She's Still Working Hard for the Money
Posted on: Thursday, 17 July 2008, 15:00 CDT
By MICHAEL HAMERSLY, MC CLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WHAT: Pop.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday; 7 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: PNC Bank Arts Center, Exit 116 Garden State Parkway; 732- 203-2500 or livenation.com. Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, N.Y.; 516-221-1000 or livenation.com.
HOW MUCH: $20.25-$109.25 (PNC); $26-$109 (Jones Beach).
WHERE TO HEAR: donnasum mer.com.
The Queen of Disco is still going strong at age 59. Donna Summer's groundbreaking disco anthems have provided the soundtrack for countless gyrating hedonists on the dance floor.
Summer, who'll be performing several area dates this week, took time to talk from her secret hideaway somewhere on the Gulf Coast about her shows, taking up painting and the notorious orgasmic moaning on her 1975 hit "Love to Love You Baby."
Q. Which of your songs tends to get the best audience response?
Different songs get different responses. They usually like "She Works Hard for the Money,""MacArthur Park,""On the Radio,""Last Dance,""Bad Girls," but there's always different kinds of response. We've had some unusual ones, too: Last year we were playing in the Midwest we don't get there very often and this woman in the audience kept yelling to me, "I have to talk to you!" and she wouldn't stop, so I had to stop the show and talk to her. And the entire audience was completely silent, not complaining or anything and this went on for at least five minutes.
Q.When did you begin to get serious about painting?
All my life it's been my hobby, something that takes me out of the music vein, but art is the reverse of singing for me. When I paint I can only paint when I'm happy or content, which makes me know that it's not my first talent, something you have to do no matter what. I do it when I feel peaceful and happy and I'm ready to pull something out of myself, not put myself into something.
Q. Do you think there could ever be another musical movement like disco in the '70s?
I'm sure there could be. Hip-hop in its own way was a musical movement that's held its own. I think that the alternative-music movement didn't last as long even though it's still around. I think we just keep changing, morphing, doing new things and we'll stumble upon the next movement. Some young kid will create something in his room that's totally different and everyone will go "What is this I love it!" and then people will copy it.
Q. "Love to Love You Baby" was a ticket to stardom for you, but weren't you uncomfortable with its sexuality specifically the orgasmic moans?
Oh, yeah coming from a nice Christian home my parents were like, "Uhhhhh, this can't be my daughter." We were basically goofing around in the studio, and then someone heard the song and played it while they were making love and thought this song should be longer, and we extended the song to almost 18 minutes. And it was banned you couldn't play it during the day. I couldn't go anywhere people were drooling on me and I was like, "Hello? It's a song, not me!"
Q. Do you still live in Nashville?
Yeah, but last year we actually spent seven months in L.A. and we were in Florida for about two months and only eight weeks we spent in Nashville. And that's sprinkled out over two days here, a week there. It's like the road is our home.
Q. Where do you stay in Florida?
We live on a dirt road right on the Gulf just a small, quaint incredible place, like you're in Bali. Everybody here doesn't want anyone to know where they live, so people won't be able to destroy what we have here. It's a place where somebody like Britney or Brad and Angie could live and no one would know it. And that's a miracle.
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(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
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