Donna Summer: Remembering the Last Dance

From city to city, the names would change.   In Stockton, it was The Casbah. In Modesto, the Brave Bull.  In Sacramento, The Powerplant and the Rose.  In Guerneville, The Woods and Fifes.  In San Francisco, Midnight Sun and Moby Dick and Badlands and End-Up.   All different clubs with one thing in common ... the music. 


It was the late 70s, early 80s, and disco was king.   And the gay dance clubs were the center of the universe for the disco divas.  And queen among them ... Donna Summer.
It didn't matter if you were in the greatest dance clubs in the world (like Studio 54), or the back alley bars in smaller towns (like Bogie's in Redding, California), inevitably along with Thelma Houston, Viola Wills, The Village People, Soft Cell, and Michael Jackson, Donna Summer would dominate the music.   Her timeless anthem "Last Dance" more often than not signaling that it was 1:45 AM and closing time was imminent.

Already popular in Europe, it was the DJs at the gay clubs in the United States that first introduced Donna Summer to the US.  From there, her sound moved on to Top 40 AM radio.  She was an instant disco star.   She had 14 Top 10 hits and four number one hits on Billboards Hot 100.

"Love to Love You," "Hot Stuff," "I Feel Love," "MacArthur Park," "With Your Love," "Heaven Knows," "Dim All the Lights," "On the Radio," "She Works Hard for the Money," all continue to be staples clearly representative of the dance era, and songs that even now receive ample airplay on 70s and classic dance stations. 

I do remember with surprise when Donna Summer, the Queen of (Gay) Disco, seemingly turned her back on the community which was largely responsible for her great success.  Becoming a born again Christian, she said "AIDS has been sent by God to punish homosexuals."  The comments at the time created a huge backlash, and though in later years she apologized, her image remained tarnished among many in the community.

But with her surprise passing today of cancer (which she had kept a secret from the public), I prefer to remember the good times she created.  Whether they be on the pulsating high energy dance floor at the Hexagon House at The Woods in Guerneville, the jukebox at Bogie's in Redding, or blaring away on The Big 610 with the top down on the car.    May she find peace in her last dance.