Someone needs to tell Donna Summer to hang it up for good and let us remember her hit songs the way that they were originally played. In this live VH1 performance, she tried to do her old music with a slightly distorted techno/disco undercurrent, but the surface was purely pop. I had to push myself on past the first track, “Macarthur Park”, because it was so unsavory. I think that it is best to let the energy of her songs live on in original recordings rather than these shabby remakes that do absolutely nothing to enhance the Donna Summer legacy. “Hot Stuff” was insufferable then and is even more so now.
One thing is for sure, and that is that she still has a beautiful voice. Still, she needs to let go so that we can hold on. She should leave “She Works Hard For The Money” alone. She owes that one to Flashdance, anyway. One song that really was true to its original form was “On The Radio”. And she seems to do really well with love songs. “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” was nice, but “Dim All The Lights” was absolutely gorgeous, a song that she said she originally wrote for Rod Stewart.
Her performance of “My Life” was quite impressive, even touching, until she broke it down into her weak beat that prevails here in many of the disco styled songs. I don’t remember her original stuff being so carbon copy. “Last Dance” was really good though, I must admit. Still, it lacked that old Donna Summer energy.
The woman is a diva. That I cannot escape. She could probably give the generic female singers of today a real scare. For me, their manufactured sound rings false next to her more developed soul-saturated voice. If you want to hear Donna Summer at her best as far as her old songs go, then pick up a cd of the original recordings. This one is a waste of money.
+ rae gun
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