Better Days, the most influential club of all time
16 videos • 5,920 views • by Synthaestetic PLAYLIST: BETTER DAYS, THE MOST INFLUENTIAL CLUB OF ALL TIME ARTISTS: D. C. LaRue, C.J. & Company, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Brainstorm, The Salsoul Orchestra, First Choice, Tee Scott, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Loleatta Holloway, Imagination, Leon Love, Whitney Houston, Bruce Forest, Cultural Vibe, 2 Puerto Ricans, A Blackman And A Dominican From: http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/ma... It’s no secret that the ’70s and ’80s were the prime decades of New York City clubland, particularly the in its underground. David Mancuso at the Loft; Nicky Siano at the Gallery; Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage; Tony Humphries at nearby Newark, New Jersey’s Zanzibar – DJs and venues that not only helped to build the scene, but also helped muscle our very notion of “clubbing” into existence. But there’s an equally influential dance spot from those hallowed days that seems to fly below the radar: Better Days, which opened its doors in 1972 and died an ignoble death, as even the best clubs sometimes do, in 1990. Better Days wasn’t exactly fancy – a bar, a dance floor and some minimal lighting – but some of the giants of the New York scene worked their magic from within the spot’s DJ booth. Larry Patterson, Kenny Carpenter, Timmy Regisford and Andre Collins were among the stalwarts to have played there, as did superstars like François K, Robert Owens, Frankie Knuckles, Tony Humphries, Shep Pettibone and Robert Clivilles. It was one of New York City’s great dance-music incubators. Among many other claims to fame, Better Days spawned the seminal house track “Do It Properly” and, later, C&C Music Factory. But most importantly, the club played host to two iconic residencies: one by the late Tee Scott, the beloved spinner and remix savant who called Better Days home from the venue’s early days through 1980, and Bruce Forest, the prolific studio whizz who went onto produce and remix everyone from Giorgio and Carl Bean, to Madonna and Whitney Houston. Perhaps even more than its contemporaries, like the Garage, Better Days was a safe haven for the disenfranchised. As Glenn “Sweety G,” the vocalist for such late-period Better Days favorites as Cultural Vibes’ “Mind Games,” puts it, “The overdue rent, the arguments, the job that you couldn’t find – you would just leave that at the coat check. You’d just be partying in this space that felt like somebody’s home. And guess whose home it was? It belonged to the people on the dance floor.” Below, some of those people – including Tee Scott’s sister, Melanie – tell the story of Better Days. FOLLOW THIS LINKS - HISTORICAL ITINERARY: Chicago House - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Frankie Knuckles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzoRf... INSIGHTS: - Disco Music: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco - House Music: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_music - Frankie Knuckles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_... - Francois K: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%... - David Mancuso: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ma... - Nicky Siano: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Siano - Paradise Garage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise... - Gallery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gall...) - Studio 54 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_54 FOLLOW US on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Syntha... -- Please, support the underground music. Buy music! --