Daft Punk Copied Their Helmets From 1970s Motown Artist Mandre!!!

So we all know what the Daft Punk helmets look like…turns out they are from the first and second album by 70’s Motown disco/electro/funk artist Mandre, look at these album covers (and we know how much Daft Punk samples obscure 70s disco/electro/funk like Breakwater)! Notice on the first album how there’s that band of black across the silver helmet caused by shadowing, which looks similar to the protruding black visor on that one Daft Punk helmet, the silver with black banding, and the other is just the same too, a large black panel on that gold helmet, just minus those two pointed spikes…Notice the first Mandre robot is in a tuxedo, check the Daft Punk robots in suits below…

Mandre-Solar Flight

Mandre-Fantasy

Dorothy Ashby–Myself When Young, Soul Vibrations–Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop, Harp & Koto!

Dorothy Ashby, Detroit-born 70s jazz funk harp and koto player and singer extraordinaire. Here’s one of her great songs, Myself When Young, replete with flute, strings, koto, bass, drums, percussion, great vocals, etc. The first part is a killer break too.

Dorothy Ashby–Myself When Young

Dorothy Ashby–Soul Vibrations

Dorothy Ashby–Windmills of Your Mind

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros: All In A Day

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros: All In A Day

Wow, how did I miss this one? From their album Streetcore released in 2003, Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros: All In A Day. This is like the most Manchester feel-good rock/funk/dance song since the 1990s, like Beatles meets Stone Roses and of course Big Audio Dynamite. RIP Joe Strummer!

Awesome Analog Synth Library Music Prog Funk

Mannheim Steamroller–Four Rows of Jacks

Bee Gees–Nights on Broadway
Check out the awesome analog synth action at the beginning…

David Essex–Rock On: Crazy 1970s Minimalistic Psychadelic Funk Rock

David Essex–Rock On

Yo, what’s up with this song–David Essex. It’s crazy good–catchy, minimalistic, funky, psychadelic. It’s like a weird distillation of rock and roll without noticeable guitars or typical rock drums! It’s aggressive and full of rock swagger, with catchy rhyming lyrics almost like a precursor to rap or 90s/00s pop,yet super mellowly soulful and quietly funky at the same time. It’s clearly rock, classic rock, glam rock, but funk and soul too. I think JDilla samples it on Jay Stay Paid, I’ll have to check it out to make sure. But it sure sounds futuristic and hip hop worthy, maybe the best mixture of rock and soul and funk ever, as it’s so pure and distilled/minimalistic and futuristic for 1973. I hear Def Leppard covered it later, it’s an obvious influence for their rhyming, catchy lyrics on songs like “Rock of Ages.” Though obviously “Rock On” is way, way, way, way, way, way, way better, without all the cheese.

Def Leppard–Rock of Ages

The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is Based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh,” and The Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” is Based on The Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen” (See the videos!)

The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh” (video)

Okay, I’ve mentioned these before, that The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh” and that The Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” is based on The Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen”, but now you can watch these videos which demonstrate how–you can tell that the bands practiced their versions over these songs that they liked by the other bands. Check it out!

The Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” is based on The Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen” (video)

Here are the mp3s:
The Cure–Kool & the Gang-Fascination Street–Fresh (mix)(mp3)

The Sweet-The Dazz Band–Let it Whip–Love is Like Oxygen (mix)(mp3)

The videos and mixes were created by the L & S–check out the L & S’s new indie/postpunk album, in the instrumental vein of The Cure, Sonic Youth, Drive Like Jehu, and Voivod:
L &S –Random Sounds with Rhythm (mp3s)

New album: L &S-Random Sounds with Rhythm (mp3s)

Someone posting as “anything” has been writing about the Cure/Kool & the Gang connection, and influences of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance on the lyrics of Fascination Street at:
at http://www.cureconnections.com/new-20-years-of-disintegration/6266-fascination-street-is-based-on-kool-and-the-gangs-fresh-see-the-video.html

Also, fans of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” will surely love the first 12 seconds (and again later during the choruses) of Wire’s “Ex Lion Tamer” from 1977’s “Pink Flag” album.

Wire–Ex Lion Tamer

Here’s another great Wire song for good measure:

Wire–Mannequin
I think this song was covered by fIREHOSE in the 1990s…

El Coco–Cocomotion

Disco for world peace…sounds like the awesome soundtrack to this one 1970s Galaxy Express 999 movie I have…also see the related 70s disco group Le Pamplemousse. It’s weird how the music industry works, this stuff is easily as good as Chic, Taste of Honey, etc, it’s weird how there’s always a media monopoly of just like two or three or ten bands in any one genre that you ever hear on the radio…payola probably.

El Coco-Cocomotion

Check out this 70s disco playlist on YouTube

Le Pamplemousse–Hot Disco Soul–Get Your Boom Boom Around the Room Room and Gimme What You Got

I can never believe how much good stuff keeps emerging from the 1970s…This kind of stuff just reminds me how much postpunk, indie, new wave and electronic music like the Talking Heads and Daft Punk and Duran Duran and Lindstrom and Prins Thomas comes out of early disco/funk, lots of hip hop too for that matter…

Le Pamplemousse–Get Your Boom Boom Around the Room Room

Le Pamplemousse–Gimme What You Got

Le Pamplemousse–Le Spank

Tarika Blue–Jimi–Awesome 70s Jazz Fusion/Prog; Deodato–Speak Low

Tarika Blue–Jimi

Awesome! This great jazz fusion band is from New York, the guitarist is Japanese, Ryo Kawasaki–what solos! Apparently the Tarika Blue song ““Dreamflower”, which has been sampled by Erykah Badu for a neo-soul, R&B hit (Grammy nominated), was also sampled by a drum ‘n’ bass group in the UK, the Underwolves,” according to the record label Downtown Sound.

Here’s some more awesome 70s jazz/jazz fusion:

Deodato-Speak Low
Deodato produced like all of the great 70s Kool and the Gang records as far as I know…

Procul Harum–Simple Sister

One of the best 70s funky classic rock songs–
Simple Sister–Procul Harum.