After a fleeting glimmer of basking-in-the-hot-sun days, San Francisco retreated back to it’s cold and windy demeanor. Bundled up, we loaded up the car with our equipment and trekked to the Pirate Cat radio station. We reminisced about those few precious days by warming up the station and cafe with some sweet, sticky bass slaps and rollerspacin boogie beats.
Joining us in the studio was our dear friend DJ Shred One (SweaterFunk, BkC leCirque). Born and raised in LA, her music tastes were formed and molded as she followed around her vinyl collectin’ older brothers and cousins. She fine-tuned her selection skills in NY, created her unique style in LA and continues to grow here in the Bay Area. In her own words, she was born in LA/molded in Brooklyn/dreaming in SF.
To appease our appetite for boogie funk, each DJ brought their own tangy special recipe to create a delicious array at our sanguine table. Honey Knuckles started the night off with a heart racing set of funky disco beats such as those of One Way and Mandre, which graced roller rinks and b-boy circles everywhere in the late 70′s and early 80′s. We reaped the benefits of some heavy e-diggin’ by Z-Note as we traveled many cosmic miles to read the “Message from the Stars” and sway to some rich boogie roots. Lastly, Shred One brought it all together with a bangin powerhouse set of boogie classics like Paul Hardcastle and Evelyn “Champagne” King while the entire show bubbled harmoniously over the beats of Dam Funk, leading ambassador of modern boogie funk.
– Shelmatic
Here’s a comment from an Old School listener . . . Loved Roller Space Boogie week. When I heard Dancing Machine I thought, jeez, that ain’t “boogie” as I would normally think of the genre, but hey, I can tell you “kids” know a hella lot more about music than I do. Anyway, it brought me back to my 8th grade school dance. DM was on the J5s latest album. Us guys were wearing our crushed velvet slacks and print shirts and were all doing our best imitations of Michael J doing the “Robot”, the gym was decked out with black lights. Then some slow jams and we’d get our girls and dance as close as the nuns would let us. (Oh, yeah, this was Catholic school) and there had to be enough space between us, but you know we were trying to “brush on up” on our girls! Ah, my girl Melba . . . Thanks for the stroll down memory lane – lots of good jams. But, especially thanks to DJ HK for picking Dancing Machine. I gotta go now and teach my girls how to do the Robot (and teach them how to stop a boy from brushin’ on up!!!) RMC59
Thanks RMC! Were there ever rolleskate jams involved at your Catholic school dances? I’m not sure how brushin’ up would work with two rollerbladers though.
We’re definitely going to be continuing the boogie series, so stay tuned!
- Z Note
No, the roller skating did not really come out until the mid-70s (as far as I can remember). Even at my public high school in Richmond we didn’t roller boogie at the dances. Dance clubs that allowed it and skating rinks that started having dancing had all the action.
By the way, all of this was done on 4-wheel roller skates. Roller blades became popular later and may have had something to do with the downfall of roller boogie. (Although the excruciatingly awful movie of the same name starring Linda (The Exorcist) Blair may have had something to do with it too.