Transcript
Narrator/Announcer (0:00)
Throughout the Fort Myers area, life unfolds at your own speed. Here, connecting to loved ones and yourself is an unhurried pleasure. Whether kayaking beneath mangroves, pausing to watch birds take flight, finding seashells along the shoreline, or walking the beach, each moment invites reflection. Fort Myers is a place to experience fully at a pace that just feels. Feels right. Discover a slower, more intentional way of living@Visit fort myers.com hey, everybody.
Wesley Morris (0:35)
Just wanted to say that we're about to have conversation about one of our favorite artists, Donna Summer. But there's also a little Michael Jackson in it, and we just wanted to let you know that in case it's something you don't want to deal with today.
Jay Wortham (0:48)
As always, take care of yourself first, and we will see you on the other side. One of the many visceral pleasures delights of the new Beyonce album Renaissance is that it brought us, our dearly departed Donna Summer, back into the public consciousness. Yes.
Wesley Morris (1:25)
Yes. Oh, yes. This is Summer Renaissance. And it is an interpolation of Donna Summer's I Feel Love.
Jay Wortham (1:38)
Yes.
Wesley Morris (1:45)
And it's like an express train to bliss. I mean, this is the thing about Beyonce.
Jay Wortham (1:51)
I mean, she loves to give flowers, and the song and the entire album is an honoring of Donna Summer. It's like flowing, curly hair, glittering sequins, something fur, something opulent.
Wesley Morris (2:07)
Yes.
Jay Wortham (2:08)
Those are the visuals that accompany her music. You know, that imagery has become a backbone of contemporary culture. I mean, if you think about it, she is an architect of the pop culture we experience today.
Wesley Morris (2:23)
Yeah. This one song, I Feel Love, is responsible for 50 years of electronic music in all its forms and all its permutations, all the directions it wound up going, and we are still living in it in 2022.
Jay Wortham (2:37)
Yes.
Wesley Morris (2:38)
And because of this song and a bunch of songs she does after this, in the 1970s, she essentially becomes the queen of disco. And how she gets to this place is. You know, it's. It's kind of an interesting story. She's born in Boston in 1948 and tries to get a part in the Broadway musical Hair. Can't get a part in. In the Broadway production. So the producers are like, well, you know, we have a spot in Germany, if you want to do that. So she goes to Germany, becomes a fluent German speaker. She's doing girl group stuff. She's doing gospel rock, and at some point hooks up with this guy, Giorgio Moroder, who, along with Pete Bilade, Donna Summer, invent what essentially becomes disco. They perfected, is what I should say.