Here is a song by one of the most sophisticated disco sound I've ever heard. The Atlanta native, Hamilton Bohannon is one of my favorite and leading figures of Disco music during the '70s. He was pretty much discovered by Stevie Wonder when he hired him to be the percussionist for his tour band. He moved to Detroit and became part of the Motown family. He was then signed with Dakar/Brunswick Records and released a series of albums on which he perfected his formula of heavy, thudding bass accents and aggressive rhythms creating pretty much the footprint for the next wave of disco. This song comes from the 1976 album Dance Your Ass Off which became his last release from Brunswick Records. "Dance Your Ass Off" is the title cut that opens up side one on this fantastic record for nearly eight minutes with it's bold, sweeping use of strings which adds a new texture to his usual formula making it more stylish. In 1976, Bohannon left his old record company and signed to Mercury Records and two years later had his biggest success with "Lets Start The Dance". Bohannon is a devout Christian and dedicated this album to "God and His Song Jesus Christ". This album also included a disclaimer that "The word 'ass' is not used here in the sense of profanity". His music has been sampled to death and I can safely say that Prince looks up to him for inspiration. Enjoy and dance your ass off with this one!
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