Donna Summer, 1948-2012

Another icon of a better recent past has passed.
     Before ProTools, drum machines, and other dangerous technology supplanted human skill and wherewithal, Donna Summer brought a direct, human, musical quality to radio, records, and the Billboard charts.  (Elsewhere, I have remarked--or tried to--on the perils, in culture and beyond, of futuristic technology in an age in which the technology of the soul is at its nadir.  In the 1970's, even disco records--which she pioneered--had real instruments, if for no other reason than the fact that there was nothing else to use back then.)  She also represented an age when at least some pop divas were expected to contribute to their own songwriting.  (In another lifetime, when I was a musician, my high school jazz band was asked to learn "Rock Around the Clock" and Donna's "She Works Hard for the Money" for a popular school event.  Our band director remarked that the latter, which Donna co-wrote, was a "better" song--he meant more musical and complex.)  She apparently succumbed to cancer earlier today at the age of 63.
     Her powerful voice could draw appropriate comparisons to the recently departed Whitney Houston (who did not have her creative prowess), and it was a welcome respite from much of the banal pabulum that polluted pop radio and shopping mall speakers over the last few decades.  (Long after her disco heyday, "This Time I Know It's For Real" was one of the few "pop" songs that captured the interest of this young rock fan.)  Her extended, fifteen-minute-plus hit single "Love to Love You Baby" (which she also co-wrote) reflected a time when Americans' attention spans had not yet been destroyed by progressive education, Children's Television Workshop, and eMpTyV to the extent that they could not enjoy a "long song" (her concerts and live albums included lengthy suites--not medleys--incorporating her own songs and covers, such as Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park").  [For an amusing recounting of that single's serendipitous origin, and much more on Donna, I recommend And Party Every Day: The Inside Story of Casablanca Records (Backbeat Books, 2009), written by Casablanca Vice President Larry Harris with my collaborators Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs.  The book has been optioned for a major motion picture.  I was sure to include extensive Donna Summer scenes, including the infamous origin of "Love to Love You Baby," in my aborted spec script, and I hope the project's screenwriter does the same.]  Bruce Springsteen originally wrote his hit single "Cover Me" for her, and it is intriguing to think of what she would have done with it before his manager exhorted him to record it himself.  (He subsequently wrote another song, "Protection," for her.  They recorded as a duet, but it remains unreleased.)
     Her influence is significant, and there are some signs that, coincident with the collapse of the record industry, mainstream "pop" music is steering back into the her territory of inventive, melodic, organic, and sometimes epic "dance"/R&B tracks with heavy songwriting and production input from the singer.  U.S. pop culture could use that kind of "retrenchment," but, regardless, Donna Summer will be missed.