Holy that is horrendous - what the hell were they thinking/smoking??

Wow thats bad. The only rock band that could pull disco off was Kiss.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Wow thats bad. The only rock band that could pull disco off was Kiss.

Correction:

More like the only person that could pull that off is Vini Poncia who produced the album and co-wrote the song with Desmond Child. Ace did pull off a great solo to it, but that was probably the extent of the bands contribution to that track.

S.D. wrote:

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Wow thats bad. The only rock band that could pull disco off was Kiss.

Correction:

More like the only person that could pull that off is Vini Poncia who produced the album and co-wrote the song with Desmond Child.  Ace did pull off a great solo to it, but that was probably the extent of the bands contribution to that track.  

regardless they were the only ones to pull it off and have people still like that song to this day. they still play it in their live set.

Everything has to be so specific with you

S.D. wrote:

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Wow thats bad. The only rock band that could pull disco off was Kiss.

Correction:

More like the only person that could pull that off is Vini Poncia who produced the album and co-wrote the song with Desmond Child.  Ace did pull off a great solo to it, but that was probably the extent of the bands contribution to that track.  

That explains why it's so well-written.

I was dissing Kiss more than anything.

Not bad at all, too bad the sound quality sucks, though. I wish there was more disco-rock than just a song or two by a few bands here and there, could have been an interesting genre.

Static-X was known as "Evil Disco".

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Wow thats bad. The only rock band that could pull disco off was Kiss.

I dunno. I always liked these 2...




I like 'I Was Made For Loving You' too. I had the benefit of hearing all of these songs well after the disco-era was dead and buried, so I wasn't bothered by the bands "selling out".

Those Diamond Head tracks though? Peee-yew!!

That's very odd. I guess for what it is, it isn't too bad. Kind of surprising considering the band (and the year released, as previously stated). And I do have to admit to liking a bit of disco. It might be nostalgia but I can give it a listen to every now and then.