Montreal, at the end of October 1974, Ontario Coin and Amherst (now Atateken). The red, orange and yellow leaves fly on the sidewalks of the South Center. Behind the Saint-Jacques market stands an old Italian presbyterian church. At the turn of the 1970s, the place of worship was transformed into a studio. This is where Nanette Workman and Angelo Finaldi, guitarist and singer’s lover, meet producer Yves Martin. Together, they will create what will become one of the first disco songs in the history of Quebec, Lady Marmalade.
New Orleans, New York, Montreal
“It was not our intention,” said Mr. Finaldi, who made himself known with the group the French Revolution, as co -author of the nationalist anthem québécoisin 1969. He means by that that Nanette and he did not have the objective of creating a disco song. “For us, it was a funk style New Orleans “, He nuances. And, according to the genesis of the play, it is indeed a song inspired by New Orleans.
But when Lady Marmaladeinterpreted by the female vocal trio Labelle, was successful in the United States in August 1974, another route emerged for her. From the dance floor of the legendary New York Netherlands Studio 54 to the magazine Disco Action ranking Billboardit is absorbed by the emerging disco ecosystem. Although his rhythm strictly speaking is not that of disco, Lady Marmalade literally becomes a hymn of the musical current.
On a trip to New York during the month of October 1974, producer Yves Martin was caught up in this song which sits at the top of the prize list. He returned to Quebec with the urgent idea of registering a Quebec version. “He asked the CJMS station to block the version of Labelle,” recalls Finaldi. As soon as our version was ready, CJMS broadcast it and it started playing everywhere. »»
For us, it was a “New Orleans” funk style.
A musical renaissance
The most surprising is perhaps to note that the fall of 1974 of Nanette Workman did not seem to be heading towards the recording of a new tube at all; She had not released anything in Quebec since the late 1960s. Yes, in the meantime, she had worked in England and France with the Rolling Stones and Johnny Hallyday (and it’s huge!), But she had not made anything from her own name from a lease.
Then, dramatic. At the end of October 1974, Nanette suddenly remedied in the Quebec media. During an evening at Angelo Finaldi, the singer was injured by firearm. The shooter is Johnny Hagopian, a musician friend of Angelo and Nanette. It is a most stupid accident: wishing to show his friends his new hunting weapon, Hagopian presses the relaxation while the caliber rifle .22 is loaded. The blow leaves while Nanette is in the adjacent bathroom. The ball crosses the door and reaches the singer in the middle of abdomen to finally find accommodation near her spine. Nanette could have kept serious physical consequences, but, almost miraculous, she leaves the hospital in record time and continues her convalescence at home. Of course, the gossip press seizes the case. Nanette’s story is everywhere.
It is precisely during this period that Yves Martin has an illumination in New York. “Yves brought me the song and I created the adaptation in a few hours,” says Finaldi. I remember very well the recording. Nanette was still supposed to be recovering from her accident when she went to sing in the studio. »»
Lady Marmalade became a radio success in a snap of the fingers, climbing local records in the months of November and December 1974, so that in January 1975, Yves Martin wanted more. “The song was walking so much that he asked us to go to the studio to make a full album. I started by playing one of my songs, which was called Crying, Crying. In French, it has become Dancing dancer », Relathe-t-st.
Direction disco
It was around April 20, 1975 that the album Lady Marmalade From Nanette Workman arrives in the stores of the record stores. Musically, the songs Dancing dancer et Baby boom fhave directly echoed Lady Marmalade. We literally hear funk transforming in disco.
The disc of the disc watch nanette posing in a room with a few other women in light outfits, a red mill style, displaying a provocative casualness. Angelo Finaldi specifies that “it’s in [s]We apartment on the boulevard de l’Acadie that the photo of the album was taken. And it is also in this apartment that the accident has arrived ”.
But if the primary objective of Finaldi and Nanette was not to make disco, we are right to associate the microsillon Lady Marmalade At the birth of disco in Quebec? To this question, Finaldi answers with an unequivocal fact: “With the success of the album, we were invited to play at the Forum with Gloria Gaynor, Carl Douglas and Van McCoy. »»
This show, baptized Danse discwas one of the first major disco demonstrations in Montreal, bringing together the first American stars-African-American, should we specify, since this music comes from their community-from the wave which will surge in 1976 to engage the planet in 1977, especially with the film Saturday Night Fever. Nanette Workman and her group are the only local artists to participate in this major event.
Disco and Quebecitude
Strange synchronicity, it was on June 20, 1975 that the show Danse disc takes place at the Montreal Forum, the same day when the legendary celebrations of Saint-Jean-Baptiste are launched on Mount Royal, the same evening when People of the country is sung for the first time. We must understand that Quebec is in full cultural and musical affirmation, on several levels at the same time. Montreal is preparing to become the second world city importance for disco music.
The year 1975 also saw Patsy Gallant launching its disco adaptation of My countryfrom Gilles Vigneault, which becomes a success on the radio airwaves from here. Then, in September 1975, André Gagnon published the Disco Instrumental track Wowwhose dazzling success will create a shock wave even on the dance tracks of Japan.
50 years ago, disco was therefore also part of the effervescent cultural deflagration of Quebec.