“When you dance, do your senses tingle then take a chance?
In a trance, while the lonely mingle with circumstance?”
(Excerpt of the lyrics of the song “when you dance, I can really love” by Neil Young, September 19, 1970)
Neil Young is a Canadian singer and songwriter, who joined the best two bands of the American rock sub-genre named “West Coast”, the Buffalo Springfield, and the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Apparently, Mr. Young had nothing to do with the earliest disco music, born in NYC in the early 70’s. Despite, the, above reported, excerpt of a song written by him, and released on September 19, 1970, seems to contain a description of the earliest discotheques of the Big Apple. One might think that the song is rather referred to the nightclubs dedicated to the twist, the earliest dance of the 60’s to be danced alone by singles. Well, at those nightclubs the lonely mingled with circumstance, despite, when the bands played live, there were frequent pauses, and I can’t find any justification for the expressions “senses tingle”, “take a chance”, and “trance”. There’s only a kind of place that completely responds to the cited lyrics, and it’s named discotheque of the origin, whose main feature is a continuous flux of dance music, lasting for hours, coming from the records played by a DJ with turntables, or equivalent electronic sources. How many similar discotheques were active before September 1970? According to my searches, the answer is six, all of them located in NYC, and the names were Salvation, Haven, Le Directoire/Le Twinkie Zone, Church/Sanctuary, Electric Circus, and Loft. Some authors add another nightclub, named Le Club, but I haven’t found any reliable confirmation. The bizarre song by Neil Young also talks about a geological phenomenon called “isostasy”, which is a growth of mountains provoked by the fluvial erosion. At this point, I feel the need to ask to myself the meaning of the words “when you dance, I can really love”. The possible answer is bound to the reputation of the earliest discotheques, the same for all of them, of being “gay”. Thus, in my opinion, Mr. Neil Young has wanted to dedicate a song to the liberation power of the earliest discos, where homosexuals were allowed to freely live their true sexuality. With other words, “when you dance, I can really love” is a song very politically correct, about LGBT civil rights. According to it, the erosion of the “ancient regime”, depending on the struggles for civil rights, provokes a social growth, like isostasy in geology.
I don’t want to criticize neither Neil Young, who is a great pop musician, nor his political ideas, leftist but noble and, apparently, disinterested. Nevertheless, I confirm the opinion developed on the home page, that sometimes Satan hides himself behind the noblest activities and ideas. In every case, the two verses of the above are poetic, and correspond to my experience as a disco dancer, although entirely lived at heterosexual discos, especially all over Italy, my homeland. About that, I started going to discos in 1978, but I have regularly frequented those venues especially in the 80’s. As a disco dancer, the music that made me dance was chiefly funky music. In the 80’s, funky was electric, that means dominated by synthesizers and other electric instruments. The conclusion is that I appreciate the two verses by Neil Young, but I connect them to “normal” discotheques, so that the title of the song should be changed into “when it’s funk, I can really love”. However, with the described change Neil Young’s work would become politically incorrect, or, at least, senseless for the followers of political left. As you can understand, the mix of the page is dedicated to the music danced at discos by me during the 80’s.
File name is “when it’s funk, I can really love, by Max Look DJ (Oct 2026)”, 1 hour and 22’ of the best funky music from the 80’s.
When your senses tingle, the playlist:
Ernie Watts – hold on (1982)
Bernard Wright – funky beat (1983)
Nile Rodgers – rock bottom (1983)
Delegation – it’s your turn 12” (1982)
Herb Alpert – red hot (1980)
Ocie III – what’s my return on love (1983)
Alec Mansion – trop triste (1982)
Hamilton Bohannon – don’t be ashamed to call my name (1981)
Princess – if it makes you feel good (1986)
Ritchie Family – I’ll do my best (for you baby) (1982)
US – keep on looking (1984)
Love Club – hot summer nights 12” (1983)
Total Contrast – be with you tonight (1983)
Jerry Knight – she’s got to be (a dancer) (1982)
Silver, Platinum & Gold – dance with me (1981)
Yvonne Moore – hit & run lover (1984)
Powerline – your the girl (1983)
