Live and More
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Live and More is the seventh album by Donna Summer and her second double album. The live concert featured on the first three sides of the LP was recorded in the Universal Ampitheater, in Los Angeles, CA in 1978. The album was released in 1978 by Casablanca Records, who had started to have increasing control over Summer's career, which by now she was starting to resent.
During the concert, Summer performs a substantial amount of her disco songs - both her hit singles plus a selection of tracks from her previous Once Upon a Time album. However, she is also heard experimenting with other styles such as jazz ("I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good") and a Gershwin number ("The Man I Love"). She also performs a version of the ballad "The Way We Were", originally recorded by Barbra Streisand for the film of the same name, and a self-penned ballad called "Mimi's Song", dedicated to her four-year-old daughter. Mimi was present at the concert for Summer to sing this song to her, and is heard on the recording saying goodnight to the audience. The concert ends with one of Summer's best-known disco tracks in the U.S. - "Last Dance". Though the studio version was not included on an original Summer album, it had been used in the film Thank God It's Friday, in which Summer had also starred. Composer Paul Jabara received an Academy Award for Best Song from a motion picture and Summer herself won her first Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance with the song. A personal favourite of Summer's, it was one of the first disco songs to also feature slow parts, both at the beginning and during the middle. This would become a format which Summer would use again several times during the disco era. Although the single version of "Last Dance" removed some of the slow parts, the full version is performed in this concert.
The final side of the LP contains a new studio recording entitled "MacArthur Park Suite" which is a medley of four songs including the main song "MacArthur Park", originally made popular as a ballad by Irish actor Richard Harris. Summer's disco version was edited and released as a single, and became one of her biggest hits - her first Number One on the U.S. Hot 100 singles chart, and a Top 5 in the U.K. It also gave Summer a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Another song in the medley entitled "Heaven Knows" was a U.S. Top 5, and featured vocals by the Brooklyn Dreams. The group included Bruce Sudano, who Summer would become romantically involved with and later marry.
Live and More would become Summer's first Number One double album in the US eventually achieving double platinum status in the US.
Track Listing
- Once Upon A Time (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 3:03
- Fairy Tale High(Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 2:20
- Faster And Faster To Nowhere (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 2:09
- Spring Affair (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 2:34
- Rumour Has It (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 2:34
- I Love You (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 3:38
- Only One Man (Donna Summer, Bob Conti, Virgil Weber) 2:06
- I Remember Yesterday (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 3:52
- Love's Unkind (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 2:37
- My Man Medley: The Man I Love (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin), I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good (Duke Ellington, Paul Francis Webster), Some Of These Days (Shelton Brooks) 6:25
- The Way We Were (Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Marvin Hamlisch) 3:23
- Mimi's Song (Donna Summer, Virgil Weber) 4:28
- Try Me, I Know We Can Make It (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 4:14
- Love To Love You Baby (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 3:23
- I Feel Love (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte) 6:54
- Last Dance (Paul Jabara) 5:50
- MacArthur Park Suite: MacArthur Park (Jimmy Webb), One Of A Kind (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte), Heaven Knows (Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte), MacArthur Park (Reprise) (Jimmy Webb) 16:45
NB: When Live and More was released on CD format, "MacArthur Park Suite" was replaced with an extended version of "Down Deep Inside" which Summer had recorded for the film soundtrack "The Deep" the previous year. As well, the Suite released on CD (The Dance Collection; Bad Girls remaster digipac disc 2) is the 1978 12" Disco Single version, NOT the original 16:45 album version, which can only be found on vinyl or the Various Artists album "The Casablanca Records Story". The difference: "Heaven Knows" was later extended to incorporate the strings intro and bridge horn solo of the radio single, and "One of a Kind" was trimmed of percussion breaks to accommodate these changes.
Personnel
- Donna Summer - vocals
- Keith Forsey - drums
- Richard Adelman - drums
- Sal Guglielmi - bass
- Ken Park - percussion
- Bob Conti - percussion
- Peter Woodford - rhythm guitar
- Mike Warren - lead guitar
- Doug Livingston - keyboards
- Virgil Weber - synthesizer
- Greg Mathieson - moog & clavinet
- Bobby Shew - trumpet
- Rich Cooper - trumpet
- Dalton Smith - trumpet
- Bruce Paulson - trombone
- Bob Payne - trombone
- Dick "Slide" Hyde - bass trombone
- Dick Spencer - alto sax
- Don Menza - tenor sax
- Joe Romano - baritone sax
- John Santulis - concert master, violins
- Pauel Farkas - violins
- Mari Tsumura - violins
- Teri Schoebrua - violins
- Jay Rosen - violins
- Lya Stern - violins
- Leonard Selic - viola
- Alfred Barr - viola
- Victor Sazer - cello
- Robert Adcock - cello
- John Fresco - contractor
- Sheri Wish - production manager
- Keith Robertson - stage manager
- Bryan Rooney - assistant stage manager
- Background vocals: Sunshine (Carlena Williams, Dara Bernard, Mary Ellen Bernard)
- Mike North - equipment
- Marc Figueroa - equipment
- Stanal Sound (Bob Ludwig, Jim Fox, John Taylor) - sound
- Lighting designed by Patrick Woodroffe for TFA Electrosound
- Graphics: Stephen Lumel, Henry Vizcarra
- Photographs by Francesco Scavullo
- Photography assistant: Sean Byrnes
- Donna Summer logotype: Tom Nikosey
- Costumes: David Picon
- Management: Susan Munao Management & Joyce Bogart Management Co.
Production
- Produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte
- Recorded live at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA. except "MacArthur Park Suite," a studio recording
- Engineered by: Juergen Koppers, Gary Ladinsky, Steve Smith
- Mixdown engineer: Juergen Koppers
- Mixed at Westlake Studios and Rust Studios
- Conducted by: Michael Warren