The Queen of Disco singing bayou blues, reggae and even a Brazilian love song? Donna Summer does all that and more on ?Crayons,? her first album of new songs in 17 years.
At 59, the singer who helped launch America?s disco dance craze in the late ?70s is back out on tour again, including a show in two weeks at Santa Rosa?s Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.
And don?t worry. She still sings the songs that made her a star ? ?I Feel Love,? ?Hot Stuff,? ?Last Dance? and the rest.
En route from one show in Washington, D.C., to the next in New Jersey, the disco diva got on the phone to talk about the songs she loves ? songs that tell a story, make you dance and keep you going on a bad day.
Q: You?re so identified with dance music. How much is dance a part of your music now?
A: Dance music is a very strong base for me, but any great song can turn into a dance song. A dance song is about the rhythm and the beat. So, as long as I?m writing good songs, I?m ahead of the game.
Q: Does the dance influence come from your early musical theater background?
A: Yeah, I would say some of it does, but what happened with me was just that dance music started to take off. We were in the forefront of that initially because I had so many songs that I wrote, just as regular songs, but then (record producer) Giorgio Moroder turned them into dance songs. That was why I got the title ?Queen of the Disco.?
Q: What does ?disco? mean to you now? Does that label limit you?
A: It?s not that I find it limiting. To me, disco means something different to me than it does to most Americans. I lived in Europe for eight years, and they played every kind of music in the disco. They played all kinds of songs ? Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was a place to go dance and hang out.
Q: You?re doing a lot of interviews lately. Is there anything you haven?t had a chance to say so far?
A: The thing that I would like people to know more than anything is that they think of me as a singer, but I also write. My creative experience is across the board. It doesn?t begin when I walk on the stage. I?m part of everything I do. I just would like people to know that. When I recorded this new album, ?Crayons,? it was recorded purposely to be diverse.
Q: Where do your songwriting ideas come from?
A: I like to write from experience if I can, whether it?s my experience or the experience of another person.
Q: ?Hard for the Money? and ?Bad Girls? both were taken from real life, weren?t they?
A: Real stories, yes, based on things that actually happened.
Q: Do you have any new examples of that?
A: There have been several things I?ve been watching and looking at lately, as I travel, and as people come in and out of my life. When I?m on my bus, going from city to city, I might see little vignettes. That creates a story in my mind. Then I just write it down, and when I get ready to record, I put it into a song.
Q: What do you want to accomplish with your songwriting?
A: When I wrote ?Hard for the Money? with Michael Omartian, so many people came to me and said, ?Man, that song gets me through the day.? That?s what I want to hear. How many times does a song come up in your mind and it really helps when you need it? I want my songs to do that.
Q: Do you ever write solo, or do you always have writing partners?
A: I write with different groups, sometimes one person, sometimes two. But I?m the motivating factor. Usually, I have an idea of what I want and where I want to go with the song. Sometimes other people bring ideas to me that I can expound on.
Q: Is there any kind of music you wouldn?t try? Would you ever do a country song?
A: I already have. Many years ago, I did the Dolly Parton show. I sang with Glen Campbell, Mac Davis, Eddie Rabbitt and a lot of the older group of country singers back in the day. So, I?ve done country music. People don?t know that, but I have. I think it?s kind of funny. I live in Nashville (Tenn.).
Q: To what extent is your stage persona a role that you play? Or is it just you?
A: It?s me, magnified.
Q: How much control do you have over your own stage shows?
A: 100 percent. I have people that work with me, but basically I come up with the design. Because I?m dyslexic, it?s really difficult for me to be forced into something I can?t compute in my brain. I have to work a certain way. Otherwise I get confused. I work with everybody ? the sound guys, the lighting guys, every department. I?m very hands-on.
Q: How does your dyslexia affect the recording process?
A: What I usually like to do is go in the studio and stand at the microphone and let a musician play. I don?t want to see him. I just want to hear him. I can work any way. I can work by writing it down, but I happen to be gifted with singing things directly into the mike. ?Bad Girls,? ?Hard for the Money? ? none of those songs were ever written down.
Q: How long does this tour go on?
A: This leg of it lasts until September. We?re down for a few weeks, and then we head out to Paris. We?ll do some of Europe, and then we?ll come back and do South America in the fall, October and November.
Q: After the tour, do you plan another album?
A: Well, we wrote about 40-something songs while we were working on ?Crayons,? so I think have a head start on my next album. I will continue to keep writing along the way.
Q: What is the most important thing that?s happened to you in the last decade or two?
A: I would say that in the past 16-17 years, my kids grew up. They?ve gotten out on their own and established now. I think I?m becoming free again to be myself. You know, when you?re a parent, you?re their mother. There?s a certain responsibility connected to that role. Then when they become a certain age, you become their friend, their confidante, somebody they can get advice from.
Q: How old are your children now?
A: I have three daughters in their 20s and 30s, so they?re grown, and now I?m free to do things that I wouldn?t have been free to do before.
Q: Like traveling? It would have been difficult to tour Europe and South America with kids at home.
A: Well, I could when I had to, but it was just a little too strained for me.
Q: Where do you want your musical career to lead you ultimately?
A: I want to make more music. What I found while I was performing was that I love the songs I get to sing, but I?d like to have some new ones.
You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.
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