Crate Digging: Pink Floyd, Ohio Players, Diana Ross, Commodores, MFSB

More crate digging today. Here’s what I picked up:

• Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon – LP – 1973 – Harvest/Capitol
• Ohio Players – Fire – LP – 1974 – Mercury
• Diana Ross – Diana – LP – 1980 – Motown
• MFSB – Universal Love – LP – 1975 – Philadelphia International
• Commodores – All the Great Hits – LP – 1982 – Motown

Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is probably one of the greatest records of all time. It belongs in every household, no matter what the demographic.

Released the same year as their album Skin Tight, Fire was a commercial and critical success for the funk band Ohio Players. Here they are performing live on Burt Sugarman’s show The Midnight Special in 1975.

Diana Ross’ second album, simply called “Diana,” was her most successful album, spawning two massive radio hits “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out.” The record was produced by the late Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers (the team behind Chic and numerous 80s album hits).

With the rise of the Philly sound in the 70s came “Mother Father Sister Brother.” For my money, the first true disco records started appearing in 1972; some say it started earlier but I think of those more as proto-disco records. Anyway, one of my favorite disco songs comes off the “Universal Love” album – it’s called K-Jee, and it’s actually a cover version of the song released by the Nite-Liters in 1971. (Go ahead and compare the two – it’s interesting!)

I picked up the Commodores just for the hell of it. I like having all their hits on one record, but that doesn’t take away all the great work they have done on their official LPs.