Friday Night Party Mix

Dancing to Ari Gold, Dangerous Muse, Jimmy Somerville & Paul Lekakis.

It is Friday night, and back in the old days, I might be heading out to the Monster in the West Village for some fun. These days, I am settling down in front of the TV to watch a movie or something. To remember those good old days, I thought I would offer up a selection of songs I danced to back in the day, and some I wouldn't mind dancing to now. Take, for example, the hot and spicy Ari Gold and his sexy Love Will Take Over. Oh, to be dancing with Ari. I could break into a sweat just thinking about it.



And if you wanna talk about hot, I couldn't think about picking anyone but Dangerous Muse and the sweaty I Want It All. Good Lord, those boys are hot, and make me wanna break out my dancing shoes!



Way back when, I would put on my Paul Lekais album and dance around the apartment, and if I was out, head out to the dance floor. Especially if I heard the opening beats to one of my favorite songs, Boom Boom. Yes, that song was played more often than I could count back in the 80s. And Paul was easy on the eyes, and still is. This video was made like 20 years later!



I can't say enough about Jimmy Somerville singing, in a group or solo. When he was with the Communards, he laid down a cover of Never Can Say Goodbye that I just loved. They breathed new life into the song, making 80s power-pop magic.



When Jimmy went solo, he never shied away from anything, including making the statement that Dance music can make a political statement. He broke out the synthesizer, those amazing hips of his, and that stunning voice. He also broke out his ACT-UP tee-shirts and use the famous line from President George H. W. Bush, to make a Gay disco anthem for the ages. So here is Read My Lips, and I hope you enjoy as much as I do.



Hope you enjoy, and even danced a bit in front of your monitor.

The Amazing Jimmy Somerville

Before there was American Idol and Adam Lambert, there was an extremely gifted and out singer named Jimmy Somerville.



He was the lead vocalist for the Bronski Beat and The Communards before he embarked on a solo career. Like Lambert, he was known for his amazing range and fearless use in soaring vocals. The difference is that Jimmy was forming the Bronski Beat the year Lambert was born. Somerville moved easily between Hi N-R-G mixes, to blues-inspired ballads. There was the amazing Why? and Smalltown Boy, and the soulful Need A Man Blues and It Ain't Necessarily So while with the Bronski Beat. The Communards had sucess with dance hits Don't Leave Me This Way and Never Can Say Goodbye as well as the AIDS-inspired ballad, For A Friend.



Jimmy never stood behind a coy answer about his sexuality. And unlike Elton John, he wwas never 'married' nor transitioned with the cover of being bisexual. Of course, that might be tough when he was singing songs like There's More To Love Than Boy Meets Girl and Read My Lips (Enough Is Enough). Most of the songs he sang he had either co-written or wrote himself. In the mid 90s, he took some tie off and left England for San Fransisco to work in the AIDS community projects so he could bring what he learned back to England.



This year, Jimmy released his 6th solo project, Suddenly Last Summer, available only as a digital download from iTunes. It is a collection of acoustic covers of songs he found on his iPod, ranging from the flirty My Heart Belongs to Daddy to the Blondie song Hangin' On The Telephone, to a heart wrenching a cappella version of (Sometimes I Fell Like A) Motherless Child, recorded live for a crowd demanding yet another encore. His Walking After Midnight owns more to anonymous sex and tea rooms than it does to Patsy Cline's original. For me, it is great to hear him sing once again, and and have a great time doing it.