Hamilton Bohannon - Dance your ass off

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Hamilton Bohannon 'Dance Your Ass Off' - my review

A good example of Bohannon's repetitive and unchanging yet driving rhythm guitar and funky bass riffs, straight drums and minimal vocal chant. - I love it! The strings add more later, but the track doesn't progress too much further, with very few chord changes. To me this is the kind of tune that seems to want to warm up a dance floor to something bigger than it's self and is definitely a great tune to get a crowd moving as one, and if followed by the right track, IE one that is a faster and more uplifting track, people will really start to move.

Hamilton Bohannon Biography

Hamilton Bohannon was born in Georgia and started his musical career as a tour drummer for Stevie Wonder so moved to Detroit and worked with Motown as a band leader. In 1972 he released his first album 'Stop and Go' on the Dakar label (Brunswick in the UK).He quickly established his own style consisting of driving shuffling rhythms, repetitive accented bass and guitar licks. His single Disco Stomp was relatively successful in the UK and after joining Mercury he went on release 'Let's start the dance' which was his most successful hit by far, which featured Carolyn Crawford.

Hamilton Bohannon later formed Phase II records in 1980 and from then on was simply known a Bohannon.

Links

Brunswick Records
Decca Records

Hamilton Bohannon Band Members and Musicians

• Hamilton Bohannon - Band Leader / Lead Vocals / Drums
• Ted Waterhouse Jr - Bass
• Fernando Saunders - Bass
• Melvin "Wah Wah" Ragin - Guitar
• Ray Parker Jr - Guitar
• Rick Rouse - Guitar
• LeRoy Emmanuel - Guitar
• Rick Rouse - Guitar
• Mose Davis - Keyboards
• Nimrod Lumpkin - Keyboards
• Van Cephus - Keyboards
• Danny Turner - Saxophone
• Lloyd Phinazee - Saxophone
• Herbie Williams - Trumpet
• Maurice Davis - Trumpet
• Ed Gouch - Trombone
• George Bohanon - Trombone
• Ted Waterhouse - Brass
• James Patterson - Woodwind
• Lorenzo Brown - Percussion
• Jimmy Jackson - Percussion
• Harold McKinney - Piano
• Oliver Wells - Piano
• Will Boulware - Piano
• Ben Picone And The Atlanta Strings - Strings
• Travis Biggs - Electric violin
• Willie Shorter - Orchestration (strings)
• Herbie Williams - Orchestration (strings)
• Johnny Allen - Orchestration (strings)
• Carolyn Crawford - vocals
• Elizabeth Lands - vocals
• Louise Freeman - vocals
• Altrinna Grayson - vocals
• Carol Veto - vocals
• Keisa Brown - vocals
• Louvain Demps - vocals
• Dr. Perri Johnson - vocals

Hamilton Bohannon Discography

Albums

• Stop and Go - Dakar - 1973
• Keep On Dancing - Brunswick - 1974
• Gittin’ Off - Dakar/Brunswick - 1975
• Bohannon - Dakar Records - 1975
• Bohannon (The Mighty) - Brunswick - 1975
• Dance Your Ass Off - Dakar Records - 1976
• Phase II - Mercury - 1977
• On My Way - 1977
• Cut Loose - Mercury - 1978
• Summertime Groove - Mercury - 1978
• Too Hot To Hold - Mercury - 1979
• Music In The Air - Mercury - 1980
• The Bohannon Drive - Compleat Records/Phase II Records - 1983
• Make Your Body Move - Compleat Records - 1983
• Footstompin' Music (compilation) - Brunswick - 1998
• Insides Out - Brunswick - 2008
• The very best of Bohannon
• The Collection

Singles

• Keep On Dancing - Brunswick - 1974
• Keep On Dancing / Truck Stop - Brunswick - 1974
• South African Man (pt.1) / Have A Good Day - Dakar Records - 1974
• South African Man / Have A Good Day - Brunswick - 1974
• Disco Stomp - EMI Electrola / Zafiro / Brunswick - 1975
• Foot Stompin Music - Brunswick - 1975
• Dance With Your Parno - EMI Electrola / Dakar Records 1975
• Happy Feeling / Truck Stop - Brunswick - 1975
• The Stop And Go / Truck Stop - Zafiro - 1975
• Bohannon's Beat - Brunswick / Dakar Records - 1976
• Bohannon Disco Symphony - Mercury - 1977
• Let's Start The Dance - Mercury - 1978
• Me and the gang - Mercury - 1978
• Cut Loose / The Beat (Part Two) - Mercury - 1979
• The Groove Machine/The Boogie Train - Mercury - 1979
• Feel like dancin' / The funk walk - Mercury - 1980
• Throw down the groove - Phase II - 1980
• Dance dance dance all night / April my love - Phase II - 1980
• Goin' For Another One - Phase II - 1981
• Let's Start The Dance - London Records / Jonathan - 1981
• Let's Start II Dance Again - Unidisc - 1982
• Don't Leave Me / Wrong Number - Compleat Records - 1983
• Bohannon Mix - A Steve Walsh Mix - Passion Records - 1984
• Disco Stomp / Foot Stompin' Music - Old Gold - 1989
• The Stomp (remix CD) - House Nation / Dance Street Records - 1996

Samples and Uses of Hamilton Bohannon's Music

Many artists have sampled and re-mixed Hamilton's work including:

Ugly Ducking, BDP, Jungle Brothers, Digable Planets, Kool Keith, Ultramagnetic MCs, Kool G Rap, Craig Mack, Paul Johnson, Chubb Rock, Richard Humpty Vission, That Petrol Emotion, Jose Melendez, Jay-Z, DJ Lynnwood, DJ Irene, Class A Felony

"Make a lot of noise!.... We're gonna rock your soul and set your feet on fire"

Other Essential Hamilton Bohannon Tracks

• The Groove machine
• Rap on Mr DJ
• Boogie Train
• Let's start the dance
• Party people
• The Funky Reggae
• Foot stomping music
• Bohannon's Theme
• Keep on Dancin

To Listen To these tracks Plus Many More Click HERE