Let's go back to 1979 for a day. You’ll find K-Tel compilation albums with all the latest songs from the top 20, the same songs featured and played on Casey Kasem's countdown every weekend. Disco fever was still afflicting the nation and I certainly had the bug. Even in that wood-paneled Pocono Country Place prison to which my parents sentenced me, I still managed to find disco on the radio and lip-sync into a hair brush to the groove. We Are Family by Sister Sledge represents, to me, the entirety of the disco sound. Harmonic ladies fronting a bass-driven jaunt through night-life subculture. For the little boy who was just getting popular with the 'cool kids' in Lynbrook and then was slapped in the face with a life-changing culture shock, disco was the music behind my closet doors, and this song was the anthem. The rest of 'we' were left behind in the town where I grew up, thus beginning a lifetime of nostalgic longing.The song also features a golden rule, and it’s a really good one: Have faith in you and the things you do, you won’t go wrong. Smart words, sisters!
From the historical writing archive. Original date: November 10, 2015. Recovered from local source material; editorial review is still in progress.
