Alicia Bridges – I Love The Nightlife

6th November 2022 · Uncategorised

This was a kind of guilty pleasure during my disco-hating days as a punk. It came out in 1978 and I probably noticed it because of Alicia Keys’s provocatively punky hairstyle – somewhere between Bowie and Billy Idol.

Then there’s the punk-glam fusion of her outfit with the gold Lamé playsuit and boots giving it a bit more of a Starman vibe with its undeniably catchy chorus.

And that brilliant sax solo.

Mostly, there’s her weird pronunciation when she tells us she wants some “AC-SHAWN”.

The song found a second life 20 years later when it was featured – in an instrumental version if I recall correctly – in Whit Stillman’s fantastic film The Last Days of Disco.

And if you’ve never seen that, seek it out. It’s a masterpiece – not least for the impassioned “Disco will never die!” monologue.

And the punchline that follows it.