Disco de Village People: “Live and Sleazy”

Following in the lines of Donna Summer's Live and More, and Millie Jackson's Live and Uncensored (see my reviews), we have The Village People's Live and Sleazy, from late 1979. Live albums became a vogue in the 1970's and the best ones helped to validate the stars and the worse show who were wannabes.

Simply put The Village people could sing, above the camp and the gay stereotypes, these Men could vocally deliver, and here they are backed by a full live band. Taped during their 1979 tour, the live section features their biggest hits, YMCA, Macho Man, and In The Navy, with 3 of their earliest songs, Fire Island, San Fancisco, and Hollywood. The directness of Fire Island, and San Francisco may have gone over the heads of their mainstream fans, but to the tribe, we understood perfectly (see my review of their first album).

The studio recordings here were supposed to transition the group from the 70's to the 80's, but a fickle public

saw the group as Disco and little else. Ready For The 80's and Sleazy both received heavy rotation on the pre-MTV show, Video Jukebox, and they are both good Pop songs (Sleazy is far tamer than it's name implies).

Rock N Roll Is Back Again was another Pop song that seemed to aknowledge that Disco was fizzling at least to the masses.

This release that we now happily have on CD, is good, sleazy, American Fun, Village People style.

Ken

I was born after these guys broke up, but that doesnt mean that i dont enjoy disco. I heard this album by accident, and bought it because it's essentially a "best of" album. With great hits like "Macho Man," "In the Navy," and of course "Y.M.C.A," this CD gets you dancing. Although I'm not really a fan of the "Save Me" ballad, i can respect the fact that these six unique individuals have the ability to slow down the pace as well as kicking it with their better known up tempo disco. This CD just puts me in a good mood, so I encourage everyone, young and old, to buy it.

I'm not ashamed to confess that the this was the first CD I ever purchased. That said, I will also stipulate that it's the only disco CD in our collection that was not purchased by my wife.

But what the heck, this is fun listenable music! If you can listen to the Village People without the urge to bust a move or two (whether in private or public) you just don't have rhythm. Classic hits like YMCA and In the Navy still get radio play from time to time, but this collection of live performances will make you wonder how this group could ever have faded away from the music scene. Forget the camp, forget the costumes! Just listen to some outstanding, upbeat tunes!

Over the past 50 years, there have been literally hundreds of thousands of albums released, in all musical genres. While The Village People can be fun at wedding receptions, bachelor parties, or anyplace where large amounts of alcohol are consumed, hearing them always takes me back to my number one musical philosophy...

Life is too short to listen to bad music.