Summary
Also, we remember Chris Strachwitz, the founder of Arhoolie records. He devoted his life to tracking down regional musicians – and recording them in their homes, front porches and beer joints. He died earlier this month.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Fresh Air. I'm David B. and Cooley in For Terry Gross. |
| 0:04.0 | Even many people who prided themselves on hating disco loved one of its biggest hitmakers, Donna Summer. |
| 0:30.4 | Her hits of the 1970s and early 80s included hot stuff, glass dance, heaven knows, on the radio, |
| 0:40.4 | bad girls, and she worked hard for the money. She had three consecutive number one platinum albums |
| 0:46.9 | and 11 gold albums. She's now the subject of a new HBO documentary titled Love to Love You, |
| 0:53.4 | Donna Summer. She was considered a disco sex queen and she played the part well, |
| 0:59.2 | but that's hardly how she saw herself. Donna Summer died in 2012. |
| 1:05.2 | We're going to listen to Terry's 2003 interview with her. At the time, she had written her memoir, |
| 1:11.2 | Ordinary Girl. She had her first hit Love to Love You Baby in 1975. She made that record when she |
| 1:19.2 | was living in Germany where she had starred in a production of Hair. In Munich, she met the record |
| 1:24.9 | producer, George E. O. Marauder, who became her collaborator and one of disco's most successful and |
| 1:30.8 | influential producers. Summer had been doing demo recordings from Marauder. When she came up with a |
| 1:36.8 | line, she thought it would make a good hook for a song. Love to Love You Baby. I had this idea |
| 1:42.9 | at home one day and I ran into the studio and I said, George, I have this idea. Do you think |
| 1:48.3 | you could write something to it? And I sort of sang it to him and he kept saying it over. He says, |
| 1:52.6 | love to love you. I love to love you. I love you. He kept rubbing his chin and thinking like a |
| 1:56.9 | little mad scientist and he went into the studio and George, you had written this track. And I began to |
| 2:04.0 | he asked me to go and start singing something and I didn't have any words other than Love to Love You Baby. |
| 2:08.5 | So I was improvising on the track live and that really became Love to Love You Baby, the original |
| 2:15.6 | track. So when you sang him your initial idea, what was it that you sang? |
| 2:19.3 | You know, love to love you. I love you. I love you. You know, the melody of the song. |
| 2:26.4 | And then he went from there and produced something and then I began to sing it. And then I began to |
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